Africa paints itself green

The light green color is everywhere in Africa. At the iLanga-Fire Restaurant, the green paint used on the traditional round huts was cheap and looks good, explain Xhosa proprietors Punkie and Maina. Rumor has it their restaurant has the best pancakes in Africa. In the South African village of Nqileni, on the Indian Ocean coast, the town council has built an award-winning ecotourism project.

In the Eastern Cape it is very popular to paint traditional huts in this hue - like Qunu Village (pictured), Nelson Mandela's hometown. But the trend doesn't stop there, other homes are also painted light green. The "Wild Coast" is a top tip for tourists visiting South Africa.

If you see the light green color once, you see it everywhere. Whether it be in South Africa or here on the island of Zanzibar......

.....Be it in Angola, or here in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.

Sometimes light, occasionally dark, or at times with a touch of turquoise; the color spectrum ranges from patina to malachite, to signal green. This salesman from Zinder in southern Niger has chosen several shades of green for his new home. "I have always liked the color green. For me, green demonstrates progress; a green countryside is fertile, unlike the desert. You can live on green land."

Light green paint is cheap, sun-resistant and weatherproof. Paint industry professionals say that, from a consumer's point of view, price is the bottom line. The paint is made of non-organic compounds, making it cheap to manufacture.

Unlike other pastel shades, turquoise-green can be applied to difficult-to-cover surfaces and it's weatherproof. Light green paint lasts longer on surface types ranging from clay to concrete. Even DW's partner station, Radio Esperanca, in Lichinga in Mozambique, has painted its building green.

Many people find bright green more aesthetically pleasing than pale pink, which is equally as inexpensive to manufacture. For Muslims, green is representative of the color used to symbolize the prophet. For Christians, it represents the resurrection of Christ. In Ethiopia's Orthodox Church, church domes are often painted with a green hue.

Famous German poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe paved the way in 1810 for the color green. "Our eyes always search for what is gratifying. You do not want more, and you cannot continue on. That's why green wallpaper is often the most chosen for rooms." The the University of Monrovia in Liberia also chose this color for its walls.

DW editors working at a theater workshop in Togo encountered "Schweinfurter green." At the premises of 'A nous la planete', DW staff rehearse a play with young local children about child trafficking. The play won the first prize in a listener competition as part of DW's education program, 'Learning by Ear." Maybe the wall's color contributed to the group's productive atmosphere.

In Somalia, the turquoise-green hue symbolizes something more. With this renovated archway in Mogadishu, the country is making colorful advancements in reconstruction after more than 20 years of civil war.