Happy Birthday to Panama!

A women’s dance from Vanuatu, using bamboo stamping tubes. *Photo from Wikipedia July 30 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Vanuatu from the United Kingdom and France in 1980. Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós, who arrived on the largest island in 1606. As the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies had been unified under the king of Spain in 1580 (following the vacancy of the Portuguese throne, which lasted for sixty years, until 1640, when the Portuguese monarchy was restored), Queirós

Road from Nouakchott to the Mauritanian–Senegalese border. *Photo from Wikipedia November 28 is Independence Day, which celebrates the independence of Mauritania from France in 1960. Berber immigration took place from about the 3rd century. Mauritania takes its name from the ancient Berber kingdom and later Roman province of Mauretania, and thus ultimately from the Mauri people, even though the respective territories do not overlap, historical Mauritania being considerably further north than modern Mauritania. The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the 7th and 8th centuries did not reach as far south, and Islam came to Mauritania only gradually, from about

Pupils at a girls’ secondary school in Zambia. *Photo from Wikipedia October 24 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Zambia from United Kingdom in 1964. Originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region was affected by the Bantu expansion of the 13th century. After visits by European explorers in the 18th century, Zambia became the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia towards the end of the 19th century. For most of the colonial period, Zambia was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company. On October 24, 1964, Zambia became independent of the