Voices Newsletter
African Broadcasters Write Award-winning Radio Scripts Featuring the Millennium Development Goals
July 2006, No. 78
EARLIER THIS YEAR, radio broadcasters across Africa participated in a scriptwriting competition as part of a unique DCFRN and UNESCO joint initiative. Broadcasters were invited to submit scripts on one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). A total of 26 scripts from broadcasters based in 15 countries were received and evaluated by a panel of international judges. Each of the seven winning scripts and three runner-up scripts are included in package 78 and more information about the winners and runners-up can be found on page 2 of this issue of Voices.
The MDGs and Radio's Role in Meeting Them
In September 2002, all 189 Member States of the United Nations committed themselves to meeting eight MDGs. While it is nationstates that have committed themselves to meeting the goals, without local actions, efforts to achieve the MDGs will be ineffective.
The media has a unique and valuable role to play in helping to meet the MDGs. Sharing information is a critical part of changing attitudes. Offering an audience a sense of life in other communities – the problems they face, the solutions they find, the human dramas entwined with the issues – as well as the opportunity to share their own experiences with others over the airwaves, can be the birth of hope, solidarity, encouragement, and new possibilities.
Radio broadcasters are especially crucial in Africa, for it is radio that best reaches the rural poor. Radio bridges the divide created by distance and non-literacy and favours Africa's oral tradition.
The Winning Scripts and How They Address the MDGs
Goal #1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
More than 200 million food-insecure people live in sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 75% of them live in small-scale farming families. In sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion of people in extreme poverty (living on less than $1 per day) has grown from 45% to 46% over the last decade.
Poverty and hunger can only be effectively tackled by simultaneously taking many different kinds of actions. Script 1, Making Traditional Mustard in Moba Country, Togo, encourages two strategies for reducing hunger, increasing food security and improving the lives of farming families. First, the script offers a recipe for an income-generating opportunity. The additional income from selling value-added products such as traditional mustard can go a long way towards increasing food security for farming families. Second, it encourages the consumption of a product that promises to improve family nutrition. Healthier people are better able to care for themselves and their children, live more productive lives, and grow enough good food for the family.
Script 9, Our People, takes a different approach. Its powerful drama argues that, to meaningfully address poverty and hunger, local communities must have much greater control of development projects designed to benefit them.
Goal #2: Achieve universal primary education
Currently, more than 40% of children in sub-Saharan Africa, mainly those in poor rural areas, do not complete even one year of schooling. The teenage drama in Script 2, Fan Clubs for Education, asks listeners to imagine what would happen if the passion that is devoted to the game of football – the most popular sport in Africa – was channelled into a campaign to ensure that everyone in African communities achieves functional literacy.
Goal #3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Achieving gender equality and empowering women are aims that are absolutely central to the realization of all the MDGs. Women produce more than 80% of the food in Africa, and their social roles and responsibilities often make them disproportionately vulnerable to hunger. Gender equality is not simply socially desirable – it is a central pillar in the fight against poverty and hunger.
One way to help achieve gender equality is through actions that increase access to resources and opportunities for women. Script 3, Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, focuses on the ways in which women are deprived of property rights after the death of their spouses, and shows that, by acting together, women can raise awareness of these abuses in their communities and begin to claim their rights.
Goal #4: Reduce child mortality
Malnutrition is a contributing factor in more than half of all child deaths, including those caused by diarrhea, malaria, and pneumonia, and almost half of deaths due to measles. If infants were exclusively breast fed for the first six months of life and thereafter received appropriate complementary feeding, almost 20% of childhood deaths could be prevented. In all, adequate nourishment could prevent more than 2.5 million child deaths from disease annually.
Script 4, Nutritious Foods are Important for All Babies, Rich or Poor, shows that it is not only the children of the poor who are subject to malnourishment. Indeed, a committed and caring mother, though poor, can raise children who are far better off nutritionally than children of mothers who cling to the idea that their socio-economic status is better reflected by providing children processed formulas and cereals.
