African Safari Destinations

African arts and craft include sculpture, weaving, beading, painting, pottery, jewellery, headgear and dress. Art from particular regions have distinct characteristics depending on beliefs, values and customs, but common themes found in art include women, couples, children, animals, man with a weapon, or a combination of these. Masks are usually a representation of religious and spiritual beliefs. They are used for traditional ceremonies to honour deities or ancestors.

The type of clothing worn across Africa varies from north to south, and by religious beliefs and traditional customs. Some cultures wear colourful attire, while others wear less colour but include shiny threads in their dressing with minimal jewellery.

The environment plays a huge part in what kinds of foods are consumed in different parts of the African continent. Most cuisines include fruit, grain, vegetables, milk and meat products. Quite a number of cultural groups have very similar foods in their cuisines. For example, a very common maize/corn-based dish is pap, also named ugali, sadza, nsima, nchima, chima, poshto, tuozafi, ubgali, bugali, sokoro, sokora, depending on which part of the continent you are eating it.

African music is as diverse as the people, and has also been influenced by music from the western world. Traditional music in southern Africa usually involves drums and singing, and such instruments as the thumb piano accompanied by rattles made from some dried fruit or vegetable with seeds inside.

Men from the Latuka tribe in Sudan still practice the tradition of kidnapping a woman that they want to marry. After a Latuka man has taken his bride-to-be, he goes back to the father of the woman to ask for his blessing.

• To protect their skin from the sun, the Himba people of northern Namibia cover themselves with a mixture of red soil and milk fat, and so they appear to have reddish skin. The otjize mixture is considered to be a beauty cosmetic. They also use wood ash for cleansing the hair because water is scarce.
• The Algerian men of the Ahaggaren Tuareg group wear a veil almost all the time, occasionally taking them off when in a family group or while they travel.