The Unbreakable Bond: How Radio Continues to Thrive and Connect Communities in Africa
Africa needs radio that brings together and informs communities, rather than radio that spreads disinformation and incites hatred, writes John Masuku as the world celebrates over a century of radio.
By John Masuku
In addition to combating poverty and illiteracy, and fueling linguistic diversity, radio in Africa has played a significant role in supporting fierce liberation movements against enduring colonial rule. With its affordability, reliability, and widespread accessibility, it has effectively raised awareness, galvanized action, and disseminated information among the masses, empowering them to strive for the realization of independent, transparent, and democratic nations.
Radio is undeniably surviving in the digital age, just as it successfully weathered the rise of television with all its glitz and glamor. It appears to be unfazed by the rapid growth of social media and artificial intelligence, instead embracing these technologies to disseminate news and programming to diverse audiences as advancements in information communication technology are also making their mark on the continent.
“Radio in Africa is part of broadcasting systems inherited from colonial governments,” explains Winston Mano of the University of Westminster in London. “Most publicly funded radio stations still enjoy the monopoly status in return for national transmission.”
Connecting communities
According to Lumko Mtimde, former chief executive officer of the Media Diversity and Development Agency (MDDA), a government-industry partnership in South Africa, radio plays a crucial role in connecting with local communities as it often serves as the primary mass media platform.
“Even prior to democratic elections in South Africa [in 1994], radio through [Short Wave stations] of liberation movements such as Radio Freedom of the African National Council (ANC) and local pirate stations like Radio Zibonele and Bush Radio gave an alternative voice to that of the then apartheid era governing National Party.”
Radio has revolutionized the way citizens engage in participatory democracy, Mtimde, also a former Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) councilor, said. By offering a two-way platform of communication, it has empowered individuals from all walks of life to have their voices heard and fostered collaboration among various social partners.
Liberation movements in Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and other parts of the continent strategically employed covert radio stations to disseminate revolutionary messages from neighboring and distant nations, with the aim of raising awareness and rallying the masses for the impending war.
Justin Mwanza of Breeze FM in Chipata, Zambia believes that “radio contributes in so many ways as an information provider to support national development as it has the ability to influence people’s thinking and actions.”
Sekibakiba Peter Lekgoathi, a researcher at Wits University in South Africa, highlights also the significant role of radio in preserving local languages and cultural identities. In the post-colonial era, where English continues to dominate as the language of authority and education, Lekgoathi emphasizes the need for promoting indigenous languages through the medium of radio. In a 2018 study, Lekgoathi wrote: “African language radios such as Ikwekwezi FM continue to play a key role not only in terms of preserving African languages but also in deepening democracy by enabling the non-elite people on the margins of power, schooled and unschooled, to participate in political discourse, particularly through talk shows and other forms of cultural programming.”
Radio has played a crucial role in the integration of community development projects, facilitating communication and enhancing access to vital services such as health, education, agriculture, and various social initiatives. By establishing radio listening clubs in different districts, marginalized rural women have been empowered, granting them a voice and enabling access to essential information.
In an initiative spanning from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, the Development Through Radio (DTR) project provided training to rural women in Zimbabwe to create their own radio programs, which were then aired on national radio and eagerly consumed by various clubs. The project was later replicated in numerous other countries including Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, and beyond.
In the years to come, a majority of these projects joined forces with community radio stations that were set up in their respective areas, reaping the benefits that came with it. The true strength of a community radio lies in its ability to connect with individuals who have limited or no access to information. Furthermore, community radios have proven to be effective platforms for preserving and promoting oral traditions. In Bandafassi, a town in Senegal, “the community radio broadcasts stories and proverbs, traditional music and the history of the various villages,” reaching out to “traditional singers and griots, and local villagers with knowledge of medicinal plants,” according to a report issued by UNESCO.
School broadcasts produced by education ministries have also become increasingly popular, becoming a vital resource for numerous remote communities that lack access to reading materials or are grappling with the effects of pandemics, wars, and floods. Teachers undergo training to master the art of scriptwriting for radio lessons and enhance their vocal skills to ensure effective broadcasting.
Ace Radio School in Nigeria, a prime illustration, was established in March 2020 as a response to the pressing educational needs of children residing in underserved regions. Hindered by the closure of schools during the Covid-19 pandemic, these children were unable to partake in online learning from the comfort of their homes. As the year 2021 ushered in a new academic session, the ACE Radio School has shifted its attention towards delivering quality education to out-of-school children who were deprived of access to formal educational structures.
Radio’s uglier face
Unfortunately, radio has also proven to be a potent tool for disseminating misinformation and fostering a sense of insecurity in Africa.
Back in April 1994, Rwanda was plunged into darkness as a sinister call echoed through the airwaves, setting off a catastrophic chain of events that would forever stain the nation’s history. The haunting call, which spread like wildfire across radio stations, marked the beginning of a horrifying 100-day genocide that claimed the lives of over one million people. Henriette Mutegwaraba, a survivor of this horror, recounts the harrowing details of how propaganda, fueled by messages of hatred, ignited a deadly wave of violence that tore families apart. Speaking to UN News, Mutegwaraba reveals the heart-wrenching truth of losing 60 of her loved ones in the midst of this mass slaughter. “It was terrifying,” she said, adding that the seeds of this atrocity were sown long before April 1994, with the government systematically disseminating anti-Tutsi propaganda through various media channels, such as newspapers and radio broadcasts, as early as the 1990s.
“They were encouraging everyone to go to every home, hunt them down, kill kids, kill women,” said Mutegwaraba. “For a long time, the roots of hatred ran very deep in our society.”
In a bid to bolster peacebuilding initiatives worldwide, the United Nations has established radio networks in conflict-ridden regions, a move aimed to guarantee that communities in these areas have unfettered access to reliable and authentic sources of information.
These stations operate as part of UN peacekeeping missions. They include Radio Miraya in South Sudan, Radio Okapi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guira FM in the Central African Republic, and Radio Mikado in Mali, said Douglas Coffman from the UN in an interview on World Radio Day 2023.
In a display of unwavering confidence, Mtimde, once the vice president of the World Association of Community Radio Stations (AMARC) representing Southern and East Africa, encapsulated the future prospects for radio’s survival: “Radio is powerful, it speaks to big numbers of listeners at once without depending on data. It relies on the public resource and frequency spectrum for free. Digital platforms will complement the frequency spectrum and therefore, won’t kill radio.”
John Masuku, a Zimbabwe-based broadcast journalist and media expert, is a fellow with the Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC).
