No life in Africa without...

In the BBC competition for Africa, listeners and readers describe what they could not live without.

Here entrants cannot imagine life without underpants, antiretroviral drugs or an imagination.

Denis Lisa Williams, Bo, Sierra Leone

When I was a small boy I always did one thing which I now know I couldn't live without, and that is use my imagination.

Philip Moufarrige sent this picture into [e-mail]

In primary school, I imagined myself being the class prefect and later the teacher but now, in reality, I am not.

In the city, I imagine myself as the owner of a big car, a landlord, a police officer. A doctor when I visit a hospital. A solicitor when I am in court.

My imagination sends me to sleep when I lie in bed... and quickly starts again as soon as I wake.

Sometimes I imagine myself to be in the positions of those big names in the world like Kofi Anan, George Bush or Britain's Prince Charles.

Other times I imagine how I will lie in a lonely grave after death. I will pause for a while before engaging my imagination elsewhere.

My imagination gives me hope and reduces the strength of my poverty because it allows me to visualise all manner of riches, coupled with high class ladies, good food and total respect in life that is missing when it comes to reality.

Thokozani Chiphwanya, Blantyre, Malawi

Back in the 1970s, when I was in my primary school-going days, my mum introduced me and my brothers to underpants.

Richard Vowles sent this picture from Malawi into [e-mail]

The very first day I hated my underwear was when my friends and I had skipped classes to go for a swim at Bwaira River in Zomba.

When my fellow boys discovered that I was putting on underwear, they started mocking me, saying that I was wearing two pairs of short trousers.

I felt completely out of place - I even told my mum that I would never wear underwear again because they made me look like an old man.

But alas... some weeks later, whilst at school and sitting on the floor due to a shortage of desks, I did not sit properly and exposed my "uh-oh"!

The girls sitting in front of me saw everything.

I felt so embarrassed that since that day, I vowed never to go without underwear.

Odelter Great, Bamenda, Cameroon

As an HIV-positive person, I couldn't live without my antiretroviral drugs (ARVs).

Life is still important and beautiful for me despite my status. I don't despair or attempt to give up.

I frequently hear of people who have ended their lives prematurely because they have HIV/Aids.

The most recent one in my locality was a young girl who murdered her little baby and tried taking her own life when upon delivery, the baby tested HIV-positive.

But then, she could not have left this world without paying the penalty for taking the life of an innocent baby, simply because of a disease as common as any other.

With science and the easy availability of knowledge, living can be enhanced, and such suicidal tendencies eradicated.

I am no longer stigmatised or traumatised, because there is no disease that can take life if proper treatment is taken.

That is why I can't live without my drugs.

Your Life Without

Enter the BBC's competition for Africa - No Life Without. Let us know what brings most meaning to your life in Africa that you could not imagine living without - perhaps a mobile phone, a car or your husband?

If you have photos to accompany your contribution send them to [e-mail], otherwise use the form at the bottom of the page.

Entries should be no more than 300 words.

The best will be published on the BBC News website and broadcast on the BBC World Service's Network Africa programme. Some will receive small prizes.

Use the form below to send your entry.

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