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Crossing Borders MagazineIssue Two
 October 2005 welcomed some 45 writers from across Africa and the UK at the British Council's Beyond Borders Literature Festival, to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of African Writing.
Contents:
Introduction Contemporary Poetry and Tradition Land of My Birth A Father's Homecoming The Adventures of Baraka Blackbird The Baby Who Didn't Stop Crying Western Weekends The Hand of God My First Pay Check Under The Surface
Becky Clarke
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Contemporary Poetry and Tradition |
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Graham Mort
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Graham Mort has published five books of poetry and also writes short fiction and radio scripts. He has won a number of awards for his work. A distance learning specialist, he designed the Crossing Borders scheme when working as a freelance writer on a British Council residency in Uganda.
Graham is now director of postgraduate studies in Creative Writing at Lancaster University where the expanded Crossing Borders scheme is situated. He lives in a small village on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border. His latest collection of poems, A Night on the Lash, will be published by Seren in 2004.
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Gilbert Kuma
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Biography:
I was born on 17th July, 1965. After completing my basic education up to sixth form level, I worked with various advertising companies as a client service officer and later took the Institute of Commercial Management (ICM) Public Relations course. I am now running a PR agency and planning to study mass communication soon.
I won the gold and silver award of the World of Poetry Organisation's poetry contest with the poem No Peace Here in 1989 and 1990, a poem about the arms race, war and peace at an award ceremony which took place in Washington and Las Vegas. I have taken part in various writing competitions including the Arvon poetry competition and BBC playwright competition.
My poem is included in a list of poems I am compiling about Africa. My mentor John Lindley described it in the following words: 'I very much like the positive standpoint of this poem and its challenge to preconception and stereotype'.
Crossing Borders is a fulfilling experience and is filling all the loopholes in my writing which is getting better and better as a second year student. l doff my hat to the editor for not refusing such a powerful positive-spirited African RHYTHM.
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Phillip Chidavaenzi
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Biography:
At 25, I’m the Features Editor of The Sunday Mirror, one of Zimbabwe's privately owned weekly newspapers, having graduated from the Christian College of Southern Africa with a Diploma in Communication and Journalism in 2002. My passion for writing began with reading at Sinoia Primary School in Chinhoyi, one of Zimbabwe's smaller and tranquil towns, in the late 1980s. Reading was a mandatory practice at the school. But the 'diet' was very Euro-centric. I read fairy tales, stories of cowboys in the wild wild West, snow white and pirates at sea. But high school – that was at St. Albert's Mission in Centenary, a small farming town – exposed me to African luminaries like Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka as well as Zimbabwe's very own Charles Mungoshi, Shimmer Chinodya, Tsitsi Dangarembga and the late Yvonne Vera and Dambudzo Marechera. Crossing Borders has been an invaluable learning curve to me since I started in April 2005. It has helped me get over my biggest weakness, that of over-writing.
Reaction to news of publication in Crossing Borders Magazine:
'There was brief spell of light rain showers during lunch hour in central Harare – Zimbabwe's capital – on October 27, 2005. I opened my alternative mailbox when I got back into the newsroom soon after lunch. There was a letter from my mentor, Catherine Johnson, with the subject: 'Congratulations!' It was just a one-line note: 'Just heard about your inclusion in the magazine. Fantastic!' I quickly opened my regular mailbox, through which I had made my submission, and there was a confirmation that my story had made it into the magazine. For a moment I could not feel anything. I was just kind of numb. Then slowly, when I remembered that this was a continental competition, I got so worked up with excitement I just could not settle down for the rest of the afternoon. I could not even concentrate as I tried to write the features on my diary for our newspaper. I called my friends around my computer so that I could share that special moment with them. It was a very humbling experience. Then I remembered the lunch-hour shower. It became symbolic for me – showers of blessing.'
