Story Archives of 'Africa'

Troubles in Zimbabwe

By Laura Knoy on Monday, August 18, 2008.

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
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In the Name of Love

By Avishay Artsy on Monday, March 31, 2008.

When we think about U2 frontman Bono, this graph pretty much sums up how we feel about the aging Irish rocker's career path:

Rwanda Genocide Survivor

By Laura Knoy on Tuesday, August 28, 2007.

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

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Rev. Gloria E. White-Hammond, M.D.: The Anatomy of the Social Movement to Save Darfur

By Monadnock Summe... on Saturday, July 28, 2007.

Dr. White-Hammond is co-pastor of Bethel AME Church in Boston. Since 1997, she has also worked as a pediatrician at the South End Community Health Center. Besides her work with young women in Boston, Dr. White-Hammond has worked as a medical missionary in several African countries including Botswana, Cote D’Ivoire and South Africa. Since 2001, she's made seven trips into war-torn southern Sudan where she has been involved in obtaining the freedom of 10,000 women and children who were enslaved during the two-decades-long civil war. In 2002, she co-founded My Sister’s Keeper, a humanitarian women’s group that partners with women of Sudan in their efforts toward reconciliation and reconstruction of their communities. In February 2005, Dr. White-Hammond traveled into Darfur, western Sudan, to listen and learn from female victims of genocide in internally displaced persons camps. She recently served as the national chairperson of the Million Voices for Darfur campaign and currently is the co-chair of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur.

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Elizabeth Thomas: Civilization, the Harmless People and a Return to Civility

By Monadnock Summe... on Saturday, June 30, 2007.

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).

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African Music comes to New Hampshire

By Liz Bulkley on Wednesday, April 11, 2007.

This weekend, Granite Staters will get a chance to hear the U.S. premiere of a new classical work from South Africa. It's part of A Celebration of African Music taking place this Saturday and Sunday. We'll talk with Plymouth State University's Dan Perkins, the man who's bringing it here. And we'll hear from Theo Martey, the director of a Ghanaian drumming group that's relocated to New England. Join us for an exploration of African sounds and culture in New Hampshire.

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Africa Efforts

By Laura Knoy on Tuesday, July 12, 2005.

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.

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A Better World in South Africa

By John Walters on Thursday, May 26, 2005.

Carol and John Thompson are the founders of the Masiphumele Corporation, a non-profit that conducts building and educational projects in a squatter village near Cape Town, South Africa. Living conditions are very harsh, unemployment is above 80-percent, and most of the people live in shacks made of metal, wood and cardboard. Carol and John tell host John Walters about the successes of their work and the great challenges that lie ahead.

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Micro-Loan Magic

By John Walters on Friday, May 20, 2005.

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.

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