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Culture

Music, book and film reviews from the last 3 months

Herbs & Plants. Rhus vulgaris Meikle. An Important Herbal Medicinal Plant.

Vital in traditional medicine for the treatment and management of various disease conditions. The ash is used for oxytocic action, and externally, the ash is applied for the treatment of scabies. The Yje plant possesses potent sources of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents. Articles about the use of plants as a source of medicine for the…

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Music. Obongjayar. Aromas and Rhythms of Mother Africa.

His name is Steven Umoh but in the world of music, he is known by all as Obongjayar. One of the rising stars of new African music, he is one of the best-known personalities on the contemporary Nigerian scene. His style ranges from funk to electronic, mixing melodies, rap and talking, modernist soul and Afrobeat.…

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Mexico. Arms that speak of peace.

A visual Mexican artist collects arms used during violent times in his country and transforms them into works of art, to demonstrate how human beings have more powerful arms to convey their message in the form of images, literature, thoughts and words. Originally from Jalisco, one of the Mexican states situated in the western part…

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Music. Mory Kanté. The Electric Griot.

His eighties hit Yeke Yeke made him one of the prime artists of nascent world music. The singer and musician Mory Kanté has died aged seventy after a long illness. Originally from Guinea, he was known all over the world especially for his hit, Yeke Yeke, launched in 1987. That piece of music, containing ethnic…

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Herbs & Plants. Aspalathus linearis. The medicinal Tea Plant.

It is used to treat different allergies and help various antioxidant-associated health benefits. Globally, a number of plants are used as tea with lots of nutritional and health benefits. One of such plants is Aspalathus linearis (Brum f) Dahlg which belongs to the plant family Fabaceae. It is an erect to spreading, highly variable, shrub…

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Music. Manu Dibango. The Poet with the Saxophone.

A victim of the Coronavirus, in Paris, on 24 March 2020. The Cameroonian saxophonist and composer, best known for his soul/funk single, ‘Soul Makossa’, Manu Dibango left his mark on a long period of Afro Music. On his arrival in Marseilles in 1949 as a sixteen-year-old, the new music of the African continent was still…

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Mexico. Pre-Hispanic city of Uxmal.

The ancient pre-Hispanic city of Uxmal and its three surrounding sites: Kabhá, Labná and Sayil admirably demonstrate the social and economic structure of late Maya society. One of the great mysteries of humanity is the sudden disappearance of the extraordinary Mayan civilization at the end of the eleventh century which would contribute so much to…

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Gaye Su Akyol. Dreamer of the Turkish Sound.

A mixture of Anatolian pop and oriental folk, gypsy resonances and western sounds. A committed voice denouncing the incoherences of its land. Anatolia is a peninsula that forms part of modern Turkey. What the ancient Romans called Asia Minor has been the cradle of a number of civilisations, from that of the Hittites to those…

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Zimbabwe. In search of the lost city.

Grand Zimbabwe is one of Africa’s largest and most complex archaeological sites. Its origins and decline are mysterious, and we visited it. The origins of Grand Zimbabwe – Dzimba-Dzemabwe in the Shona language: The Stone City – date back to 800 AD. That’s when, in the last great Bantu migration, Black African populations descended from…

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The Nubian People: between Egypt and Sudan.

The legacy of the time of the Pharaohs of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty is being ransomed after the silence caused by intentionally misrepresented history. Now, researchers and institutions are recovering the splendor of the Nubian civilization. The fascinating culture, history, monuments and religion of Egypt have often overshadowed another not less remarkable and surprising civilization that…

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Music. Omar & Gustavo.

Omar Sosa and Gustavo Ovalles. Two great musicians, two different stories often merging in a most striking artistic association. Omar Sosa, a Cuban of class 1965, is a pianist of the school of jazz. He began with the marimbas – a typical Caribbean instrument – while still a small boy, and then moved on to…

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Brazil. The Magic and Colour of Movement.

A school of dance for the blind, the only one of its kind in the world, located in the outskirts of São Paolo. The challenge of a young woman. Innovative methods. Working against prejudice. A liberating dance. “I have learned to cover my eyes and open my heart”. On the tips of her toes she…

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Advocacy

Maria Ressa. Information that gives hope.

“We want to create a federation of international journalistic organisations that collaborate in this effort, starting from the global South,” says Filipino journalist and 2022…

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Baobab

The Leopard, the Dog and the Tortoise.

Once upon a time, there was a leopard. He had a huge walnut tree that was full of nuts. Stingy as he was, however, he forbade…

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Youth & Mission

Mission. In the school of life and humanity.

Three young Comboni missionaries from three continents share their vocation stories and missionary experiences. Fr Victor Cunanan Parungao from the Philippines reflects on 15 years of…

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