Don't Say I Didn't Tell You

Not sure if anyone else has noticed, but Africa has been all over the place lately... in particular we've been in a couple of articles in the New York Times. The first Suddenly, Africa is Everywhere talks about how African style is taking over. The romance, the colours and the energy are everywhere from Broadway (seen Fela! yet?) to the catwalk. (That's Jean Paul Gaultier and Dries Van Noten below the shot from Fela!)







The other article was written by Bono, his Ten for Ten op-ed column to mark the start of the new decade. He thinks (amongst other things) that this decade is the African decade.

...This time round, for the 2010 World Cup, naysayers thought South Africa could not build the stadiums in time. Those critics should be red-faced now. South Africa’s impressive preparations underline the changes on the continent, where over the last few years, 5 percent economic growth was the average. Signs point to a further decade of growth to come. Canny investors will put more capital there. This in turn has the potential to shore up fragile young democracies across the continent.

Just take a look at some of the stadiums that have been built for this year's world cup. One of them (in Durban) has a cable car in which you can transverse the stadium's open sky, and another is inspired by the colours of the calabash (there's a theme this week!) and is just gorgeous.

Cape Town's Green Point Stadium.






Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium.









Soccer City in Johannesburg.









You can read more about the World Cup 2010 at the Fifa website (and this is a link directly to the stadiums).

There are still tickets available (the World Cup starts in June) to the biggest party this year!