The art of Kolam

Brightening up the roadsides of some of my travels around southern India were a multitude of colourful, geometric patterns that appeared around the time of festivals such as New Year or Pongal, Tamil harvest festival. These decorative, religious images are an ancient, Hindu tradition designed to invite the goddess Lakshmi to bring prosperity into the home and protect from evil spirits. Traditionally they were made of edible materials such as grains, rice, flour and vegetable dyes, as they would provide…

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Hit me with your rhythm stick part 4 – the gardens of Japan

Recent travels had alas, taken me nowhere near the destinations mentioned in Ian Dury’s classic tune, hit me with your rhythm stick to further my pointless quest to visit all of them. Although Japan had always been on my somewhat nebulous list of places I ought to get around to visiting one day, I’ve never been a Japan obsessive, as many who celebrate particular aspects of its culture can be. However, being in the region made it a more reasonable…

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African music mix

A little change from the usual. Given that my modest skill set includes many years of DJing, I thought I’d let music rather than words do the talking for once . So, here you are, 1hr 20 mins of dance music both from or rooted in Africa. Just click on the link below https://hearthis.at/bigg/afromix/ Here’s the set list with track start times for anyone who’s interested Montparnasse Musique feat. Kasai All-stars – Painter 3m55s Sol Power All-stars – Zibodub 6m30s…

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Cock fighting in the Philippines

    On a hill overlooking the small town of Banaue in northern Luzon sits a rickety shack, cobbled together with random timber left-overs and a corrugated iron roof. Improvised wooden seating around two sides of a hard packed, dirt floor arena hold an eager crowd of local men, anticipating today’s action in the cockpit, as the cock fighting space is known. Naturally there’s more to the event than just the sport, or Sabong as it’s known here, it’s a…

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Being dead is a serious business in Vietnam

  The dead may be gone, at least from this earthly plane, but they certainly aren’t forgotten. Death is a transformation rather than an end in traditional Vietnamese culture. Ancestors continue to play an important role in everyday life and if you don’t treat them well they are liable to make your life extremely difficult. The most sure way of upsetting the dead, so that their displeasure manifests itself in the world of the living by dishing out liberal portions…

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Dawn in Hanoi – the calm before the storm

  To truly appreciate the early morning calm of dawn in Hanoi you really need to endure the full frontal assault of the night before in the old city. It is here that the full gamut of bars, restaurants and nocturnal services endeavour to lure the abundance of tourists and locals alike into wallet emptying rapture. Terms like hustle and bustle don’t do justice to the relentless hard sell from personnel stationed outside each venue. Menus are thrust under your…

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My book – Toilets of the Wild Frontier

My new book Toilets of the Wild Frontier is out now. A celebration of

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The shop art of Benin

Although modern forms of art and design are being used more and more, the traditional hand painted signs for shops are still common in much of Africa. Benin has largely retained the distinctly African style of commercial shop painting developed during the last century, whereas in Ivory Coast for example, you see a lot more work that seeks to portray people and objects in an overtly realistic fashion, as is more typical in the West. Although some would describe the…

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A brief tale of Covid priorities in Africa

What Africans have been telling me about Covid this year The arrival of the Omicron variant has finally, although rather unfairly, brought some of the focus in the pandemic onto Africa. There is at least now more discussion of the inequalities in the system that is putting profit before people, leaving Africans at the bottom of the vaccine supply chain. Having spent this year living in Africa and I ought to add, living with Africans, entirely disconnected from any expat…

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The sincerest form of propaganda

While propaganda is best sold to people who don’t realise what they’re being sold, its also best sold by people who genuinely believe what they’re saying. The immense, sophisticated system used by the establishment to guarantee the public succumb to its narratives, creating consent for its otherwise unacceptable actions, is so effective that many professionals are completely taken in by it. Although journalistic failings should be called out, a lot of nuance and complexity is often thrown out in many…

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