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Author Anne Cherian was 24 when she first read — and was enthralled by — Beryl Markham's autobiography West With the Night, a beautifully written retelling of the aviator's childhood in Africa and her daring solo flight across the Atlantic.

NPR's Kenneth Walker reports from Pretoria on the intense disappointment and anger that spread across South Africa today when the governing body for international soccer named Germany as the host of the 2006 World Cup. Many had expected South Africa to be selected, and South Africans were prepared for the country's largest celebrations since Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994. South Africa would have been the first African nation to host the Cup. Winning that honor would have also been a huge financial and political boost for the country.

Louis Freedberg reports that South Africa's government is trying to deal with a crush of illegal immigrants flooding into the country from all over Africa.

NPR's Kenneth Walker reports on efforts to track down terrorists responsible for a series of recent bombings in South Africa. The attacks have killed three people and injured more than 100 in the past two years.

NPR's Kenneth Walker in Johannesburg reports South Africa has become a major center for international drug trafficking over the past few years, and the rate of heroin and cocaine use among South Africans has increased sharply.

Banning Eyre reviews the CD Paranda: Africa in Central America which features music from the Garifunas of Central America, people who are descended from Africans and Arawak Indians. The Garifuna music is called Paranda, and it's a lovely, mostly acoustic mix of blues, Cuban rhythms, and African styles still being sung and played by the few remaining "parandero" musicians. (3:00) The CD Paranda: Africa in Central America is on Stonetree Records, distributed internationally by Detour/Warner Brothers. The catalog number is 3984-27303-2.

Spring in the western Cape of South Africa is like nowhere else in the world, Ketzel Levine finds. On Morning Edition, the Doyenne of Dirt checks her sanity at the gate and reports on the three weeks she spent in a floral fantasy.

Commentator Bill Miles was once a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa. Now a professor at Northeastern University in Boston, he receives e-mails from an African village. Despite the townspeople's poverty and daily tribulations, they wrote to express concern about his son, Sam. The Africans have heard about school shootings in the U.S. and wonder if Sam is safe.

NPR's Kenneth Walker reports on a new struggle between black and white South Africans over land both claim as their own.

In Dakar, Senegal, two rappers going by the names Keyti and Xuman offer a summary of the week's news in hip-hop format.