Learning by Ear and by Eye

Normally Learning by Ear is available via radio and the Internet. But for the Global Media Forum 2012 the producers rediscovered a medium that is much older: The stage. This novelty introduced the audience to the workshop „A Fun Way to Learn: Learning by Ear – Deutsche Welle’s Innovative Educational Programming for Africa and Afghanistan“. Thereby, the participants could experience a typical Learning by Ear story underlining the significance of education.

Karembo is the best student in her class, but her father wants her to quit school and help her mother with household chores. Karembo is desperate. That night, her baby brother, who is suffering from a stomach ache, cries the whole night. Karembo sleeps fitfully because of the noise. She dreams of a fake healer who is unable to cure her brother’s illness, and of an old man who wants to marry her. Luckily, when she wakes up in the morning, she receives good news. Her father has changed his mind and she can continue to attend school.

For this production, journalists of DW and members of the Learning by Ear staff in Bonn proved their acting prowess. The reporter Elizabeth Shoo from the Kiswahili Department played Karembo, Mantegaftot Sileshi, one of the Learning by Ear authors from the Amharic Department acted as the father and the international trainee Eric Segueda was the fake traditional healer. Even the author himself took part in the play: In the role of the old man- Chrispin Mwakideu from English for Africa and the Learning by Ear department.