{"id":161488,"date":"2015-08-05T21:04:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T21:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/the-worlds-largest-african-poetry-archive-is-coming-to-an-internet-near-you\/"},"modified":"2023-10-25T10:44:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T10:44:21","slug":"the-worlds-largest-african-poetry-archive-is-coming-to-an-internet-near-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/the-worlds-largest-african-poetry-archive-is-coming-to-an-internet-near-you\/","title":{"rendered":"The World\u2019s Largest African Poetry Archive Is Coming to an Internet Near You"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"title\">With work from over 350 poets across 24 countries, the project hopes to elevate the African voice in arts and culture.<\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-123832\" src=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/10985375_10155569940715085_3741930803859012818_n.jpg\" alt=\"10985375_10155569940715085_3741930803859012818_n\" width=\"960\" height=\"583\">The first-ever African poetry archive is rewriting history and doing something that&rsquo;s never been done before: collecting all of the continent&rsquo;s vast and diverse writings into one corner of the Internet.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>The&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/badilishapoetry.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Badilisha Poetry X-Change<\/a><\/strong>, a project launched in 2012 by the Africa Centre, an arts and culture organization in Cape Town, South Africa, has&nbsp;<strong>archived the work of more than 350 poets in 24 countries across the continent and features a a searchable website, mobile app and a weekly podcast.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-123820 size-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/10460788_10155262698395085_758903006943897034_n-600x730.jpg\" alt=\"10460788_10155262698395085_758903006943897034_n\" width=\"593\" height=\"721\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">&ldquo;Badilisha was conceived to prioritize poetic African voices and ensure that Africans have the option of being inspired and influenced by their own poets,&rdquo;said Linda Kaoma, Badilisha&rsquo;s project manager.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">As Kaoma points out, <strong>despite the continent&rsquo;s enormous population, only 2 percent of the world&rsquo;s published books are by African authors.<\/strong> The archive hopes to change that&mdash;it organizes poets by name, country, language, and theme, and includes a photo, biography, and sound file of the poet reading his or her work in both the poet&rsquo;s original language and in English. <strong>The archive now includes poems written in 14 different languages.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" size-post-image wp-image-123816 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/Badilisha-poetry-MAIN21-600x401.jpg\" alt=\"Badilisha-poetry-MAIN2\" width=\"593\" height=\"396\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>&ldquo;If you look at Europe, it&rsquo;s very easy to find archives of many things, but in Africa, because a lot of history and culture was passed down by the oral tradition and there was lack of documentation, that&rsquo;s not possible,&rdquo;<\/strong>&nbsp;said Kaoma shortly after the launch. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t want history to repeat itself.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/10309197_10155705957030085_1550699428998969717_n.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" size-full wp-image-123817 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/10309197_10155705957030085_1550699428998969717_n.jpg\" alt=\"10309197_10155705957030085_1550699428998969717_n\" width=\"448\" height=\"303\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Indeed, thanks to colonialism, much of the continent&rsquo;s homegrown literary culture has been splintered.<\/strong> As a result, there was never a comprehensive archive of African poetry&mdash;and no easy way for many Africans to access the treasure troves of their own culture&mdash;until now.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/11129534_10155458300205085_168055550947944725_n.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" size-post-image wp-image-123827 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/11129534_10155458300205085_168055550947944725_n-600x301.jpg\" alt=\"11129534_10155458300205085_168055550947944725_n\" width=\"593\" height=\"297\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">As the project points out on its website, <strong>without access to such an archive, &ldquo;many Africans are not inspired or influenced by their own writers and poets<\/strong>&mdash;negatively impacting their personal growth, identity, development, and sense of place.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>What&rsquo;s more, the perception that the world has of Africa has been largely formed by outsiders looking in, or from African writers writing for the West.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">&ldquo;We used to spend so much time agonizing over the question of whether we were writing for the West,&rdquo; the Nigerian author Okey Ndibe has&nbsp;said. &ldquo;In retrospect, I see our error. <strong>In&nbsp;Nigeria, we grew up reading the West. The West was talking to us. Why shouldn&rsquo;t the West read Nigeria? Why shouldn&rsquo;t we talk back?&rdquo;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/11150624_10155569939065085_384112128493466441_n.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" size-post-image wp-image-123824 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/11150624_10155569939065085_384112128493466441_n-600x428.jpg\" alt=\"11150624_10155569939065085_384112128493466441_n\" width=\"593\" height=\"423\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">While there have been successes in that regard, it&rsquo;s complicated. In the last year or so,&nbsp;African writers have been in vogue in the American publishing world. <strong>Last year, 10 percent of those who graduated from the prestigious Iowa Writers&rsquo; Workshop had African roots.<\/strong> Still, publishers want marketable books and continue to look for African writers who specifically appeal to Western audiences.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/11377387_10155652303585085_5956925513896121977_n.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" size-post-image wp-image-123822 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/11377387_10155652303585085_5956925513896121977_n-600x386.jpg\" alt=\"11377387_10155652303585085_5956925513896121977_n\" width=\"593\" height=\"381\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">As African writer <strong>Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/11\/30\/opinion\/sunday\/african-books-for-western-eyes.html\">wrote<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<em>The New York Times<\/em>&nbsp;last year, <strong>&ldquo;All sorts of marvelous things have happened for African literature&rdquo;<\/strong> in the last decade, from being nominated for prestigious literary awards to being prominently displayed in bookstores. <strong>&ldquo;However, we are telling only the stories that foreigners allow us to tell.<\/strong> Publishers in New York and London decide which of us to offer contracts, which of our stories to present to the world.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/11149453_10155462513385085_7989665845847714559_n.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" size-post-image wp-image-123821 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/11149453_10155462513385085_7989665845847714559_n-600x462.jpg\" alt=\"11149453_10155462513385085_7989665845847714559_n\" width=\"593\" height=\"457\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Developing a true African literary canon is tricky, as most African countries don&rsquo;t publish a lot of books.<\/strong> South Africa, which publishes the most books in Africa, ranks 45 in the number of books published worldwide,&nbsp;according&nbsp;to UNESCO. Nigeria, which publishes the second-largest volume of books in the continent, ranks 63rd in the world.