Issue #17

Hello to all!

We are very excited to bring you this issue of Farm Radio Weekly. It is a special issue for us because much of it has been contributed by “you� – by which we mean members of the Farm Radio Weekly community.

Greg Modestus of the Africa Radio Drama Association in Nigeria brings us a report on an issue that has affected countless women farmers – the loss of family land following a husband’s death. He spoke with members of an organization called the Dynamic Women’s Group, who live up to their name by advocating for women’s land rights and undertaking many other activities in support of disadvantaged women farmers.

Emily Arayo, National Coordinator for the African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI) in Uganda, wrote in to share her experience with a workshop that introduced more Ugandan broadcasters to Farm Radio Weekly.

We have also researched two other news stories that we hope you’ll find interesting: one about a group of farmers petitioning their government to prevent gold mining near their community; another about a colourful niche crop pursued by some farmers – butterflies. We close this issue with a third and final preview of DCFRN script package 83, providing the full text of a two-part radio drama on the subject of maternal health.

When we began Farm Radio Weekly, one of our goals was to help build a community of African rural radio broadcasters. So please continue to write to us at farmradioweekly@farmradio.org, to tell us how you would like to contribute to future issues of Farm Radio Weekly. And don’t forget to visit the FRW website, http://farmradio.org/english/weekly/, to post your comments about this week’s issue!

Happy reading!

-The Farm Radio Weekly Team

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African Farm News in Review

1. Nigeria: Group advocates for women farmers’ rights (By Greg Modestus, for Farm Radio Weekly, in Nigeria)

2. Ghana: Farmers say gold mine would disrupt their livelihoods (Public Agenda, Oxfam America)

3. Kenya: Butterfly farming takes wing (The Nation)

Upcoming Events

-April 14-25: Two-week radio editing course offered in Nairobi

Radio Resource Bank

-A guide for using drama scripts

DCFRN Action

-Workshop introduces Ugandan broadcasters to FRW
(Contributed by Emily Arayo, National Coordinator for AFRRI Uganda)

DCFRN Script of the Week

-Maternal health drama

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In Catherine Chukwuma’s community, tradition dictates that women cannot own land. According to traditional beliefs, women belong to their fathers or husbands – therefore they have no right to property of their own. This tradition devastated Mrs. Chukwuma when her husband died and her husband’s brothers took over her family’s land.

Throughout her marriage, Mrs. Chukwuma worked the small fields in the Ogbaku community of Imo State, in southeastern Nigeria. The family’s entire livelihood depended on the cassava they produced. But when she became a widow, Mrs. Chukwuma lost the ability to support herself and her three children. Her male children may have a chance to obtain some of the land when they are older – but for four years, she relied on family and neighbours for food. She had no means to pay the children’s school fees. Her fortunes finally changed when she was connected with the Dynamic Women’s Group.

The Dynamic Women’s Group was formed by married and widowed women determined to improve the livelihoods of women farmers in their community. Their primary concern was traditional practices that are out of step with state laws that provide women with “equality under the law.� When the group heard of Mrs. Chukwuma’s situation, they decided to take it to the traditional council. The council heard about how the loss of land following her husband’s death had hurt her and her children. The council decided to overturn the harmful tradition in this case, and Mrs. Chukwuma got some of her land back.

Mrs. Ugorji Ogechi is a lawyer and leader of the Dynamic Women’s Group. She said that the abuse of women’s land rights motivated her and other community women to form the organization. Since 2002, the organization has been improving women farmers’ lives by working with traditional and constitutional authorities. In cases of injustice, it seeks to apply dialogue rather than protest and demonstration. This approach has made Mrs. Ogechi and the Dynamic Women’s Group a force for women’s rights in the Ogbaku community.

Apart from its work through government and legal systems, the association has many other programs to support women farmers. The Dynamic Women’s Group helps widows with little farmland to rent additional land during the farming season. Widows and other disadvantaged women farmers are also supported to access cassava stems for planting. The group also reaches out to disadvantaged adolescent girls, helping them to obtain formal education and skills training.

