presents:
SIX STORIES FROM MOZAMBIQUE
© 1998 RADIO BRIDGE OVERSEAS TRUST

Beira, Mozambique's second largest city

The smell of excrements, covering the set up of this rotting city at the seaside like an invisible blanket, has guided us along the bizarre ruin of the Grand-Hotel, refuge for hundreds of families who live in burnt-out rooms and on broken balconies where bushes and trees found enough fertile ground.

A multi-storey-building in the city centre, nothing indicates that 2 floors are occupied by studios and offices of a radio station.

No electrical light assists in the staircase,
the hand-railings give way.
Shouting from playing children in the back yard.

He works with Radio Mozambique since 1975. That was the year when the marxist-leninist FRELIMO took power from the Portuguese, and with it the power over the radio system. Propaganda has been not unfamiliar to him. In 1963, he started at Radio Pax of the catholic church, the voice of the Vatican. The building here has been used by the Portuguese to indoctrinate radio listeners in the rural areas in their native languages. The fact that the whole city of Beira, including these radio-studios, have been developed a state of decay has something to do with the point of view as seen from Maputo, the capital in the South. Beira, and the whole north of Mozambique, are still being seen as stronghold of RENAMO, the former terrorist movement, now a political party in opposition to the government. All efforts of Austrian experts to develop radio into an instrument of teaching potential voters to participate in democratic elections have been in vain in this particular environment: RENAMO boycotted the first communal elections in May 1998. No chance to practice what radio taught.

Lucia Rodriguez (right) is head of a radio project in Beira which tries to achieve 2 objectives: to provide a forum for woman on radio, and to make radio programs accessible in indigenous languages. Portuguese, the official language, has never played a major role for people in the rural areas of Mozambique.

Christina Maria Patricio is 26, her colleagues at the other 2 desks in a former kitchen are of the same age. All 3 had no experience whatsoever in journalism. They were trained in courses organised by the Austrian North-South-Institute for Development Cooperation.
And how do they now identify their topics?
"We get to know what is happening through many organisations which deal with women issues, with health, with nursing of children."
Lucia Rodriguez and her partner from Austria are coordinating the topics for all 30 woman-reporters in all provinces. Once a month these young women have the possibility to travel for 5 days to the rural areas themselves, looking for women who want to participate in the discussion.

Name of project: "Radio Mozambique / Voice of Women"
Supported by: Austrian North-South-Institute for Development Cooperation, Vienna
Local partner: Radio Mozambique, Beira
Lucia Rodriguez

Listen / STORY 2 - / 07'56"
"How radio serves democracy - Broadcasting in Beira"

Christina’s colleague, Musha Gomez, has already received notice by Radio Mozambique to be employed. Every year, 10 journalists, trained and paid by the Austrian project, join the staff of the state-owned radio station. But they are living in an urban environment, what do they know about women in rural areas? "That is how we cope: We live in town, however we move out, because we know, it never happened that something from there has been on radio. And, because we use the same language, these women feel free to talk to us."



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THE RBO PRODUCTION TEAM:

Research & Interviews in Mozambique:
Victor Desajado, Emmanuel Camillo, Fortune Ncube, Klaus Juergen Schmidt
Scripts:
Victor Desajado, Fortune Ncube, Klaus Juergen Schmidt
RBO-Interns attached to research at Cahora Bassa:
Holger Bock, Olaf Krems, Morris Nyakudya
Presenter:
Victor Desajado, Fortune Ncube, Dadirayi Chigoya, Shorai Kariwa
Translation in Mozambique:
Victor Desajado, Emmanuel Camillo, Lucia Rodriguez, Christina Maria Patricio
Technical Supervision at RBO studio:
Norbert Irmer & Nenad Kuzmic
Administration & Logistics:
Jennifer Chiriga & Dadiray Chigoya
Managing Editor & Director:
Klaus Juergen Schmidt