The Occurrence

Welcome to the land of pura vida, an expression Costa Ricans use in gratitude. Their nation is the jewel of Central America, full of tropical rainforests and a plethora of music and art. Here are...

“(T)he Congolese are ‘un peuple qui bouge’, a people who move,” writes Christopher Clark at World Travel Guide. With their embrace of rumba music and their resolve against controversial President Denis Sassou Nguesso, the people...

The heart of the Congo in Africa has been in turmoil for ages. Ongoing wars between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples, as well as military coups and famine, have rocked the two nations under this...

A collection of islands off the east coast of Africa, Comoros combines Arabic, Malaysian, indigenous African and French cultures. Its history is a harried one, with a former coup leader recently elected to president and...

“Colombia is magical realism,” claims the tourism website of the South American country. Referring to the enchanted literature of Gabriel García Márquez, the slogan suggests a land beyond the peripheral. One might equate Colombia with...

How does the world’s most populous nation – with one of the most stringent Internet censorship policies – nurture a music scene? Like most creatives, these artists defy convention (and sometimes laws) to have their...

Slender as this South American country is, Chile has a robust, diverse music scene. Coupled with its pre-Colombian traditions, Spanish influence and modern flare, its cavalcade of dances and instruments makes for a most vibrant...

Chad is a land-locked country in Africa that has absorbed and adopted a prism of cultural influences. The population is predominately Sunni Muslim, with pockets of Christianity and animism contributing to the soul of their...