Some Africa Links

Those of you who have been following me for a while have noticed that I've become interested in West Africa. Here are a few blogs I've been reading since my return... SocioLingo's Africa Blog: Written by an Englishwoman living in Mali, this blog's frequent posts - many times a day - cover all of Africa and point out articles and reports on linguistic, cultural, archeological, economic, and political developments on the continent. Malilady, as she calls herself, has created a great resource here. And her Flickr photostream is well worth perusing. SocioLingo's Mali Blog. Covering all of Africa isn't enough for this prolific writer. The Mali blog brings a much sharper focus to Malilady's everyday life in Bamako. Even the occasional recipe shows up here. Timbuktu Chronicles. This blog, written by New Your City entrepreneur Emeka Okafur, focuses on privately held enterprises on the African continent. Sometimes he writes about innovative appropriate technology projects, but often it's a more typical industry he discusses - a successful iron foundry in Nigeria, for example. When I came back from Mali this winter, my friends would ask - yes, but what kinds of businesses COULD they start? This blog helps us see the answer to that. AfricaBeat. Global Voices blogger Jennifer Brea has her own Afri-focused blog here. Like many other writers, Jennifer focuses on political and economic development. One of her special interests is the impact of non-Western powers on African development, such as China and India. Certainly when we were in Mali, the evidence of Chinese investment was everywhere. IRIN News Africa. This is the Africa desk of IRIN, the news site of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. I've found it the most frequent source of news on the current crisis in Guinea.