The Abu Simbel Festival is celebrated in both February and October. The festival celebrates two very important instances in the life of Ramses II.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a birthday party of a Ugandan family.  Uganda is located in central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa and is the eleventh largest country in the World.

The Karamu Feast is an important part of Kwanzaa and is celebrated on December 31. During this special day the Kwanzaa Unity cup takes center stage. Usually filled with grape juice, water, or wine, the Unity cup symbolizes the unity of African nations and is used by Kwanzaa observers to perform ancestor-praising libations.

The origin of artichokes is unknown, though they are said to have come from the Maghreb (North Africa), where they are still found in the wild state; the seeds of artichokes, probably cultivated, were found during the excavation of Mons Claudianus in Egypt during the Roman period.

The islands of the Cape Verde archipelago were discovered by Italian and Portuguese navigators around 1456. According to Portuguese official records [6] the first discoveries were made by Genoese born Antonio de Noli, who was afterwards appointed governor of Cape Verde by Portuguese King Afonso V. Other navigators mentioned as contributing with discoveries in the Cape Verde archipelago are Diogo Gomes, Diogo Dias, Diogo Afonso and the Italian Alvise Cadamosto.

July 26^th marks Independence Day for the people of the Republic of Liberia. Aided by the American Colonization Society, Liberia was colonized by freed Blacks and slaves in 1822.

Nigerian food has a great variety as there exists a great number of ethnic groups in Nigeria. However with time, lot more new types food are becoming popular, making fast food is an important part of the food in Nigeria. The unity among the people in Nigeria influence them to have their meals together.

Food of Nigeria includes meat, vegetables, fruits as well as the carbohydrates. Meats consumed by the Nigerians are beef, chicken, mutton, lamb, turkey, geese, pigeon, fish, guinea fowls, crab, shrimp and other sea food. Fruits include bananas, oranges, tangerines, pineapples, carrots, guavas, watermelons, melons, grapes, limes, mangoes, apples, tomatoes, peas and a lot more.

As Nigeria culture is a combination of the cultural influences of many tribes, there comes the variation in the recipes. However, palm oil is the common factor in almost all the dishes. A few common Nigerian food are isu, which is basically spiced boiled yams, dodo, which is fried plantains, efo, which is green stew, iyan, which is pounded yams and jollof rice, Nigerian stew and Chinchin. Rice is the staple carbohydrate in the Nigerian food. Read More interesting facts at: http://www.mapsofworld.com/nigeria/culture/food.html

The midday meal is the main meal, with the exception of the holy month of Ramadan. The typical meal begins with a series of hot and cold salads, followed by a tagine. Bread is eaten with every meal. Often, for a formal meal, a lamb or chicken dish is next, followed by couscous topped with meat and vegetables. A cup of sweet mint tea is commonly used to end the meal. Moroccans almost always eat with their hands and use bread as a utensil.

The main Moroccan dish most people are familiar with is couscous, an old delicacy probably of Berber origin.

Beef is the most commonly eaten red meat in Morocco. Lamb is preferred, but is not as common due to its higher cost. Poultry was historically used and the importance of seafood is increasing in Moroccan food. The breed of sheep in North Africa has much of its fat concentrated in its tail, which means that Moroccan lamb does not have the pungent flavor that Western lamb and mutton can have.

Among the most famous Moroccan dishes are Couscous, Pastilla (also spelled Bsteeya or Bastilla), Tajine, Tanjia and Harira. Although the latter is a soup, it is considered as a dish in itself and is served as such or with datesespecially during the month of Ramadan.

For more information, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moroccan_cuisine

Egyptian cuisine is characterized by dishes such as Ful Medames, Kushari, rice-stuffed pigeon, Mulukhiyya with rabbit, and Feteer Meshaltet, while sharing similarities with food found throughout the Eastern Mediterranean like rice-stuffed vegetables or grape leaves, Shawerma, Kebab, Falafel, Baba Ghannoug, and Baqlawa. Bread forms the backbone of Egyptian cuisine. Bread is consumed at almost all Egyptian meals; a working-class or rural Egyptian meal might consist of little more than bread and beans. The local bread is a form of hearty, thick, glutenous pita bread called Eish Masri or Eish Baladi (Egyptian Arabic: عيش ʿēš) rather than the Standard Arabic خبز khubz. The word “Eish” comes from the verb “ʿāš, yuiʿīš” meaning “to live” indicating the centrality of bread to Egyptian life. In modern Egypt, the government subsidizes bread، dating back to a Nasser-era policy; as of 2008, however, a major food crisis has caused ever-longer bread lines at government-subsidized bakeries where there would normally be none; the occasional fight has broken out over bread, leading to fear of bread riots.