Zambia: "Falling in Love with Radio in the African Bush" | Africa | DW | 11.12.2014
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Zambia: "Falling in Love with Radio in the African Bush"

How Zambia's Chikuni Radio touches hearts and changes lives with human development programming - by Eva Georgia, DW Akademie trainer in Zambia.

Sambia Chikuni Radio

Getting to work - Eva Georgia discusses human rights with Radio Chikuni's journalists

By the people for the people - this is one definition of community radio, and happens to be a definition I ascribe to. But in 25 years of trekking across the globe and working in and with community media, I haven't often seen it put into practice. In August this year, I had to journey deep into the African bush of Zambia - 226 kilometres south-east of the capital Lusaka - to once again feel the true pulse of community radio: a Catholic missionary station called Chikuni Radio, where "by the people for the people" isn't just a saying, it's a daily method. Excuse me for getting so emotional, but I'm head-over-heels in love with Chikuni!

Once we reach the regional capital Monze, it's still another 36 kilometres to remote Chikuni, the last 10 of those a challenging gravel road that appears to lead to nowhere. Remote maybe, but people have been scraping together an existence here since 1905, and today Chikuni is known in Zambia as a centre of excellence in education and health care. Over the years, the town's liberal Catholic Mission has built a proud community that boasts one of the country's top hospitals, one of the country's top high schools and one of the country's top colleges. All that is at the heart of Chikuni Radio's programming.

Local pride and dedication

Sambia Chikuni Radio Eva Georgia

An affectionate relationship - Eva Georgia, arm-in-arm with the Radio Chikuni team

My Zambian co-trainer Constantine Mwale and I arrive amongst the hustle and bustle of staff working feverishly to organize a huge weekend concert, which brings together more than ten thousand people from across the country. We look skeptically at each other: how are we going to get any training done in this hectic environment? Within minutes though, a group of eager, excited and willing participants gather before us and we create what can be best described as a "flexible" work schedule, taking their concert organization duties into account. The concert is an annual highlight, and Chikuni Radio has a reputation to defend.

We're here within the framework of a project commissioned by Germany's development organization, GIZ, and conducted by Germany's leading media development organization, DW Akademie. The aim is to improve the standards of reporting on human rights among Zambian journalists - Chikuni Radio is one of the community stations taking part. Constantine and I quickly establish that Chikuni's journalists know enough about human rights but aren't quite sure how they apply to the everyday lives of their listeners. The theory's there, but hundreds of question marks surround how to translate it all into practice. The beauty of our training however is that here at Chikuni it falls on unbelievably fertile ground.

Old traditions and new technology

Sambia Chikuni Radio Eva Georgia

Eva Georgia also works as a DW Akademie trainer in Namibia.

The radio's staff have organized local residents into groups that produce weekly stories relevant to their lives, culture and human development. This is the land of the Tonga people, a land of farmers and traditional village chiefs. When Chikuni Radio began broadcasting in the year 2000, it weaved itself into that rich human fabric, setting up 55 listening clubs in more than 20 different villages. With one or two exceptions, the station has managed to maintain the exact same body of volunteers ever since. Why? Because the community itself produces content. By the people for the people.

Here's how it works: 10 citizen journalists - trained by Chikuni Radio - ride down dusty gravel roads on bicycles sponsored by the station to collect village news. The stories are recorded or noted down by hand and carried back by bike to the station, where the staff help the contributors write and record their items using state of the art equipment and studios. Separately, the village listener groups rotate recorders provided by Chikuni Radio, in order to collect, produce and host their local stories on a weekly radio show. In the true African tradition of mixing the old with the new in the most original ways, it´s a marvellous marriage of digital broadcasting technology with the very oldest form of communication: mouth-to-mouth snail mail, keeping alive the informal relaxed magic of the spoken word.

With the sovereign approval of the village chiefs, these volunteers and citizen journalists - mostly women, of all ages - take great pride in fulfilling their duties and giving a voice to their communities. And that perfectly matches Chikuni Radio's broadcasting philosophy that all its stories must come from outside, from the hearts of their listening communities.

During the training, we're confronted with some of Chikuni Radio's daily challenges, making their achievements even more spectacular. Something as basic as electricity, for instance, isn't readily available. The Catholic Mission's visionary leader, Father Andrew, has the station operating on solar power, allowing Chikuni Radio to broadcast uninterrupted from 5 am to 11 pm every day. The Mission's many other green solutions enable staff to function largely without electricity until 5:30 pm when it starts getting dark.

From the heart of the community

We make fast progress with our group of community journalists and volunteers - Chikuni's staff are well organized, hard-working, dedicated and very much in touch with their local communities. Many of them already have advanced skills, since everyone here is trained to do everything. As we move from the basics of modern radio formats to story-mapping and production work-flow, we begin investigating the region's major human rights story: child labour.

It's a delicate issue because age-old cultural norms in the surrounding villages dictate that young children crush stones all day long … under the hot sun … without food or water. This provides some of the raw materials their parents use to make the bricks they then sell. Some children also have to collect and carry water for their parents, in 20-litre containers, walking as far as 12 kilometres with their loads – we saw a four-year-old walk past. Identifying and analyzing the human rights aspect of such realities was a new approach for our group, and a welcome one.

During our brief coffee breaks, the participants tell us more about Chikuni Radio's prolific output. The station broadcasts a ground-breaking education programme, "Taonga Radio School", which airs reading and writing lessons for primary school pupils. Teachers across the region use the 30-minute radio lessons to great effect, according to recent research. Another programme, "Home Based", is centred around the Home Based Care Center for people living with HIV, located within walking distance of the station. People with HIV record and produce their own weekly testimonials at support groups, which are broadcast during the programme - over the years, this has helped to eliminate the stigma around HIV. Once a month, Radio Chikuni also hosts live community debates, rotating from one village to the next. The debates are often recorded under a tree, with anything up to a thousand local listeners attending.

Taking ownership

The principle is always the same: give a voice to simple members of the region's communities, let them tell their own stories and build their own identities. Chikuni Radio provides its rural communities with a safe and productive platform for social dialogue. It's a benevolent and responsible megaphone for their concerns, challenges, successes and debates.

Let me repeat this: Chikuni Radio is for the people by the people. It is the truest form of community radio I've come across in my lifetime. Perhaps you can now understand why I'm in love and why our training mission was a walk in the park. Or rather, a walk in the amazingly fertile Zambian bush!

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  • Date 11.12.2014
  • Author Eva Georgia
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  • Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/1E284
  • Date 11.12.2014
  • Author Eva Georgia
  • Print Print this page
  • Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/1E284