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Category Archives: Nature
Autumn 2020
Stolen Rivers
Nile, Niger, Senegal, Orange, Limpopo, Zambezi …
As I was following the online Poetry Africa Festival from KZN, I heard Phillippa Yaa de Villiers recite her poem “Stolen Rivers”, a poem she dedicated to Chiwoniso Maraire. Like the poet, I deeply admire Chiwoniso, I find her very inspirational, and her music enchanting. I have written about her here, and now I allow myself to copy-paste the poem here (> page 2):
paläon – research museum
On my way to Magdeburg I used to pass by the signpost many times. Now it was about time to pay a visit to the paläon research museum in Schöningen (near Braunschweig). When you’re in the region, go. It’s worth it! Here are just some pictures.
Spring has sprung – 2020
The memory of water
Constant dripping, so the saying goes, wears away the stone. Yet, everyone who has visited a karst cave with their often astounding richness in rock formations will know otherwise: constant dripping creates the stone! Now, any speleologist (academese for cave expert) may frown over my lax use of the term “stone”. Fine, of course I mean those pillars and bumps and other formations expertly called stalagtites, stalagmites and stalagnates. Water drops, sintering through the earth and rocks that form the ceiling of a cave, containing minerals and other material, carry that material into the cave, where it slowly builds up into said formations. Talk about slowly – think tens of thousands of years, and then some.
Göttingen calabash
Only one of the seeds of African Giant Calabash actually grew big enough so I could plant it in the garden. Now with a few of the fruit grown pleasantly big, it looks like I can go all industrial next year, producing truckloads of shekeres 😉
shekere
Malawi 9/2019
This is my second trip to Malawi this year. I arrive in a time of political unrest following the elections in May. Leaders of the opposition parties have alleged that there were massive irregularities and that Mutharika is the “tipp-ex president”. Lilongwe, Blantyre and other places have been the scenes of massive demonstrations which sometimes turned violent, including lootings and mob violence, and as of late the police and army forces are using live ammunition. Driving through town wasn’t always easy therefore, since you better avoid the demonstrations as the protestors do not always clearly discriminate between who to attack. Or would the police? Anyway, we stayed clear of them as best as we could.
The last of summer
Easter walk all the way up to the Brocken
Goethe, Germany’s “bard” and “national poet” forever, has his most famous character Faust make an Easter walk. Upon leaving Magdeburg, I felt I should follow suit. Some of the action in Faust is set in the Harz mountain range, and since it happens to be right in the middle of a bee’s line from Magdeburg to Göttingen, my home of over six years now, I went there and walked all the way up tp the summit of the Brocken, at 1141m northern Germany’s highest peak.
