Story Archives of 'Africa'

Once called the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe now faces drought, mass starvation, hyperinflation, and government oppression by President Robert Mugabe. We’ll talk with an expert on the country as well as Zimbabweans living in the Granite State about the situation.

Guests

• Poppy Fry, Assistant Professor of History at Saint Anselm College, specializing in Southern Africa
• Tinashe Mufute, a senior majoring in Politics at Saint Anselm College originally from Harare, Zimbabwe
• Wadzanai Katsande, a freelance consultant currently living in Marondera, Zimbabwe; Wadzanai studied at Southern New Hampshire University this year and plans to return for her Masters in January

We'll also hear from

• Don Peterson, Democratic state representative from Brentwood who headed the US Embassy in Zimbabwe in 1991

One woman's story of genocide. A Rwandan Tutsi, she survived for three months hidden in a bathroom while her family and countrymen were killed in one of the worst cases of genocide in modern history. We'll hear her miraculous tale of survival and the power of forgiveness.

This program originally aired February 2, 2007

Guest

• Immaculee Ilibagiza: author of Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

In the 1950s, Elizabeth Thomas's family spent many years in the Kalahari Desert making an ethnographic study of the Bushmen. In those days, the interior was unexplored, and the people had almost no contact with the rest of the world. Today, Liz is one of the few people still living who saw the pure form of hunter/gatherer life then lived by the Bushmen, now believed to be the First People, living as all of humankind once lived for its first 150,000 years on the planet.

Liz has degrees from Radcliffe and George Washington University. She got her first book contract when she was 19 and has been writing ever since. Among her many books are The Harmless People and The Old Way about Bushmen, two novels set in the Paleolithic, (Reindeer Moon and The Animal Wife).

It has been twenty years since USA for Africa helped raise money and awareness of the staggering level of famine and poverty in Africa. With the recently concluded Live8 concert and discussion at the G8 Summit in Scotland including a focus on Africa, we'll look at past and present aid efforts. Laura's guest is Jack Shepherd, Professor of Environmental Studies and Director of the Africa Foreign Study Program at Dartmouth College, who has lived in several African countries and is the author of ten books, including "The Politics of Starvation" about famine in Ethiopia. Laura's other guest is Ed Bustin, Professor of Political Science for the African Studies Center at Boston University. He is the founder and Director of the Francophone Africa Research Group at B.U. Bustin has authored several books on Africa and has been a consultant on higher education and democratization in Zaire for the Rockefeller Foundations and for USAID. He has studied and lived in twelve African countries.

How far does $25 go? In some parts of Africa, $25 can rebuild an entire life and save a family from poverty. When businesswoman and Wilmot resident Dana Dakin turned 60, she wanted to give back to the world. With proceeds earned from selling her car, she went to Ghana and started a micro-loan fund for women in a small village whose standard of living was radically improved with a loan of just $25.