Can Africa Get Out Of Debt?

IAN WALDIE/GETTY IMAGES

MONEY MEN: Bono pleaded for debt relief at the Labour Party conference in Brighton last week; Brown and Blair, background, were happy to oblige, pledging $180 million a year

The sound of shuffling feet announces her entrance as dozens of youngsters rise from their seats to chant in unison: "We welcome our headmistress." Jane Kansiime, who runs the Kamwokya primary school in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, silently reviews the students, who stand politely at attention, five to a bench. Most wear the navy-and-turquoise school uniform, but other colors speckle the crowded classroom: a yellow shirt, a red dress, a white blouse. "We are not rigid here, as long as a child can come," says Kansiime, 40. "It's not the clothes that make the child learn."

Six years...

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