This is the story of Chido Govera aka The Mushroom Woman. It is a story about her home, Zimbabwe. And it is also a story about mushrooms. It never should have happened. Chido, an orphan, became the provider in her family aged seven. At 10 she was destined to marry a man 30 years older than her. But a chance encounter led her to discover the almost magical science of mushroom cultivation at a local university, and set her life on a very different course.

Eighteen fishermen from Sicily are in jail in Benghazi, accused of fishing in Libya’s waters. And in this part of the Mediterranean, rich in the highly-prized and lucrative red prawn, these kinds of arrests are frequent. Usually the Libyans release the men after negotiations. This time it’s different. General Khalifa Haftar – the warlord with authority over the east of Libya – is demanding a prisoner swap: the freeing of four Libyans in jail in Sicily convicted of human trafficking and implicated in the deaths of 49 migrants, in return for the fishermen. For Assignment, Linda Pressly explores a little-known conflict in the Mediterranean - the so-called, ‘Red Prawn War’ and its fall-out.

(Image: Domenico Asaro, a third generation fishermen from Mazara del Vallo who has been arrested at sea by Libya three times. Credit: BBC)

Writer and broadcaster Lindsay Johns ends his series of essays on cities influenced by African migration in Cape Town.

Making his way around a city he knows intimately, respects abundantly and loves profusely, Lindsay asks what it means to be Capetonian. From the city's tragic racial history and its legacy, to the wave of migration from elsewhere in Africa, this is a place whose identity is constantly shifting. And as he concludes his series of essays, Lindsay ponders his own ambivalent feelings towards this demographic, political, social, spiritual change.

Producer: Giles Edwards

Writer and broadcaster Lindsay Johns continues his tour of great cities influenced by their relationship with Africa in Fort-de-France, the capital of the Caribbean island of Martinique.

On an island where, as he puts it, Gallic efficiency and Cartesian rigour rub shoulders with local Creole flavour, all in the enervating tropical heat, Lindsay examines the question of identity. Fort-de-France, says Lindsay, looks to Paris for her modus vivendi and to Africa for her raison d’être. So was the decision of Martinique’s most famous son - the poet, playwright, polymath, founder of the Negritude literary movement, politician and former Mayor of Fort-de-France, Aimé Césaire - to stave off independence and remain part of France, the right one? On his walk around the city Lindsay encounters French waiters, BMW-driving witch doctors, and a decapitated lady, as he considers this question.

Producer: Giles Edwards.

Writer and broadcaster Lindsay Johns continues his series of essays examining five great world cities through the prism of their relationship with Africa. In the Jamaican capital, Kingston, this different lens leads to a focus not on pristine beaches, sunshine and cricket, but instead on rebellion and spirituality.

Lindsay considers Jamaica's history, intimately inter-woven with the tragedies, iniquities and horror of slavery; but also one defined by those who have refused to accept that status quo, from Queen Nanny to Marcus Garvey. And as he walks the city's streets, from downtown to New Kingston, where Jamaica's thriving community of entrepreneurs, business people and scientists is based, he ponders Kingston's spiritual connections with East Africa - and Ethiopia - and how profoundly they have affected the city.

Producer: Giles Edwards

In the second of his essays on great cities which have been influenced by African migration, writer and broadcaster Lindsay Johns takes a walk around Philadelphia.

It's a city whose history is tied up with notions of America and of freedom, and as he wanders the streets of Philadelphia, Lindsay ponders the relationship between these two powerful ideas. They're not always easy to reconcile in Philadelphia - where the chronic racialised street homeless situation, the city’s poverty and stark racial divide leave him feeling a distinct lack of 'Brotherly Love' - in a city which takes that as its moniker. As Lindsay considers some of the philosophical questions which arise, he also reflects upon a community of African migrants making their home in the city with its own fascinating and surprising relationship with Philadelphia.

Producer: Giles Edwards.

Writer and broadcaster Lindsay Johns introduces his new series of essays on five great cities which have been influenced by African migration, as he discusses Marseille.

Looking for inspiration to Ian Fleming's 'Thrilling Cities', Lindsay wants to eschew the loud, brash main avenues and explore instead the quiet back alleys, abandoning tourist sites in favour of lesser known, more local and edgier haunts. But he also wants to ditch the colonial mindset always looking for European influence, and instead examine how these cities have been affected by migration from Africa.

