African Postman: Picture Postcards 2015

A couple of years ago I started a series of articles under the headline “African Postman,” partly because of my personal interest in that great continent and partly because of comments made by Jamaican friends that they don’t hear much African news. At least, nothing that is not civil war, disease, poverty and famine. I am planning to restart it, despite the fact that today, Boko Haram has reportedly surrounded the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, and the Libyan city of Benghazi is reportedly torn with conflict. In Egypt, security forces cracked down on demonstrators on the fourth anniversary of the country’s short-lived “Arab Spring.”

That is today’s bad news, and no denying it. It’s bad. But I wanted to share with you a selection of photos of Africans going about their daily business, coming together in their communities, celebrating football, and more. Twitter is a rich source of “everyday” photos from Africans “tweeps” I follow. Please enjoy, and share.

Please look out for the return of my “African Postman,” and you can search for the name in the search box. You will find thirty articles I have posted in the past!

Some of these photos are taken from my Pinterest archive – a board simply named Africa. You can find it, and browse through here: http://www.pinterest.com/petchary/africa/

Children play in Lusaka, Zambia.

High school students going home. (Photo: World Bank)

Ivorian reggae singer Tiken Jah Fakoly (left) and legendary Malian singer/griot Salif Keita in studio, preparing to record a song on Ebola awareness and prevention.

First communion, Equatorial Guinea (and an unusual fashion statement).

Teacher with the Cameroon Medical Women Association instructs women in sexual health. (Photo: Paola Gianturco)

 

Libyan tribesman.

Former “lost boy” Valentino Achak Deng outside the school he has built in his former village of Marial Bai, South Sudan through the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation. (If you have not read his amazing biography “What Is the What” – you really should!)

Ethiopian Orthodox Christians walk towards the Fasilides baths during the Timkat festival in Gondar. (Photo: AFP)

The remains of one of the oldest pyramids yet found – 4,600 years old.

A day at the beach. Mombasa, Kenya.

Wash day in the Gambia.

Models fit dresses for the Cameroonian, Paris- based, designer Martial Tapolo Couture before a show at Dakar Fashion Week on June 20, 2014, at Hotel des Almadies in Dakar, Senegal. (Photo: Per-Anders Pettersson)

A stunningly elaborate headdress on a football fan from Burkina Faso.

A traditional Ghana bride. (Photo: Twitter)

Modern Xhosa fashion, South Africa.

27-year-old Darfuri refugee Hosna lives in a camp in Touloum, Chad. It is now a strong village for 30,000 built with adobe mud walls by the refugees themselves, replacing tattered tents. But Hosna still wants to go home to Sudan. (Photo: iactivism.org)

 

Parents compete in a sack face at the Kampala Parents Reunion in Uganda. (Photo: New Vision Uganda/Twitter)

The beautiful peaceful Lake Chala, formed in a caldera (old volcano crater) on the border of Kenya and Tanzania. (Photo: Kenyan Facts/Twitter)

 

Youth activism: 16 yr old Abundance at the #NigerianLivesMatter rally in London to raise awareness about BokoHaram attacks in Nigeria. (Photo: Twitter)

 

Jamaicans are getting excited about  the Miss Universe contest this evening. Well, here is  Josephine Moikobu – Miss Kenya 1968

 

 

 

In memory of those who died in Baga recently at the hands of Boko Haram militants, London-based Nigerian poet Inua Ellams tweeted a poignant poem, “Nigerian Pastoral.” Ellams grew up with a Christian mother and a Muslim father in Jos. (Photo: okayafrica.com)

 

An Equatorial Guinea fan cheers his team on at the African Cup of Nations. (Photo: Mike Hutchings/Reuters)