University students in Senegal have been protesting in demand of payment of their stipend from the government. They say the allowance, paid to students mostly from low-income backgrounds, has not been disbursed for months. A week ago, a protest at the country's main Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar left one student dead after a confrontation between the protestors and the police. The push by the learners comes at a time when Senegal is facing a high debt burden.

And we hear from award-winning poet Hafsat Abdullahi on the evolution of spoken word poetry in Africa, and its role in cultural preservation and activism.

Presenter: Nkechi Ogbonna