Image: At our house in the village, well diggers hit water beneath ten meters of clay and hard shale.

You have to get beyond the front page.

If you want to discover the riches and beauty of Africa you have to dig. Because the evening news isn’t going to give it to you. They give you the dust on the surface. Even the BBC homepage is only going to highlight the blood spilt on the soil. But this year, my challenge for you is to dig deep into the earth of Africa and discover the cool sweet water that flows beneath the surface.

Now, there’s something you gotta know about digging a well. You don’t hit water by digging a lot of little holes. So pick one country that interests you and start digging. Ignore all the other superficial stories you’re hearing about Africa and just concentrate on that one place. If you focus and if you are curious and compassionate you might discover the life that flows beneath the surface.

Africa is not one “thing.” It’s not even one “place.” It’s many thousands of villages. And thousands of languages. Fascinating cultures. Beautiful people. Languages that sing and burble and click. The men of West Africa have more fashion extravagance in their hats than all of Europe and North America combined. The music and dance of Africa is unparalleled. It isn’t hidden inside a disco or muffled inside earphones. Instead an entire continent used to walking on the bare earth steps lightly and rhythmically. Women accustomed to carrying five gallons of water on their heads sway with a grace more beautiful than anything you’ll ever see on the fashion catwalks of Milan.

Dangit, I love Africa. But that’s only because I spent one decade of my life living not on one tragedy-strewn map but rather in a tiny village and in a dusty city and soaking in the particular virtues and vices and history and hopes of the Nyungwe people. After ten years in Mozambique, all Africans do not look alike. I know a Shona when I see one. The Senas and the Nyanjas are as different to me as an ostrich and a penguin. The Nyungwe faces and the Nyungwe attitudes have transformed my own face and attitude. They are tough and fair. While the Nyanjas will smile at you with hatred in their hearts. A Nyungwe will tell you exactly why you bug them and get it right out in the open.

If you’ll take this challenge your picture of Africa will change. Sure, you’ll still hear the noise of tragedy and starvation, corruption and crime but that will become background noise to the sweet song of a particular people in Africa that you have claimed as your own.

Here are some places to start digging:

1. Massukos – Mozambique

Learn about the band Massukos in Mozambique who through music are teaching about clean water and sanitation. Their music is fantastic and there are several English speaking resources to help you begin digging in Mozambique.

• Massukos Radio at Last.fm
• Massukos Home Page (in English)
• Massukos on YouTube (professional videos and documentaries)

2. Duala-Duala – Cameroon

I discovered this people group in Cameroon through a fabulous Internet radio station.

• The language project led by a Cameroonian
• Cameroon Music Station: Not just the radio but a gorgeous slideshow of images of Cameroon.

3. African Bloggers

The number of African bloggers is exploding. But the following three have been around for a while and are a good entry point for their respective countries.

1. Rombo in Kenya
   • A highly educated Kenyan woman giving a street level slant on life in urban Africa. Think “Bridget Jones’ Diary in Africa” without the profanity.
2. Ndahgha in Malawi
   • My virtual friend Victor Kaonga. Radio announcer and media expert. He travels so much that we’ve still never got together but I think 2009 will be the year! A compassionate Christian voice with an ear for Malawian music and a feel for the intersection between tradition and change in Africa.
3. Emmanuel.K.Bensah II in Ghana
   • Emmanuel promises daily photos of Accra. You can see urban photos in the slideshow on his home page and his own urbane commentary on life in an African city invaded by globalization.

Let me know if you start digging and tell me about any sweet discoveries of your own that you’ve made.