Guinea and neighbouring countries try to contain outbreak that has killed at least 59 people so far.

West African nations scrambled to contain an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus suspected to have killed at least 59 people in Guinea, with symptoms of the disease reported in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia as well.

The spread of Ebola, one of the most lethal infectious diseases known, has spooked nations with weak health care systems. In Guinea's southeast, home to all the confirmed cases, residents are avoiding large gatherings and prices in some markets have spiked as transporters avoid the area.

Health authorities in Liberia said they had now recorded eight suspected cases of Ebola, mainly in people who crossed the border from Guinea.

Five of these had died but tests were still being carried out to check if the cases were indeed Ebola, the Reuters news agency reported. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said a total of 86 suspected cases, including 59 deaths, had been reported in southeastern Guinea near the border with Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Laboratory tests have confirmed 13 cases of Ebola in Guinea so far, the first outbreak of the disease in West Africa.

"People are really frightened. They have seen people die in a matter of just two or three days. They are constantly worried who is going to be the next fatality," said Joseph Gbaka Sandounou, who manages operations for aid agency Plan International in Guekedou.

Samples taken from those who died in Liberia had been sent to Conakry for testing, according to the Geneva-based WHO.

In Guinea, authorities have taken steps to quarantine suspected cases in the districts of Guekedou, Macenta, Nzerekore and Kissidougou.

In Sierra Leone, authorities set up a task force after the death of a 14-year-old boy who had attended the funeral of a suspected Ebola victim. Authorities have yet to confirm if the boy died of the disease.

No handshakes

Ebola was discovered in 1976 in then-Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo. Scientists have identified the outbreak in Guinea as the virulent Zaire strain of the virus.

Because people who fall sick with it tend to vomit, have diarrhoea and suffer both internal and external bleeding, their bodies are often "covered in virus", Peter Piot, one of the co-discoverers of Ebola and now director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told Reuters.

This means anyone in close contact with them - such as nurses, doctors and carers - is at risk, he said.

The virus causes a raging fever, headaches, muscle pain, conjunctivitis and weakness, before moving into more severe phases of causing vomiting, diarrhoea and haemorrhages.

In the southeastern Guinea town of Macenta, prices - especially for products like chlorine - have risen due to shortages, resident Mamady Drame said.

People have also started avoiding shaking hands. "Can you imagine that people are hesitant to even greet each other? That is a shocking symbol in our culture," Drame said.

In the distant capital, where there have not yet been any confirmed cases, some bank staff handling cash wore gloves and clients were encouraged to wash their hands before entering.

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Source:

Reuters

WATER COLOR | A wooden pirogue filled with salt harvested from Lac Rose. Evan Sung

SAMPHIRE IS a vegetable that tastes nearly as briny as the waters of the coastal regions where it is harvested. It's typically vibrant green, but on the shores of Senegal's most famous lake, it is an intense shade of magenta.

And the lake itself? That would be pink.

Lac Rose, or Lake Retba, was long known as the finishing line for the Dakar Rally, an annual off-road car race from France to Senegal that began in 1978. The reward for more than 15 days of driving was to wade into the lake, whose salinity levels are so high that swimmers bob effortlessly on its surface, much like in Israel's Dead Sea or Utah's Great Salt Lake.

Salt is scooped from the lake bottom in a basket. Evan Sung

The rally was moved to South America in 2009; the lake, of course, remains. In fact, it's becoming one of Senegal's most popular tourist destinations—a relative distinction given that Senegal has not garnered tourist love the way countries such as South Africa and Morocco have in recent years. Still, Unesco is considering designating Lac Rose a World Heritage site, and in-the-know travelers are starting to make the trip.

I'd come to the frenzied streets and outdoor markets of Dakar to research a cookbook, not to see pink water. But after eight days in the Senegalese capital, my ears were ringing from blaring car horns, my eyes were filled with dust and my head hurt from the intense negotiations required to get anything done. I needed an escape, and a local chef assured me the lake was worth the journey.

Lac Rose is situated on the edge of Cap Vert, the lush coastal region popular with tourists and locals for its beachside restaurants, white sand beaches and prime bird-watching opportunities. It's just 20 miles from Dakar, but a 2½-hour bus ride thanks to traffic and chaotic transfers. So the chef, a photographer and I hired a car to make the round-trip in air-conditioned comfort.

