British Indian Ocean Territory

Postcard of Diego Garcia, the largest island in the British Indian Ocean Territory. While the island had previously been the home of a small number of copra plantation workers and their families, they were all forcibly removed between 1968 and 1973 and deported to Mauritius and the Seychelles so that the British government could build a joint military base with the United Stated. 

In 2019, this action and continued British administration of the archipelago were deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a ruling the United Nations General Assembly supported. The British government, however, dismissed the ruling as not legally binding. 

Stamp from the 2004 definitive series shows a bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica), a large migratory wadering bird that lives in the Arctic coasts and tundra from Scandinavia to Alaska, and overwinters on coasts in temperate and tropical regions of Australia and New Zealand. The migration of the subspecies Limosa lapponica baueri across the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to New Zealand is the longest known non-stop flight of any bird, and also the longest journey without pausing to feed by any animal. The round-trip migration for this subspecies is over 29,000 km.

Mauritius

Postcard from the archives of the "Seven Coloured Earths" in southwestern Mauritius, an unusual geological formation where layers of differently coloured sand dunes create the technicolor landscape seen here. Part of the Black River Gorges National Park site on Mauritius' Tentative List for World Heritage (I think; the UNESCO site listing is not entirely clear in this regard). 

Many thanks to my cousin Frank and wife Lily who sent this to me during their honeymoon.

Stamp from a 1997 set of four commemorating the 150th anniversary of the issue of the famous Mauritius "Post Office" stamps, considered among the rarest and most valuable stamps in the world. A cover of these two stamps sold for nearly four million dollars in 1993!

Namibia

Postcard of Etosha National Park, one of the oldest protected places in Namibia, established in 1907. The park is 22,270 square kilometres and is centred around the Etosha Pan, a large endorheic salt pan in the Kalahari Basin. It is home to hundreds of species, including several threatened and endangered species such as the black rhinoceros.

Many thanks to friend Casimiro, who was in Namibia for work.

Stamp from 2010 depicts a black-bellied bustard, an common African ground-dwelling bird that lives in grassland areas.

Namibian air mail label.

Angola II

There didn't seem to be any information given about this card, but I eventually noticed in tiny print in the vertical centre line on the back "Morro, Huíla". "Huíla" is a province in southern Angola and "morro" means "hill" in Portuguese. I don't know if that means they only have one hill of note in Huíla and don't need a more precise name for it, but muito obrigado nonetheless to Ricardo for helping scratch this hard egg to crack off the list.

Stamp from a 1994 set of four featuring traditional ceramics, in this case an earthenware water jug.

Libya

Postcard from the ancient site of Cyrene, one of the oldest and most important ancient Greek cities in the region. It gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times. It was founded in 630 BC, becoming an important centre for philosophy and learning. Cyrene's chief local export through much of its early history was the valuable medicinal herb, silphium, which was in such demand that it was harvested to extinction. This, in conjunction with commercial competition from Carthage and Alexandria, and a series of earthquakes led to the city's decline and abandonment by 400 CE. Many thanks and shukran to friend Shadin who toured Libya on holiday.

Stamp on the right from a set of three about Boy Scouts in Libya. Stamp on the right from a 2001 set of six featuring traditional silver horse harnesses from the Tripoli International Fair.

Nigeria

Postcard of the Durbar Festival, an event celebrated in various Nigerian cities to mark the end of Muslim Eid holidays. It begins with prayers, followed by a horseback parade of local leaders and their entourage, accompanied by musicians, and ending at the leader's palace.

Many thanks to friend Oliver, who was in Nigeria for a friend's wedding, for adding this tough country to the collection.

Stamp showing the Argungu Fishing Festival, a yearly fishing tournament that takes place in northwestern Nigeria. The festival began in 1934, to mark of the end of centuries of hostility between two local rulers. Competitors are only allowed to use traditional fishing tools and many prefer to catch fish entirely by hand to demonstrate their prowess. Nigeria released another stamp on the same subject in 1973.

Uganda II

Postcard showing mountain gorillas, Gorilla beringei beringei, a critically endangered subspecies of the eastern gorilla, with populations estimated to be less than 900 individuals. There are two separate populations in Uganda, with both are under threat from habitat loss and human encroachment.

Many thanks to fellow postcard blogger David, of Postcards A World Travelogue for sending this to me during his East African holiday.

Stamp on the left features the shining-blue kingfisher, Alcedo quadribrachys, a common bird in sub-Saharan Africa. The two triangular stamps on the right are from a set of four commemorating 100 yeas of Sikh presence in Uganda. A bit of a strange stamp coming from Uganda, where dictator Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of entire Ugandan-Indian community in 1972. Perhaps trying to make amends?