And in Marseille, the first of his five, Lindsay finds it all: a truly Franco-African metropolis, infused with gastronomic, religious, linguistic, musical, sartorial and literary influences from the other side of the Mediterranean.

Producer: Giles Edwards

The dramatic effects of climate change evoked in words, sounds and a powerful new musical work.

Over four movements of rich and evocative music, the listener is transported to the front line of the climate crisis, with stories from coastal Ghana – where entire villages are being swept away by the rising sea – to Norway’s Svalbard archipelago in the high arctic where the ice is melting with alarming speed. The dramatic final movement ponders two contrasting possible outcomes to the crisis.

In an ambitious new work originally commissioned by BBC Radio 3 for their Between the Ears strand, Kieran Brunt weaves together electronic, vocal and orchestral elements recorded in isolation by players from the BBC Philharmonic. Each musician recorded their part individually at home and these recordings were then painstakingly combined by sound engineer Donald MacDonald to create a symphonic sound.

Documentary producer Laurence Grissell and composer Kieran Brunt have collaborated to produce an ambitious and original evocation of the causes and consequences of rising, warming oceans.

Credits

Composer: Kieran Brunt Producer: Laurence Grissell

Electronics and violin performed by Kieran Brunt Orchestral parts performed by members of the BBC Philharmonic Vocals: Kieran Brunt, Josephine Stephenson & Augustus Perkins Ray of the vocal ensemble Shards

Sound mixed by Donald MacDonald

Interviewees: Sulley Lansah, BBC Accra Office Hilde Fålun Strøm and Sunniva Sørby, heartsintheice.com Blaise Agresti, former head of Mountain Rescue, Chamonix

Blaise Agresti recorded by Sarah Bowen

Wildlife recordings by Chris Watson

Newsreaders: Susan Rae & Tom Sandars Adverts voiced by Ian Dunnett Jnr, Luke Nunn, Charlotte East, Cecilia Appiah

The tragic story of Sandra Laing - born in apartheid South Africa to white parents but with an appearance that suggested she was not white - forms the backdrop of writer Colin Grant’s exploration of racial passing: pretending to be part of a racial group other than your own.

Laing’s story involved being racially reclassified by the South African state four times and includes her having to pass as a coloured woman, which to the best of her knowledge, she was not. Colin considers what it means to ‘pass’ and the associated absurdity of an imposed taxonomy of race.

Colin examines other examples of passing in history and asks whether it should always be seen as a betrayal when someone pretends to be white when in fact they aren’t. What are the consequences for the individual - and for the race they try to deny?

This personal essay is one of five in the series ‘Thinking Black’ in which Colin Grant tells the fascinating stories of individuals who have each experienced or challenged the boundaries of race. He interweaves these lives with his own experiences and in so doing explores the nuances of some of the complex issues underlying the current debate around race and identity.

Produced by Kirsty Pope

A Far Shoreline production for BBC Radio 3

Beethoven is a towering figure in classical music, beloved by the musical profession. At the same time, it is important to engage with the full diversity and range of his admirers in the 21st century. This series is not so much a classical examination of Beethoven, but rather an opening out and broader engagement with his work in a very modern context, demonstrating the extraordinary power of his work and its enduring influence.

253 years since Beethoven’s birth, an essay series that considers Beethoven now, in a thoroughly contemporary and highly personal context. Five eminent and unexpected thinkers respond to and share their personal interpretation of Beethoven, placing his influence in a modern framework. We invited Inua Ellams, Sophie Stone, Thangam Debbonnaire, Professor Andrew Biswell and Nitin Sawhney to share their kind of Beethoven with radio 3 listeners. Each Essayist offers a uniquely personal insight into the scope of Beethoven’s work.

What does Beethoven mean to you? We put that very simple question to a wide range of Essayists. The answers are unexpected, entertaining and informative. • Inua Ellams, poet and playwright

Inua has admired Beethoven since childhood and recently wrote a poem about his work. He says:

“I wanted to write about hip hop sampling classical music, loving Fur Elise when I was a kid, and how Beethoven / Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major Emperor helped me through a difficult breakup - which gave rise to the poem.”