Dakar is a sprawling city whose streets are constantly congested; it requires patience to escape the tumult. Once we were finally out of the city, we followed a highway clogged with cars, buses, motorbikes, donkey carts and bicycles. The roads narrowed and we passed through smaller and smaller villages, but the traffic never completely subsided. At least the roadside vendors, who sold everything from mangoes to a local spiced coffee known as Café Touba to bottles of ivory-colored baobab juice, provided us with a movable feast along the way.

We eventually ended up on a dirt road as rosy and smooth as a new penny, then on a spindly pathway along the edge of lake. Lac Rose doesn't just hint at pinkness—it's not rose-hued if you manage to catch it in just the right light and squint a bit. It is vividly tinted, like strawberry sorbet or Pepto-Bismol. The color is the result of a micro-algae called Dunaliella salina that produces a red pigment to absorb sunlight. We stopped and got out of the car, then stood on the edge of the lake in silence, trying to adjust our baffled senses.

              The lake is pink like strawberry sorbet or Pepto-Bismol

I was temporarily distracted from the sight of the water by the hundreds of samphire bushes that flourished in its white sandbanks—I never knew the plant came in anything but green. We broke off bits of the plant and nibbled on them, then piled armloads of samphire into the car to use in salads later on.

After another few minutes of driving, with terra-cotta-colored sand dunes on one side and the lake on the right, we found ourselves surrounded by salt cones as tall as people. Lac Rose is separated from the Atlantic Ocean only by a narrow corridor of dunes, resulting in salinity levels exceeding 40% in some parts of the lake.

Men and women come from all over Western Africa to harvest the coarse salt from the floor of Lac Rose. The salt is used by Senegalese fishermen to preserve fish; that, in turn, is a component of many traditional recipes, including the country's national dish, a fish stew calledthieboudienne.

Dozens of harvesters, baskets balanced on their heads, waited to add their loads to the hills of salt that grow bigger throughout each day. They work several hours a day in the punishing heat, rubbing shea butter derived from the nuts of local shea trees into their skin to protect it from the sun. I picked up a large discarded crystal on the shore and in its jagged shape could see a rosy hue—it seemed like a rougher cousin of pink Himalayan salt.

We soon realized that Lac Rose is not a place for shoes; salt dust covers the roads, and the beach is made up of silky black mud. We let our bare toes sink into the softness. It was tempting to turn the beach into a makeshift spa, but before we had time to don mud masks, a guide approached us offering a boat tour of the lake.

We settled on a price of around $10 for an hour-long ride. He helped us into his wooden rowboat, called a pirogue, and set out for the center of the one-square-mile lake. People in surrounding boats hopped into the waist-deep water, using shovels to scoop salt from the lake bottom. After a few spry shakes to remove excess water, they dumped the salt into their boats. When the vessels were nearly sinking under the weight, the harvesters walked them back to shore.

Our guide invited us to try harvesting salt with him, jumping out with a basket and shovel. We followed—but as soon as my feet met the sharp salt crystals, I knew I was not cut out to be a harvester. Instead, we floated for a while in the bathtub-warm water.

Eventually, our guide propelled us back to shore with a pole, like a Venetian gondolier. We thanked him, rinsed our feet in water from a nearby well, and set out for a late lunch, driving past white-and-brown-speckled cows, cone-shaped salt mounds and weary harvesters.

Beachside shacks abound at Lac Rose; we settled into one a few feet from the shore for a meal of yassa poulet, a traditional dish of grilled chicken and vegetables in a caramelized-onion sauce. It was accompanied by the hot red pepper condiment called kani. While we waited, we snacked on our samphire and drank chilled bottles of the local beer, Gazelle.

The simple lunch mirrored the straightforward nature of the harvesters' work. I regretted that we were heading back to Dakar so soon, and wished we could spare a few more days—there was so much left to explore around Lac Rose. But at least I knew that every time the clamor of the city streets started getting to me, I could daydream about floating in a pink lake on the edge of the ocean.

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Source: The Wall Street Journal

As revelers from Chicago to Dublin celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, they’re sure to be filling up on Guinness, Ireland's hallmark brew. In the United States and elsewhere, Guinness is synonymous with Irish tradition and St. Patrick's Day celebrations. But, there’s one continent where Guinness has absolutely nothing to do with wearing green or hunting down leprechauns at the end of rainbows: Africa.

