Broadcasting from Beyond Borders

Established in 2005, the Chadian and Sudanese staff at Internews produce news, music, and community programming in Arabic, French, and local languages such as Massalit and Zaghawa. One particularly influential program, Elles Parlent, Elles Écoutent, or “She Speaks, She Listens,” is produced for female Darfuri refugees and local Chadian women. The program addresses taboo topics such as forced youth marriage, teenage pregnancy, female genital mutilation, and rape. Mark Frohardt, vice president for Africa, Middle East, Health and Humanitarian Media at Internews, said audiences are “fascinated” by these radio programs which, more than just breaking the boredom of refugee life in temporary homes of mud brick and plaster, empower listeners.

Frohardt believes community radio is particularly important for refugee populations. “Refugees are some of the most disempowered people in the world. They often have no control over their livelihood, how they are governed or when and where they travel. Most importantly, they can’t go home. To hear news and information about your community, to hear your neighbor’s voice or possibly your own voice on a broadcast, and to hear it in your own language is incredibly empowering. In some ways it is almost like being home.” Frohardt said when Internews began broadcasting in Massalit, people would stand in groups holding small radios next to their ears “like iPods” because they were so excited to hear radio programs in dialects they understood.

Sudan Radio Service, which claims to be the first source of trustworthy, independent, and unbiased radio programming to reach across Sudan, broadcasts from Nairobi, Kenya. While some of the program staff works from bureaus in Juba and Khartoum, such information is necessarily broadcast from beyond Sudan’s borders.

The station takes a journalistic approach to programming, emphasizing the importance of well-trained journalists and balanced coverage. It provides in-depth weekly coverage in ten languages on politics, the peace process, development issues, health, and agriculture. Sudan Radio Service Manager John Tanza Mabusu hopes the programming will contribute to an informed civil society. “The politicians do not listen to the people on the ground,” he explained. “But if the people know what the conditions of the government and the peace process are, they will be able to become stakeholders.”

Community Radio Crafts a New Future

With radios glued to their ears, the Sudanese people demonstrate their eagerness to participate in shaping the future of their country.

Dave Peterson, senior director of the Africa Program at the National Endowment for Democracy, said he thinks bringing free and independent radio to Sudanese listeners is crucial for progress and peace in the region. “They get excited, it gives them hope, it gives them tools to start working with.”

Groce of Sudan Radio Service explained that media assistance may also force government concession. “As long as there are other outlets, the state media will have to change in order to keep up,” he said, suddenly optimistic. “People are so hungry for information that state media will have to change the way they provide news and information.”

Media development may in fact bring peace to this divided land. The smiling children who gather around Oumar’s radio interview at the Iriba refugee camp, and the Sudanese refugees who listen to their handheld radios in their tents each night, are witnessing and partaking in a revolution of the marginalized, aided by media development groups, staged on the airwaves.

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