One thing that I love about WordPress is the world map that it shows. For those who are not on WordPress, it is an analytics feature which shows the countries from where a hit that is a post view has taken place. Currently my analytics show 36 countries from all around. Now, I loved geography in my school days thanks to my teacher Baisakhi Ma’am. She is the reason I still add footnotes only with pencil and adding dog ears to a book is equivalent to a crime to me, even today. She is also the reason why I love Australia and Africa the most because she taught us about these continents and then left us to marry the man of her choice. 😞
I can still mark the Tropics of Cancer & Capricorn and the Equator, the Sahara & Kalahari deserts, Lake Victoria and the Nile on a map of Africa owing to the rigorous training she gave us in mapwork. And I know the various marsupials… wombats, Tasmanian devils, opossums and of course kangaroos because we read and learned so much about them in her classes. She added to our knowledge by telling us about this Kookaburra called “Jacko”, whose call was used as the morning opening theme by ABC radio stations, and for Radio Australia’s overseas broadcasts. And this was before the birth of Google! 😄
But why am I writing all this? Simply because I had a view on my last post from Benin, a lovely tricoloured flag that I did not recognize. A quick search on Google told me that it is a small nation in West Africa. So, I checked on the world map in analytics and there it was a little dot bordering Nigeria. It was a French colony till it attained independence on 1st August, 1960. The country was formerly known as Dahomey and is the birthplace of the vodun (or “voodoo”) religion. Its wooden masks, bronze statues, tapestries, and pottery are world renowned.
Thank you, dear visitor, for visiting my blog and letting me know a little more about the world in general and Africa in particular. 🧡