Dear God

A Catholic wedding in Sudan Dear God I had expected to be writing to you with your Allah hat on, seeing that Sudan is a Muslim country, but as luck would have it I got invited to a Catholic wedding so thought I had better have a few words with you about it. Whatever religious hat you had on when you created the people of Sudan you must have been in a good mood, as they are a likeable lot…

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Egyptian sex and the city

Behind the veil of love lie dark secrets Egyptians like to gossip. Also they like to complain about gossiping, as for some it extends to an unhealthy obsession in other people’s lives. To many in the West the subjects worthy of gossip may often seem rather tame but this is still a conservative society, despite many external appearances of western modernity and it’s only by digging deeper that you discover the tensions created at the front line of the clash…

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West African women – is it love or confusion?

You may well wonder why I would bother telling you that a 500ml sachet of water costs about 5p, but it helps to illustrate some typical daily economic issues,  particularly for many African women, so let me tell you about Cynthia. She lives with her young son in Kumasi, a city in western Ghana and has a room in a building seemingly populated almost entirely by other women without any visible partners. Lets just say the building won’t be appearing…

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