अफ्रीका – Page 6 – आवारा मुसाफिर

Army of pest-munching ducks keep South African vineyard blooming

January 16, 2023938 Views

Flocks of white, black and brown ducks hunt for snails and bugs as they patrol the grapevines at a vineyard in South Africa's winemaking town of Stellenbosch, helping the owners steer clear of pesticides and synthetic fertilisers. Around 500 Indian runner ducks work as a natural pest control at the Vergenoegd Löw Wine Estate, but also entertain wine-quaffing tourists. A flock of Indian Runner ducks, which assist as natural pest-control, in place of pesticides, by eating all the snails and bugs, walk amidst the grape vines during their daily patrol around the Vergenoegd Wine Estate, in Stellenbosch, in Cape Town, South Africa, January 12, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander "We call them the soldiers of the vineyards," the managing director of the estate, Corius Visser, told Reuters. D...

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Egypt says ancient royal tomb unearthed in Luxor

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

January 15, 2023567 Views

Archaeologists unearthed an ancient tomb in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor, known for its treasures dating back to the pharaohs, authorities said Saturday. Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said an Egyptian-British mission found the royal tomb in an ancient site on the west bank of the Nile River in Luxor, 650 kilometers (400 miles) south of the capital of Cairo. He said initial examinations show that the tomb apparently belongs to the 18th Dynasty of Pharaonic Egypt, which spanned from 1550 B.C. to 1292 B.C. The tomb is the latest in a series of ancient discoveries Egypt has touted in recent years in hopes of attracting more tourists. Egypt has been trying to revive its tourism sector, a major source of foreign currency. The ...

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It would take 23 million years for evolution to replace Madagascar’s endangered mammals

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January 13, 2023707 Views

“Now or never” for preventing extinction In many ways, Madagascar is a biologist’s dream, a real-life experiment in how isolation on an island can spark evolution. About 90% of the plants and animals there are found nowhere else on Earth. But these plants and animals are in major trouble, thanks to habitat loss, over-hunting, and climate change. Of the 219 known mammal species on the island, including 109 species of lemurs, more than 120 are endangered. A new study in Nature Communications examined how long it took Madagascar’s unique modern mammal species to emerge and estimated how long it would take for a similarly complex set of new mammal species to evolve in their place if the endangered ones went extinct: 23 million years, far longer than scientists have found for any other isla...

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Voodoo dances and rituals wow tourists at Benin festival

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January 11, 2023920 Views

On Benin's national voodoo holiday, performers dressed as guardians of the night swirled in costumes resembling technicolour haystacks, delighting worshippers and tourists alike. Over a thousand people gathered in the small Atlantic coast town of Ouidah on Tuesday, once an important port in the slave trade, to watch the elaborate annual rituals of dance and drumming to honour the 500-year-old religion's panoply of gods and spirits. Devotees perform as they take part in the annual celebration of Voodoo festival in Cotonou, Benin January 10, 2023. REUTERS/ Charles Placide Tossou "They come in increasing numbers because voodoo is no longer considered sorcery, it is no longer considered barbarism," said voodoo spiritual leader Daagbo Hounon Houna II, adorned in colourful beads and a ...

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Looted ancient sarcophagus returned to Egypt from US

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January 2, 2023159 Views

An ancient wooden sarcophagus that was featured at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences was returned to Egypt after U.S. authorities determined it was looted years ago, Egyptian officials said Monday. The repatriation is part of Egyptian government efforts to stop the trafficking of its stolen antiquities. In 2021, authorities in Cairo succeeded in getting 5,300 stolen artifacts returned to Egypt from across the world. An ancient wooden sarcophagus is displayed during a handover ceremony at the foreign ministry in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Jan. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohamed Salah) Mostafa Waziri, the top official at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the sarcophagus dates back to the Late Dynastic Period of ancient Egypt, an era that spanned the last of the Pharaonic rulers from...

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Pumpkin and rooibos ice cream on menu as Cape Town café champions African flavours

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

December 30, 2022941 Views

When Tapiwa Guzha first started making ice creams 12 years ago, he never imagined he would one day be whisking pumpkin puree and milk together to make an African flavoured ice cream at a cafe in Cape Town. Hailing from Zimbabwe, 36-year-old Guzha says he wants to educate locals and visitors alike on African flavoured experiences and correct a narrative that things made in Africa are second rate or are not as tasty. A customer tastes ice cream before she buys some at the Tapi Tapi ice cream shop in Observatory, in Cape Town, South Africa, December 20, 2022. REUTERS/Esa Alexander "At some point it became an aspirational thing to say I don't eat African food ... so I started addressing ... that problem," he said at his Tapi Tapi shop. Located in the bohemian suburb of Observatory...

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Climate change threatens centuries-old oases in Morocco

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December 26, 2022849 Views

Residents of the oasis of Alnif say they can’t remember a drought this bad: The land is dry. Some wells are empty. Palm groves that date back more than 100 years are barren. Home to centuries-old oases that have been a trademark of Morocco, this region about 170 miles southeast of Marrakesh is reeling from the effects of climate change, which has created an emergency for the kingdom’s agriculture. Nomadic herders guide their sheep in search for food to graze near Tinghir, Morocco, Monday, Nov. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy) Among those affected is Hammou Ben Ady, a nomad in the Tinghir region who leads his flock of sheep and goats in search of grazing grass. The drought forced him to rely on government handouts of fodder. November is usually a cold, wet month in Alnif, b...

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Maasai warriors gather to celebrate “Maasai Olympics,” a rite of passage

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December 11, 2022575 Views

Hundreds of youths from the Maasai pastoralists in Kenya gathered on Saturday at a wildlife sanctuary to participate in "Maasai Olympics," a ceremony promoted by conservationists as an alternative rite of passage for young men in the community. The spectacle, in which youthful morans or warriors compete in various games and takes place once every two years, was held in Kimana Sanctuary on the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro near Kenya's border with Tanzania. A Maasai Moran falls after throwing a javelin as he competes in in a social sporting event dubbed the Maasai Olympics to offer the warriors an alternative to killing lions as part of their traditional rite of passage, in the Kimana sanctuary, at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, near the Kenya-Tanzania border in Kimana, Kajiado, Kenya...

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Using art and song to help solve plastic waste crisis

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December 6, 2022784 Views

A pioneering scheme using street art, theatre and song aims to reduce open dumping and burning of waste as well as increase plastic recycling in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Uncontrolled plastic waste disposal is becoming an increasingly serious problem there; threatening the environment and human health. Waste is often burned, contributing to climate change and poor air quality. This creative campaign has been co-created by University of Portsmouth experts, local stakeholders including artists, musicians and waste collectors to increase recycling in rural areas. The methods being used are aimed at teaching people that waste has value, and that dumping and burning waste impacts heavily on human health. The University has partnered with WasteAid and provincial environmental...

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Egyptians call on British Museum to return Rosetta stone

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December 1, 2022610 Views

The debate over who owns ancient artifacts has been an increasing challenge to museums across Europe and America, and the spotlight has fallen on the most visited piece in the British Museum: The Rosetta stone. The inscriptions on the dark grey granite slab became the seminal breakthrough in deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics after it was taken from Egypt by forces of the British empire in 1801. Now, as Britain’s largest museum marks the 200-year anniversary of the decipherment of hieroglyphics, thousands of Egyptians are demanding the stone’s return. ’’The British Museum’s holding of the stone is a symbol of Western cultural violence against Egypt,” said Monica Hanna, dean at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, and organizer of one of two p...