Africa in the blogosphere

In the last few days, I’ve come across some fantastic blogs focused on Africa, and I thought I’d share a few of my findings. More, surely, to come:

Owen in Africa has the best blog roll I’ve ever seen, if you’re an Africa/human rights/civilian protection/aid geek like me. Owen, says his page, is a runner, resident of Ethiopia at the moment, and sabbatical-taker from DfID, the British government’s aid arm. I also like the fact that is an owen.org and not an owen.com. He’s no hypocrite.

African Heroes: Stories of brave badasses is so good I wish I could ignore it. It leaves me feeling inferior. It’s also mysterious: Who the hell is this woman? She works in the aid/NGO world in Congo, anyway, and she weaves a damn good story. She’s also closer to the lived-life close-up of the Congo violence, for aid workers and for Congolese, than anything you’ll see in a wire service story. Mandatory reading.

Discovered said mandatory reading via formerly-of-Uganda Scarlett Lion, who has since jumped coasts and set up shop in Liberia. Check out her daily photos of Monrovia’s streets; they’re beautiful.

Wronging Rights is not based in Africa, but by virtue of the fact that most attention about human rights abuses settles itself on this continent, it’s de facto an Africa blog, at least some of the time. It is also, as its sidebar blurbs promise, “more amusing than a blog that focuses on various atrocities has any right to be.” These people are seriously funny. Team Nkunda? I wish I’d thought of that.

But if you prefer to chase your African war crimes news with a shot of sobriety, African Arguments might be the place. I don’t know if anyone told you this in high school, but in Africa, they have politics, not just disasters. This blog is a place for fascinating discussion about politics, and other things, in Africa that tend not to make the news stories, from people journalists should be calling more often. It’s a blog from some of the guys at Zed Books, which is the most reliable publisher for good, insightful work on Africa that I know.

If you know other good places, let me know.