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The glitter of gold holds no appeal for a group of farmers living near a proposed mine in Ghana’s Eastern Region. They are more concerned with the cocoa, palm, and citrus crops that grow on their plantations.

A mining company called Newmont Gold Ghana Limited recently secured a government permit to operate in a forest reserve. They plan to invest more than half-a-billion American dollars (more than 300 million Euros) to develop the country’s largest strip mine.

Most of the proposed mining activity would take place in the Ajenjua Bepo Forest Reserve. According to company plans, 74 hectares of forest would be destroyed to dig the mine and accommodate the pile of materials removed from the ground. An unknown number of nearby households would be displaced, and farmland taken over by the company.

More than 200 farmers have banded together to oppose the mine. They signed a petition calling on the government to withdraw the company’s permit. The farmers say that the forest improves rainfall in the area. By removing trees, the mining company will disrupt local weather patterns, they argue. The group fears that their crops will suffer.

In the petition, the farmers also cited concerns that they would not be well compensated for their land. Some cocoa plantations were purchased by the company while it researched the area’s mining potential. According to the petitioners, these farmers were paid less for their land than they could earn in one year of cocoa production.

Robin Budden is General Manager of Environment and Social Responsibility for Newmont’s proposed new mine. He says the mining company has not completed negotiations with the communities that will be affected by the project. Mr. Budden also suggested that farmers should ensure they are well represented in these negotiations.

Newmont Gold Ghana Limited already operates a gold mine in the Brong-Ahafo Region. In the first phase of this mining operation, the company relocated 10,000 people, most of whom were small-scale farmers. Alongside mining operations, the company supports various projects aimed at restoring the livelihoods of displaced people.

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Clavion Mwachola says that most people think he’s weird. They wonder about his unusual hobby – a hobby that he turned into a business. Mr. Mwachola is a butterfly farmer. As such, he spends much of his time tending to captured butterflies and caterpillars. It’s a delicate operation, but one that yields good profits. Butterfly farming earns Mr. Mwachola up to 10,000 Kenyan shillings (about 160 American dollars, or 100 Euros) a week. And in time, there may be few people in his district who think his business is strange. That’s because some 900 farmers in the Taita-Taveta District of Kenya’s Coast Province are preparing to take up butterfly nets and enter the niche market.

There has long been a limited market for silk-producing butterflies. But butterflies are now increasingly valued for their beauty and unique characteristics. Over the past two decades, demand for captured butterflies has grown as more and more live butterfly exhibits crop up around the world. Farmers in tropical countries are taking advantage of this trend by selling the butterfly species unique to their area.

In the Malida District of the Coast Province, more than two dozen butterfly farming groups have formed. They are part of the Kipepeo Project, which sells to butterfly exhibitors and silk producers worldwide. Butterflies farmed in Taita-Taveta District will also be linked to international buyers through the Kipepeo Project.

Conservation groups also have a growing interest in butterfly farming. James Mwang’ombe is Project Coordinator for the Taita-Taveta Wildlife Forum. He says there are nine butterfly species in the Taita forests that are not found anywhere else in the world. Exhibitors value such rare specimens. And butterfly farming may help to preserve them in the wild. Butterflies are threatened by forest destruction. But locals who take up butterfly farming gain a new incentive to preserve the forests. The training of butterfly farmers in Taita-Taveta is part of a larger effort to preserve the district’s forests.

Since forests provide a natural habitat where butterflies feed and reproduce, butterfly farming can be much less expensive than other types of agriculture. But the process is still painstaking.

It starts with farmers collecting live butterflies in special nets. Captured butterflies are fed sweetened juice until they lay eggs; then they are released back into the wild. The eggs hatch into caterpillars which feed on leaves until they create protective cocoons for themselves. At this pupa stage, they are packaged for export.

