Africa's richest woman: Daddy’s girl

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear the answer to the question about Africa’s richest woman. There’s a special salute to the world’s “leapsters” – those of you born on 29 February – some great music, and of course, the new quiz question. Just click on the “Audio” arrow above and enjoy!

Sound Kitchen Podcast RFI

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Send me your music requests! I’ll make programs of your favorite music when I can’t be in the kitchen to cook something up new for you … write to me at  [e-mail]

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RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni ([e-mail]) and Chrystelle Nammour ([e-mail]) from our Listener Relations department on all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me ([e-mail]) when you write them so that I know what is going on, too. N.B. You do not need to send them your quiz answers! Email overload!

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RFI’s Planet Radio department is sponsoring an e-POP (e-Participatory Observers Project) competition. It’s a video contest, with some really great prizes! This is the first year that English speakers have been invited to participate, so let’s show RFI how many of you are out there, and are an active part of the RFI English service!

It’s a really cool project: Planet Radio is looking for two-minute videos about climate change, told by the humans who are experiencing it first hand – the people we rarely get to hear from. Your grandfather. Your aunt. People in your community. Your video should be inter-generational: interview an older member of your family or in your community who has lived the changes climate change has brought. This project is about humans; that’s the whole point of ePOP, how climate change has affected the “ordinary” citizen. Your video can be in any language – you just have to provide the translation into English to Planet Radio. And it can’t be more than two minutes. It’s open to everyone, although there is one prize for women under the age of 25 (Young sisters! Get to work!).  Most of the prizes involve a trip to Paris, and I would get to meet you! Plus there’s video equipment to be given away – as noted, the prizes are great!

Here’s the link for the guidelines.

The deadline for entries is 15 March. I fully expect Planet Radio to be bombarded with entries from you, the RFI English service listeners!

This week’s quiz:  On 5 January, I asked you to send me information about Africa's richest woman: she was in the news quite a bit that week after around 7,000 documents were leaked to the press about her business empire. In them are details of how she and her husband were allowed to buy valuable state assets in a series of suspicious deals.

This woman currently lives in London. She is already under criminal investigation by the authorities in her home country for corruption, and her assets in that country have been frozen.

I asked you to tell me three things: her name, her home country, and who her father is.

The answer is: Isabel dos Santos. She is from Angola. Her father is José Eduardo dos Santos, who was Angola’s president from 1979 through 2017. José Eduardo dos Santos was the second-longest-serving president in Africa, surpassed only by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.

The winners are: Ras Franz Manko Ngogo, the president of the Kemogemba RFI Club in Tarime, Mara, Tanzania; Asifa Riaz from the RFI Listeners Club in Sheikhupura City, Pakistan; RFI Listeners Club member S J Agboola from Ekiti State, Nigeria; Arundhati Mukherjee from West Bengal, India, and Li Ming from Maanshan City, China.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “The Paradox” from The Pirates of Penzance by WS Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, performed by Rex Smith, Kevin Kline, and Angela Lansbury; “Yaya ho” by Surutu Kunu;“The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “Samba de Orpheu” by Luis Bonfa, performed by Paul Desmond and The Paul Desmond Quartet, and “On the street where you live” from My Fair Lady by AJ Lerner & F Loewe, sung by Rickie Lee Jones.  

Do you have a musical request? Send it to [e-mail]

This week’s question ... You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until 30 March to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 4 April podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

[e-mail]

or

Susan Owensby
RFI – The Sound Kitchen
80, rue Camille Desmoulins
92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux
France

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or to form your own official RFI Club, click here