Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service is to broadcast plays by a Ghanaian and a Nigerian author who shared the Third Prize in this year's African Performance playwriting competition. As part of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ African Performance season 2009, the World Service will broadcast Ghanaian Benjamin Kent's play, No More Redemption Songs, on Thursday 6 August, and Nigerian ATK Robinson's story Naija Bride, on Thursday 13 August.

In No More Redemption Songs, Benjamin Kent examines the state of activism in modern Ghana.

Fiifi is a 12-year-old boy, who finds himself caught between two opposing philosophies as he tries to understand and confront his society. His grandfather, a former activist, teaches him to always stand up for his rights and never cave in to power. However, his mother Pat fears this attitude will get her son into trouble. She entreats him to learn the ways of modern society and use it to meet his ends rather than opposing it.

In the unfolding events, Fiifi evaluates these two philosophies by putting them into action.

Amazino Robinson's Naija Bride is a tale of internet dating, chat rooms and 419 (fraud) scamming.

Sola Adesida tries to dupe Luke Badmos through the internet by posing as Rebecca, a woman with whom Luke falls in love. Sola and his accomplices set out to obtain from Luke US$100,000 supposedly meant for the treatment of his prospective father-in-law. Will Luke, who works for a multinational bank in the US, abuse his position to deliver the money?

Producer Vera Kwakofi, who directed both radio dramas, comments about the award-winning plays: "Benjamin Kent delivered in No More Redemption Songs a thoughtful play, and I think that the cast we worked with when we recorded this play on location in Accra did it justice.

"The subject of who's responsible for effecting change, getting things done and the frustrations that go with it will resonate with many Ghanaians."

Vera adds that she was very pleased when the judge chose Naija Bride as one of the winning plays: "It had come from my original shortlist, and I could hear the play the moment I first read it.

"There have been several plays entered into the African Performance season over the years on the subject of internet scams – and all unsuccessfully.

"It's credit to the writer, Amazino Robinson, that his take on it made an exciting listen. It was technically challenging to convey the online relationship on radio but I think the writer will be very pleased as will the listeners of the finished product.

"Naija Bride has lessons for anyone looking for love online and it's 'beware'."

The winner of this year's Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ African Performance competition is Julia Childs (UK), with her play, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sweet Soweto Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ.

The Second Prize belongs to Kenyan Mark Mutahi's play, The Confession.

You can listen to the winning plays by logging on to bbcworldservice.com/africanperformance.

Notes to Editors

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service is an international multimedia broadcaster delivering 32 language and regional services, including: Albanian, Arabic, Azeri, Bengali, Burmese, Cantonese, English, English for Africa, English for the Caribbean, French for Africa, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Kinyarwanda/Kirundi, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Mandarin, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese for Africa, Portuguese for Brazil, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Somali, Spanish for Latin America, Swahili, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, and Vietnamese.

It uses multiple platforms to reach 188 million listeners globally, including shortwave, AM, FM, digital satellite and cable channels.

It has around 2,000 partner radio stations which take Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ content, and numerous partnerships supplying content to mobile phones and other wireless handheld devices.

Its news sites include audio and video content and offer opportunities to join the global debate.

For more information, visit bbcworldservice.com. To find out more about the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's English language offer and subscribe to a free e-newsletter, visit bbcworldservice.com/schedules.

World Service Publicity