Anthony Duigan from Johannesburg gives his impressions of a conference that aimed to bring healing in South Africa.

David Allbrook's watchword has led him into famine relief, the hospice movement, the presidency of Amnesty International in Australia and pioneering medical training in East Africa. John Bond meets an academic who believes in action.

Alhaji Ado Bayero gave up his diplomatic career to become the ruler of some eight million Muslims in the Nigerian state of Kano. In his new role he has worked to bridge his country's divisions. ' Robo Judith Ukoko, a Christian from the southern delta area of Nigeria, travelled to his historic palace.

However little we Westerners thought we possessed, we were living like kings in comparison to those around us.

I was not alone in my hurt. The world hurt with me. I withdrew the feminine essence and found myself in a hard, hurting world, filled to the brim with violence and an unending onslaught of barbarism.

As the South Commission launches its report in Caracas, Ailsa Hamilton meets a Tanzanian Cabinet Minister who believes in speaking her mind.

This time, the South is addressing its own problems - and its conclusions, launched this month in Caracas, are refreshingly honest.

At the moment a delicate balance of power prevails. The de Klerk government wields institutional power backed by the defence force and police; the ANC has demonstrated the weight of popular power and forced the government to come to terms with it.

Namibia, Africa's last colony, is on the threshold of `wonderful things... after suffering for so many years', South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on a recent visit here. But the transition from colonial South West Africa to independent Namibia will not be easy.

Another African leader, General Joseph Lagu, former Vice-President of the Sudan, also took part. As a guerrilla leader in the bush, he fought against the Arab North in Sudan's first civil war.