BBC News Online reader Katie Clayton sent in this picture of orphans in Mozambique dancing during an outing to a zoo not far from the capital, Maputo.

Ahmed Wetaka captured this image of a traditional Ugandan ceremony, as a young man has his hand shaken after his circumcision in Mbale.

In another ceremony, this Ethiopian girl poses for Ayelework Awoke in a traditional nativity dress on her first birthday.

Kauther Hashaishi took this shot of the magnificent amphitheatre in the Roman city of Leptis Magna in Libya.

Here, a woman carries a bucket on her head as she walks past the pillars of a half-built Senegalese mosque, sent in by Robert Mooney.

Katie Gardner sent in this picture of a boy praying at Chiwengo Orphanage in Malawi.

Tanzanian women ululate with joy in Loralee Hyde's picture, after receiving a development grant for their village near Arusha.

During a visit to his father's farm in Nyeri, Kenya, Wanjugu Karuri snapped this shot of his sister Wangechi picking tea.

Still on the tea theme, this Tuareg man in the desert north of Timbuktu in Mali pours a drink for his guest, John H Simes.

This picture of Namibia's rolling coastal dunes was sent in by Barry Smith.

Leaning against a doorway in Bukeka village in Uganda, this woman takes a break, in Crystal Bailey's picture.

Ghanaian boys gather fishing boats in the coastal town of Elmina, in Neal Jackson's photograph.