Goal #6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
In 2003, three million people died of AIDS, 2.2 million of them in Africa. Another five million people became infected with HIV. More than 39 million people carry the virus worldwide, 25 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa. More than two million children live with HIV, 15 million have been orphaned by the epidemic, and millions more have been made vulnerable by the illness of parents and family members.
Prevention must be the foundation and first line of defence against HIV/AIDS, for it is only through prevention of new infections that the disease can be brought under control. In Africa, the top priority is to produce social change by promoting open discussion of HIV, gender and sexuality; stimulating and supporting community mobilization; and combating stigma and gender inequality. It is particularly important to design programs that reach young people and respond to their distinct needs.
Script 5, School Without AIDS, is a short radio drama that is a good example of targeting school children with messages about HIV and AIDS. Script 8, Pass on the Message and Not the Virus, is a powerful village drama that tackles some of the more prevalent myths and preconceptions concerning HIV and AIDS, and highlights the cost of denying the seriousness of the disease.
Goal #7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Agricultural production, human health, and our very lives on this planet depend on nature's provision of resources for human use – good soil, clean water and clean air. Protecting the natural resource base is absolutely necessary to eradicate poverty and hunger. In sub-Saharan Africa, the major environmental issues are soil and land degradation, and depletion of forests and freshwater resources. These forms of environmental degradation can severely reduce the capacity of land and water to produce food for human consumption. Conversely, maintaining and enhancing land and water resources can help to ensure long-term food security for families and communities.
Script 6, Community Reforestation Brings Back the Rains in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana, offers a stark and powerful picture of the effects of deforestation on the life of a community, yet offers hope that a determined program of reforestation can bring life back to the community. Script 10, Local Experts Give Practical Advice to Care for the Environment, offers many useful tips for ensuring clean water, clean air and healthy soil.
Script #7, The Trial of the International Monetary System, addresses several of the MDGs, including goal #1, goal #3, and goal #4. The script is a drama that takes place in an imaginary court-room. In this court-room, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other defendants are on trial. They are accused of taking actions which, rather than benefiting the poor nations which they claim to help, are actually causing further damage – deepening poverty, contributing to continued injustice against women, and ignoring the serious situation of malnourished children.
The above scripts present innovative ways that radio stations, organizations and communities in different parts of Africa are mobilizing to address the MDGs. Even though the competition is over DCFRN would like to hear how your station or organization is contributing to the MDGs.
Information Sources
UN Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger, 2005. Halving Hunger: It can be done.
UN Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality, 2005. Toward universal primary education: investments, incentives, and institutions.
UN Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality, 2005. Taking action: achieving gender equality and empowering women.
UN Millennium Project Task Force on Child Health and Maternal Health, 2005. Who's Got the Power: Transforming health systems for women and children.
UN Millennium Project Task Force on HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, and Access to Essential Medicines, Working Group on HIV/AIDS, 2005. Combating AIDS in the developing world.
UN Millennium Project Task Force on Environmental Sustainability, 2005. Environment and human well-being: a practical strategy.
International Food Policy Research Institute, 2003. Agriculture, Food Security, Nutrition, and the Millennium Development Goals.
MDG Competition Winners and Runners-up
CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who entered the MDG scriptwriting competition. We had 26 entries from 15 countries in west, east, central and southern Africa!! The judges for the competition were Marcelo Solervicens from the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), Venus Jennings and Jocelyn Josiah from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and Gilbert Héroux, a DCFRN board member and Director General of Vanier College. The following are the winners for the different MDG categories:
MDG 1: Making Traditional Mustard in Moba Country, Togo. The script was written by Fati Labdiedo, the director of Radio Mecap Togo, which is located in Dapaong, Togo. Radio Mecap Togo is a community radio station run entirely by women. Its frequency is 90.5 FM, and it is a member of AMARC.
MDG 2: Fan Clubs for Education. The script was written by Pacome Tomètissi, the president of the Réseau de Réalisateurs et Journalistes pour Population et Développement (ReJPoD), located in Abomey Calavi, Bénin. ReJPoD is a non-profit organization that aims to mobilize people around development issues and is a DCFRN partner.
