In her talk on the danger of a single story Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie spoke about her surprise when she left Nigeria and found that she was seen as African rather than Nigerian.

There are 53 countries in Africa, and the continent is big - bigger than China, India, the USA, Western Europe combined. Yet it is often referred to as if it were one country.

Here’s another game from Sporcle (thanks to them I can now name the states of the USA) about African countries. How many can you name?

Source

Read more:
Blogs from African countries on Blogs of the World
An Eritrean village in photos
Street fashion on five continents: what the world is wearing

This photo comes to us from Isabelle Prondzynski (prondis_in_kenya).

She says, “Cooking chapati on a jiko. Laborious work!

The charcoal fired jiko drops its ashes below; the little door at the bottom regulates the heat if necessary. The chapatis are cooked on a thick iron griddle which spreads the heat evenly and is used only for this purpose.”

I say, “It looks delicious!”

Pocketcultures loves to talk about food from around the world. If you have some photos, why not join our Food of the World Flickr group?

Read more:
Home-made Chinese pancakes (Food of the World)
A Kenyan festive lunch (Food of the World)

Thanks again to prondis in kenya for this photo, from an Ethiopian restaurant in Nairobi, Kenya.

If you liked this, check out our Food of the World photo group on Flickr to see more photos posted by PocketCultures readers around the world. We’d love to see yours too! Just join the group and add your photos.

Read more:
Kenyan festive lunch: more Food of the World
An Eritrean village in photos
African blogs on Blogs of the World

We’ve been having some problems which meant we couldn’t post for the last few days. So here is last week’s Food of the World post, a bit late but hopefully not too late!

Thanks very much to prondis_in_Kenya for sharing these photos of a festive lunch to celebrate Mandaraka Day, which is a national holiday in Kenya.

The menu was lentils and chapatis. Prondis wrote: “Kenyan chapatis differ from their Indian forebears and counterparts in that they are much bigger, and are made with fat. It is a lot of work to make chapatis… they are ideal for special occasions!”

Hope you enjoyed this. If you did, check out our Food of the World photo group on Flickr to see more photos posted by PocketCultures readers around the world. We’d love to see yours too! Just join the group and add your photos.

Read More:
Tahchin - saffron rice and chicken from Iran
Arrosticini - Italian street food

Thanks to the internet you don’t need to travel to see what people are wearing in other parts of the world. Here are five sites to take in the different street styles on five continents.

North America: New York, USA

The king of street fashion blogs for many people is The Sartorialist. He has been photographing stylish New Yorkers since 2005, and The Sartorialist is now a design influence in its own right.

Europe: Poland

Pretty and stylish Lula Street shows that Poles have plenty of individuality when it comes to dressing.

Africa: Johannesburg, South Africa

Nontsikelelo ‘Lolo’ Veleko lives and works in Johannesburg. She featured young South Africans from the streets of Johannesburg in her series “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder”. See some of the portraits on Afronova.

Asia: Tokyo, Japan

We’ve written before about the original fashions on display in Tokyo. But different districts of Tokyo have a distinctive style of their own. On Tokyo street style you can find fashions from Harajuku, Shibuya, Omotesando, Daikanyama and Ginza.

South America: Buenos Aires, Argentina

On the Corner shows colourful and alternative fashion found on the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Agostina, a 23 year old cook, from On the Corner

Do you have a favourite site for street fashion that we haven’t included here? Share it with us in the comments.

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Ever tried making your own Mongolian boots?
Street style from Finland
Fashion freedom in Japan

Which social network should you use if you want to keep up with friends from other countries? This map, developed by Vincenzo Cosenza from Italy, shows which networks are most popular in different countries around the world.

You probably guessed that the green colour dominating the Anglophone world as well as Europe and many other countries represents Facebook.

In fact Facebook has made impressive moves towards world domination in the last 8 months - compare with this map from November 2008 to see how much progress it has made since then.

Other areas are more divided, often along language lines:

- China prefers QQ

- Several other Asian countries are equally independent in their choices: Mixi is number one in Japan, Hi5 in Mongolia and Thailand and Friendster in the Philippines.

- Russian speakers in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan choose to use V Kontakte

- Indians and Brazilians like Orkut

- Most of the Arab world uses Facebook, apart from Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria and Oman where Maktoob is the favourite. How long before Facebook dominates?

- Facebook is also popular in Latin America, although in some countries Hi5 has the number one spot

So what about Africa? According to this map, many sub-Saharan African countries do not yet have a favourite social networking site. Probably because many parts of Africa still do not have easy internet access. Let’s hope that projects such as this one will help to change that.

(Via ReadWriteWeb )

Where are you from and what social networks do you use?

Read more:
Wired Africa? Africa prepares for its surge online
Is there an easy way to blog in a different language?
Top 20 Languages of the World: which second language will get you talking to the most people?
Which are the most religious countries?

You don’t hear much in the news about Eritrea. The only approved Eritrean news sources come from government owned networks.

That’s why we were delighted to hear from Becks, who spent 6 months in Eritrea, working as a teacher trainer for the NGO Voluntary Service Overseas. She sent us these fantastic photos of life in Eritrea. Most of the photos are from Adferkai, a small village in the Western lowlands of Eritrea.

An elementary school in Adferkai teaches children in the morning and gives literacy and numeracy classes to local women in the afternoons.

Around 50% of Eritreans are Christian, and the other half are Muslim. Adferkai is a Muslim village.

The city of Keren lies in the Western highlands of Eritrea and holds all night Orthodox Christian celebrations for Epiphany in January.

The staple food of Eritrea is a kind of bread / pancake called injera. It is cooked over an open fire on a hot plate called mogogo - underneath the domed cover on this photo. The fireplace is built by hand out of clay.

In Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, most people live in apartment buildings. You can also see Italian architecture from the period of Italian colonisation. Rural housing is more likely to be made of clay, earth or wood.

Becks found that community spirit is very important in Eritrea:

“During my stay I was overwhelmed by the generosity and hospitality of the Eritrean people: These are some of the poorest people in the world but they will share anything they have and make you feel at home, whenever and where ever you turn up. My Eritrean friends taught me the real meaning of community”

Read more about Becks’ experience and find more information on Eritrea on her blog. For more photos visit her Flickr stream here.

Read more:
Who is this Elvis? Gayle (Australia) and Godwin (Ghana) on their cross-cultural relationship and life in Ghana
Which are the most religious countries? Africa is the most religious continent in the world
Wired Africa? New infrastructure projects will accelerate Africa’s surge online