Kenya

Multiview postcard showing  various animals common to the Kenyan savanna. Many thanks to fellow postcard blogger David, of Postcards A World Travelogue for sending this to me during his East African holiday.

Stamps from a set of 100 (!!) commemorating Kenya's independence from the United Kingdom in 1963. Stamp on the left features the current President and Deputy President. President Kenyatta is actually being indited for crimes against humanity by in International Criminal Court in the Hague for his alleged role in post-election violence in 2007 where over 1000 people are estimated to have been killed. – Maybe not the best person to put on a stamp, if you ask me. Stamp on the right features a rather less controversial pair, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip in 1953.

Rwanda

Postcard of a waterbuck, Kobus ellipsiprymnus, a large antelope found throughout sub-Saharan Africa in Akagera National Park in eastern Rwanda. A substantial area of the park was settled in the late 1990s by former refugees returning after the end of the Rwandan Civil War. Due to land shortages, in 1997 the western boundary was moved and much of the land allocated as farms to returning refugees. The park was reduced in size from over 2,500 km² to its current size to 1,200 km². In 2009, the Rwanda Development Board entered into joint management arrangement of the park and will spend US$10 million to rehabilitate the park, including a planned reintroduction of lions and black rhinos.

Many thanks to David, of Postcards A World Travelogue, for taking time out of his East African adventures to post this card.

A 2010 stamp from a set of 5 featuring paintings.

Burundi

Postcard showing a beach on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. It is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, in both cases, after only Lake Baikal in Siberia. The water flows into the Congo River system and ultimately into the Atlantic Ocean, although it's thought that as recently as the region's exploration by Europeans in the 1850s, the lake did not have an outflow to the ocean at all, and may have, in the distant past, flown into the Nile instead.

Lake Tanganyika is on Burundi's Tentative List of World Heritage, although the lake also borders Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia.

Many thanks to David, of Postcards A World Travelogue, for sending the card during his East African adventures.

Stamp is from a set of 4 issued in 2012 featuring royal drummers and dancers.

Egypt

This super disco retro postcard was, without exaggerating, the only one I could find during my holiday there – and even still it took a day of hunting to find it. Looks to be from the mid-1970s judging by the groovy clothes the tourists are wearing. 

Postcard is of Abu Simbel temple in southern Egypt. The temples were originally carved out of a mountainside during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II in the thirteenth century BC. However, the complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968 to an artificial hill high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir. The relocation of the temples was necessary to avoid their being submerged when Lake Nasser was formed following the construction of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River.

The temple complex is part of the "Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae" World Heritage site. In fact, UNESCO was instrumental in moving of the temples to a new site and the safeguarding campaign they spearheaded made the importance of protecting our planet's heritage very clear. It led to the mobilisation of international resources to create the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which was adopted in 1972.

Stamps are from the 2002 definitive issue featuring Egyptian Archaeology.

Senegal II

Postcard showing a typical scene in Casamance, the region of southern Senegal mostly separated from the rest of the country by the strip of Gambia. The region has had an ongoing, low-level separatist conflict since the 1980s, stemming partly from the region's unique cultural history and partly from a sense of economic disenfranchisement from the rest of Senegal.

Many thanks to friend Oliver for sending this card while he was on holiday.

Stamp on the left from a 2009 set of four on weavers and weaving. Stamp on the right features a West African fruit, Saba senegalensis, known by a variety of names including mad and saba vine.

Gambia

My first card from West African nation, Gambia, with a map showing just how strangely shaped Gambia actually is. The smallest country in mainland Africa is just a narrow strip along the banks of the Gambia River, an Anglophone band-aid completely surrounded by Francophone Senegal. The smaller photos show typical scenes of Gambian life, but I must say I'm a bit perplexed as to the inclusion in the bottom row of the photo of the side of a car. No idea what is particularly Gambian about that.

Many thanks to friend Oliver who was in Gambia over the holidays. 

A somewhat mangled stamp of a riity, a traditional musical instrument made from a gourd cut in half, a tree branch, a few pieces of metal and some nails, with bowstrings made of horsehair. When played, the sound is similar to that of a violin. From a set of 15 on traditional instruments issued in 2010.

Madagascar

WOOT! After years of trying and some failed attempts, super excited to have a card from Madagascar in my collection now. A big thanks to friend, Lish, who, lucky me, I just happened to see on Facebook was en route to Madagascar, which she reports was amazing and nuts.