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The Adventures of Baraka Blackbird |
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Blessing Musariri
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Biography:
Blessing Musariri (1973) qualified as a barrister in 1997 as a member of the Middle Temple UK. She also holds a Masters in Diplomatic Studies (University of Westminster), none of these qualifications indicating that she would ever choose to be a full-time writer and sometimes English teacher. She writes poetry, short film screenplays and adult fiction as well, but often feels more inspired to write for children (two published titles).
Reaction to news of publication in Crossing Borders Magazine:
'That's great news, I'm really pleased. This has been a really great month for me - a poem in New Writing 14, Uganda and now the CB magazine. It really does pay to persevere in something. It's been an uphill struggle but I have maintained that if God gives you a talent you must use it. I love to dance and this is exactly what I did. I got up and jumped around very loudly, then I went to tell my parents and phoned my siblings.'
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The Baby Who Didn't Stop Crying |
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Tolu Ogunlesi
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Biography:
Tolu Ogunlesi was born in 1982. He graduated from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria in July 2004. He presently works as a pharmacist in Asaba, Nigeria. He writes poetry, short fiction and essays and has performed his poetry at the African Weerword 05 in Amsterdam, Holland and at Denachten 2005 in Antwerp, Belgium. He is a 2005/2006 Fellow on the British Council Crossing Borders Nigeria Literature Project, and a participant of the BBC Africa 05 My Africa Blog Project (http://www.bbc.co.uk/africalives/myafrica/blogs/005017/).
His work has appeared in Orbis, Smoke London, Inkpot, Mississippi Review, Stickman Review, among others, and is forthcoming in Pindeldyboz, Parameter Magazine, Sable and Wasafiri.
Reaction to news of publication in Crossing Borders Magazine:
'I got the news at a time I wasn't feeling particularly 'upbeat' - having just relocated from familiar surroundings to far-away Asaba (five hours by road), where I am to begin work as a pharmacist at a Government Hospital. Checking my email is almost an obsession with me - I'm always submitting my work to magazines, and so checking my email is like taking a fix of... heroine?... in search of a 'high', a 'literary' high, that is - the quite 'rare' acceptance letter. The moment I saw the email subject, I knew what it was. And of course, the pecuniary side to it makes it a more 'explosive' high.'
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Mordi Ochi
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Biography:
Mordi Ochi grew up in Nigeria’s most populated city, Lagos, and in a neighbourhood where he is best known as a storyteller and a poet. He is a poet who has developed a style of writing his own poems, Pacet, and this style has brought him glory in its oral and performance narrative. He has written a couple of screenplays, short stories and has an anthology of poems to publish soon. He is presently on a project, Love 2005, a movement of youths writing against the injustice, the imprisoned, the richer rich, the poorer poor and the bribery and corruption in the country and every participant remains ‘behind the curtains’ to the public. His first novel, Child of Circumstance, is still on his PC, incomplete. He has performed his poems in Liverpool and Portsmouth, UK and also locally. He studied architecture but when poetry beckoned, he followed his dreams. Mordi prefers to be called Storychild or otherwise have his name pronounced in its native intonation, Muo-di.
He would be performing much of his works in UK next year and hopes to join the Performing Rights Society in the UK, the UN outreach centre and any society that fights for justice especially among the youths. None of his works has been published, so publishers could write in. He has an anthology of poems and a book of essays. He has received a number of awards for his poems.
His greatest participation in literary activities remains in Crossing Borders. His motivators in life remain Arch. Frank Lloyd Wright, for his tutorial contribution in Architecture, Thomas Steinbeck for his book, Down to a Soundless Sea. Nadine Gordimer for her essays on color, Chinua Achebe for refusing the award, Wole Soyinka for his fight for truth and Benjamin Zephaniah for his flare for truth through poetry. His childhood is his poetry, the bursting womb of his inspiration to date.
Reaction to news of publication in Crossing Borders magazine:
Being published in a magazine supported by the organization that created the roads to his first international poetry performance, Mordi is feeling steady and successful and proud to still be there among the faces and works of a great literary African society promoted by the British Council / Lancaster University. He owes British Council a lot, but first they owe him more publishing!
