In our world of dissolving distinctions, five contemporary writers imagine life as an animal of their choice and investigate the boundaries between animal and human - each with the help from different animal experts. In this edition, writer and sound artist Belinda Zhawi imagines life as a southern African plains Zebra.

In other editions of the series Toby Litt is the brown hare at the outskirts of a wood, Sarah Kosar at the edge of a London park is a soprano pipistrelle bat, Ned Beauman makes dams with the Devon beaver and poet Isabel Galleymore clings to the side of a rock pool as a limpet.

Producers Kate Bland and Toby Withers. Becoming Animal is a Cast Iron Radio production for BBC Radio 3. Photo Theo Ndlovu

Andy works at Safari World, the biggest and best safari park on the planet, home to animals from all over the globe. He works there with his boss, Mr Hammond and tech wizard Jen, who monitors all the animals from the Aqua Base.

There has been a special sleepover event at Safari World, where visitors had the chance to see all the nocturnal animals. Andy heads to the Aqua Base to find out how it went. Jen informs Andy that it has been a huge success and that Mr Hammond is just taking the visitors to see the last of the animals, the cephalopods.

Mr Hammond calls and is still wearing his stripy pyjamas. He is having trouble spotting the common octopus, which disappeared the moment she saw him. Jen uses a special sonar device, which can detect objects under the water, but it is not able to detect the missing octopus. If they can find out where octopuses like to hide in the wild, maybe that will help them to find the missing octopus at Safari World. It’s time to go on an aquatic adventure!

Andy runs to the Aqua Dome’s loading dock and boards his safari-sub, a hi-tech underwater submersible capable of travelling to any location on the planet in the blink of an eye. Arriving off the coast of South Africa, where two oceans collide, Andy spots an octopus hiding under a rock, but he remembers Mr Hammond has already checked under all the rocks at Safari World.

Andy spots a pyjama shark, which like to eat octopus, and thinks it looks a bit like Mr Hammond did in his stripy pyjamas! But where does the octopus hide? Will Andy make it to Safari World before Mr Hammond calls again?

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's journey to head the World Trade Organisation has been particularly note-worthy. She is the first woman and the first African to hold the position. A trained economist, she was at the World Bank during the financial crisis and, as Nigeria’s finance minister, she faced down corruption.

It's not just her career that sets her apart. As a child she lived through the Biafran War. Years later she faced another crisis: the kidnapping of her elderly mother. But her friends say she does find time for a laugh and the occasional boogie.

Becky Milligan hears about her fascinating life and career from close family, friends and colleagues.

Producer: Ben Crighton Researcher: Maia Lowerson Studio manager: Rod Farquhar Production co-ordinator: Janet Staples Editor: Rosamund Jones

Amid the anarchy of post-Revolution Libya, seven brothers from an obscure background gradually took over their home town near Tripoli. They're accused of murdering entire families to instill fear and to build power and wealth. They created their own militia which threw in its lot, at different times, with various forces in Libya's ongoing conflict. And they grew rich by levying taxes on the human and fuel traffickers crossing their territory. Now, the full horror of their reign of terror is being exposed: since they were driven out in June, more and more mass graves are being discovered. The Libyan authorities - and the International Criminal Court - are investigating what happened. But the four surviving Kani brothers have fled. Will they ever face justice? And what does their story tell us about why the 2011 overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi brought not democracy, but chaos, to Libya? Tim Whewell reports.

Editor: Bridget Harney

(Image: A defaced mural depicting Mohsen al-Kani in the town of Tarhuna. Credit: Mahmud Turkia/AFP via Getty Images)

Amid the anarchy of post-Revolution Libya, seven ruthless brothers from an obscure background gradually took over their home town near Tripoli. They're accused of murdering entire families to instill fear and to build power and wealth. They created their own militia which threw in its lot, at different times, with various forces in Libya's ongoing conflict. And they grew rich by levying taxes on the human and fuel traffickers crossing their territory. Now, the full horror of their reign of terror is being exposed: since they were driven out in June, more and more mass graves are being discovered. The Libyan authorities - and the International Criminal Court - are investigating what happened. But the four surviving Kani brothers have fled. Will they ever face justice? And what does their story tell us about why the 2011 overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi brought not democracy, but chaos, to Libya? Tim Whewell reports. Editor: Bridget Harney

A young woman is desperately searching for her brother in Lagos. On the night of 20th October, Nigerian soldiers opened fire at a peaceful demonstration camped at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos. The government say they fired into the air, but witnesses insist that unarmed protesters came under deliberate attack. Amnesty International says that 12 people died.

The incident has traumatised a highly popular political reform movement that began as a demand to close down the S.A.R.S., a notoriously corrupt and brutal police squad. In the aftermath, many of the movement’s young supporters are keeping a low profile. Some have had their bank accounts frozen and passports seized. Others have even fled overseas, in fear of their lives.

The BBC’s Nigeria correspondent Mayeni Jones has been talking to some of them, including a witness to the Lekki shooting, and Peace, who is tirelessly searching for her brother, Wisdom, who is still missing after attending the demonstration. Mayeni finds a country whose traditionally deferential society and elderly leadership seem suddenly vulnerable; shaken by a perfect storm of youthful idealism, social media activism, and the crippling economic fallout of the Covid pandemic.

