Crossing Borders

Crossing Borders was an exciting new initiative that used information technology to link young writers in Africa with experienced mentors in the UK. The project was funded by the British Council in London, designed and managed by the Department of English and Creative Writing at Lancaster University and was enabled by a network of British Council offices in Africa.

Crossing borders worked with e-mail tutorials and participants in the project were drawn from Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Over one hundred African writers were enrolled, working in poetry, fiction and children’s literature with around 30 mentors drawn from a wider range of cultural backgrounds in the UK.

The new African writing initiative from the British Council is called Radiophonics, continuing to develop the important work that was established with Crossing Borders.

Its web site is http://radiophonics.britishcouncil.org/