Scenes from the 2009 edition of the Festival of La Mama Negra, which takes place twice a year in the town of Latacunga in Ecuador—once at the end of September and again in November. The festival incorporates Aymaran, Incan, Mayan, African and Spanish traditions in a tribute to La Virgen de la Merced (the Virgin of Mercy) who, according to legenda, protected the town from an eruption of Cotopaxi, the tallest active volanco on the planet.  Photo by Jose Pereira (CC-BY-ND 2.0)

Thanks to everyone for all your excellent work in September 2021! Here are some of the month's highlights:

Welcome to the following new contributors who published their first GV story or translation in September 2021!

A Podda, Andrea Agostini, Aniekan Augustine-Edet, Azza Moghazy, Banana, Caterina Pilò, Chiara Rao, Eman Fahmy, Erika Garlet, Giada Pierri, Guldana Khamzina, Irene Pollio, Javier Ramos Nistal, La Antígona, Laura Spadafora, Marco Pauciullo, Maria Repnikova, Rawda Said, Rosamaria Marchetti, Rossella Di Lecce, Salman Mohammad Ahmad, Thibault Poujol, Tomanjo Arto.

New media partner: Chai Khana

Number of stories published on GV in English: 97 (down from 107 in August)

Total pageviews (all sites): 432,987 (down from 554,550 in August)

Top 10 posts by pageviews (includes only recent posts):

1. The story of a potato biscuit-chips fusion — how a Bangladeshi brand mesmerised India by Abhinash (21,183)
2. The origins of ‘liming’ in Trinidad and Tobago by Janine Mendes-Franco (18,192)
3. China's crackdown on business, media and entertainment sectors is packaged as a ‘profound revolution’ by Oiwan Lam (2,617)
4. China in Ethiopia: Between a savior and an exploiter? by Maria Repnikova (2,152)
5. Khaby Lame exposes Italy’s citizenship flaws and the plight of Black content creators on TikTok by Njeri Wangari (1,721)
6. A month after vaccine mandate protests, opposition figures arrested in St Vincent & the Grenadines by Flora Thomas (1,718)
7. Why did Twitter support Nigeria’s #EndSARS and not Ghana’s #FixTheCountry? by Kofi Yeboah (1,606)
8. How a Haitian bakery is using the breadfruit tree to foster resilience after the earthquake by Emma Lewis (1,295)
9. Behind Chinese Wikipedia user ban: threats, verbal attacks and election canvassing by Oiwan Lam (1,021)
10. China-funded Kaliwa dam in the Philippines flagged for irregularities by Mong Palatino (927)

Top 15 countries from which people visited GV sites:

1. 1. United States
   2. India
   3. Germany
   4. Brazil
   5. Mexico
   6. Canada
   7. France
   8. Philippines
   9. United Kingson
   10. Spain
   11. Trinidad and Tobago
   12. Japan
   13. Colombia
   14. Italy
   15. Peru