Most Africans don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but they still love their Guinness. The dark brew makes up about 45 percent of beer sold by Diageo, the company that owns Guinness, on the continent, and Diageo is one of four companies that split about 90 percent of the African beer market. Popularity varies from country to country, and Guinness is a particular favorite in Nigeria.

As opposed to the standard Guinness draught that you might order at the local pub or the Guinness Extra Stout you might pick up at the grocery store, the vast majority of Guinness consumed in Africa is called Foreign Extra Stout. It's essentially the same beer that Guinness began exporting to the far reaches of the British Empire in the 18th century. 

In his book Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint, historian Bill Yenne discussed the popularity of Guinness abroad with brewmaster Fergal Murray, who worked at the Guinness brewery in Nigeria in the 1980s. “I’ve talked to Nigerians who think of Guinness as their national beer,” Murray recalled. “They wonder why Guinness is sold in Ireland. You can talk to Nigerians in Lagos who will tell you as many stories about their perfect pint as an Irishman will. They’ll tell about how they’ve had the perfect bottle of foreign extra stout at a particular bar on their way home from work.” 

Africa now rivals the UK in their stout consumption. In 2004, Guinness sales in Africa beat those in the United Kingdom and Ireland, making up about 35% of the global take. In 2007, Africa surpassed Ireland as the second largest market for Guinness worldwide, behind the United Kingdom, and sales have only climbed since then (by about 13 percent each year).

The story of Guinness in Africa begins in Dublin. When Arthur Guinness II took the reins of his father’s brewery in 1803, he gradually expanded their exports – first to England, and then abroad to Barbados, Trinidad, and the British Colony of Sierra Leone. Originally dubbed the West Indies Porter, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout was first brewed in Dublin in 1801 and arrived in West Africa in 1827. Where the British Empire established colonies or stationed soldiers, Guinness shipped their beer. By the 1860s, distribution reached South Africa as well. Like Coke in its globalization of soda, Guinness developed partnerships with local breweries, who bottled the beer. 

As many indigenous populations began to overthrow their colonial rulers and the British Empire began to crumble, Guinness remained. In 1960, Nigeria gained its independence from the UK, and two years later, the Nigerian capital of Lagos became home to the first Guinness brewery outside of the United Kingdom. (Technically, a brewery opened by Guinness in New York in 1936 was their first foreign effort, but it closed in 1954.) Success in Nigeria spurred the building of another brewery in nearby Cameroon in 1970. Today, 13 breweries produce Guinness in Africa.

Part of a 1968 advertising sheet for Guinness in West Africa

The Guinness Extra Foreign Stout consumed in an African bar is a bit different. Instead of barley, it’s typically brewed with maize or sorghum, which produces a more bitter taste compared to barley. African farmers have a long tradition of brewing the grain, so the product is well suited to the African palate. At 7.5 percent alcohol by volume, it also boasts higher alcohol content compared to the roughly 4-5 percent found in Guinness draught and Guinness Extra Stout. That's a relic of efforts to preserve the beer while it traveled to foreign ports. But, the flavor is essentially the same: since the 1960s, overseas brewers have added a flavor extract, a “concentrated essence” brewed in Ireland, so that no matter where you ordered a Guinness it would stay true to the original Dublin flavor. 

Advertising campaigns in the 1960s introduced one of the beer’s ad slogans: "Guinness gives you power"— a variation on a contemporary European ad slogan, "Guinness for Strength," evoking the idea that tough, masculine men drink the stout after a hard day's work. In the last decade Guinness revisited the old slogan with a hugely successful marketing campaign across Africa that cast a young, strong journalist character named Michael Power as a sort of African "James Bond." At the end of a television or radio adventure, Power saved the day and uttered the same catchphrase: “Guinness brings out the power in you!” In 2003, Guinness took things a step further, launching a feature film called Critical Assignment with Power as the hero and plotline of political corruptiona and clean water issues (here's the film's trailer). It was filmed in six different African countries and released in theaters across Africa and in the U.K. 

