en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/blackpenorange/journal The Last.fm journal for blackpenorange. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/blackpenorange/journal/2011/02/26/48pwrq_beyond_the_fog_-shortest_prose_ever Sat, 26 Feb 2011 10:03:14 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/blackpenorange/journal/2011/02/26/48pwrq_beyond_the_fog_-shortest_prose_ever The rainy season approaches usually at the end of April or the beginning of May in Neve, a West African valley community. Neve lies nearly two hundred miles westward from the Atlantic coast. If you want to know exactly where, I would not say, somehow around this season, a sighs of relief rings throughout Neve. And for anyone hearing that gust of air whistling by southwards, the message is simple. Those dry and dusty months are over. Yes, for the next four months, the air will look clean, at least. Farmers will prepare their farmlands for planting. For the young boy it means the grass on the football pitch will soon be beautiful green, ready for local football matches. More important, however is experiencing that drop in temperature and the smiles on people’s faces. In most equatorial regions of Africa, the Harmattan season precedes the rainy days. The Harmattan season begins in November and lasts till the rain comes in April or May. Weather conditions during this latter part of the year and the new year show that these African regions lie in the Northern Hemisphere. Just as Europeans have their autumn season with leaves turning red, yellow, brown and falling, similar conditions are experience in the equatorial regions on the West Coast of Africa. Even the days become shorter. With these impressions, Africa is not what many Europeans thought is to be – and that is not the only mistakes Europeans have made about Africa. The air turns dry and dusty, winds blowing across the Sahara from the north towards the south. Five long months of such weather condition, scratchy throats, dried lips and brown hairs, make the onset of torrential rainfall a blessing. It clears the air of dust particles; rooms are less covered with such fine granulated dust powder and for the farm owners, a sign to sow new seeds.]]>