August 7, 2006 — Some two-thirds of Africans live in rural areas, and most are without lifelines into the economy. Even in South Africa, which has the strongest economy on the continent, rural unemployment is about 70 percent.

Advocates say ending the cycle of poverty depends on putting farmland in the hands of blacks. About 96 percent of commercial arable land is still in the hands of South Africa's white farmers. But efforts to reform land ownership in places like the rural part of South Africa's Western Cape have been slow to get off the ground. Listen to this compelling NPR broadcast [2]