The voices of Africa and the African diaspora can now be easily accessed via smart- and feature phones on a new site: www. badilishapoetry.com.
The Badilisha Poetry X-Change formed its distinctive online platform in 2012, and now features 350 poets from 22 countries in Africa and the African diaspora. Each week two new poets are added to the collection.
The largest archive of audio casts by African poets in the world, Badilisha Poetry X-Change houses poet profiles, interviews and podcast poetry readings in multiple African languages.
Badilisha X-Change Project Manager Linda Kaoma comments: “While the Badilisha Web site has been widely embraced internationally, it is essential that we are accessible to the continent and mobile is obviously central to
achieving this.”
Mobile phones are at the forefront of an information revolution in Africa; inspiring fast-moving change in banking, retail, education, healthcare, agriculture and now enabling the people of this continent to hear their very own poetic voices.
“External perspectives of Africa can be very limiting so it is vital that the people of Africa contribute to the creation of their own aural story and the formation of their own visual imagery,” says Kaoma, “Badilisha is a safe, expressive space to explore these ideas.”