MDG 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women. The script was written by Rachel Adipo of the Ugunja Community Resource Centre (UCRC). UCRC is located in western Kenya. It is a community development NGO that serves Siaya District and neighbouring communities to promote sustainable development and empower communities through increasing access to information. UCRC is a DCFRN partner.
MDG 4: Nutritious Foods Are Important for All Babies, Rich or Poor. The script was written by Ncamsile Makhanjane of the Swaziland National Nutrition Council, which is located in Mbabane, Swaziland and is a DCFRN partner.
MDG 6: School Without AIDS. The script was written by Gladys Cécile Eba, the director of Odama FM. Odama FM is a community radio station located in Cameroon and is a DCFRN partner.
MDG 7: Community Reforestation Brings Back the Rains in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. The script was written by Kwabena Agyei of Classic FM, a private station located in Techiman, Ghana. Classic FM is a DCFRN partner.
Multiple MDGs: The Trial of the International Monetary System. Written by the Association of Community Radios in Mali (ARCOM), which consists of 30 community radio stations, several of which are DCFRN partners.
The Runners-up Are:
MDG 1: Our People. This script was written by Radio Ada, located in southeast Ghana. Radio Ada is a community radio station, a member of AMARC and a DCFRN partner.
MDG 6: Pass on the Message and Not the Virus. This script was written by Aaron Kah of Abakwa FM, located in Bamenda, Cameroon. Abakwa FM is a private radio station and a DCFRN partner.
MDG 7: Local Experts Give Practical Advice to Care for the Environment. The script was written by Saul Ndungo of Radio Fidemiel, based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Radio Fidemiel is a community radio station and a DCFRN partner.
Scriptwriting Tips
All MDG scriptwriting competition participants received feedback on how to improve their scripts from the judges and from Vijay Cuddeford, DCFRN's managing editor. DCFRN is always interested in working with partner stations to create radio scripts for its script packages (if you would like to write scripts related to agriculture and rural development issues, please contact Vijay at vcuddeford@farmradio.org, or send DCFRN a letter with your ideas). To assist broadcasters interested in developing scripts, the following is a compilation of feedback received by competition participants.
- Remember when preparing a script that radio is based on the oral tradition. The art of the storyteller includes strategic repetition, drama, surprise, timing, humour, etc.
- A radio story or message cannot be rewound like an audiocassette
or turned back like the pages of a book. The radio
scriptwriter, therefore, must ensure clarity, simplicity, and
repetition in the delivery of important messages or educational
information. To keep it simple and clear:
- try not to use long sentences or phrases when short ones will do; never use a long word when a shorter and simpler one will do. Avoid jargon – use words that everyone understands. If you must use technical language, explain it in terms the listener will understand;
- as you prepare your scripts, always read them out loud to yourself. There is a big difference between what works on the printed page and what works on radio. If it does not sound conversational and natural when you read it aloud, rewrite until it does;
- for the most part, when writing, remember that people with information to share or a story to tell should speak in their own voices, rather than have their stories retold by experts;
- keep individual speeches short, usually not more than three or four lines;
- don't be afraid to use humour and the unexpected once in a while. If done well, it will capture and keep people's attention;
- vary the lengths of sentences throughout the script.
- The role of the first line is to entice the listeners, to get them to listen. You should hint at what's to come without giving everything away. The first line also sets the tone for the script.
- The ending should tie the content of the script together, if possible relating back to the beginning.
- Often scripts are too
conceptual – they talk about ideas and not solutions. Even
if the writing contains great ideas, people often won't listen
unless you provide them with human stories to ground the
ideas in reality. It is therefore important to provide sensory
details when a host or character is telling a story or making
a point. When writing your script, ensure that the host talks
about what he/she heard, saw, felt, etc., so that the listeners
can sense his/her response.
- A good script should cater to the heart and the head, providing not only good information but also evoking an emotional response in the listener, usually through describing the reaction of the person being interviewed or of a character in a drama.
- One of the cardinal rules of good communication is "show, don't tell." Try to demonstrate benefits by, for example, "taking" farmers to other farmers who live elsewhere and who have increased yield, increased income, reduced labour, or otherwise benefited from a changed behaviour.
