Harmattan

I've been hearing and reading lots about the Harmattan, or the winds off the Sahara Desert. When I visited Anna in Cape Verde, I first learned how bad these sand storms could be when she described flights being cancelled because of sand storms 500 miles west of the African coast!

I'm currently reading Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel by Jeffrey Tayler. He begins the book with the following description:

HARMATTAN (from the Twi haramata, a derivation of the Arabic haram, forbidden, evil accursed): A parching easterly wind that originates above the wastes of the Sahara and blows for days over Central and West Africa. Fills the sky with reddish-brown dust, reduces the sun to a pale orb. Exacerbates drought, cracks the trunks of trees, defoliates vegetation, prompts the acacia to ooze gum arabic. In humans, the Harmattan may aggravate respiratory illnesses and cause splits in the skin, dryness of the eyes and lips. Under certain conditions, the Harmattan fosters the spread of dust-born diseases, including lethal strains of meningitis.

Sounds absolutely awful huh? One former volunteer in Mali told me that she could see the storms approaching her village and everyone would go inside and shut the windows and shutters and watch as the room got cloudy with dust since the homes couldn't keep all of the sands out. Its definitely another world from Wisconsin....