RBO,
an African
non-governmental media
organisation based in
Harare, Zimbabwe, was the
medium through which a
South-North, South-South
dialogue had begun to be
achieved, with RBO acting
as the "bridge"
between various cultures
of the two hemispheres.
The development in
Zimbabwe forced a freeze
on all of RBO's
operations.
However, RBO and its
Editor offer —
through Internet —
advice and assistance for
emerging media
entrepreneurs in the
South ...
RBO war eine afrikanische,
unabhängige Medien-Organisation mit Sitz
in Harare, Simbabwe. RBO war das Medium,
durch das ein Dialog zwischen Süd und
Nord und zwischen Süd und Süd begonnen
hatte, mit RBO als "Brücke"
zwischen den verschiedenen Kulturen der
beiden Hemisphären. Die Entwicklung in
Zimbabwe machte ein Einfrieren aller
Operationen RBO's im Lande erforderlich.
Doch RBO und ihr Chefredakteur offerieren
— über das Internet —
weiterhin Rat und Unterstützung für
Medien-Aktivisten der Südwelt ...
THE
RBO-DECLARATION
DIE RBO-DEKLARATION
... click left!
... links klicken!
— just in English
because professional
storytellers want to be
understood widely
— nur auf Englisch,
weil sich professionelle
Geschichtenerzähler in
dieser Sprache
verständigen
Radio
als Demokratie-Einübung
KJS
war von 1985 bis 1988
für die Bonner
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
Leiter eines Projektes,
das bei der Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation
eine Bildungsradiostation
einrichtete
"Statt
Trommeln ...
Bildungsrundfunk im
südlichen Afrika"
Zwei
Videos über Aufbau und
Praxis des
ZBC-Radio4-Projekts
produziert von
FES-Technik-Berater
Wolfgang Möller
A
CAMBODIAN GUIDE TO LOCAL
RADIO
prepared
& presented by Klaus
Juergen Schmidt, Senior
Media Advisor / SES
Cambodia Communication
Institute, Royal
University of Phnom Penh
mission: 09.05. -
09.06.2005
Two
examples of RBO's pioneering
approach
to bridge cultures and to break
language-barriers within Africa
in an effort to provide education
to people by focussing on their
own experiences:
RBO produced in
October & November
1996 a series of 8 x
15-minute episodes titled
"MAKING IT
WORK" about use of
appropriate technology,
on ZBC (Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation)
Radio 4, which was also
aired in different
language versions in
Botswana, Kenya and
Ethiopia. Episodes in
this series were used as
a method of informing
policy-makers by
identifying and assessing
the demand for
sustainable technical
solutions in various
sectors of the developing
economies in East and
Southern Africa. The
programs were researched
on the spot and produced
in RBO's Harare-studios
in English, Shona and
Kiswahili. They were
designed to sensitize the
rural and urban poor to
the existence,
availability and
applicability of
appropriate technologies.
The series also
constructed a forum for
the cross-fertilisation
of ideas from around the
region through an
introduction in each
episode of a technology
and its usage in
individual countries of
the region.
This is RBO's most
successful
multimedia-production,
still downloaded by users
worldwide every other
day. ...
more
Another
24-episode series about
community-based
management of natural
resources called
"Kuchengetedza
Zviwanikwa" -
"LIVING IDEAS"
has been aired on Radio 2
of the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation
in 1998, with overvoiced
versions in other African
languages simultaneously
on air in Botswana,
Zambia and Namibia. This
series had the objective
of passing on knowledge
to the grassroots about
community-based natural
resources management by
illustrating various
community initiatives and
their benefits. Rural
communities from a
variety of countries in
the Southern African
region were provided with
a chance to exchange
ideas and experiences so
that they could learn
from each other. The
radio series covered
issues like traditional
knowledge and practice,
issues of legislation,
capacity building, and
community participation.
This
multimedia-production
involved, over a period
of 6 months, co-operation
of 8 RBO-interns from 4
African countries coupled
with 7 interns from
Germany. ...
more
Participate: RBO-Manual
for "Voices from the
South"
— with audio-stories for
download ...more
Mitmachen:
RBO-Anleitung für "Stimmen
des Südens"
— mit
Audio-Geschichten zum
Herunterladen...mehr
THE
ISSUE AT HAND
Access
to a growing range of
sophisticated communication
software, free of charge or at
low cost, allows people around
the world to use the Internet
individually as a medium to
interact with each other. They
are able to share and to exchange
information, they can talk to and
see each other. However, the
majority of the world’s
population is disconnected from
this mode of communication,
especially in rural areas. At
best, they may perceive their
view of the world through their
local radio station. A battery
run radio is their window to the
world. Connectivity is the
privilege of people participating
in Northern dominated economies,
whether in the North itself or in
urban centres of the South. The
emergence of cellphone-services
(e.g. "twitter") as
fast and mobile tools of
communication in a world of
urban-based political and social
upheaval seems to have triggered
a new interest of international
(Northern) media-agencies to
support training in the efficient
use of this technology. There are
already a good number of calls
for respective international
workshops and conferences. This
trend may, unfortunately,
perpetuate "the tragedy of
expanded communication and
diminishing dialogue"
because storytelling is something
else than microblogging with not
more than 140 characters.
If a
wider scope of local and
international community is to be
involved, 4 major factors need to
be addressed:
> You have to bridge cultural
differences
> You have to break language
barriers
> You have to make the content
accessible to an audience without
connectivity
> You have to make such a
regular event sustainable
"... We support
and encourage the emergence and
development of the Internet in
Africa as a media free of
government interference and
control in the context of a
pluralistic and independent
press. ..."
How it
all began
In July 1997, the London-based
Panos Institute and the
Panafrican News Agency organized
a seminar entitled "The
Internet: An Opportunity for the
African Media?", held in
Dakar (Senegal). Radio Bridge
Overseas (RBO), represented by
its Editor, helped to draft the
decisive
"Dakar-Declaration":
International NGO’s and
charity organisations dictated
the agenda, however generous
their intent may have been,
regarding broadcasters in Africa.
The latter rarely took advantage
of the opportunity as offered by
the Internet – to tell the
world their own stories from
their own perspectives. Instead,
the following list of topics is
addressed, obviously recommended
and sponsored by foreign donors:
– AIDS/HIV – human
rights – elections –
advocacy work – good
governance – civil society
– environment –
sustainable development –
gender/children – news &
events.
Such content, determined
exclusively by foreign
well-wishers, was not what we had
in our mind when we drafted the
"Dakar-Declaration". As
it turned out, perhaps only two
media-houses tried to grasp the
opportunity, to provide African
storytellers with a chance to
identify and to tell the world
their own stories: "Channel
Africa" in post-apartheid
South Africa, and "Radio
Bridge Overseas" in
Zimbabwe. Due to political
back-lashes in both countries,
such efforts have ceased to
exist. ...
