The News Review:

- Food costs spark protest in Senegal
- Where Every Meal Is a Sacrifice
- Africa: Father of ‘Negritude’ Restored Black Pride
- Generic concert gives way to show full of natural soul
- Dynamos beat holders Etoile
- MPs want answers on ‘arms-for-Zim scandal’

Food costs spark protest in Senegal
Aljazeera.net – Apr 27, 2008
The protest on Saturday was the latest in the impoverished West African state. Aid experts say soaring global prices for foodstuffs and fuel threaten to push 100 million people worldwide into hunger.

Where Every Meal Is a Sacrifice
Washington Post – Apr 27, 2008
World Food Program has flagged 30 nations confronting mounting food insecurity this year as a direct result of market forces; 22 of them are in Africa. As prices climb Mauritania Burkina Faso Cameroon Senegal and other net food importers have been racked by civil unrest. Hunger is spiking in parts of the continent in patterns similar to past bouts of drought floods or civil strife. In Mauritania — a nation of 3 million straddling Arab and black Africa — the number of people not getting enough food is up this year by 30 percent in rural areas despite a relatively good annual harvest according to the WFP. A food emergency has been declared in broad sections of the country with the food program rushing to roll out feeding stations… It has happened as neighboring Mali blessed with slightly higher precipitation and crop yields and fearing its own budding food crisis has halted grain exports to Mauritania. Wheat being hoarded in cities has all but disappeared from many local markets here. Merchants from Senegal and Mali have come over the border to buy up whatever wheat is left because it is still less expensive here than in their home countries. Though subsistence farmers in the area have long cultivated the arid earth for sorghum it has never yielded enough for their families. To earn money to buy more the men of these parts leave annually in search of temporary work to prepare for the late-spring lean season before the rains come. The annual migration is occurring months earlier this year as food prices soar. In Bouta a destitute village of 70 families near the Mali border all the able-bodied men left in search of work months ago leaving behind a hamlet of women old men and children.

Africa: Father of ‘Negritude’ Restored Black Pride
AllAfrica.com – Apr 27, 2008
The notion of black as something beautiful and a source of pride was the greatest compliment that Cesaire and Leopold Sedar Sengor who rose to be Senegalese president left the black population. They jointly propagated to counter racism and subjugation of black culture in Europe in early 20th Century. GA_googleFillSlot( “AllAfrica_Story_Inset” );With his mastery of the French language and experience as a writer Cesaire contested that the French were no better intellectually than their black colleagues. The Negritude proponents further argued that even as the French assimilated Africans from its colonies they needed to recognise that they could be as good as the French.

Generic concert gives way to show full of natural soul
Columbus Dispatch – Apr 27, 2008
As the concert went on the initial frantic pace slowed down enough to allow a more naturalsinger to emerge. With the originally scheduled Jordin Sparks sidelined by illness the concert opened with Keys’longtime backup singer Jermaine Paul sliding through a set of soft rock songs accompanying himselfon acoustic guitar. Senegal-born singer Akon followed with a set of vigorous rap warming up the crowd with Top 40hits and with the progressive removal of various articles of clothing until he was finallyperforming bare-chested.

Dynamos beat holders Etoile
BBC News – Apr 27, 2008
Maringwa struck after 60 minutes of the third round first leg qualifier at a packed Gwanzura Stadium in Harare. But the Tunisians were unlucky not to level as shots from Amine Chermiti and Mohamed Nafkha struck the woodwork. It was the second consecutive away loss for Sahel the only team to win every African club competition after a 3-0 reverse against Douanes in Senegal this month. Etoile had won the first leg by five goals at the Olympic Stadium in their Mediterranean base of Sousse and will host the most popular Zimbabwean club there over the weekend of 9-11 May with a place in the group phase at stake. On a weekend when contenders for the title used home advantage to good effect five-time champions Zamalek of Egypt and perennial underachievers Cotonsport Garoua of Cameroon built 3-0 leads. Zamalek wasted little time establishing their superiority over Angolan police outfit InterClube at Cairo Stadium as Amr al-Safti Mahmoud “Shikabala’ Razek and Mohamed Ibrahim scored within 26 minutes of the kick-off.

MPs want answers on ‘arms-for-Zim scandal’
Independent Online – Apr 27, 2008
Though mystery surrounds the contents of the arms control committee annual reports for the past few years the committee has submitted annual reports to the United Nations. But these reports lack the detail of those the committee presents to parliament. According to the UN conventional arms register recipients of conventional weaponry from South Africa in recent years include Angola Ghana Senegal Sweden Zambia Rwanda Saudi Arabia Gabon the United Arab Emirates and Brazil. The register lists China as reporting last year that it sold six aircrafts to Zimbabwe.