Mr. Mwachola enjoys every stage of the process, fascinated with the growth and development of the winged creatures. His dedication to butterflies has paid off so well that he now employs six youth and leads a larger nature group. He assures others that, with patience and hard work, a good living can be had in butterfly farming.

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The situation of Catherine Chukwuma – of a woman losing her family’s farmland after her husband’s death – is common. But fortunately, organizations such as the Dynamic Women’s Group are also becoming more common. Such groups help women to know and protect their rights. Mrs. Chukwuma may have initially felt powerless when her husband’s brothers came to take over the farmland. But she would learn that although their actions (sometimes known as “property grabbing�) may have been allowed under traditional or customary law, they were against modern state laws. In this case, resolution was found by appealing to the traditional council.

For more information on women’s land rights in relation to customary and state laws, you may refer to the following articles:
-“Gender Issues in Land Tenure under Customary Law,� published by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR):
http://www.capri.cgiar.org/wp/..%5Cpdf%5Cbrief_land-05.pdf
-“Women’s Right to Land: A Human Right,� published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization: http://www.fao.org/NEWS/2002/020302-e.htm

These DCFRN scripts deal with the issue of women’s property rights in various ways. If you air this news story, you may wish to round out your broadcast with one of the following:

-“Protect Gender Equality and Empower Women� (Package 78, Script 3, July 2006), featuring an interview with a women’s rights advocate in Uganda

-“Women, Property, and Inheritance� (Package 73, Script 4, January 2005), featuring a fictionalized interview with a lawyer about inheritance laws

-“Land Ownership Rights: Access Denied – Why Women Need Equal Access to Land� (Package 57, Script 9, October 2000), a drama in which a husband and wife discuss land rights and customary law

-“Why Women Need to Know About Land Rights� (Package 37, Script 7, July 1995), a straightforward dialogue addressed to women in the listening audience

As customary laws and effective methods of protecting women’s land rights will vary from place to place, you may wish to invite a local lawyer, member of a women’s rights group, or other knowledgeable advocate, to discuss questions such as:
-What threats are posed to women’s property rights in your area?
-What actions can a woman take to ensure that she will retain control of family property if her husband dies?
-If a woman has experienced “property grabbing� following her husband’s death, what action can she take? What sorts of resources are available to help her defend her land rights?
-Can the guest describe a situation where a woman successfully fought her husband’s family’s (or someone else’s) attempt to take her land or other property? What factors led to her success in defending her rights?

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Ghana, which was once referred to as the Gold Coast, has a history of gold mining that goes back several centuries. But this news story illustrates some of the reasons why modern gold mining is often resisted by communities affected by the activity. Most of the people impacted by Newmont Gold Ghana Limited’s operations are farmers. The group petitioning Newmont’s proposed new mine call themselves the Concerned Farmers Association of New Abriem. Some are concerned that they will be forced to sell their farmland for much less than it is worth. But, as the principal mining activity would take place in the Ajenjua Bepo Forest Reserve, the farmers also fear that natural rainfall patterns would be disrupted. Forests retain water in the atmosphere around them, promoting rainfall. Forests also mitigate flooding when rains are very heavy, by capturing, then slowly releasing, water. With less forest to serve these purposes, farmers fear their rainfed crops will suffer.

And community concerns go beyond the potential impact on agricultural livelihoods: there are concerns that water may be accidentally poisoned by cyanide used in mine operations; that standing water in pits created by mining activities will provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and therefore increase the risk of malaria; that access to forest products, including firewood and medicinal plants, will be lost; and that the forest will no longer be attractive as a possible tourist attraction. And while companies such as Newmont Ghana Gold Limited provide housing for people displaced by mining, many have no desire to move.

