March programme highlights
Sunday 30th March
Saad Abubakar, Nigeria's Sultan of Sokoto, has been in London at the invitation of the Foreign and Commonwealth office. He stepped into the post after the sudden death of his predecessor, a cousin who died in a plane crash in 2006. His own father was one of the most popular Sultans but when he was about to take over the role some critics said that his long military career did not make him suitable for the job. The Sultan has been asked to address British religious leaders about the inter-religious dialogue he and other religious leader have brokered in his country - Bola Mosuro asked him about it.
Friday 28th March
Prince Nathi Gumbi is the director of Somkhanda Game Reserve - the first community-owned game reserve in South Africa. His people recently won back their ancestral land in northern Kwazulu-Natal as part of a national redistribution programme and the conservation group WWF has given them eleven black rhino to start the game park and to help protect this critically endangered species. Prince Nathi Gumbi told our reporter Alice Lander how he got the community on side with the project.
Thursday 27th March
International mining left Sierra Leone during the civil war after their plants and machinery were over-run and ransacked by rebels, but now there is peace and the government has encouraged them to return. Perhaps the biggest operator is Sierra Rutile, rutile is an extremely valuable metal used in high tech industries like space travel. But not all Sierra Leoneans are happy at the return of Sierra Rutile, local communities affected by the mining claim that although rutile might be doing lots for the government and local chiefs it's not doing much for the ordinary citizen. In Sierra Leone Robin White put those complaints to the manager of Sierra Rutile, Australian-born Bob Lloyd.
Tuesday 25th March
Thousands of people living in northern South Africa are denied access to land and clean water as the result of mining activities. That's the findings of a report out today, which looks at the impact of mining giant Anglo Platinum in Limpopo, South Africa. According to the report by Action Aid, farmers have lost their land and means of livelihood, and are forced to drink water containing dangerous levels of nitrates. The company is accused of reaping record profits at the expense of local communities. We first hear from the report's author, Zanele Twala and then we get a response from Simon Tebele, a spokesman for Anglo Platinum, who deny the findings reports findings. Komla Dumor interviews them both.
Monday 24th March
Zimbabweans go to the polls this weekend to elect a new president and parliament. Eighty-four year-old President Robert Mugabe who has been in power for 27 years is seeking another term in office, having lead the country since independence in 1980. His main challengers are the MDC opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, and the former finance minister, Simba Makoni, who is standing as an independent. Lewis Machipisa prepared this report.
Friday 21st March
Botswana's outgoing president has been speaking ahead of his retirement in just over a week. Festus Mogae, who hands over power to his vice president, is currently on a state visit to France where he was awarded France's highest medal by President Nicholas Sarkozy. Mogae has been praised for his contribution to good governance and democracy in Africa but as he leaves office, what does he think has been his greatest achievement? He spoke to our reporter Catherine Zemmouri.
Thursday 20th March
The Albino Society in Tanzania is dwindling following their abduction and murder on superstitious beliefs. About 700 albinos have been murdered since 2002/ Human rights activists have strongly condemned the kilings, calling on the government to protect the albino community. There are approximately 2500 albinos in the country. John Ngahyoma reports.
Monday 17th March
Abidjan in Ivory Coast has grown up on islands and peninsulas in a salt-water lagoon - somewhere that for a long time was something of an attraction. But the water-skiers stopped using the lagoon 20 years ago and fish stocks have all but vanished. The reason? Almost all the waste from homes and factories flows untreated into the lagoon. But now the government is buying five amphibious boats costing US$1 million each to clean up the water. The first boat has arrived and our correspondent John James went to have a look.
Friday 14th March
Just two weeks to go to the election in Zimbabwe. President Robert Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, is being challenged by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Independent candidate Simba Makoni. Voters will also be electing a new parliament and local councils. To discuss some of the issues at stake, Joseph Winter brought together Wilf Mbanga, editor of the opposition newspaper The Zimbabwean, and George Shire, an academic who supports the ruling Zanu-PF party. And he first asked them whether the result is a foregone conclusion?
Thursday 13th March
A new chapter opens in Malawi today as the government launches a pioneering phase of compulsory birth certificates for all children aged 16 and below. These are estimated to make up more than half the population. Today 30 such certificates will be presented in the southern town of Mwanza. Up to now the country has no national identification system because parliament is yet to deliberate on the matter. Joel Nkhoma reports.
Wednesday 12th March
In Morocco last month, Fouad Mortada was sentenced to three years in jail for his online activity, he created a virtual persona of a member of the Moroccan royal family, Prince Rachid, on the social networking site Facebook. As James Copnall reports from Rabat, it's a case that is still making waves in the kingdom.
Tuesday 11th March
Howfar are you willing to go to look and possibly feel better? Would you have cosmetic surgery? For a while, in Kenya, most people only witnessed face lifts, tummy tucks, breast enhancements, and the like, on TV screens from the comfort of their living rooms. But more and more middle-class Kenyans are now ready to go under the knife.Tomi Aladipo reports from Nairobi.
Monday 10th March
A campaign has started in Egypt to gather one million signatures to petition for a bill that will make sexual harassment of women in the streets a crime. The campaign has been backed by many Non Governmental Organisations working in the field of women empowerment as well as human rights activists. Ranyah Sabry reports from Cairo.
Friday 7th March
What does it mean being a male vice president to a female African President? Just as Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is Liberia's and Africa's first-ever elected female president, the person next to her, Joseph Boakai, a former Agriculture Minister, is the first African man to serve as a vice president to a female elected president. So what is the working relationship with his boss? That's a question our Monrovia correspondent Jonathan Paye-Layleh put to the soft-spoken Vice President Boakai.
Thursday 6th March
It's a year since Uganda sent more than 1500 of its soldiers to Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping force. But the Ugandans and more recently their Burundian counterparts have found that there's been little peace to keep, with fighting continuing between Ethiopian troops backing the Somali transitional government and forces loyal to the Islamic Courts Union. This has led some Ugandans to question the purpose of the mission. Major Paddy Ankunda, the UPDF spokesman, recently returned from spending almost a year in Mogadishu. Sarah Grainger met up with him in the Ugandan capital Kampala to find out how things had gone, and to see how he'd respond to the concerns of his countrymen.
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