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Stephen Mugambi
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Biography:
Writing for children has been my love from an early age. I have had more than ten short children’s stories published in magazines and school readers. I was delighted to join Crossing Borders and to be linked-up with a wonderful mentor, Catherine Johnson (You’re wonderful, Catherine; it’s just in my nature to howl and cry!). Crossing Borders has sharpened my writing skills and boosted my self-confidence as a writer. I wrote a sequel to my first children’s novel in record time!
I studied at the University of Nairobi and graduated with a BSc degree that would have seen me work in a beer factory. I instead opted for an editor’s job with a children’s magazine in Nairobi. I later joined ANPPCAN, a pan-African children’s rights NGO. I currently work for a Kenyan NGO that promotes creative writing by women and girls.
The Hand of God is a work of fiction abridged from a short story entitled Gods of a Sacred Mountain. The original story was 2,800 words long and was developed for submission to BBC Radio 3, following an invitation by Elizabeth Allard of BBC to Crossing Borders participants to submit short stories to be read to a UK radio audience.
Reaction to news of publication in Crossing Borders Magazine:
'I'm terribly excited at the news of my story The Hand of God being accepted for publication in Crossing Borders magazine. The news couldn't have come at a better time, with my having just returned from attending the Crossing Borders Contemporary African Writing Festival (where I was fortunate enough to meet wonderful Becky) and so soon after the publication of my book Wait for me, Angela.'
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Matano Lipuka
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Biography:
Kenyan born Matano Lipuka has been an avid fan of creativity since high school and still is. He once belonged to a theatre group run by M.Y.S.A (an NGO) but is now focussed on his Engineering job and part time freelance journalism, submitting to the local dailies. His fictional works can be found at www.authorme.com and sage of consciousness magazine. He likes to develop new talent and watch it grow and hopes to develop a reading culture among his people in Kenya and definitely around the world.
Reaction to news of publication in Crossing Borders Magazine:
'Have you ever been on a rollercoaster ride? Well, I haven't been on an original one like those you have there in Europe, but we have our own version here in Kenya. It's a banana style boat which swings up and down, but you can imagine the joy one gets when one is up there, feeling so close to the sky and stuff, yet fearful that something might snap. That joy mixed with a little fear is what gives us the thrill. Well, that's how I feel right now. I wanna scream my heart out but I am in a library. I am at the British Council office right now, cos that's where I usually access the internet. Well, as I am writing this I can already see two people staring at me like, why is this dude staring and smiling at the screen? But the truth is I wanna scream out so I am going to take a walk right now and I am going to SCREEEEEEAAAMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!'
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Deborah K. Durojaiye
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Biography:
Oluwakemi D. Durojaiye was born in London, England in 1982. She was, however, raised from the age of seven, in Lagos, Nigeria. She studied Cell Biology and Genetics at the University of Lagos and was a member of the Pen Circle, an association of young writers of which Ayodele Arigbabu was once president. Although 'Kemi’s first love was poetry she joined the Crossing Border's project as a writer of fiction. Prior to Crossing Borders the only story she'd ever written was during the British Council's 'Telling Stories' project. Her story The Long Walk Home was subsequently published in an anthology of the stories produced during the project.
'Kemi does not consider herself to be an 'African Writer' but rather a writer who is African. She currently lives and works as a Web developer in London while preparing for a masters in psychology.
Reaction to news of publication in Crossing Borders Magazine:
'When I found out that my story was going to appear in the CB online magazine after all I felt like a mother whose child had just been accepted into a prestigious private school. I had submitted it for the first edition but received an email saying it had not been accepted. I must say that at the time I was a little disheartened, I realize the story, Under the Surface, might be considered by some to be a bit unsettling and I thought maybe that was the reason it wasn’t accepted. I can see now that that wasn’t the case and I’m extremely pleased'.
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