Girls of Gbogolo collecting water from a pond

PD Photo: Young girls from Gbogolo (or Gbogholo or Bogolo Bogholo), a village commune in Séguéla, one of the two Departments in the Worodougou Region of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), collect water from a muddy pond

Samuel Daniell: Khoisan busy barbecuing grasshoppers

Public Domain Image: Khoisan busy barbecuing grasshoppers (1805), aqua tint by English painter Samuel Daniell (1775-1811), scan from Suid-Afrikaanse Geskiedenis in Beeld (1989) by Anthony Preston, Bion Books, printed in South Africa.

The aqua tint shows a Khoisan (Khoesaan, Khoesan or Khoe-San) family with the man busy barbecuing grasshoppers while his wife is looking on. The name Khoisan is for two ethnic groups of Southern Africa, who share physical and linguistic characteristics distinct from the Bantu majority of the region. Culturally the Khoisan people are divided into the pastoral Khoi and the foraging San.

The Great Mosque of Touba, Senegal

Public Domain Photo: The Great Mosque of Touba, Senegal

The Great Mosque of Touba is located at the heart of the Mouride holy city of Touba in central Senegal. The Great Mosque, the place where Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke, the founder of the Mouride Brotherhood, lies buried, is purported to be one of the largest in Africa. The Mouride Brotherhood is a large Islamic Sufi order most prominent in Senegal and The Gambia, with headquarters in the holy city of Touba.

Completed in 1963, the mosque has five minarets and three large domes. The mosque's 87-metre (285 ft) high central minaret, called Lamp Fall, is one of Senegal's most famous monuments. The name Lamp Fall is in reference to Sheikh Ibrahima Fall, one of Bamba's most influential disciples. The Mosque is open only to Muslims.

Dhows traversing the Nile River

PD Photo: A dhow in the Nile River, Zamalek, a district of Cairo encompassing an island on the Nile River.

PD Photo: A dhow (boat) traverses the Nile River near Aswan (or Aswanl, formerly spelled Assuan), the capital of the Aswan Governorate, in the south of Egypt.

Woman with long Afro-textured hair

PD Photo: Woman wearing long Afro-textured hair styled in twists; an image of the character Violet Parr of the movie ‘The Incredibles’.

Afro-textured hair (also often referred to as kinky hair, nappy hair, or spiraled hair) is a term referring to the typical texture of Black African hair that has not been altered by hot combs, flat irons or chemicals by perming, relaxing or straightening.

Sarah Baartman, the most famous Khoikhoi woman

PD Image: Sarah Baartman, a caricature drawn in the early 19th century.

Sarah ‘Saartjie, Baartman (1789-1815), is the most famous of the Khoikhoi women who were exhibited as freak show attractions in 19th century Europe under the name Hottentot Venus, Hottentot being an offensive name used for the Khoi people and Venus referring to the Roman goddess of love.

Sarah Baartman, born to a Khoisan family in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, a slave of Dutch farmers near Cape Town, was taken to London in 1810 and exhibited around Britain, forced to entertain people by gyrating her body and showing to Europeans what were thought of as highly unusual body features.

A Frenchman purchased Sarah Baartman and took her to France, and an animal trainer Regu exhibited her under more pressured conditions for fifteen months. Initially she became popular among the nobles, artists and others, and when the novelty had worn thin with the Parisians, she began to drink heavily and support herself with prostitution.

She died on 29 December 1815 at the age of 25, of an undetermined ailment, speculated as smallpox, syphilis, or pneumonia. Her skeleton, body parts and brain were placed on display in Paris' Musée de l'Homme until 1974.

From the 1940’s there were mounting pressures on the French for the return of her remains to her native South Africa. After the victory of African National Congress in 1994, President Nelson Mandela formally requested France to return Sarah Baartman’s remains. After much legal wrangling and debates in the French National Assembly, France acceded to the request on 6 March 2002. Baartman’s remains were repatriated to her homeland, the Gamtoos Valley, on 6 May 2002 and buried on 9 August 2002 at Vergaderingskop, a hill in the town of Hankey about 200 years after her birth.

Sarah Baartman became a popular subject for many writers, humanists, and those who opposed exhibiting human beings as zoo animals are exhibited. Now there is The Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children opened in Cape Town opened in 1999, and South Africa's first offshore environmental protection vessel, the Sarah Baartman, is also named after her.

A French drama film, ‘Black Venus’ (French: Vénus noire), based on the life of Sarah Baartman, featuring Yahima Torres as Sarah Baartman, directed by Abdel Kechiche is scheduled for release date on 27 October 2010.

Murchison Falls (River Nile), Uganda

Murchison Falls on River Nile, Uganda

Murchison Falls seen from above

Murchison Falls (also known as Kabalega Falls or Kabarega Falls), is a waterfall on the River Nile. The waterfall breaks the Victoria Nile, which flows from Lake Victoria across northern Uganda to Lake Kyoga and then to the north end of Lake Albert in western arm of the East African Rift Valley. On top of Murchison Falls, the Nile forces its way through a narrow gap in the rocks, only 7 meters (23 feet) wide and falls down 43 meters (141 feet), and then flows westward into Lake Albert. Lake Victoria sends out around 300 cubic meters per second (11,000 cubic feet/second) of water over the Murchison Falls squeezed through a gorge less than ten meters (30 feet) wide.

Sir Samuel Baker named the falls after the name of Sir Roderick Murchison, who was the president of the Royal Geographical Society. Murchison Falls also lend its name to the Murchison Falls National Park, lying inland from the shore of Lake Albert around the Victoria Nile.

The 1970s the name Murchison Falls was changed to the Kabarega Falls during the reign of Idi Amin, after King Kabarega of Bunyoro (a region of Uganda), although it was never legally promulgated. However, after the downfall of Idi Amin the name was reverted back to Murchison Falls, though it is still sometimes referred to as Kabarega Falls.

The River Nile, view from Cairo Tower