- If you want to do more than impart information and actually
promote changes in behaviour, it is not enough to tell your
audience what they should do, whether it be changing their
behaviour to lessen the risk of AIDS, changing their farming
practices to stop soil erosion, or any other kind of behaviour
change. It is important to:
- Provide good and logical evidence of the benefits of changing their behaviour, evidence that your audience relates to and finds convincing.
- Show that a person they can relate to (real or fictional) has changed their behaviour and achieved those benefits.
- Write scripts that can be easily adapted to involve members of the local community. For example, a health worker, farmer or agricultural extensionist who is known to the community is much more likely to attract the trust of listeners than someone they associate with a more formal setting.
- Always encourage listeners to go to appropriate local sources for more information on the subject treated, and provide the name and contacts for those people.
- When you have completed writing your script, some key
questions to ask yourself are:
- Is the language appropriate to the audience?
- Does your script invite the audience to participate in finding solutions to the issues you're addressing, or does it provide a top-down, expert answer which discourages community debate and participation?
- A reference to assist in developing scripts: Creating Content – on the DCFRN website.
East and Horn of Africa – Partner Profile
IN THE EAST AND HORN OF AFRICA, Farm Radio Network partners total 39 radio stations and organizations, representing nearly 14 per cent of the Network's 283 radio partners! Radio stations in this area broadcast in many different languages, including Wolaita, Amharic, Luganda, Lunyankole, Lugbara, Lwo, Afan Oromo, English, Kirundi, Arabic and Swahili.
Uganda, with 21 partners, holds the record for the country in this region with the most Network members. The longest standing partnership is with Radio Omdurman National Broadcasting Service in the Sudan, which has been a partner since 1994. Some of our new partners in this region include the Ugunja Community Resource Centre, Kachwekano FM and Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio.
Radio programs developed by our partners in this region (based on results from a 2003 network survey) focus largely on agriculture and the environment.
Number of Radio Partners per Country
Welcome New Network Partners!
- Radio Bangu – community radio station – Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Radio Rurale Locale Djimi – community radio station – Chad
- Radio Rurale Locale Soleil de Pala – community radio station – Chad
- Straight Talk Radio Show – Kenya
- In My Village Community Radio – community radio station – Malawi
- Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio – community radio station – Uganda
Share Your Stories With Us
Dear Partners: We hope you enjoyed the radio drama on desertification we sent you in our last mailing. Please let us know how you used the radio drama and what your listeners thought of it. We will share your stories with all DCFRN partners in a future edition of Voices.
A Unique Partnership for Sustainable Farming
By Ted O. Phido
The African Radio Drama Association (ARDA) has been an active Network member since it joined in 2000. In October 2005, DCFRN commissioned ARDA to write a special 13- episode serial on the issue of desertification. This marks the first time ARDA has dealt extensively with the important but often overlooked issue of farmers and their land.
Data Phido, Program Director of ARDA, describes the relationship between ARDA and DCFRN as symbiotic. "We may write scripts for DCFRN, but we also use a lot of their ideas for our own scripts," she said in an interview at her home recently. "We have used some of the old scripts on the DCFRN website and those sent with the regular packages to develop some of our own scripts." As an example, she mentions how ARDA used scripts in package #73 on the effect of HIV/AIDS on farm labour and community food security as the main resource for a recent serial, a Hausa language program called Kukan Kurciya.
Mrs. Phido's face lights up as she shows me the glossy, spiralbound volume that DCFRN sent to its members. It is the sum total of ARDA's effort, containing all 13 scripts of their anti-desertification serial, The Long Dry Season: A Tale of Greed and Resourcefulness. "I am very proud," she beams. The serial is based on 10 existing DCFRN scripts sent by Vijay Cuddeford, DCFRN's managing editor. "It made us more aware of the issues and the dangers of desertification," says Phido. "Once we understood the technical and scientific aspects, making it entertaining and simple to understand was a piece of cake." "A lot of work..." she laughs, remembering the sleepless nights at ARDA, "...but a piece of cake."
ARDA can be reached at:
Plot 211 Muri Okunola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.
