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Stripes and shades: Africa's top shots

Natasha Booty
BBC News

A selection of the week's best photos from across the African continent and beyond:

Esa Alexander / Reuters A woman wears a rainbow-patterned hat and pink-petal sunglasses.Esa Alexander / Reuters
A reveller sees the bright side of life at the Cape Town Pride celebration in South Africa on Saturday.
Luc Gnago / Reuters A girl wears a blue dress and carries a calabash.Luc Gnago / Reuters
Four-year-old Maëlis Kouakou dresses up for Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
Marco Longari / AFP Girls wearing matching yellow and pink ra-ra skirts stand in a line.Marco Longari / AFP
The children's parade gets going at the Luanda Carnival in Angola on Saturday...
Julio Pacheco Ntela / AFP A drum major leads a procession of men and women dressed in purple, red and white pagentry. They all dance a wide-stance dance in time.Julio Pacheco Ntela / AFP
The theme for this year's carnival is 50 years of Angolan independence.
Hector Quintanar / Getty Images A man holds a brightly painted wooden mask carved to look like a bull's head.Hector Quintanar / Getty Images
On Tuesday, people of African descent get ready for the Carnival of Coyolillo in Mexico. Their dances are described as being similar to others found in Mozambique, Mali and Zambia.
Emmanuel Adegboye / EPA A man stands next to a large woven tapestry in white, yellow blue, orange and black horizontal stripes.Emmanuel Adegboye / EPA
On the same day in Ibadan, Nigeria, art historian and designer Olushola Olajobi shows some of his pieces made from waste products.
Olympia de Maismont / AFP A woman stands in a courtyard surrounded by dresses she has designed. They are pattered and have mostly neutral tones.Olympia de Maismont / AFP
The next day in Lagos, fashion designer Florentina Agu displays some of her creations.
Olympia de Maismont / AFP A woman dressed in a security vest and chinos stands at the gates to private residence.Olympia de Maismont / AFP
Days earlier in the same city, Omobolaji Oyeleye, who runs a private security company, stands at the gates at one of her work sites in the upmarket Ikoyi suburb.
Abdul Bah Jalanzo / EPA Men wave Liberia's flag at police, who stand across the road from them. In the middle are yellow taxis.Abdul Bah Jalanzo / EPA
On Monday, motorcycle taxi drivers in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, protest against the new ban on all motorcycle transport in the city.
Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters Mourners hold Namibian flags during the burial of Sam Nujoma, who became Namibia's first democratically elected president, at Namibia's Heroes' Acre, near the capital Windhoek.Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters
Namibians pay their respects to the country's first president, Sam Nujoma, before his burial on Saturday.
Tiziana Fabi / AFP A woman wrapped in the national flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo holds a rosary as she prays at the statue of John Paul II at the Gemelli University Hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalised with pneumonia.Tiziana Fabi / AFP
On the same day, a well-wisher draped in the Congolese flag prays for the health of Pope Francis in the Italian capital, Rome.
Simon Maina / AFP A Catholic priest applies ash to a man's forehead on the observance of Ash Wednesday at the Holy family Basilica church.Simon Maina / AFP
In Kenya's capital, Nairobi, Catholic worshippers mark Ash Wednesday.
Robert Ciuccio / AFP A Muslim woman arranges her veil at the Nizamiye Mosque. Outside, the building is decorated in floral blue and purple tiles.Robert Ciuccio / AFP
A woman joins evening prayers in South Africa's Gauteng province on Sunday, the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.
Cem Ozdel / Getty Images Hundreds of people sit down on the floor to eat together at long, identically laid out tableclothsCem Ozdel / Getty Images
That evening after sundown at Senegal's famous Massalikoul Djinane mosque, Muslims break their fast at the first iftar dinner of Ramadan.
Kim Ludbrook / EPA The silhouettes of people in canoes paddle in the low, orange glow of the rising sun.Kim Ludbrook / EPA
At sunrise on Thursday, canoeists glide across the Emmarentia Dam in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Cem Ozdel / Getty Images A small monkey with red and black fur, and big eyes, stares at the camera.Cem Ozdel / Getty Images
And at The Gambia's Bijilo Forest Park on Wednesday, a curious red colobus monkey peers at the camera.

From the BBC in Africa this week:

Getty Images/BBC A woman looking at her mobile phone and the graphic BBC News AfricaGetty Images/BBC

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