Two things made the Michael Power campaign hugely successful. First, it played into cultural ideals of a strong African male—not unlike hypermasculine ads employed in Ireland, the U.K., and elsewhere by Guinness and other beer brewers. Promoting the idea that tough guys drink whatever beer you're selling is hardly revolutionary. However, Power lacked ethnic affiliation, so he could appeal to everybody regardless of ethnic or tribal group. This African “James Bond” was both universally appealing and the guy one could aspire to be. Michael Power was phased out in 2006. Guinness has continued to play on similar themes, associating their stout with the concepts of "greatness" in all men and being "more than" on billboards across the continent, with steady success.

This year the beer made headlines with a new ad that taps into its African roots and highlights sapeurs, a group of well-dressed men in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Formally known as the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes, sapeurs come from all walks of life and evoke the elegant fashions of Paris. 

The ad has drawn praise for its positive portrayal of Africans and criticism for its failure to clearly connect the brand with the culture, but interestingly it’s not aimed at an African audience. At least for now, it’s used in European marketing. But, as MIT media scholar Ethan Zuckerman notes on his blog, the ad “could easily run on the continent, and features a form of actual African superheroes, not an imaginary one.”

Whether audiences across Africa would embrace them, remains to be seen. But, either way, Guinness seems to be embracing its African connections.

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Tanks to Miranda Priestly's infamous Devil Wears Prada lesson, we know that the world's most recent obsession with the color cerulean began, as Priestly put it, when "Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns." Then it trickled down to the average person from the runways of Paris, New York, and Milan.

But given that seven out of 10 of the fastest-growing economies in the world are in Africa, in another generation, designers in Accra, Brazzaville, and Cape Town might be the places setting fashion trends. Creative projects like Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah’s Studio One Eighty Nine hope to catalyze that transformation.

Indeed, the platform, which Dawson and Erwiah launched in 2012, helps creatives in Africa—from designers and photographers to foodies and activists—promote their wares. Think of it as Pinterest meets Etsy. In conjunction with the platform, they've also launched a line called Fashion Rising that directly employs Africans, trains them through pop-up fashion schools, and provides the kind of market feedback they need to dominate the fashion scene.

Despite the abundance of talent in Africa, artisans there aren't able to easily sell goods across the globe. "For some reason, something made in Africa doesn't hold the same weight as something made in Italy," Dawson says. That doesn't make sense, considering the same handcrafted care and skill you'd see put into making clothing and accessories in Italy is found in Africa.

"You can see it in all of the different brands that go down to Africa and say, 'We're going to do a Masai collection, or we're going to do the Africa-inspired collection,' " says Dawson. When you buy an African-inspired piece, you're buying a garment that's probably made in a Chinese factory before being sold by a European fashion label. "It was inspired by Africa, but it wasn't made there, and it doesn't benefit [Africa]. And that doesn't make any sense," says Dawson. 

Investing in a model in which goods are designed and manufactured in a nation such as Congo is a smart economic move. In England alone the fashion industry is worth £26 billion and is nearly 3 percent of the GDP. What if Congo could be transformed in the same way? Given the economic growth across the continent, Dawson says it just makes sense to encourage young Africans to have careers in fashion and pursue their dreams.

Providing young men and women with the ability to pursue their dreams is a thread that carries through all of Dawson’s work. "Some people think I only do women's issues because I'm on the board of V-Day," a global movement to end violence against women. "Or they say, 'You're only doing voting stuff but only with Latinos.' "

Dawson points out that, yes, she talks about Latino Millennials, "but I talked about Millennials in general, including the fact that two-thirds of the world’s youth population will be in Africa by the year 2100. That's something to pay attention to."

Dawson is also a proud New Yorker whose Puerto Rican, Afro-Cuban, Irish, and Native American roots reflect the globe. She's known Erwiah since they were both teenagers with dreams of their own. In 2011 they took a trip to Congo for the opening of City of Joy, a transformational leadership community started by V-Day for women who've been impacted by rape and abuse.

Getting to Congo was an ordeal of thunderstorms and canceled flights, but once there, they saw women who'd been through horrific trauma because of the civil war "dancing, and they've designed the space, and they've had so much input into how the program would work." They'd been "given yeses when they’ve been told no their whole lives," says Dawson.

Inspired, Dawson and Erwiah began thinking about how they could combine their backgrounds—Dawson in media and Erwiah in luxury—and resources to partner with people who've seen diplomats and politicians come and go but haven't seen real change. That led to Studio One Eighty Nine and Fashion Rising.