Still, gold remains Ghana’s most important foreign currency earner, and gold mines bring the promise of massive financial investments. The following resources provide more information on the proposed mine described in the story, as well as some of the general issues around mining in Africa:
-Website of Newmont Ghana Gold Limited:
http://newmontghana.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
-Radio Newmont Ghana, which provides the company’s perspective on various issues related to its mines: http://newmontghana.com/flash/radio_ghana_content.html
-Oxfam America article on community concerns about Newmont’s activities in Ghana:
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/news_updates/newmont-update-april-2007
-CorpWatch article on Newmont’s effort to obtain government permission to open the new mine, commonly called the Akyem mine: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14172
-Public Agenda article on food security concerns related to Newmont’s existing Ghanaian mine: http://allafrica.com/stories/200704231163.html
-Articles on protests against Newmont in Ghana, gathered on the Mines & Communities Website: http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press1138.htm
-Website of the Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining, a Ghanaian organization: http://www.wacam.org/
-Website for “When Silence is Golden�, a documentary about the negative impact of another mining company, Golden Star Resources, on a Ghanaian community:
http://www.when-silence-is-golden.org/info-1.html
-Website of the Mining Africa Yearbook, which provides updates on all mining activity in Africa: http://www.infomine-africa.com/

If any communities in your area have been affected by mining, or other resource extraction activities, you may consider hosting a call-in or text-in show that allows people to express their concerns and experiences:
-What concerns did they have when they first found out about proposed mining in their area? In what ways did they seek to express their concerns and have them resolved? Did they receive support or resources from their community, civil society groups, or others?
-If mining activities proceeded in their areas, were their concerns about the possible impact of the activities well accommodated?
-Did they experience benefits from the mining activity, such as employment or involvement in a rural development program funded by the company?
-If mining activities occurred in their area in the past, and are now complete, how would they describe the overall impact of the mining activities on their community?

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Avid FRW readers may have recalled last week’s news story “Conservation groups save trees, earn profits� when they read this story about butterfly farming. Both fruit harvesting and butterfly farming can play a role in protecting forests. This is because both activities show people the economic value of maintaining biologically-diverse woodlands. This makes them far less likely to over-exploit a forest’s resources, and much more likely to defend it against those who would. And while fruit harvesting and processing may be more common, butterfly farming has been taken up by people in parts of Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa.

Butterflies are also an interesting example of a niche crop, which is a specialized crop with a very particular but limited market. Many varieties of butterflies can only be found in limited areas, making them of high value and interest to a select number of butterfly exhibitors worldwide.

For more information of butterfly farming, you may visit:
-The website of the Kipepeo Project: http://www.kipepeo.org/
-A BBC news story on butterfly farming in Tanzania: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3569164.stm
-“All about butterfly farming�, an article produced by a Costa Rican butterfly farm:
http://www.butterflyfarm.co.cr/ed/index.htm
-Butterfly FAQ by the Costa Rican butterfly farm:
http://www.butterflyfarm.co.cr/ed/index.htm

You may also wish to revisit some of the following scripts from DCFRN Package 80, which focused on niche agricultural products. (For an introduction to niche agricultural products, you may also visit the Voices newsletter for Package 80 at: http://farmradio.org/english/publications/voices/v2007mar.asp.)

-“Raising Rabbits for Meat and Profit: Part 1 and part 2�:

-“Fact Sheet on Bamboo�

-“Tanzanian Farmers Succeed with Co-operative Cashew Growing Plan�

-“Raising Snails for Food and Profit�

-“Jatropha – Not Just a Biofuel Crop!�

-“Growing Potatoes Brings Increased Income to Farmers in Kabale, Uganda�:

Finally, you may wish to research a local news story about a farmer, or farmers’ group, that produces a niche crop:
-How did the person or group learn about the crop?
-What research did they do to ensure that it would grow/work well in their area? What else did they have to learn before they started production?
-What kind of market research did they conduct to ensure that they could earn a profit?
-If specific production equipment was required, how did they obtain it? Did they need a loan to start producing their niche crop?
-How much do they now earn with their niche crop? Is it their family’s main source of income, or a supplement?
-What problems did they encounter on their way to establishing a successful business, and how did they overcome these problems? Do they have any other advice for farmers who may wish to try a niche crop?

