Forbes: To End Hunger in Africa, We Must Put Women at the Center of Agricultural Growth – With 239 million people in Africa undernourished, Africans “must take greater ownership over how they get their food.” Women are central to agricultural production in Africa, and in order to “improve economic growth and agricultural productivity,” women farmers much be at the heart of efforts to reduce hunger and malnutrition. (Sheila Sisulu)
AP: Mandela’s Fading Presence Worries South Africa – Nelson Mandela remains hospitalized with a lung infection as South Africa’s governing party prepares to choose its next leader. Mandela, who is “widely viewed as the country’s moral compass” has been recovering steadily in the hospital, and doctors report that they are “satisfied with the way he is responding to treatment.” Yet, the more Mandela fades, the more some South Africans worry that the “ANC is ceding the higher moral ground it once held.” (Jon Gambrell)
NPR: Africa’s Wisdom, Woes Occupy Soyinka’s Existence – Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka was the first black African to win the Nobel Prize in literature in 1986. His latest work, Of Africa, is a study of the continent in which he documents Africa’s history, “from the promise of independence to its failures of governance.”
CNN: From slum life to Disney film: Ugandan teen chess star ‘the ultimate underdog’ – Ugandan teenager Phiona Mutesi is considered by many to be the “ultimate underdog.” She grew up in Katwe, a slum outside of Kampala and her father died of AIDS when she was 3 years old. Robert Katende, a missionary and refugee of Uganda’s civil war, runs a chess program in Katwe and was the first to discover Phiona’s “extraordinary” talent. Phiona eventually became her country’s champion and has travelled internationally to compete. (Josh Levs)
