Badilisha, World's Largest African Poetry Archive, Now Mobile Enabled

Badilisha Poetry X-Change is both an online audio archive and Pan-African poetry show delivered in radio format. Now the largest online collective of African poets on the planet, Badilisha has showcased and archived over 350 Pan-African poets from 24 different countries. It reflects the myriad of rhythms and rhymes, voices, perspectives and aspirations from all corners of the globe.

Africa represents over 15% of the global population, yet it only reflects 2% of what is published annually. What Africans have to say to themselves and to the rest of the world matters. To support the relevance of the African perspective, Badilisha Poetry X-Change has now made the poetic voices of Africa accessible via smart and feature phones on the Badilisha Poetry website.

A project of the Africa Centre, Badilisha Poetry X-Change formed its distinctive online platform in 2012, and now hosts recordings of over 350 poets from 22 countries in Africa and the African diaspora.

Badilisha represents the largest audio archive of African poets in the world. The portal also houses poet profiles, interviews and unpublished poetry in multiple African languages. The website has been widely embraced internationally, but making it mobile phone friendly was central to making its content more accessible on the African continent. Mobile phones are at the forefront of an information revolution in Africa. They are inspiring fast-moving change in banking, retail, education, healthcare, agriculture and now enable the people of Africa to hear their very own poetic voices on the go.

Badilishia will also be hosting a series of crowd-sourced poetry events on Twitter. Follow @badilishapoetry for more information.