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The New People Media Centre is offering a two-week course entitled “Digital Audio Production with Adobe Audition 1.5 & Sound Forge.� Topics include: introduction to radio editing, Adobe Audition, Sound Forge, and reporting and recording. Classes will run from April 14-18 and 21-25. The course fee is 3,000 Kenyan shillings (approximately 48 American dollars, or 30 Euros). For more information, e-mail director@newpeople.co.ke or call +254-3867229-3877407. You can also visit The New People Media Centre at: http://www.newpeople.co.ke.

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All radio broadcasters face the challenge of creating programs that are interesting and entertaining. In your work to fill the airwaves with interesting programs, you may be familiar with the production of radio dramas – or maybe you have come across a radio drama script but were unsure of how to use it.DCFRN sometimes offers drama scripts intended to be both educational and entertaining. Drama provides a framework to help listeners understand how attitudes and behaviours shape everyday events. Through drama, listeners connect with characters and their struggles – and become involved in finding solutions to the characters’ conflicts and challenges. This week’s Script of the Week is a two-part drama. It deals with maternal health and gender issues through the story of a fictional couple preparing for the birth of their first child.

If you choose to produce this short series, remember that there is much more to producing a radio drama than reading from a script. Here are some important things to consider when bringing radio dramas to life (adapted from the March 2003 Voices newsletter). If you have produced a drama at your organization and have other tips to offer, please share them by posting a comment to this article!

Find the right actors. You don’t need professional or experienced actors to produce a successful radio drama. Try to find willing volunteers through theatre groups in your area, or at local schools and community centres. Also, consider casting people you know who are natural speakers and would be willing to participate. When casting roles, it is important that you find voices that are clearly distinct from one another to provide texture in the production and to avoid confusion for the audience. Avoid casting based on what you see and pay attention to the actors’ ability to convey action and emotion through what you hear.

Practice, practice, practice. It is important for your actors and studio technicians to feel comfortable with their cues, and to develop appropriate timing and pacing for the drama. When you have chosen your actors, ask them to read through the script together, in advance, so that everyone will be comfortable with their lines. Discuss with them ways to adapt the script to suit their needs and change awkward wording. The cast should have additional rehearsals to develop natural conversational tones and timing. When you feel everyone is ready, assemble them together to rehearse in the recording studio. This will help you plan how equipment such as microphones will be shared, and how to limit unnecessary noise (such as ruffling of script pages).

Plan sound effects. Though radio drama scripts such as the one provided below usually contain cues for sound effects, you may wish to adapt these cues for your audience and local situation. While you can add a lot to a drama script by using sound effects to set the scene or suggest an action, you must plan carefully. You might be tempted to use so many effects that your audience will become confused. Keep effects simple, consistent and easily identifiable.

Use music. Use the instructions in these scripts to guide your choice of music. Music in radio dramas can be very useful as a simple transitional device. A clear, uncomplicated melody can be very effective. Perhaps you can find musicians in your community who are willing to participate in your production.

Prepare the studio. Whether you are recording the drama in advance or broadcasting live, you will need to set up your studio. If you have enough equipment, position each of your main characters at their own microphone. Minor characters can share a microphone. If you have just one microphone, instruct the actors to step back when they are not involved in a particular scene or when they do not speak for several lines. Actors should feel comfortable with their microphones and should practice projection as well. Usually, a regular conversational volume and tone will be appropriate, but you can also convey distance between characters by placing them away from the microphone. Work out ways to limit background noise on the recording. If possible, place scripts on stands to avoid the sound of paper shuffling. Practice with actors to limit heavy breathing, coughing or footsteps.