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_123829\" style=\"width: 614px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/4676_181958735084_4038520_n.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-123829\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-123829 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/4676_181958735084_4038520_n.jpg\" alt=\"A Balidish organized poetry slam\" width=\"604\" height=\"403\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-123829\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A poet performing at a Badilisha organized poetry slam.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">With the <a href=\"http:\/\/badilishapoetry.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Badilisha Poetry X-Change<\/a>, the world is getting unfiltered writing straight from Africa, by Africans, about Africa.&nbsp;The <strong>mobile app also takes advantage of the fact that most people in Africa use their phones to access the Internet<\/strong>; the <strong>poetry shared on the site mimics oral tradition by letting users listen to poetry read to them<\/strong> and also addresses the larger problem of getting poetry published.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_123869\" style=\"width: 614px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/Uche-Nduke.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-123869\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-123869 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/Uche-Nduke.jpg\" alt=\"Uche NdukeUcher\" width=\"604\" height=\"403\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-123869\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uche Nduke performing at a Badilisha Poetry X-Change event<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">&ldquo;A lot of publishers are not publishing poetry,&rdquo; Kaoma&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2014\/dec\/29\/africa-poetry-badilisha-mobile-phone-site\">told<\/a>&nbsp;<em>The Guardian<\/em>. &ldquo;But it does not have to be confined to books. It&rsquo;s alive. The voice adds texture, adds a different layer to the poems. <strong>A lot of people are enjoying listening to poetry rather than reading it.&rdquo;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_123872\" style=\"width: 603px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/10338739_10155378975995085_5916126032203040010_n.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-123872\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-123872 size-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/10338739_10155378975995085_5916126032203040010_n-600x401.jpg\" alt=\"Master storytellers Poetry recited during The City Dsired ed Tur \" width=\"593\" height=\"396\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-123872\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Master storytellers performing during the Badilisha Poetry X-Change &ldquo;City Desired Tour&rdquo; in Cape Town.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">For Kaoma and the Badilisha project, <strong>it&rsquo;s less about attracting outside audiences than it is about empowering Africans to discover their own voices through culture and history.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/10959706_10155220428305085_3647765343241333750_n.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" size-full wp-image-123819 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/one.org\/us\/media\/us\/2015\/08\/10959706_10155220428305085_3647765343241333750_n.jpg\" alt=\"10959706_10155220428305085_3647765343241333750_n\" width=\"599\" height=\"337\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great place to come and reflect and see what other poets are doing,&rdquo;<\/strong> Kaoma&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2014\/dec\/29\/africa-poetry-badilisha-mobile-phone-site\">said<\/a>. &ldquo;I think there is value in being influenced by someone in the same context: You don&rsquo;t have to change yourself to be recognized. <strong>You can be African and write about whatever you want to write about.&rdquo;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>A version of this story was originally published <a href=\"http:\/\/www.takepart.com\/article\/2015\/07\/31\/african-poetry-archive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> by Take Part. All images are from Badilisha&rsquo;s Facebook <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/badilishapoetry\/photos_stream\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">page<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"buffer\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With work from over 350 poets across 24 countries, the project hopes to elevate the African voice in arts and culture. The first-ever African poetry archive is rewriting history and doing something that&rsquo;s never been done before: collecting all of the continent&rsquo;s vast and diverse writings into one corner of the Internet. The&nbsp;Badilisha Poetry X-Change, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[52],"contributor":[186],"one_content_audience":[],"one_content_type":[],"one_content_tone":[],"class_list":["post-161488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","topic-culture","contributor-takepart"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The World\u2019s Largest African Poetry Archive Is Coming to an Internet Near You - ONE.org US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/the-worlds-largest-african-poetry-archive-is-coming-to-an-internet-near-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The World\u2019s Largest African Poetry Archive Is Coming to an Internet Near You\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With work from over 350 poets across 24 countries, the project hopes to elevate the African voice in arts and culture. 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The\u00a0Badilisha Poetry X-Change,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/the-worlds-largest-african-poetry-archive-is-coming-to-an-internet-near-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ONE.org US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ONE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-05T21:04:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-25T10:44:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.one.org\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/05112041\/10985375_10155569940715085_3741930803859012818_n.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The World\u2019s Largest African Poetry Archive Is Coming to an Internet Near You\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@oneinamerica\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@oneinamerica\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/the-worlds-largest-african-poetry-archive-is-coming-to-an-internet-near-you\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/the-worlds-largest-african-poetry-archive-is-coming-to-an-internet-near-you\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/236ef43a079c36667c3f1de2da8e0838\"},\"headline\":\"The World\u2019s Largest African Poetry Archive Is Coming to an Internet Near You\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-05T21:04:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-25T10:44:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/the-worlds-largest-african-poetry-archive-is-coming-to-an-internet-near-you\/\"},\"wordCount\":954,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/the-worlds-largest-african-poetry-archive-is-coming-to-an-internet-near-you\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/08\/10985375_10155569940715085_3741930803859012818_n.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/the-worlds-largest-african-poetry-archive-is-coming-to-an-internet-near-you\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/the-worlds-largest-african-poetry-archive-is-coming-to-an-internet-near-you\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/the-worlds-largest-african-poetry-archive-is-coming-to-an-internet-near-you\/\",\"name\":\"The World\u2019s Largest African Poetry Archive Is Coming to an Internet Near You - 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