Born in Nigeria in 1984, Inau Ellams is an internationally touring poet, playwright, performer, graphic artists and designer. He is an ambassador for the Ministry of Stories and his published books of poetry include Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars, Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales, the Wire-Haired Heathen, #Afterhours and The Half-God of Rainfall – an epic story in verse. His first play The 14th Tale was awarded a fringe first at the Edinburgh International Festival, and his fourth, Barber Shop Chronicles, sold out two runs at England’s National Theatre and toured the UK. His Three Sisters, set in Nigeria during the late 1960s Biafran succession, was a smash hit at England’s National Theatre in 2019. He toured An Evening with an Immigrant and completed his first full poetry collection The Actual. In graphic art and design, online and in print, he tries to mix the old with the new, juxtaposing texture and pigment with flat shades of colour and vector images.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2023, he was honoured with an MBE for Services To The Arts, and an Honorary Doctorate from University Of The Arts, London.

Producer, Polly Thomas Executive producer, Eloise Whitmore

A Naked Production for BBC Radio 3

The final episode of Blood Lands - a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.

A group of white men are on trial accused of murdering two black South Africans, but as a long and explosive trial comes to an end, could muddled medical evidence see them walk free? Blood Lands is a murder investigation, a political drama, a courtroom thriller, and a profound exploration of the enduring racial tensions threatening the "rainbow nation". Over the course of three years, correspondent Andrew Harding has followed every twist of the police’s hunt for the killers, the betrayals that opened the door to an dramatic trial, and the fortunes of all those involved – from the dead men’s families to the handful of men controversially selected for prosecution. When a whole community is on trial, who pays the price?

Presenter, Andrew Harding Producer, Becky Lipscombe Editor, Bridget Harney

Blood Lands is a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.

A family betrayal leads to a murder trial in a small farming town in South Africa. But who is telling the truth about a frenzied attack that left two black farm workers dead, and a community bitterly divided on racial lines? Blood Lands is murder investigation, a political drama, a courtroom thriller, and a profound exploration of the enduring tensions threatening the "rainbow nation". Over the course of three years, correspondent Andrew Harding has followed every twist of the police’s hunt for the killers, the betrayals that opened the door to an explosive trial, and the fortunes of all those involved – from the dead men’s families to the handful of men controversially selected for prosecution.

Presenter, Andrew Harding Producer, Becky Lipscombe Editor, Bridget Harney

Blood Lands is a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.

Police investigating a suspected double murder in a small South African farming community uncover crucial new evidence. But will it be enough to break the farmers’ wall of silence and solve a case that has divided a town on racial lines? Blood Lands is a murder investigation, a political drama, a courtroom thriller, and a profound exploration of the enduring tensions threatening the "rainbow nation". Over the course of three years, correspondent Andrew Harding has followed every twist of the police’s hunt for the killers, the betrayals that opened the door to an explosive trial, and the fortunes of all those involved – from the dead men’s families to the handful of men controversially selected for prosecution.

Presenter, Andrew Harding Producer, Becky Lipscombe Editor, Bridget Harney

Life for people of colour varies hugely across Europe. We hear what growing up in the Netherlands was like for Dutch-Sudanese artist Gaidaa compared to living in the UK. We talk about outdated Christmas traditions, the Dutch response to Black Lives Matter, the creative scene in Sudan and how she uses her music and performances to highlight what’s happening in Sudan.

Blood Lands is a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.

A white farming family falls silent following the brutal deaths of two black workers. Were the dead men really thieves? Or has South Africa’s tortured past come back to haunt a racially divided community? Blood Lands is a murder investigation, a political drama, a courtroom thriller, and a profound exploration of the enduring tensions threatening the “rainbow nation". Over the course of three years, correspondent Andrew Harding has followed every twist of the police’s hunt for the killers, the betrayals that opened the door to an explosive trial, and the fortunes of all those involved – from the dead men’s families to the handful of men controversially selected for prosecution. When a whole community is on trial, who pays the price?

Presenter, Andrew Harding Producer, Becky Lipscombe Editor, Bridget Harney

Blood Lands is a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.

At dusk on a warm evening in 2016, two men arrive, unexpectedly, at a remote South African farmhouse. The frenzy that follows will come to haunt a community, destroying families, turning neighbours into traitors, prompting street protests and threats of violence, and dividing the small farming and tourist town of Parys along racial lines. Blood Lands is a murder investigation, a political drama, a courtroom thriller, and a profound exploration of the enduring tensions threatening the “rainbow nation". Over the course of three years, correspondent Andrew Harding has followed every twist of the police’s hunt for the killers, the betrayals that opened the door to an explosive trial, and the fortunes of all those involved – from the dead men’s families to the handful of men controversially selected for prosecution.

Presenter, Andrew Harding Producer, Becky Lipscombe Editor, Bridget Harney