Category: africa

Coffee from Chipunga, near Mzuzu

I finished drinking my souvenir of Malawi coffee last week. I like the strong, rich flavour of Malawi coffee. It’s strong, it’s chocolatey, it’s earthy. Each time I wonder how I could help to promote Malawi coffee and its unique taste in Europe. Rather than importing green beans, could we import roasted beans? Rather than… Continue reading Coffee from Chipunga, near Mzuzu

ET phone home

I like this blog post on the Crossroads website: Home for Christmas. ET phone home. Growing up in Malawi, I probably don’t share the same level of contemplative Christmas (“besinnliche Weihnachten”) memories that my fellow German compatriots may have experienced. It’s difficult to emulate some Christmas traditions when it’s over 30 degrees warm. My mom… Continue reading ET phone home

Online dictionary for Chichewa

I am really excited about this online Chichewa/Chinyanja dictionary, which I just heard about on Twitter (hat tip @kristungati). Try entering Mchenga. Select Chichewa/Chinyanja to English Click Translate mchenga 1.sand; maziko ena onse npamchenga = all other foundations are on sand (see: hymn 362, Nyimbo za Mulungu); expression: walemba pamchenga (lit.: you have written in… Continue reading Online dictionary for Chichewa

Pirates and Poverty

Like in a Hollywood movie, a U.S. captain was freed from Somali pirates. I’ve been browsing the web, reading articles. Some observations: For one, I’m wondering how the navy seals managed to target the pirates. I thought the life boat was an enclosed boat, similar to the one shown here. Secondly, it seems that the… Continue reading Pirates and Poverty

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How to Resize Photos

My family’s email account in Blantyre was blocked twice in the past week, due to well-meaning but over-sized Christmas and New Year email greetings. Attachments with over 2 MBs. The family is still on a phone line with a very slow connection rate. And downloading emails with a large attachment takes forever and a day.… Continue reading How to Resize Photos

Text Snippets Circling Around

Pêle-mêle off the top of my head: Learnt yesterday: The number of English-speaking Internet users is decreasing, currently at about 35% of total number of Internet users. Shared yesterday: Who writes about African technology developments? From the list, I follow White African, Afrigadget, and sometimes Google Alert points me to IT News Africa. Photo processing… Continue reading Text Snippets Circling Around

BBC on Fish Farming in Zomba

Recommended reading: BBC’s James Morgan on fish farming in rural areas of Zomba district, Malawi. It’s a perfect circle. “Or what we call an integrated agriculture-aquaculture (IAA) system,” says Joseph Nagoli, of WorldFish. “This isn’t high input fish farming. This is simple and sustainable.”

Appfrica Interview on MTN Uganda

Just a quick note to point to an interesting interview with an official of MTN Uganda at: Appfrica: Interview With MTN’s Erik van Veen – Part 1 These points caught my eye: (…) revenues per user, are very low in Africa by international standards, and require a low cost operating model if the Operator is… Continue reading Appfrica Interview on MTN Uganda

Zemanta

I am learning a lot from the African blogs I am reading… App+frica recently wrote about useful web applications for bloggers in developing countries. In his list he mentions Zemanta: Zemanta, which just scored a new round of funding from Union Square Ventures, is a huge time saving tool. It’s a browser-side plug-in that scans… Continue reading Zemanta

My BlogCamp Switzerland Talk

As announced on Twitter, I presented a talk on mobile technology in Malawi at today’s BlogCamp in Zurich to share what I’m learning from the African blogs and tweets that I follow on a regular basis. I started my talk with a short intro on Chiperoni (I am a bridge blogger somewhere between Basel and… Continue reading My BlogCamp Switzerland Talk

Mobile Communication for Rural Health Project

I stumbled across this blog by Josh Nesbit discussing the use of FrontlineSMS, a tool to set up a text-based communications network, in a rural health project in Namitete, Malawi. Here’s a 7 minute long interview with one of the community health worker. At about 3:00 she starts discussing the advantage of having a cell… Continue reading Mobile Communication for Rural Health Project

Twitter, SMS and Africa

This recent Twitter announcement is disappointing on a personal level, but also on a more global level as White African discusses: Twitter represents a change in communication. By acting as a global gateway for updates via SMS (or the web), that then updates all of your followers, Twitter succeeded in breaking ground in one-to-many messaging.… Continue reading Twitter, SMS and Africa

BBC Documentary on Malaria

just zapped into this documentary on fighting malaria along the Zambezi: The World Uncovered – Zambezi. Text snippet in my own words: “need to invest more money into malaria research. Some drugs such as Chloroquine (now ineffective) were developed during the 2nd World War.”

The Coca-Cola Index

Recommended read (via White African): AFRICANS buy 36 billion bottles of Coke a year. Because the price is set so low—around 20-30 American cents, less than the price of the average newspaper—and because sales are so minutely analysed by Coca-Cola, the Coke bottle may be one of the continent’s best trackers of stability and prosperity.… Continue reading The Coca-Cola Index

Natural Medicine in the Tropics

I just spent over half an hour looking for the Anamed website… can’t believe I haven’t referenced it yet. Here’s the link to the Anamed webpage. They’ve published a couple of books on the medicinal use of common tropical plants such as guava leaves, pawpaw leaves, asthma weed and anti-malaria trees.

CNN Report on Malawi Doctor Shortage

There’s a CNN TV report on the shortage of qualified medical personnel in Malawi. I zapped into it yesterday. It shows the dire situation at Mulanje District Hospital and in a rural dispensary. They interviewed a volunteer doctor from Uganda, a midwife who works in rural villages, a couple of Malawian doctors that are working… Continue reading CNN Report on Malawi Doctor Shortage

Kenyan blogs

Cedric of m.zung.us writes Das es inzwischen eine aktive afrikanische Blogosphäre gibt, ist nicht erst seit dem Chaos um den Wahlbetrug in Kenya bekannt. Aber genau jetzt wird deutlich wie gut und wertvoll es ist verschiedene Sichtweisen über die Massenmedien hinaus einzufangen. See the full post here: Bürger-Journalismus in Kenya White African has a roundup… Continue reading Kenyan blogs

Floods in Mocambique and Malawi

Heavy rains are causing the Zambezi and the Shire to flood. Here’s a BBC report: Heavy floods have also destroyed homes and crops, displacing thousands of people in southern and central Malawi. The Malawian government is warning people to relocate from flood-prone areas, but many have been reluctant to leave their farms.