Snow in the Sahara Desert — Photo: Hamouda Ben Jerad
The largest and hottest desert in the world – Sahara Desert – has experienced yet another snowfall in 38 years at Ain Sefra in northern Algeria.
Residents of the desert town in the Naâma Province woke up to a sea of white covering the sand dunes last weekend and photographer Hamouda Ben Jerad captured the moment before the 16 inches of ice melted in the day.
This is the second snowfall at the same place in 38 years after last year’s snow that was also captured by Algerian amateur photographer, Karim Bouchetata.
His photographs showed the first snowfall in the town since February 1979, with the red dunes covered with white snow patches. The snow is reported to have lasted for only a day.
Here are some reactions to the once in a lifetime experience:
The weirdest things I’ve seen all week (mind you it’s only been 10 days into 2018): around 22 people have died during the extreme freezing temperatures in the US, Antarctica is GOING GREEN (melting) and there was 16 inches of SNOW in the SAHARA DESERT. Wow
— S [] (@whoashxti) January 10, 2018
What's your take on 'once in a lifetime' Sahara snow ❄️ happening in consecutive winters? Dis-moi quoi ❄️ pic.twitter.com/9h5C2wsZ5T
Ever seen the Sahara in white? Part of the Sahara Desert is covered in snow up to 16 inches after a freak storm hit the area on Sunday, a rare sight seen only 3 times in 40 years pic.twitter.com/vwpX487DV2
20-year-old Mpho Makutu in the streets of Soweto displaying his robots
20-year-old Mpho Makutu picks scrap metal, wires, and card boxes from Johannesburg’s dumpsites to build remote-controlled cars and battery-powered robots, and cranes. He displays his inventions in the streets of Soweto where tourists pay to see how they work.
The second-year mechanical engineering student uses the about $24 he earns during the weekends to fend for his family of four and pay their rent, reports South African news portal Sunday Times.
The smart young man said he started his inventions from a younger age when he uses anything to build things. He recalled getting a beating for removing parts from his father’s music system.
His most recent invention is a red battery-powered robot that grabs objects and moves them around at the touch of seven different wire levers. It took him two weeks to build the robot from cardboard boxes‚ wires and scrap metal he picked from dumpsites, he told Sunday Times.
Mpho Makutu added that his dream is to become an inventor so that he can employ people and build important machines like a “plastering machine” that can save construction workers from the risk of falling from tall buildings.
This article by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com
This African leader in power for nearly 40 years was almost overthrown in a coup
In a year, Africa saw the end of the regimes of two out of six long-time presidents who had served for over 30 years. 75-year-old Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola stepped down last year after clinching to power for 36 years while 93-year-old Robert Gabriel Mugabe was overthrown in a military takeover after serving for 36 years.
It was almost the end of the new longest-serving African leader after Mugabe, Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo whose government said on Wednesday that a coup attempt was foiled and at least 30 armed men from Chad, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic were arrested late December.
They were reportedly found with rocket launchers, rifles, and ammunition over the border in Cameroon where local media said one person was shot dead during the clashes. The oil-rich country’s Security Minister Nicholas Obama Nchama announced on state radio that the armed men were mercenaries hired by opposition groups.
He added that the coup was foiled with the help of Cameroon, another country that has a leader who has been in power for 33 years.
75-year-old Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo’s government has been accused of gross human rights abuses, corruption, and nepotism. His son is the Vice President of the country and last year, a French court gave him a three-year suspended sentence for corruption.
For now, there are four African presidents who have served for more than 30 years and are still going strong. Besides Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the rest are Cameroon’s Paul Biya (34 years in office), Congo Brazzaville’s Denis Sassou Nguesso (33 years in office), and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni (32 years in office).
This article by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com
Soap by BathKandy — Photo Credit: Skincerely Clare
BathKandy is not your ordinary bath and body company but one that produces creative and yummy-looking products that look and smell like edible desserts for your skin’s pleasure. The brain behind it is adorable dessert lover, Nigerian Blondie Okpuzor, who doubles as the founder and CEO.
The New York-educated entrepreneur produces soaps, scrubs, polishes, scented oils, home fragrances, etc that look and smell like cupcakes, birthday cakes, chocolate bars, local delicacy Gari among others.
In 2014, three years after moving to Nigeria from the United States, Blondie Okpuzor started her business with an investment of $9,800 from her savings and support from family members. She currently has two stores in Lagos and Abuja and supplies her products to clients around the world.
“I’ve been formulating for family and friends from my kitchen for about 5 years … We started selling to customers in December 2014 and the store opened in March 2015,” she told skincare blog, Skincerely Clare, in an interview.
How did the dream start for Blondie Okpuzor?
“BathKandy is the result of a personal struggle. A few years ago, I realized that I was allergic to almost everything…from food to water! I couldn’t hop in the shower and turn on the faucet!
“I break out in hives and turn red and itchy so it took me a while to figure out what the problem was. I’m also allergic to most of my favorite foods…dessert included and this was and still is pure torture.