Tel. ( +234 - 1) 470 5390, 471 0659, 270 5132
E-mail: ardaradio@21ctl.com | www.ardabroadcasting.org
Rock for Crops: Linkages Between Research and Radio Partners
By Heidi Braun
Richard Bwayo Katami, a Uganda Broadcasting Corporation radio presenter, interviews a farmer in Mbale, Uganda.
FROM MAY 15TH TO 17TH, a workshop hosted by the University of Guelph (Canada), in collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), provided a unique opportunity for furthering agricultural research and rural radio dialogue. Rocks For Crops: Linkages Between Research and Radio Partners brought together Rocks for Crops project partners and rural radio broadcasters and educators. Participants came from radio stations, NGOs, universities, and national agricultural research institutes in five African nations (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa) in order to meet face-to-face and better understand each other's work and information needs.
The Rocks for Crops project, started in 2004, is an initiative to develop learning materials about the potential for geological resources to be used in agriculture as lower-cost alternatives to chemical fertilizers. The project aims to improve soil fertility for small-scale farming in Africa.
The meeting also invited communication specialists who work in the fields of Radio for Development and Open Learning through Radio. Complementing previous events coordinated through the Linking Agricultural Research and Rural Radio in Africa (LARRRA) project, the workshop examined how radio could be a useful tool for scientists to share information with farmers.
The workshop began in Kampala, after which the group journeyed to Mbale, in beautiful Eastern Uganda. Dr. Peter van Straaten, an agrogeologist from the University of Guelph, facilitated a dynamic day of experiential learning. A chance to see local phosphate deposits and tour a small-scale vermiculite mine allowed participants to better understand the relationship between geology, soils and agriculture. Participants spent the last day in small discussion groups, developing plans for future collaboration and determining action-items to pursue once they returned home.
The workshop was a great success due to the diversity of participants who had traveled from Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Uganda and Canada, and because of the participants' enthusiasm for learning and sharing.
Making Rocks for Crops "Radio-Active"
During the field visit, Richard Bwayo Katami, a Uganda Broadcasting Corporation radio presenter for Lumasaba (Lugishu) language programming and a conference participant, took the opportunity to interview local community members. The testimony from a farmer who had participated in an on-farm trial of a vermiculite fertilizer was recorded in the local language to be aired locally.
Many of the participating scientists expressed their desire to partner with rural radio specialists in order to get their message out. Anthony Lwanga from Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio 91.7 in Western Uganda thought his listeners might be especially curious to understand the value of rocks for agriculture. Kibaale, explained Lwanga, means "big stone" in the local language.
James Onyango, of Kenyan NGO KAIPPG, is also from an area that is littered with rocks, which aren't much appreciated by local farmers. He explained that, "you'll find you're born when a rock is there, and die when the rock is still there!" James felt it would be important to raise awareness and educate farmers about the link between rocks and soils and the potential of specific rocks to benefit farmers' crops.
Stay tuned for the output from this successful workshop!
For more information about the Rocks for Crops project or to view and/or download extension materials, visit http://www.uoguelph.ca/rocks/. See also the DCFRN script about the importance of phosphorous for agriculture (Package 74) on our website.
Partner Profile
WHO: Anthony Lwanga, Station Manager
STATION: Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio
COUNTRY: Uganda
IN AFRICA, where families are large and caregiving is extended, it isn't common to be an only child. Yet, it seems that Anthony Lwanga, a radio broadcaster with Ugandan community radio station Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio (KKCR) FM 91.7 is a person whose life involves challenging social norms and helping others to attain their dreams for a better life.
Lwanga was born late in the life of his mother, a smallholder farmer living near Kagadi in western Uganda. Mama Anthony worked hard to help her son attain his Diploma in Education and he excelled in his Diploma majoring in English language and Literature at the National Teachers College. Anthony went on to study journalism in Tanzania at St. Augustine's University. His commitment to his home community connected him with Mwalimu Musheshe Sr., a rural development expert and founder of the Uganda Rural Development and Training Program (URDT). Lwanga is now finalizing a diploma in journalism and wants to pursue a university degree in local governance and human rights at Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi.
