Top 10 List- Obscure World Capitals, Africa Edition

We learned from the ever-hip magazine "Mental Floss" last year, that apparently a man-eating crocodile named Gustave (not the one pictured here) resides in native habitiat somewhere in the central eastern country of Burundi.

That country shares a border with Rwanda, which we learned from the BBC, is trying to re-establish from its very dark recent history to bring tourists in for bird-watching. Apparently, Rwanda is indeed one of the best places for bird-watching in the world.


And, both Zambia and Gabon have been in the news as Zambia pulled a huge upset over Ivory Coast to win the African Cup of nations in Gabon. To make matters even more confusing, there is also an African country called Gambia which is pretty far from Zambia.

Put, at any rate, here are a list of ten African countries that most 11th graders at Franklin County High School in Rocky Mount, Va., (hey, we had to pick on some school) probably couldn't locate on the map. But we still wish the FCHS Eagles' basketball team bonne chance this year.


1. Banjul, Gambia (western Africa)

2. Libreville, Gabon (central Africa)

3. Lusaka, Zambia (east Africa)

4. Kigali, Rwanda (east Africa)

5. Lome, Togo (west Africa)

6. Maputo, Mozambique (east Africa)

7. Bujumbra, Burundi (east Africa)

8. Gaborone, Botswana (southern Africa)

9. Antananariuo, Madagascar (southern Africa)

10. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (western Africa)

Yes, should numberrs 9 or 10 be asked as a Final Jeopardy question, our thoughts would be with the contestants.

And, on a more somber note, many countries in Africa, including Somalia and Burkina Faso, are currently expeirencing crippling famines.

CARE is one of many relief agencies working to resolve this horrific problem.

Sports Desk- Zambia is Feeling the Joy of Victory

In what may well be one of the greatest sports stories in recent years, the southern African nation of Zambia won soccer's African Cup of Nations with a 0-0 (8-7) victory over heavily favored Ivory Coast in Libreville, Gabon, yesterday.

The Gabonese capital was the site of a great soccer tragedy for Zambia some 20 years ago in 1993 when a military plane carrying 30 people, including 18 Zambian soccer players for the national team, crashed killing everyone on the plane.

But, yesterday, Stopira Sunzu, 22, killed the game-winning penalty kick to prople Zambia to vicotry. Goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene, 27, (pictured) was the other hero of the game for Zambia as he stopped a penalty kick from Ivory Coast superstar Didier Drogba (who also plays for Chelsea) during the penalty shoot-out phase of the game.

To put into terms of how incredible Zambia's road to victory, which also included a 1-0 victory over Cup favorite Ghana in the semi-finals, it essentially would be something akin to an Ivy League school winning the Final Four here in America.

Ivory Coast has many soccer icons, including English Premiere League players in Droba, Gervinho (Arsenal) and Yaya Toure (Manchester City).

During regulation time, Drogba also missed a penalty kick in the 70th minute of play and a header in extra-time. Toure also missed a key goal-scoring opportunity in the 30th minute of play.

For Zambia, Emmanuel Mayuka, who scored the game-winning goal over Ghana, missed a key chance to win the game in regulation.

The BBC reported this morning, that people were puring onto the streets of Lusaka, Zambia's capital and celebrating well into the night.

Quote of the Day/Week- Lorraine Hansberry

In honor of Black History Month, we continue to quote famous African-Americans and today we share a quip from playwright/activist Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) who died all too young at age 34 from pancreatic cancer.

Hansberry is best-known for her 1959 play "A Raisin in the Sun," about a struggling family residing in the south side of Chicago. Both the original Broadway stage production and the 1961 film version starred Sindey Poitier.

This month, Stained Glass Playhouse in Winston-Salem, NC, is staging "A Raisin in the Sun" (until Feb. 19th).

In the Los Angeles area, the play is also being produced by Center Theatre Group which is performing "A Raisin in the Sun" at the Kirk Douglas theatre in Culver City.

Here is her quote:

"Children see things well sometimes_ and idealists even better."

SIDEBAR: In Durham, NC, Duke University men's basketball player Austin Rivers is assuredly the Big Man on Campus as he hit a three-point shot to help the Blue Devils prevail over their man arch rival, the University of North Carolina Tarheels.

But, half a world away, the nation of Zambia is celebrating as another young athlete, soccer player Emmanuel Mayoka, a substitute, scored the game-winning goal in that country's 1-0 upset win over Ghana in the Africa Cup.

Thus, Zambia, which lost its entire soccer team due to an airplane accident in 1993, will face Ivory Coast for the continental title. Ivory Coast scored its own 1-0 victory over Mali thanks to a goal from Arsenal star Gervinha.

The Africa Cup final will be played in Liberville, Gabon, the same city where that fatal airplane crash took place.

Casulaties of Modern Technology (6 of 12)_ The Typewriter

First of all hello to those of you in Davos, Switzerland, and Montego Bay, Jamaica, who have somehow found time to check us out today. We also wish to congratulate teh citizens of Mali, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Zambia for reaching the finals of the African Cup in world soccer play over the weekend. Lastly, kudos to Eli Manning and the New York Giants for winning the Super Bowl over the New England Patriots 21-17.

And, you thought Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich were the only ones kissing babies left and right!

Today's Casualty of Modern Technology is the typewriter. Since I am a big fan of the Tom Robbins novel "Still Life with Woodpecker" (1980) and the novelist typed the whole work on Remington SL3, that is the image we are going with today.

In his novel, Robbins even alluded to the machinery with the line: "I sense that the novel of my dreams is the Remington SL3_ although it writes much faster than I can spell."

The typewriter was also an external force in the excellent William Burroughs novel "Naked Lunch" (1959), a surreal masterpiece that was turned into a David Cronenberg film many years later in 1991.

There are many serious collectors of typewriters, including actor Tom Hanks and politcian/business leader Steven Soboroff, who has typewriters from Jack London and Ernest Hemingway in his collection.

The legacy of the typewriter, which was first invented circa 1868 remains today as the QWERTY keyboard is found on all personal computer keyboards.

Typewriters became more standard around 1910, and they were gradually implemented into newspaper journalism. The IBM selectic typewriter was developed in 1961 as a replacement for the originals. The newer typewriters were less noisy and printed more effectively.

But, by the 1980s, the world processor evolved, and typewriters were soon allegedly sent off to former Soviet republics, such as Azerbaijan, where even today, the computer is highly preferred.