Recently, I had the pleasure of spending an entire week with one of my favorite cousins who was visiting from Kampala. We hung out and caught up like we used to way back in the day when we were both still single young females (I am still single; she’s married with two kids). We talked about everything under the sun, and of course, because she’s an avid reader of ChickAboutTown, we also talked about blogging and about our respective experiences in the blogosphere.
During one such conversation, my cousin let on that she now reads blogs regularly and that she discovered a couple of the blogs she reads through my “The Chick Behind the Blog…” post. I was surprised and pleased. The blogs that she mentioned are ones that I enjoy reading, and I knew her life must be richer for reading these blogs too.
It got me thinking. Although I never read blogs before I started blogging (don’t ask me how I decided to start blogging – call it divine inspiration 
), I have since become an avid frequenter of the blogosphere, in general, and the East African blogosphere, in particular. Why the East African blogosphere? Well, mainly for two reasons. First, the subject of my blog is East Africa so I tend to attract East African readers. It’s only natural, therefore, when these readers also happen to be bloggers, to be curious about their blogs and to find my way to them. In the 2+ years that I’ve been blogging, I’ve come to know and love my fair share of blogs in the East African blogosphere this way. The second reason is a little more intentional. Reading East African blogs helps me keep informed about everyday living in the different countries that make up this region. There’s nothing like reading blogs to find out what’s truly on the hearts and minds of a people.
And now to today’s list. With the endless number of blogs across the East African blogosphere, how do I choose which blogs to read regularly? Honestly, it’s quite simple: I don’t. Instead, I let someone else do the choosing for me. What?! Yes, you heard me. To figure out what blogs to read in the East African blogosphere, I turn to Afrigator, an African social media aggregator.
Without getting into too much detail, I simply log in to Afrigator, which allows me to select African countries from which to view social media content. For a composite view of East African blogs, I simply select the 5 individual countries that comprise the East African Community – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda – and voilà! I have a great starting point to finding the hottest blogs in the region. So…interested in finding out the 20 hottest blogs in East Africa today?
With no further ado, the 20 hottest blogs in East Africa today (according to Afrigator) are:
Screenshot of Afrigator's Top 20 Ranked Blogs in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda (Sept. 20, 2009; 6.15pm)
- Afro Articles
- Blog for News
- Marathon You Can Do It
- Saharan Vibe
- Jambo Network
- Uganda Insomniac
- PoliticalArticles.NET
- Full Shangwe
- A Nairobian’s Perspective!
- Bankelele
- Appfrica
- African Music Forum
- Total Knockout
- Africa Expat Wives Club
- Food, Fun & Farm Life in East Africa!
- kenyantykoon’s blog
- FotoBaraza
- Confluence
- Wananchi Forums
- my wretched consciousness
Now tell me, are you familiar with the blogs on this list? Do some of your favorites feature here? If so, which ones are they? Which blogs did you think would feature on this list but didn’t? (And before you write me any nasty-grams, yes, I know that this is not an all-inclusive list and that there are many East African blogs not on the Afrigator network. Still, a woman’s gotta start somewhere! )
So that’s it from me now. I hope you found this post interesting but more importantly, I hope that through this list you discover a great new East African blog that you’d never read before. When you do, please be sure to write me a comment and tell me all about it. As always, I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Until the next time,
Biche
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Nairobian Perspective says:
im honored to see that , i rank among the top ten, thanks for the favorable mention!
Biche says:
Hi Nairobian Perspective,
Welcome to ChickAboutTown!
I think this is the first time you’ve commented on my blog though I’ve commented a number of times on yours (especially in the past couple of days
) The “favorable mention” was my pleasure: I was only stating facts.
Kudos to you for writing and maintaining such a consistently high-ranking blog!
Cheers,
Biche
Constantine says:
Hi, I didnt know my blog was in the top three, am flattered. Two years of hard work is finally paying off. To all East African bloggers – Every quarter google pays its partners on Adsense program, US $ 1.5 billion. GO FOR YOUR SHARE OF GOOGLE BONANZA!
Warmly Constantine
Biche says:
Hi Constantine,
Welcome to ChickAboutTown!
Yes, best believe it! At the time I put up this post, your blog was among the top 3. Hongera sana!
Thanks for sharing about Google Adsense. I would love to hear more about your experience with the program. Care to share? Since I imagine you might not be comfortable telling more in a comment, please feel free to respond to this comment by email at Biche@ChickAboutTown.com. I’d really love to hear more.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon,
Biche
misswretched says:
Feeling very honored to make the list
Definitely inspiring me to keep my blog hot especially since it has been a little neglected…Cheers 
Biche says:
Hi Misswretched,
Welcome to ChickAboutTown!
I discovered your blog a little before writing this post and enjoy it very much! I agree: take this as a sign that you should continue to keep your blog hot. As you see, we really appreciate what you have to say!
Looking forward to reading more from you soon,
Biche
tumwijuke says:
I elect you the Hottest blog in EA – whenever you post. More! More!
Biche says:
Hi Tumwijuke,
Welcome to ChickAboutTown!
Thanks for the kudos. I will do my best to post more often. Coming from you, I really have no excuse not to rise to the challenge. I once read your blog on a day when you’d posted 4 times on the same day. Now that’s what I call some serious blogging! Hats off to you!
Biche
bankelele says:
thansk for the mention. i need to use afrigator more and google reader less
Biche says:
Lol. Maybe you should Bankelele, especially that I first learned about Afrigator from your Missing the TED Party post. Thanks! It’s a service that I find invaluable!
ole siringoti says:
The rankings are biased they can’t forget issamichuzi.blogspot.com which receives over 200,000 clicks a day!
Biche says:
Ole Siringoti,
It’s funny you mention this but Issa Michuzi is included in this ranking because he is on the Afrigator network. Because I have heard so many Tanzanians tell me about Michuzi’s great traffic, I’ve checked this out before for myself.
Personally, I’ve always wanted to ask Michuzi about the apparent discrepancy. Is his traffic as high as people say it is, or is it just a myth?(Unfortunately, the one time we interacted socially, I never got round to asking him.) Having experienced the popularity of his blog first hand (a picture of me once appeared on it, and I was surprised by the number of people who told me they’d seen it), I’ve also wondered why he doesn’t rank higher on Afrigator.
Well, only he and Afrigator can clear this up for us. All I was doing was reporting Afrigator’s ranking of East African blogs on the day on which I wrote this post.
Biche
Lynda says:
Thanks so much for this post, I’ve only just seen it today & am ranked 15.) great to know that there are so many great East African bloggers out there, & I’m happy to be part of this great community
Biche says:
Hi Lynda,
Welcome to ChickAboutTown! I read your blog often (and enjoy it very much), so it’s a great pleasure to see you comment on mine. Congratulations on being among East Africa’s top bloggers. I look forward to seeing more of you around here.
Biche