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I just returned from a 7 day reporting fellowship to Senegal. The trip was a collaboration between the National Association of Black Journalists and the United Nations Office of Sport for Development and Peace. Funding was provided by the Knight and Kaiser Family Foundations.

Over the next few weeks I'll be producing a print and audio slideshow on our visit to Goree Island. I've heard about it, but to actually stand inside the men's cell (right) in the Maison Des Esclavages (Slave House) was damn powerful. Great audio of the curator explaining the process: people were kept in shackles for up to three months before taking their last steps on African soil as they walked out the "Door of No Return" for passage to the Caribbean or the Americas and a member of the United Nations explains how the tourist attraction now serves as a vehicle for reconciliation between the races: White and African slave traders and the African people whose ancestors were enslaved.



I'll also look at how climate change is affecting Senegal. Roughly 40 percent of the population depends on fishing for their living. Climate change over the past 5-10 years has resulted in higher sea levels, which has sent more salt water into the mangrove swamps where fish reproduce. This has reduced the number of juvenile fish and has resulted in fewer fish available. One environmental expert says fisherman used to be able to make a living by fishing 6 to 8 hours a day. Now they go out at 5am and have to stay out until 3 or 4pm to catch the same number of fish.