About the Project - Nigeria

The Radiophonics project aims to stimulate new writing for English language radio. The first phase, which comprised of creative writing workshops for writers between the ages of 18 – 40, was launched in Nigeria in January 2008 and followed by a call for applications from Nigerian writers within the range. Over 250 applications were received from Nigerian writers and 48 of them were selected to participate in creative writing workshops to be held in 4 geo-political zones in Nigeria, Abuja, Enugu, Kano & Lagos from March – April 2008. There were 12 writers participants in each location who worked with 4 different UK based writers:

Workshop Leaders:

Biyi Bandele

Simon Brett

Mike Harris

Graham Mort

Participants:

Ruonah Godwin-Agbroko

Ifeanyi Ajaegbo

Felix Akombi

Richard Ugbede Ali

Halima Aliyu

Ayo Dele Ayeni

Alu Azege

Ifeoma Azih

Chinedu Chukwu

Jugo Daniel

Solomon Destiny

Alpha Emeka

Mariah Therese Essien

Judith R. Fumnanya

Busayo Iruemiobe

Tiro Amina Maikori

Kenechukwu Obi

Rachel Ogbu

Isaac Attah Ogezi

Olubukola K. Ogunniyi

Ifesinachi Okoli

Shonoiki Olanshile

Rosemary Shimite Erazua-Oniha

Nwosu Onyebuchi

Wingate Emmanuel Onyedi

Swadchet Sankey

Uzoebo Rachael Uchechi

Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike

Co-ordinators:

Dr Graham Mort, Project Leader

Some of the writings produced during these workshops have been broadcast on radio. More details on the participants of the workshop can be found in the Writers Gallery: Each workshop lasted for a week and during this period, participants in each location worked as a group with the assigned facilitator to develop twelve 10 minute short pieces for radio. These original short stories had a strong emphasis on narrative, avoiding too much dialogue, character description and digression; all twelve were linked conceptually.  Since they formed part of a coherent series, the group discussion in the workshop helped participants in revising their pieces collaboratively. Each piece focused upon a topical, social or political issue in Nigeria and their ability to stimulate discussion and debate.

At the start of the workshop, each writer read out a piece of his work, which was critiqued by the other writers and briefly commented on by the facilitator. By the fifth day, each of the writers had had his work critiqued. They were then given time to review their work, taking into consideration the comments made by participants and facilitators, incorporating ideas raised during discussion. On the last day of the workshop, the reviewed pieces were handed over to the facilitator. Only 9 of the 48 stories received were selected for broadcast. These 9 stories were revised by the lead consultant & a producer to make it ready for radio broadcast. The stories were broadcast on radio for a period of 9 weeks on 3 different stations from April – June 2009.

The second phase of the Radiophonics project involved training workshops for teachers on creative writing for radio. From February 24 – 29 2009, 2 workshops facilitated by the lead Consultant, were held in Lagos.

The radio writing competition for secondary school students was launched in May 2009. 16 entries were received from 6 of the 28 schools. All entries received will be judged by the lead consultant and 3 winning entries will be selected for radio broadcast. The writers of the winning entries will also benefit from online master classes to be offered by the lead consultant.