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Change in Africa

Africa is changing in many ways, for better or worse, as correspondents report from South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Kenya.

There is a lot of change happening in Africa, for better, for worse, some of it fast, some of it slow, as our correspondents report from South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Kenya.
In South Sudan, the rivalry between the president, an ethnic Dinka, and his ethnic Nuer former vice-president led to violence that cost at least 1000 lives. James Copnall reports on the roots of the conflict, that is currently subject to a ceasefire.
The Central African Republic was ruled by the brutal Seleka rebel militia for much of last year, and now that they are gone, Christian militia are committing anti-Muslim atrocities as revenge. Thomas Fessy meets an Italian priest, who is single-handedly trying to stop the bloodshed in the northwestern town of Bozoum.
In Sierra Leone, by contrast, Muslims and Christians get on very well. Christmas and the end of Ramadan are celebrated by all, and mosques and churches are open to people of both faiths. But as Jake Wallis Simons found, there are now fears that this harmony may come under strain, because of a foreign-built, extremist mosque's growing influence, and an anti-Muslim outburst by two disturbed Christian sisters.
In South Africa, the Zulu proudly remember their victory over the British Empire at Isandlwana in 1879. Now the battlefield has become a much-visited tourist site, providing employment for the descendants of the victorious Zulu fighters, as Hamilton Wende reports.
In Johannesburg, Pumza Fihlani also brings the old ways into the new. Receiving her future in-laws for the first time, she has to conform to Xhosa traditions, including that of bowing to her husband-to-be as she serves him his food. Will she marry tradition with her modern life as an independent young woman?
And in Kenya, there are such groundbreaking innovations being developed in agriculture, particularly for biological, chemical-free and cost-effective pest control. So much so, that these Kenyan businesses have become pioneers exporting to the world, says Susie Emmett.
Presenter: Pascale Harter
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Photo: a boy in an orphanage in Bangui in the Central African Republic, by Miguel Medina AFP/Getty Images

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25 minutes

Last on

Sun 2 Feb 2014 09:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 1 Feb 2014 12:06GMT
  • Sun 2 Feb 2014 01:06GMT
  • Sun 2 Feb 2014 09:06GMT