Producers: Naomi Scherbel-Ball & Michael Gallagher With additional research by Jonelle Awomoyi Editor: Bridget Harney

In a remote part of Northern Kenya, former Samburu warriors have become elephant keepers, rescuing and raising baby elephants in what’s thought to be Africa’s first community owned and run elephant sanctuary. At Reteti Elephant Sanctuary they rescue baby elephants that have been injured, orphaned or abandoned. They look after them, rehabilitate them and release them back to the wild. It is transforming the way local communities relate to elephants, and is a catalyst for peace, bringing tribes together from all over Northern Kenya, that normally fight over land and resources.

While we, as a species, grapple with ongoing legacies of racism and violence, and as biodiversity loss and the mass extinction of wildlife on earth accelerates, the call to bear witness becomes ever more necessary. What might it mean - for ourselves and the other beings on this planet - if we were able to sorrow, if we knew how to grieve? As things disintegrate around us, is bearing witness a final act of love we can offer our world?

“Loving and grieving are joined at the hip,” says spiritual activist and author Stephen Jenkinson. “Grief is a way of loving what has slipped from view. Love is a way of grieving that which has not yet done so.”

Biologist and philosopher Andreas Weber and poet and psychologist Anita Barrows reflect on what is lost as beloved species and places of wilderness continue to vanish; reparations scholar-activist Esther Stanford-Xosei grieves the genocide of communities that were the custodians of ways of living in harmony with the earth; and activist Kofi Mawuli Klu mourns the immense beauty of forests now destroyed.

Every waking moment is a requiem - not what we signed up for. But what did you sign up for? Into what were you initiated? Lacking in ceremony and ritual, grappling with legacies of undone spirit work and ancestral trauma, bearing witness to what is happening within ourselves and around us might “not be everybody’s idea of a good time” (Stephen Jenkinson), but it might be what we need to do. It might help us to belong.

Voice of the chorus: Niamh O’Brien. Cello improvisations: Lucy Railton Additional words and music: Phil Smith

Produced by Phil Smith. A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3.

After 17 years of conflict costing 300,000 lives, a peace agreement offers new hope to Sudan’s troubled Darfur region. It comes as UNAMID, the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force, prepares to finally pull out at the end of December. But with nearly two million displaced people still living in camps and some armed groups yet to sign the agreement, who will protect civilians if the peace fails? For Assignment, Mike Thomson gains rare access to Darfur to hear the stories of those still living with deep uncertainty.

Producer: Bob Howard Editor: Bridget Harney

(Image: UN peacekeepers on patrol in Darfur, Sudan. Credit: Bob Howard/BBC)

After 17 years of conflict costing 300,000 lives a peace agreement offers new hope to Sudan’s troubled Darfur region. It comes as UNAMID, the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force, prepares to finally pull out at the end of this month. But with nearly two million displaced people still living in camps and some armed groups yet to sign the agreement, who will protect civilians if the peace fails? For Crossing Continents, Mike Thomson gains rare access to Darfur to hear the stories of those still living with deep uncertainty.

Producer, Bob Howard. Editor, Bridget Harney

As the year prepares to turn, Verity Sharp dials up singer songwriters who aren’t living in their country of birth. Are they more mindful of their roots at this time of year? Has the pandemic made them feel closer or further away from home? Or is music all they’ve needed to keep them rooted? Love brought Falle Nioke from his home in Guinea, West Africa to the British seaside town of Margate. Playing the local music of his Coniagui tribe to passers-by in the harbour helps keep him in touch with his ancestors while making new friends. He talks about the similarities and differences between the two locations and sings to remember, accompanying himself on his homemade gongoma.

Presented and produced by Verity Sharp. A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3.

Two doctors in Nairobi tell host Nuala McGovern why conditions for health workers in Nairobi are leading to calls for a strike. They include rising death rates, unpaid salaries and lack of a comprehensive medical insurance. We’ll also hear from two members of US President-elect Joe Biden’s Covid task force about combatting vaccine hesitancy after the United States recorded the highest daily death toll in the world so far. And as vaccines make people think about a possible return to normality, we hear from those who have had to move in with their parents during the pandemic

April 1916. By the Nile, the foremost poets of the Middle East are arguing about Shakespeare. In 2004, Egyptian singer Essam Karika released his urban song Oh Romeo.

Reflecting on his travels and encounters around the Arab world, New Generation Thinker Islam Issa, from Birmingham City University, discusses how canonical English writers (Shakespeare and Milton) creep into the popular culture of the region today. Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead as part of BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival in 2018.

Islam's Issa's book, Milton in the Arab-Muslim World, won the Milton Society of America's 'Outstanding First Book' award. His exhibition Stories of Sacrifice won the Muslim News Awards 'Excellence in Community Relations' prize.

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year who can turn their research into radio. There are now 100 early career academics who have passed through the scheme.

Producer: Fiona McLean.