“So I started mixing my own shea buttercreams because that was the only thing that would soothe my skin. In December 2014, a friend asked me to create a homemade gift box for her mom for Christmas and I created 2. I posted the pictures on my Blackberry and the rest they say is history,” she said.
She added that her love for desserts got her to infuse actual food ingredients into the products when she got her first 50 orders. “People loved the homemade, artistic vibe they got. The products also looked like edible desserts, and who doesn’t like food?! My family would accidentally use body butter as a spread for cakes and bread. Or eat soapy cupcakes, truffles, and cookies. I knew it was time to get a place!”
Blondie Okpuzor’s company also plays a role in environmental protection through its recycling policy. They use recyclable containers and encourage customers to recycle or return them for reuse. They also support charities that empower women, she explained.
She gave a piece of advice to other African entrepreneurs in the skin care business. “Don’t get discouraged by the setbacks and roadblocks … nothing good comes easy. In fact, embrace them and turn every setback into a life lesson. Frustrations will come but they only build character. Perseverance makes the final reward that much sweeter.”
Below are some of the yummy products in BathKandy stores
6 photos
Delicious looking bath and body products you can’t eat, all made in Nigeria
Founder and CEO of BathKandy Blondie Okpuzor
This article by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com
Love and Hip-Hop: Miami star Amara La Negra — Photo Credit: HelloBeautiful
Stereotypes have continued to ridicule the existence of certain races, especially those of African descent who have suffered a lot of existential setbacks in history and modern times. Slavery and marginalization have long affected black people, however, many are brave enough to change the narrative.
One person from Latin America who is doing just that is ‘Love & Hip Hop: Miami’ star Amara La Negra. She is dark-skinned, wears an afro, and is committed to breaking stereotypes and standing out as a proud Afro-Caribbean from the Latin American country of the Dominican Republic.
The now North American star had already made a name for herself in the Latin American urban music scene after her breakthrough participation in Univision’s Sábado Gigante as a child.
She has been racially abused in her home country where a beauty queen had once polished her face black to mock the music star during a pageant.
If y'all think Amara La Negra is a white woman in blackface then y'all don't know what real blackface is. Blackface is that beauty queen in Amara's own home country in DR wearing blackface and a afro wig mocking Amara pic.twitter.com/5aH1z3Kcp6
Only a day after her debut in the Love & Hip Hop: Miami reality show which premiered on New Year’s day, Amara La Negra won the love and support of many black Americans and Caribbeans, not because of her dark skin, but for standing her grounds against a racist co-star, Young Hollywood, who blatantly told her he didn’t like her afro, skin and anything related to her being black.
This conversation made me so mad. It's sad that people actually think like this. pic.twitter.com/bWofupXgdc
This got people angry and at the same time applauding her much-adored defense of her blackness and afro which she has always maintained.
“I Want to Thank Everyone who saw the show last night! Now yall Know and see with the type of shit I gotta deal with! I really just wanted to put my story out there! I know someone else in the world can relate!!
“Please don’t say you won’t watch the show because of what happened to me… because of what Hollywood said. That’s the reason you need to keep watching the show and help me make a difference,” she tweeted on Wednesday.
I Want to Thank Everyone who saw the show lastnight! Now yall Know and see with the type of shit i gotta deal with! I really just wanted to put my story out there! I know someone else in the world can relate!!
Please don’t say you wont watch the show because of what happened to me… because of what Hollywood said. Thats the reason you need to keep watching the show and help me make a difference.
Billboard reported hours later that the fast-rising star had just signed a multi-album record deal with Fast Life Entertainment Worldwide and BMG, and will release her first single in the first quarter of 2018. It will be produced by Rock City.
“I’m still in shock! At times, I am caught pinching myself because there is a part of me that still is in awe of being signed to a franchise that will heighten my success … I am thankful for my team at Fast Life Ent. Worldwide and BMG for this opportunity as an artist. And I cannot wait for my fans to hear my new music,” she said in a statement.
Amara La Negra’s successes have been described as worthy by many of her fans on social media who are supporting her in the fight against racism and racial abuses she has faced as an artist representing the bicultural and Afro-Caribbean people.
We haven’t had an Afro-Latina go mainstream in YEARS since la Cubana, Celia Cruz… I hope Amara La Negra makes it big like Cardi B . She’s so talented and she’d open the doors to show the uneducated and racist that Latinas come in ALL shades #LHHMIApic.twitter.com/NRTtxaCrz3
I appreciate Amara La Negra and her love for her African heritage. Some Latinxs act like they weren’t dropped off first on the slave trade from West Africa.
That fact that y’all let this man say this to Amara La Negra about her Afro & still let him on the show pisses me off. Like y’all not serious. He doesn’t deserve to be on the show at all. His comments were beyond disrespectful. I ain’t even Latina & I’m pissed off #lhhmiapic.twitter.com/x5YrjKnZfP
that convo between Amara La Negra and that brown dude on Love and Hip Hop is proof, on national television that there will never be “POC solidarity” cuz y’all really view black people as inferiors, but just don’t wanna outright call us the n-word.
— Richey Collazo (@lilricheyrich) January 2, 2018
This article by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com
Ismail Akwei 