mr-damon/africa

The pyramids are proof of Egypt's endurance and what distinguishes it from modern confections, like Saudi Arabia, a nation founded 76 years ago, named after a family and built on oil wealth. But these monuments to Egypt's early ingenuity are also an ever-present symbol of faded glory. It is hard to escape comparisons between an Egypt that once led the world in almost everything and modern Egypt, where about 40 percent of the population lives on $2 a day.

"Can you believe our government can do nothing for us, and this thing that was built thousands of years ago is still helping me feed my family?" Ahmed Sayed Baghali, 49, said as he sat in a plastic chair selling postcards to tourists outside the Egyptian Museum here, which displays millenniums of antiquities. "Who would buy my things if they were not about the pharaohs? People come here from very far to see the pyramids, not to see Cairo."

To compete in the Scrabble competition, 32-year-old Elisee Poka spent five days in a bus traversing Africa's potholed roads. His competitors from France arrived by plane.

To prepare for the game, he carried a diary in his satchel, spending every spare moment committing words to memory. His French competitors used computers to spit out anagrams, the game's key building blocks.

But in spite of all their advantages, France lost to an African player for the third year in a row this week in the one-on-one duel at the Francophone World Scrabble Championship.

"We have far less means than the French players," says Poka, who as a child in Ivory Coast made his own Scrabble set out of wood because he couldn't afford a store-bought one. "But we keep on beating them."

From the page: "Those left behind by the nation's post-apartheid economy commonly blame those left even further behind, the powerless making scapegoats of the defenseless."

"Chimurenga, a pan African publication of writing, art and politics has been in print since March 2002. It was founded by Ntone Edjabe. The journal is published on the page three times/year, online monthly and through themed performances called "Chimurenga Sessions." The intellectual project has snaked from a Miltonian swamp of murky morality and "paradigms lost" if not into a Garden of Eden, at least into a more lucid landscape where intellect, integrity and humanity are valid tools for growth. A flowering of organic schools of thought grown in backyard gardens, tilled and fertilised by the fundamentals of humanity preached and sometimes practiced."

FESTIVAL SUNDIATA (pronounced: Soon-jah-tah), named in honor of Sundiata Keita (1210-1260) the historic and legendary Mansa (king of kings) is the Pacific Northwest's largest African American festival celebrated during Black History month. The festival is named in honor of the legendary King of Mali who rescued his people's Griot (storyteller and keeper of the oral history) and honors the significant history and vast artistic contributions of African American people, past and present. The Festival, now in its' 28th year continues to showcase art, education and entertainment which depicts the colorful perspectives, culture and history of people of African descent. The festival activities happen in three venues, the Center House, Fisher Pavilion and Seattle Center Pavilion. Best of all, the weekend is FREE and open to the public.

South African AIDS researchers have begun warning hundreds of volunteers that a highly touted experimental vaccine they received in recent months might make them more, not less, likely to contract HIV in the midst of one of the world's most rampant epidemics.

A wave of anger and shock has followed the killing this week of reggae music legend Lucky Dube by car hijackers, with politicians from across the spectrum calling for a renewed effort in South Africa to reduce one of the world's highest murder rates.

Killings for a cellphone, a few dollars or old household goods barely rate headlines, but the shooting Thursday night of Dube, 43, one of Africa's most renowned musicians, in front of his teenage son and daughter horrified South Africans from President Thabo Mbeki down.

South African police set up a task force Friday to track down the three suspects who confronted Dube as he dropped off his son and daughter at home Thursday night.

Dube recorded more than 20 albums over the past 25 years and toured extensively. Much of his work had political or social messages, including strong anti-apartheid themes. His last album, released in 2005, was named "Respect" and included songs with such titles as "Political Games," "Changing World " and "Celebrate Life."

Uh, I thought I'd SU'd this last year.

Anyhow... this is a museum of African arts, crafts, architecture and culture on Jeju Island off of Korea's southern coast. The building is a copy of the Djenne Grand Mosque in Mali.