Opened in 1987, URDT offers an integrated rural development program in areas of functional literacy for all, higher education and skills training for girls, as well as human rights and economic initiatives that emphasize local self-reliance. URDT's community radio station, Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio (KKCR), plays a vital role in all that URDT does. On the air 365 days a year, 16 hours per day, KKCR broadcasts thousands of programs each year, reaching a listenership of four million people in a 100-mile radius around Kagadi. The station is run by 22 volunteers. URDT staff like Lwanga contribute towards the station's operations, including key areas such as volunteer training and researching programs.
As Station Manager, Lwanga works closely with the community to raise 60 per cent of the radio station's annual budget through subscriptions and announcements. In order to maintain the integrity of community ownership of the station air-time is rarely sold for random advertising. Lwanga explains how each sub-county in Kibaale has a slot to manage in the programming schedule to explore issues of relevance to their villages. "This encourages accountability in community radio, brings forward local content and shares their concerns within the larger district," says Lwanga.
One of KKCR's longstanding collaborators is Peter Sentaayi, Kibaale District Agricultural Officer. Each week Sentaayi and other subject matter specialists in education, health and women's issues have free airtime to respond to issues raised by the listeners and to bring forward new information. "One of the crucial issues at this time affecting agriculture is land rights even though it is a challenging area of discussion to facilitate," says Lwanga. "Using participatory methods of programming, including open discussions with local officials like Sentaayi, we can address the issues important to our community including the future of agriculture in an area where people can be dispossessed of their land rights. We offer an alternative form of dispute resolution through radio and face-to-face dialogue, and through URDT's training of local paralegals."
As the KKCR station equipment, originally contributed by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) in the mid-1990s, grows older and less appropriate for certain modes of broadcasting (including mobile telephone "call-in" programs), Lwanga is concerned with finding affordable technical as well as program support. Networking with organizations such as DCFRN is tremendously important. Other African radio stations in the DCFRN network face similar problems and they can share their experiences. No doubt, KKCR and Anthony Lwanga will continue to tackle these challenges successfully, working in close cooperation with rural communities of Kibaale District.
Written by Helen Hambly Odame, based on an interview with DCFRN Member Anthony Lwanga in Kampala, Uganda, May 18, 2006.
Introducing DCFRN's New Executive Director
We are pleased to welcome Kevin Perkins as the new Executive Director of Developing Countries Farm Radio Network.
Prior to joining us, Kevin was the Director of Programs for Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief (CPAR) in Toronto. He has a long history at CPAR, going back to 1989 when he was first hired as a Program Officer. He took a lengthy break from international work in 1997 when he joined a community economic development organization in the Riverdale area of Toronto. In this capacity, he established the ACCESS Riverdale Community Loan Fund and led the Riverdale Community Development Corporation as the executive director.
In 2003, Kevin established a new charity called CAP AIDS, dedicated to helping grassroots African organizations on the front lines in the fight to resist, survive, and overcome AIDS. He was the founding executive director of CAP AIDS, and continues to be its volunteer chair.
Kevin is moving to Ottawa with his wife Dawn Sheppard, and their three children, Jesse (14), Maddy (11) and Eva (9).
MDG CD-Rom Questionnaire Draw
AND THE WINNER of the draw and the MiniDisc recorder and microphone is...Radio FREED in Ghana!!! Thank you to everyone who filled in the questionnaire, providing insightful information about what scripts were useful, how the scripts were adapted to local context and language, the challenges faced in using the scripts, and innovative ways for addressing these challenges.
Over the next few weeks we will be analyzing the responses to the questionnaire and will share them with everyone in the next issue of Voices.
PARTNERS VISIT OTTAWA
L to R: Harouna Idé, Blythe McKay, Sanoussi Issoufou and Kevin Perkins meet in Ottawa.
Sanoussi Issoufou, the Director General of Radio R&M in Niamey, Niger, and the Director General of Agri-Sahel Service, visited DCFRN staff in Ottawa in June. Sanoussi was accompanied by a Nigerien broadcasting colleague of his, Harouna Idé, who is currently based in Montreal and producing programs for Radio Canada International.
