Program 512: Shakespeare in South Sudan; Africa 54; Normandy

We check in with author and long-distance walker Francis Tapon after his five-year journey to all 54 countries in Africa. And we hear how a widespread love of Shakespeare played a key role in shaping Africa's newest nation, South Sudan. Plus, tour guides from France offer tips for exploring the countryside of Normandy, including the monuments to WWII battles fought there.

• Literature professor Edward Wilson-Lee, author of "Shakespeare in Swahililand" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Travel writer and filmmaker Francis Tapon
• French tour guides Antoine Bonfils, Virginie Moré, Patrick Vidal

• Edward Wilson-Lee was raised in Kenya, teaches literature at Cambridge, and is the author of "Shakespeare in Swahililand." 
• A video promo for the South Sudan Shakespeare Company's production of "Cymbeline" in Juba, from the start of the new nation in 2011. 
• Francis Tapon posts blog messages and videos from his adventures at www.tapon.org.
• Francis spoke with Rick on Travel with Rick Steves in 2013, as he prepared to start his Africa 54 journey on program #314. We also checked in with Francis in the middle of his trip, while he was in Tanzania. It's on the first show of 2015, program #390.
• Rick's online guide to the highlights of Normandy.  
• The American Cemetery in Normandy is operated by the American Battle Monuments  Commission as a tribute to the fallen troops from D-Day.
• The Mont Saint-Michel Abbey is operated by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux.
• The scars of the Second World War in Normandy are still evident at the church caller Keith visited at Angoville-Au-Plain.