Africa Daily

This episode discusses difficult issues including sexual violence and suicide.“You have thousands of cases and you have one judge. So every day you go to the court, they say come back tomorrow. The families they just get tired.” Miatta Grey is a woman with a very personal mission. She’s the founder of ‘Sister’s Hand’ - an organisation in Liberia which supports victims of gender-based violence – having herself survived rape and domestic abuse. She was also badly injured through female genital mutilation - or FGM - in a ceremony that killed her sister.She – like many campaigners within Liberia’s civil society – have long been pressurising the government to improve the situation. But she says things actually got worse under the last government. So what needs to be done to protect women from sexual violence in Liberia?

Millions of people will be voting in elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo this week. President Félix Tshisekedi is seeking a second, and final, five-year term in office. It’s a country the size of Western Europe with an estimated population of more than 100 million people. It’s also a country rich in natural resources- it has 70% of the world's reserves of coltan, a mineral used to make mobile phones. But it’s also a country with many challenges, there’s been a bloody conflict in eastern DRCongo for three decades which has left millions dead. Africa Daily’s Alan Kasujja has been looking at what’s a stake with the BBC's Roncliffe Odit in the capital Kinshasa.

Imagine paying off someone else’s debts from 30 years ago. That’s what the Somali government has been having to do, as it tried to pay off debts built up by governments in the 1990s.Five years ago Somalia was using 64% of its Gross Domestic Product – the value of all the goods and services it produces – to pay off foreign debts. Now it’s only using 6%.It’s come after a process of painful economic reforms – supported by the IMF and World Bank – which culminated in it having $4.5 billion worth of debts written off last week.For Africa Daily, Mpho Lakaje speaks to Dr Hodan Osman, Senior Advisor & National Coordinator of Human Capital Development, in the Office of the Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Somalia, and to Laura Jaramillo, who led the IMF teams in talks with the Somali government.

“Our ancestors, our forefathers and our great grandmothers used to come together and have discussions and sing songs and dance. This is how we would document our lives and our history and this is how we would begin very important and critical conversations” – Masechaba Ndlovu, Rainbow Nation Music Fest ambassador. Thousands of people are expected to attend the Rainbow Nation Festival in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province. It aims to bring different racial groups together and promote social cohesion.This is particularly important as the country continues to be haunted by its apartheid past, with disturbing incidents of racism making headlines from time to time. The festival will take place on the 16th of December, a public holiday known as the Day of Reconciliation. But can music really unite South Africans?

“The words ‘fossil fuels’ have never (before) made it into a COP decision. We’re finally naming the elephant in the room. The genie is never going back in the bottle again.”So the talking is over and the weary delegates have headed home. This year’s climate conference, COP28 – when world leaders, activist and lobbyists get together to discuss how to limit global warming - was certainly eventful. $700 million was pledged to the Loss and Damage fund to help poorer nations deal with the impact of climate change before the conference had even began. And the ‘elephant in the room’ – fossil fuels and how to wean ourselves off them – was mentioned in the final agreement for the first time in the history of COP… but only after a rejected first draft which took the conference into an extra 24 hours of argument and negotiation. So has it been a good or bad conference for Africa? Peter Musembi – Africa Daily’s Environment enthusiast, gets an assessment from Mohamed Adow from Powershift Africa.

Today, Africa Daily’s Mpho Lakaje talks to Zimbabwean blueberry farmer Stuart Torr. He and his brother studied in the UK, before returning to Africa to farm. Their company is among those exporting blueberries to countries like the Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany, Singapore and Malaysia. They operate in a sector that has seen significant growth in recent years. Fruit industry analysis group, East Fruit says Zimbabwe has been increasing its blueberry exports by 63%, annually. So, what’s behind these developments? Mpho is also joined by Zimbabwean economist Prosper Chitambara.

Kenya's parliament has banned the wearing of a suit, named after the late Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, within the building. Speaker of Parliament Moses Wetangula said Kaunda suits, as well as traditional African clothes, were not welcome. And Kenya is not alone – African clothes are not permitted in many parliaments across the continent.Africa Daily’s Alan Kasujja has been speaking to Senator Gloria Orwoba about her specific challenges around being a female in Senate and historian Godfrey Sang told him more about the evolution of African attire.

Zanzibar is an island off the coast of Tanzania where more than 99% of the population are Muslim. In a community that places high value on family and marriage, being a divorcee is something that is often looked down upon, especially for women. However, one woman is breaking down those stereotypes through her culinary initiative, Mamas of Zanzibar. BBC Africa Daily’s Alan Kasujja speaks to Maskat on why she started her initiative and the impact it’s had on her life as a single mother as well as the lives of other ‘mamas’ on the island.

Since 2013, more than 70,000 Nigerians have crossed into northern Cameroon fleeing Boko Haram attacks. As they settled in Minawao as refugees, they were faced with difficult desert conditions, with nowhere to hide their heads when the sun was scorching. So they opted to join forces to plant trees and have build what is now known as The Green Refugee Camp.In today’s Africa Daily podcast, Alan Kasujja speaks to one of the refugees, Isaac Luka, who gives an account of how step-by-step, refugees embraced tree planting to counter a hot climate, and how the initiative is providing jobs, shade, health and food for hundreds of refugees and local families.Alan also speaks to reporter Henry Tataw Ekambi to understand how Minawao looked before the refugees arrived, and to expert, Teboh Emmanuel, who shares insights into what it takes to successfully plant trees in arid areas.

Artificial Intelligence is playing a growing part in modern life. We’re told it can make things faster, more efficient and cheaper.But people with disabilities can struggle to use machines which use AI because they don’t recognise their special needs and adapt to them. Instructions are often visual – making it impossible for a blind person to use without the assistance of someone else. A number of African countries have AI strategies but in Nigeria this is still being discussed – and so people with disabilities there are pressing for their needs to be recognised within any legislation.For today’s Africa Daily, Alan hears from journalist Gbenga Ogundare, Olufemi Bayode, a teacher at Kings College, and Opeolu Akinola, an ICT consultant and the co-founder of the Microsoft Experience Centre in Lagos. All three are blind.