About
The Story Behind Engaging Borders
Engaging Borders Africa works with writers and journalists to mainstream soft approaches to addressing violent extremism, disinformation and hate speech in Africa.
Engaging Borders, a project of STRADA Development Initiative funded primarily by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), gathers a wide range of expertise cutting across African literature, security studies, the academia, film, as well as the civic space, all with the shared aim of changing the ways young people understand radicalization, violent extremism, and disinformation, which are key feeders of conflict and terror in Africa
Pooling together various expertise, bridging time zones, languages, and skillsets, this pan-African project brings together Suleiman Usman Yusuf (Nigeria), Edwige Dro (Ivory Coast), Lilian Sundqvist (Tanzania), Africa Ukoh (Nigeria), alongside partner organizations in Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Niger and Kenya, to tell new stories and create three short films.
Meant to popularize these diverse counternarratives, our project’s grand aim is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the “soft” approach to preventing and countering violent extremism in Africa.
With funding and support provided by
Meet Our Team
Richard Ali, a Nigerian lawyer, is Project Manager of Engaging Borders Africa.
He has held policy shaping roles at Nigeria’s Ministry of Interior (2015—2017) and at the Association of Nigerian Authors (2011—2014), has published the novel, City of Memories (2012), and a poetry collection, The Anguish and Vigilance of Things (2019). He works in internal security, particularly in preventing and countering violent extremism (PCVE).
In February 2021, he was named Managing Editor of Nairobi-based pan-African arts collective, Jalada Africa Trust.
Malachi Janice has nine years’ experience in the development and humanitarian sector with keen interest in women, children and youth development. She has served in several capacities at national and community levels by leading and providing inputs for interventions that target most vulnerable communities including Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). Janice is skilled in program management, data analysis, governance, conflict, gender issues and mentoring. She derives motivation from the belief that serving humanity is serving God.
A Nigerian Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist with vast experiences working with international donor programmes on management information system and systems strengthening.
A strong analyst, with demonstrated ability to scrutinize quantitative and qualitative data for decision making. He is an alumnus of University of Roehampton (UK). He supported the design and development of data collection tools, templates, frameworks and plans in line with donor and national requirements. A member of Nigerian Institute of Management with numerous publications on health programmes.
Sada Malumfashi is a freelance journalist and communications consultant. His works have appeared in Al Jazeera, The Africa Report, This Is Africa, Bakwa Magazine and Music in Africa, among other venues. He is a fellow of the Goethe Institut-Sylt Foundation Writing Residency and Reporters Without Borders Germany Scholarship Program. He is an alumni of RNTC Netherlands Media Campaigns for Social Change course and European Union’s Global Cultural Relations Program (GCRP).
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