The card indicates that this is the Prince of Ankazoabo, a city in south-western Madagascar. I couldn't really find much info other than the French tried to abolish the Madagascan monarchy during their colonial rule, but were largely unsuccessful. Despite exiling the Queen to Algeria, most of the aristocracy continued to use their customary titles. There is a movement in Madagascar now to restore the monarchy, seen as a possible source of stability following the highly volatile dictatorships and transition governments of the post-colonial period.

Stamp on the left from a 2010 set of eight on flowers of Madagascar. Stamp on the right is a foundry built by as a part of a large industrial complex in the mid 1800s by Jean Laborde, a Frenchman who was shipwrecked in Madagascar in 1831 and remained for the rest of his life, developing the island's industry and eventually becoming the French Consul as well.

Réunion

Multiview postcard from Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Card shows a popular beach, Le Boucan, a tree fern, a white-tailed tropicbird, and a shot of an eruption of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano, one of the world's most active. Piton de la Fournaise is located in the "Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island" World Heritage site which covers almost the entire central part of the island.

Many thanks and a merci to Shamia for helping me add a card from Réunion to my collection.

Réunion is an integral part of France in the same vein as Hawaiʻi and Alaska are a part of the United States of America. As such, it uses standard French stamps. Stamp on the left commemorates the Apprentis d'Auteuil, a Catholic charity founded by a French priest in 1866, originally to help orphans, but now working with at-risk young people. Stamp on the right depicts the Jacques Chaban-Delmas Drawbridge in Bordeaux, which opened this year and is one of the largest such bridges in Europe.

Djibouti II

A second postcard from Djibouti, with my thanks again to Salah. Shukran! This card shows Maskali Island, a popular destination for scuba divers in the Gulf of Tadjoura near the entrance to the Red Sea.

Same stamp previously featured, issued in 2005 in honour of the Djibouti National Women's League.

Djibouti

Another new country; I'm really on quite an astounding role at the moment! Five new countries in the space of a month! Certainly a record for me.

This card from the small East African country of Djibouti says on the reverse that it's of Moucha Island, a small offshore island popular with scuba divers. But I'm quite certain that must a printing error of some kind. Google Earth confirms that this is a picture of the eponymous capital city, Djibouti, founded in 1888 by the French as the capital of French Somaliland.

Shukran and many thanks to Salah for help knock this country off my list.

Stamp commemorating the Djibouti National Women's League that works for women's empowerment, literacy and health care.

Mali

Postcard from Mali showing a traditional Dogon village in the Bandiagara Escarpment. The Dogon are an animistic people who refused to convert to Islam when other peoples in West Africa did so. Consequently, they were persecuted and targeted by slave raiders. In response, the Dogon began building their communities into the sides of the easily defensible escarpment and were able to preserve the many unique aspects of their culture. Part of the Cliff of Bandiagara (Land of the Dogons) World Heritage site.

Many thanks to Katie, who was on holiday in Mali.

Stamp on left features a sanctuary door from the Senufo people in southern Mali held at the National Museum of Mali. Stamp on the left features a Fula woman. The Fulani are traditionally a nomadic, pastoralist, trading people, herding cattle, goats and sheep across the vast dry hinterlands of Sahelian Africa, with a substantial population in Mali.

Cape Verde

So far this year, I really seem to be on a role... getting postcards that don't count from countries that would have otherwise been new additions to my collection! Nauru a few weeks ago, Paraguay before the weekend, and now this lovely card from Cape Verde that was sadly sent from France. Not that I'm not appreciative, of course, of every single card that people take time to send me. It's just a bit of a crestfall to get a new country and then have to manage expectations after flipping it over. But, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

Card show "Pistol Mouth" Harbour in the fishing village of Ponta do Sol, on the northwestern island of Santo Antão.

Previously featured green Mariane leaf stamps.

Togo

Postcard of traditional Voodoo practitioner. Voodoo is an indigenous organised religion of coastal West Africa from Togo to Nigeria. Voodoo gets a bad rap from its portrayal in Western films, TV shows, and books. But Voodoo isn't a cult, black magic or devil worship. Those who practice Voodoo believe that there is a visible and an invisible world, and that these worlds are intertwined. Death is a transition to the invisible world, so our predecessors are still with us in spirit to watch over and guide us.

Stamp from definitive series featuring Bella Bellow, an internationally famous Togolese singer who recorded several albums and performed at Paris Olympia before dying in a tragic car accident at age 27.