under the baobab tree
coffee breaks & exposures to africa, mostlyaksum coffee house
Straight from the homeland of coffee, Aksum Coffee House is offering freshly roasted Ethiopian single origin coffee in a lovely surroundings in the heart of Les Marolles in Brussels. The refurbishing work is under way and the opening day is approaching. You are warmly welcome to have a taste of fresh Harar or Limu, or snacks, sweets and drinks out of Africa at Rue Haute 140, Brussels from 17 October 2010 on!
deserts, mountains and sacred cities
Eastern Ethiopia: deserts, mountains and sacred cities from 22 December 2010 to 4 January 2011 by Harmattan Tours.
Our Eastern Ethiopian tour includes the famous Ethiopian Orthodox shrines of Lalibela and the fascinating Muslim holy city of Harar – both Unesco world heritage sites - the savanna of Awash National Park, the rugged Lasta mountains and the surreal lunar landscape of the Danakil desert – an area characterized by superlatives and extremes.
Keep an eye on the Harmattan Tours website for upcoming exciting destinations!
time flies!
A year and a half seems to have passed since I last wrote an entry to this blog. I even needed to dig my username from under some dust to be able to come back and log in.
In the near future we are opening a coffee house that will also be a platform in which African artists and designers can exhibit their work, and there will be a specific blog to promote this. I will from here on share my blogging time between this blog and the new on the coffee house, so more stories on African topics will be on the menu again!
idrissa guiro: barcelone ou la mort
Barça ou Barzakh (Barcelone ou la mort, Barcelona or Death) is Idrissa Guiro’s first film and an eye-opener that shows the link between the massive overfishing by the EU fishing fleets in Senegal (and West Africa) and migration to Europe. The strength of this documentary is particularly in the fact that it shows what is behind the faceless figures of immigrants you read from the news; practically everyone for instance in Thiaroye-sur-Mer, where fishing used to be the main source of income, has a brother, father, uncle, or friend who risked their lives in hope of a future for himself and his extended family. Some of them manage to make it to Europe but many die on this trip, and yet new candidates keep trying despite the risks involved, in lack of better alternatives.
Keep an eye on this excellent documentary and go and see it if the opportunity arises!
Here is a short clip from Barça ou Barzakh in You Tube (in French)
More information on the impact of overfishing
donkey mobile library
Have you ever heard of donkey mobile library? If not, have a look at this inspiring clip from Awassa, Ethiopia, featuring Yohannes Gebregeorgis’ fantastic initiatives that help children in Ethiopia to have access to books also outside school. Gebregeorgis first opened a children’s library at his own home and has now gone mobile in rural areas. This idea is worth disseminating widely!
