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Heritage Day 2019 Has Been Filled With Royalty and Stunning Style
With the Duke and Duchess of Sussex partaking in the festivities, South Africa's Heritage Day wowed the crowds with pageantry, exuberance and non-stop style. It is a day for showcasing and celebrating the many different legacies, histories and cultures that make up South Africa. This year, news around Heritage Day was dominated by the royal visit, in particular the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, who has been spotted rocking looks by African designers, like the Malawian label Mayamiko during her visit.
SOURCES: OKAYAFRICA
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Kenya's Best Food is a Kaleidoscope of Flavors
Thanks to a host of geographical and cultural influences, Kenya's cuisine is incredibly diverse with far-ranging ingredients and flavors. The people who are in Turkana or the Masai Mara, they are traditional people and their cuisine is influenced by their livestock. The people at the coast, their cuisine is influenced by the trade they have done with Arabs and Indians
SOURCES: CNN
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These Chinese Vloggers Are Changing How China's Rising Middle Class See Africa
Although China's mainstream media is criticized for presenting a distorted, propagandized view of Africa, some ambitious vloggers are providing a more balanced look at African life and dispelling stereotypes in the process. When Beijing-born video producer, Fyjo Molly, relocated from Berlin to Johannesburg three years ago, she was enthusiastic about the move. Earlier this year, she launched her Instagram and YouTube channels with the goal of challenging stereotypes prevalent in Chinese and western media. She does this through making fun, quirky videos of her experiences in South Africa, but also when traveling round the continent to countries including Ethiopia, Zambia and others.
SOURCES: QUARTZ AFRICA
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Mpho Vackier's Journey to International Acclaim
Although she only launched her furniture brand, Urbanative, two years ago, Mpho Vackier's beautiful designs are attracting a wide following and solidifying her place as a major talent. Vackier says she was inspired to create Urbanative as a way to show her son the cultural crossover between her and Belgian husband. Vackier is showing no signs of slowing down. Earlier this year, Vackier along with several other South African designers exhibited their work for the first time at Milan Design Week.
SOURCES: DESIGN AFRICA
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Africa Center Gets $25 Million in Donations to Complete Vision
Thanks to a major gift from Nigerian businessman, Aliko Dangote, New York's Africa Center should be well on its way to solidifying its mission to become a premier resource for all things African. Six years after the Africa Center announced a broad mission to explore the continent through programming devoted to culture, business and public policy, the organization is taking steps to fulfill that goal.
SOURCES: WALL STREET JOURNAL
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South Africa is the Ideal Place for Bikepacking
Following a surge in popularity around the world, bikepacking is beginning to take off in SA. It’s a new way of travelling by bicycle that emphasises exploration and getting off the well-worn roads. In response to the growing interest, PE-based Momsen Bikes has produced two gravel bikes ideal for bikepacking. A local father-and-son team has launched a website, Bikepacking.africa, to create a database of free-to-ride routes around the country.
SOURCES: GETAWAY
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Behind the Scenes of Giza’s Grand Egyptian Museum
The building will supersede the world-famous Egyptian Museum, sometimes called the Museum of Cairo, which was built in the centre of the city in 1901 and currently houses the world’s largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, including the iconic gold funeral mask of Tutankhamun. The new museum will contain 7,000 sq metres dedicated to the boy-king, with the 5,400 objects retrieved from his tomb displayed together for the first time, including his three coffins and the funeral mask. Officials said they hoped the Grand Egyptian Museum would attract five million visitors every year, helping to boost tourism and, in turn, the country’s finances.
SOURCES: THE GUARDIAN
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10 Most Sought After Suburbs in Africa
The compulsion to escape from the pressures of the modern world to imaginary utopias has long been a lucrative selling point for urban developers. This is a true phenomenon in many cities in Africa. The rise of middle class is being witnessed all over the continent as well as the steadily growing number of high net worth individuals – those with net assets of $1 million or more. This group leads the property boom as they search for their own little ‘utopias’.
SOURCES: AFRICA.COM
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Strategies to Develop Ethiopia's Tourism Industry
Lensa Mekonnen, the CEO of state-owned Tourism Ethiopia, is determined that tourism - which can boost the economy, champion local culture, and reinvent the country's public image. Ethiopia's tourism sector supports 2.2 million jobs, and is vital to the East African nation's development transformation. Lensa sees untapped potential in historic sites that are little known or have fallen into disrepair. Tourism in Ethiopia grew by 48 percent in 2018, far surpassing the global average of 3.9 percent. But as Lensa strives for change, she still faces some pushback.
SOURCES: AL JAZEERA
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A Nightmare for Gambia's Tourism
Thomas Cook Group, the travel operator that brought around 40% of Gambia’s annual visitors seeking sun and white-sand beaches, has collapsed and cancelled all future flights and hotel bookings. A blow for Africa’s smallest country whose locals make most of their money in the tourist season, which is just about to begin. Vendors at the Senegambia craft market said they had taken out loans ahead of the tourist season to boost their stocks of traditional instruments, wood carvings and jewellery. Around 57,000 British customers had already booked hotels or seats on charter flights for the upcoming season, according to the national hotel association. This equates to around a quarter of all tourists to Gambia during the whole of last year
SOURCES: REUTERS AFRICA
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