CAPE TO CAIRO - 10

I was late. Not all Germans are punctual. As I knocked on the door of MamaFM at 9.30 am,Margaret cast a demonstrative glance at the clock. "Sorry", I said, "the rain, the roads...".

Margaret waved aside my apologies with a disarming smile. "Come in", she said, "we're just putting the ten o'clock show together. " Margaret Sentamu-Masagazi (below) is the director of the Uganda Media Women's Association and head of MamaFM, one of the first African radio stations by women for women. Just her double-barrelled name - a rarity in Africa - tells us that a remarkable woman is at work here.

"The other voice"
Margaret is the driving force behind the Uganda Media Women's Association which she founded together with other women's rights activists in 1983 to "give a voice to the voiceless in Uganda". It wasn't until 2001, though, that enough money had been found to start publishing their monthly paper "The other voice" and to put MamaFM on the air. The media in Uganda are the most colourful and critical in the whole of Africa. Newspapers, magazines, television and a hundred radio stations all clamour for attention. "Why", I asked Margaret, "is another radio station needed?"

"Generally, it is only the rich and the powerful you hear on the radio", she says. "We want to let ordinary people to have their say - women in particular. With us, it is radio the way they want it". But programmes on women's topics, development - do they really find audience in Uganda, when Capital FM is playing the latest rap? "Development topics are difficult", Margaret admits. "That's why we mix education, information with entertainment to reach the widest possible audience".

"Help after Rape"
Some thirteen million people live in the catchment area of MamaFM - a 400 kilometres radius reaching out from Kampala. But reception quality is often poor, so only about two million people listen to the sixteen hours a day of programmes in English and Luganda. They range from easy listening to all manner of advice on life and living. It can be practical advice, too. Take violence against women, which is widespread in Uganda. Agnes Tiisa, chief editor at Mama FM tells how one woman phoned the station recently to recount how her daughter had been raped. The aid organisation "Help after Rape" got in touch immediately afterwards to offer the girl support. "We do provide practical help" says Agnes proudly.

MamaFM urges women listeners to phone the station's journalists with their problems and questions. But many are still afraid to do so. One woman with a health question believes she ought to ask her husband before calling in. Others simply lack the technical, or financial, means. "Many women would like to call us", says Agnes, "but don't have the money. Others have no radio at home, because it belongs to the husband and he takes it into town every day."

Many of the callers are men
MamaFM has long since distributed radios to the fifteen MamaFM fan clubs throughout the country. But cultural taboos remain strong. Women have been brought up to let men do all the talking. "We have to teach them that they too have the right to express an opinion, to discuss openly subjects that concern them", says Agnes.

Male dominance in Ugandan society has created something of a paradox at this women's station. Many of the callers are men. Only the previous day, a taxi driver had told me about his idea of "domestic discipline for women" - beatings included! Are Uganda's conservative men now up in arms over MamaFM? "No", says Agnes Tiisa, "many men phone in and say violence against women is wrong. The men who call us are anything but aggressive". It wasn't always like that. When the station first went on the air, many men feared they were heading towards domestic strife. "But after a few weeks", says Agnes with a smile, "they realised that we weren't there to stir up unrest - we were simply broadcasting for everybody".

It is now 11 a.m. Programme presenter Christine, production assistant Monica and William the technician are preparing the morning programme "Rise and Shine". The name says it all. "Get out of bed and on with your day. Yesterday is over and done with. Today is a new day. Let's make the best of it" - that's the message the programme wants to convey.

"MamaFM is different"
Christine is one of sixteen journalists on the team. She studied journalism at Makerere University and now works for MamaFM - for nothing. The young radio station can't afford to pay her. But why doesn't this young journalist go to another radio station, where they would at least pay her pocket money.

"MamaFM is different" says the twenty four year old with a sparkle in her eyes. "At Capital, they just report on stars and politicians, the president said this, the minister said the other. We do things differently. When a new law is passed, we explain to ordinary people what it means, how the law will be affecting their lives in two years' time".

"What's life like at a women's radio station?"
At MamaFM, Christine has the freedom to do more or less what she likes. She is the parliamentary correspondent and recalls with relish a speech last year made by vice president Kazibwe when she publicly accused her husband of abuse. A revolutionary act in Africa. "Everybody applauded, we thought it was wonderful that she had so much courage", Christine recalls. (Uganda's men were less enthusiastic - "now our women will make life hell for us", one taxi driver told me at the time.)

William (below) the studio technician who also doubles up as a DJ, has just opened his programme in Luganda, the second language broadcast by MamaFM after English. "What's life like at a women's radio station", I ask the DJ with the obligatory baseball cap. "It's great fun", he says. "It's a challenge", he says "but I like challenges that's I why I enjoy being here. We talk about our programmes, what's in them, and everybody says what they think, whether man or woman.

It is the studio equipment that causes him the most headaches. Most of it was donated by the Norwegians, but on the CD player I see sticker that says "Bayerische Rundfunk" (Bavarian Radio). "The equipment's ok", William says diplomatically. "But this CD player does make life difficult at times. Would be great if we could get a new one!"

"We wept...their families wrenched apart"
Meanwhile Margaret is working on the next edition of their monthly paper "The other voice". It looks at the how the fighting in northern Uganda is affecting the lives of the people who live there. Rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army, led by psychopath Joseph Kony, have been waging a brutal guerrilla war against the government near the city of Gulu for the last seventeen years. Their strategy consists largely of abducting children and forcing them to fight or to work as sex slaves. They terrorise whole swathes of the country.

Margaret and a few of the other journalists from "The other voice" have just returned from the north and are still trying to come to terms with what they saw. "We wept", she said. "One day these people are leading perfectly normal lives, the next day their families have been wrenched apart. They can no longer cultivate the ground, so the women try to survive somehow. But they often fall into the hands of the rebels, are kidnapped, raped or killed.

Ugandans in the south seem to show little interest in the human rights abuses in the north. The Uganda Media Women's Association wants to make people aware of what is really going on there. It has set up partnerships with local women's groups. "The other voice" intends to report regularly on the conflict.

Limited interest shown by advertisers
My time with MamaFM and Margaret (below) is now at an end. She now has another appointment - with one with her western donors, which incidentally include Germany's Friedrich Ebert and Konrad Adenauer foundations. Finding money for the station is a big problem. It is only of limited interest to advertisers and the government doesn't hand out subsidies.

10 years of Uganda Media Women's Association, 3 years of MamaFM. But what is life like for women in Uganda? I pop the question to Margaret just before I leave. "We have a long way to go", she says soberly. "Slowly, women are beginning to speak out. The government just pays lip service to women's rights. They still believe women are not suited for leadership or management". Then she says determinedly: " We must carry on fighting."

It's all in a name
That is exactly what Margaret and her fellow activists intend to do. They are not just relying on aid from western donors but also on their good name. It's on everybody's lips. As Agnes Tiisa explains: "The name MamaFM is simple and catching. After all everybody loves their mama, don't they? All will turn out well in the end..."

Who would wish to contradict her?

Kampala, 8th December 2003.