To produce the first collection, they worked with designers in Liberia, Uganda, Kenya, and Ghana, focusing on wax prints. Their next line works primarily with South African designers and focuses more on batiking. The pieces are made to be mixed and matched and are, says Dawson, priced fairly. "It's not charity. You're not going to haggle down the price."

You can open your closet and see a scarf from Japan, a pair of shoes from Korea, and a blouse from France. Why not gorgeous, handmade luxury goods made in Africa? "We are really trying to appeal to the world citizen," says Dawson. "I don't have those ideas or weird mythologies about Africa. I know Africa is not a country. I get that, and there’s a lot of us who do."

We're living in a time when "we have the ability to communicate with each other and share with each other, and it's not just about being a woman or being of a certain age or being of a certain color," says Dawson. Projects like Studio One Eighty Nine and Fashion Rising have the potential to help us, she adds, "really see that we are not so disconnected or dissimilar after all."

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Source : Take Part

Dignified and inspiring words spoken by young woman who looked like a fairy princess on Hollywood's most spectacular night. Lupita Nyong'o won the Academy Award for best supporting actress -- and black, brown and "other" women and girls all around the world exhaled with relief and cheered with delight.

The Cinderella story endures because deep down, people want to believe in improbable beauty and equal access to happily ever after. You know how it goes: A kind young girl alone and far from home is placed in a hostile environment, ignored and abused. Against all odds, she finds the power of her imagination, transforms into a graceful beauty and becomes the belle of the ball.

Nyong'o's ascent into media stardom mirrors this legendary narrative. This is from Facebook: "I admit it. I can't go more than three days without looking at a picture of her. #LupitaNyongo."

That's one of the scores of daily posts on every social media platform about the breakout actress, mostly from women and girls of color. The image of Nyong'o is feeding an old hunger familiar to the hearts of women of African decent and quenching a newfound thirst for everyone else.

She is refreshing. She added, as they say in the fashion world, a "pop of color" to the neutral landscape of types in the 2014 awards season.

The beginning of Nyong'o's fairy-tale rise to Hollywood's new It Girl began with her brilliant portrayal of Patsey, a filthy, psychologically abused and violently beaten slave in the best picture winner, "12 Years a Slave." And yet in a matter of months, the prevailing image of her is an exquisite beauty queen conquering every red carpet and glossy fashion page she's graced. And there have been many.

The Golden Globe Awards were Nyong'o's first major glamorous arrival. She didn't take home the best supporting actress award for which she was nominated, but from Vogue to tumblr, she reigned on all the best-dressed lists.

It was a Cinderella moment. It wasn't the stunning fire-engine-red winged column dress by Ralph Lauren Couture that made her splash so significant. It was her unlikely beauty, her exquisite "otherness" that made the style media explode with excitement. And she has been slaying every other appearance ever since.

Hollywood can be a hostile and stubborn place for diversity: Only 31 black people have won an Oscar in the 85-year history of the Academy Awards.

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... But seems kind of unready on its feets.

LIKE a heavyweight boxer who has gone too many rounds, Nigeria sometimes seems punch-drunk. One minute it acts like a champion by virtue of the size of its girth and the smile on its face, the next it could be flat on its back, groaning in anguish. On the whole, the country is tottering along, acclaimed as much for its massive potential as for its actual achievements. It is still a sick man all the same.

Tracts of the north of Nigeria are poorer than ever and ravaged by Islamist terrorism. The brutal efforts of the police to suppress it make ordinary northerners all the more sullen. The oil-soaked Delta in the south is anarchic, gutted by the continuing large-scale theft of oil and riddled with corruption at a level that is high even by Nigeria’s lofty standards. The kidnapping of prosperous people across the country, especially in the south and in and around Lagos, the bubbling commercial capital, has become increasingly frequent. The mother of the finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, suffered such an ordeal in December, though she was released after five days.

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Trends are always moving in and out of time.

Black women learning their natural hair texture should not be linked to the frivolousness of a new trend. That is like saying the act of discovering who you essentially are is temporary.

Self discovery is continuous; never fleeting.

Black women making efforts to not only explore, but understand their natural hair texture will continue and never go away.

Once black women begin to learn their natural kinks and curls, there will be no turning back!