ACP-JOURNAL /
PILOT-PROGRAM 001
TO BE
OLD IN AFRICA
MUSIC: Hugh
Masekela
KJS:
"Bridging the Gap "
MUSIC: Hugh
Masekela
KJS:
A multimedia-project of Radio Bremen with partners in Africa and
in Europe
MUSIC: Hugh
Masekela
KJS:
My name is Klaus Jürgen Schmidt. I lived in Africa for 16 years,
and I invite you to join me once a week in a virtual travel to
people on this continent. We are going to take a short cut
through the Internet. Almost everything on this radio program has
been found on Internet, and - if you want - you may continue your
own travel to Africa, reading, listening, watching. For this
purpose, we have prepared a website. This is the place where you
can involve yourself, mailing us questions but also sending us
souvenirs from your personal travel: stories and music from
Africa discovered on the worldwide web.
MUSIC: Hugh
Masekela
KJS:
I found this piece of African music on a website offering jazz
from around the world, the address is a bit complicated, but dont
worry, at the end of todays travel I shall announce a
simple one which will allow access to all other web-addresses
which we are going to visit today.
Hugh Masekela, the trumpet-man from Africa. He was born in 1939
near Johannesburg. Already in an early age, his music was meant
to fight apartheid. As a result, he was forced into exile, and
there in the United States of America, it was Harry Belafonte who
urged him to return home to South Africa. "Smooth Africa"
is the title of this CD, with this piece by and with Hugh
Masekela, found on Internet.
MUSIC: Hugh
Masekela
KJS:
Will you still need me, will you still feed me when Im
64? This line from a Beatles-song is touching a fear which
seems to be not so much concerned with death but with our worries
to loose love and respect once we are old.
In China, a daily greeting goes like this: "Grow 100 years
of age" which is expressing the longing for a satisfying
life.
However, in less than 50 years rich and poor countries alike will
be populated by a majority of old people. Increasing life
expectancy and shrinking birth rates are reasons for it. And,
this trend is picking up very fast in the developing world; old
people there are already the poorest of the population.
Young journalists in Zimbabwe, a country in southern Africa,
receive a training which helps them to tell authentic stories
from within their own cultures to a worldwide audience. Such
training is provided by Radio Bridge Overseas, a media
organisation where I helped to bring together African colleagues
with young journalists from Europe. As a result of this
internship program, African audio stories are now available in
several language versions, for radio and for Internet.
George Msumba of Radio Bridge Overseas worked with Mathias
Wevelsiep, Beate Schallenberg, Jörg Kruse und Michael Hesse from
Germany. They travelled through Zimbabwe in search for stories
about old people
INSERT
/ RADIO BRIDGE OVERSEAS
Feature 1: Old Malawian Immigrants in Zimbabwe
MUSIC: Stella
Chiweshe
KJS:
Stella Chiweshe - "The Queen of Zimbabwean Mbira".
Mbira, this is an instrument with little metal tongues which you
snip with your fingers in a calabash, this is a dried pumpkin.
It was in 1963 when Stella Chiweshe begun to learn this way of
making music from an uncle of her mother. And, she faced
immediately some problems because, traditionally, the Mbira-music
is connected to spiritual ceremonies which are the domain of men.
Zimbabwes independence in 1980 was somehow of help, since
then Stella Chiweshe is an international star, but her play, even
during public concerts, remains as a spiritual seance. Together
with her husband, she lives now in Germany.
MUSIC: Stella
Chiweshe
INSERT
/ RADIO BRIDGE OVERSEAS
Feature 2: An old peoples home in Zimbabwe
MUSIC: The
African Rhythm Messengers
KJS:
Afro-Beat, another finding on Internet. The African Rhythm
Messengers with their new CD "BOTTOM BELLÉ", combining
different styles of West African dance hall music.
MUSIC: The
African Rhythm Messengers
KJS:
Liberia in West Africa is a state which was founded in 1847 by
former black slaves from America who took the constitution of the
U.S.A. as a model.
In December 2000, the US-state-office published, on Internet, a
still valid warning for American citizens not to travel to
Liberia. The situation there remains insecure since a military
uprising in 1980; activities of rebels did cause refugee problems
within the border areas of Northwest Liberia and of the
neighbouring countries Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Typical Africa, you may think. However, it is this country
Liberia where the Internet-Radioservice "Inter World Radio"
found a successful project for old people. On the Internet from
Monrovia: Sam Howard.
INSERT
/ INTER WORLD RADIO
Feature 3: How old people in Liberia get a chance to read and to
write
MUSIC: The
Beating Heart of Africa
KJS:
"The Beating Heart of Africa", as presented on Internet
from a new CD-collection of New Life Records.
All Links on Internet with regard to todays travel to
Africa, and with offers to participate in programming, can be
found at:
www.radiobridge.net/links/multimedia.html
You are listening to a production of Radio Bremen with partners
in Africa and in Europe.
I am Klaus Jürgen Schmidt, and I invite you to join me in the
next virtual travel to Africa - next week, at the same time.
MUSIC: The
Beating Heart of Africa
END