Put it all together. The easiest way to record a radio drama is in “real-time,� when everything is performed – including sound effects and music – without interruptions. This allows for a more natural feeling and momentum to come through on your final product. The energy and spontaneity of everyone being “kept on their toes� will contribute to the recording as well. If mistakes are made during the drama – keep going (especially if you’re on air!) If you are recording, you can go back to the opening of the line and retake the dialogue after you have reached the end of the scene.

The final product. If you recorded the drama, and you have the necessary equipment, you can edit in retakes and edit out pauses and distracting noises. In all stages of production, you should pay close attention to what you hear rather than what you see. Try closing your eyes occasionally to focus on what works well and what should be changed.

Remember – a successful radio drama allows your audience to picture what they are listening to and imagine that they are right in the middle of the action. As you can see, you don’t need professional actors or special equipment to tell a good story. With good planning, teamwork and imagination, you will be able to bring your scripts to life.

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From L-R: Emily Arayo (AFRRI), Bosco Onyik (UBC), Togo Kasoro (Voice of Toro FM), Gebru Askebir (CAPAids), Mango Henry Wetaka (Radio Apac), Godfrey Olukya (Radio West), Ali (AFRRI), Gizaw Shebru (AFRRI/CPAR), Joshua Kyalimpo (OPSETT media), Rev. Nason Baluku (Messiah Radio) & Bart Sullivan (DCFRN) 

 Broadcasters in Uganda may soon stop complaining of lack of information resources if they use those developed by the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network (DCFRN). On Saturday March 29, 2008, Bart Sullivan, a DCFRN consultant, introduced eight broadcasters to the Farm Radio Weekly website at the African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI) office in Bunga, Kampala.

The broadcasters were excited about the information resource and thanked DCFRN for providing it. Mr. Togo Kasoro, a radio program producer from Voice of Toro, one of the FM radio stations around the Rwenzori Mountains, said he would use such information resources to benefit his listeners. “We have many farmers engaged in food crops and coffee in Kabarole District, and such information is vital for them,� Mr. Kasoro said.

Talking to the broadcasters, Mr. Gizaw Shibru, the Program Director for AFRRI, said he was glad that such meetings expose many broadcasters to sources of farming information. “There are more than 130 radio (stations) in Uganda and the more broadcasters we have on board, the more the benefit for farmers,� he said.

During the session, broadcasters introduced themselves before they went online, browsing the main pages of the Farm Radio Weekly website, including African Farm News in Review, Notes to Broadcasters, upcoming events, radio ressource bank, DCFRN Action, and Script of the Week. Each broadcaster was then asked to explain what a specific page was about and how they could contribute to FRW.

Later, the broadcasters signed up as new members of the FRW community. The broadcasters were from the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation Radio, Radio West, Radio Apac, Oppset Media, Voice of Toro, Messiah Radio, and Kasese, as well as AFRRI staff.

(To learn more about DCFRN’s AFRRI project, please refer to this article from Issue 12 of FRW: http://farmradio.org/english/weekly/2008/02/25/introduction-to-the-african-farm-radio-research-initiative/.)

To view some photos of the workshop in Uganda: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bartholomew/2372058496/in/set-72157604299517390/

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This week’s featured scripts are a good example of how drama can convey important messages in an entertaining way. In this two-part series on maternal health, we see how traditional and non-traditional beliefs play out as newly-married couple Azuma and Tontie make their home and prepare for the birth of their first child. Through characters who are easy to relate to, the drama conveys vital messages about maternal healthcare during pregnancy, labour, and following the birth.

These scripts are a final preview of DCFRN’s latest script package, which was mailed to partners on March 31 and will be posted online later this month. If you missed the previews of scripts on rainwater collection and financial management on the farm, you may link to them here:
-“Rainwater from large rock surfaces can be used to irrigate crops� (Package 83, Script 9)

-“Financial Management for Smallholder Farmers� (Package 83, Script 10)

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Package 83, Script 1
March 2008
___________________________________________________________________

Maternal health, part one
___________________________________________________________________

Notes to Broadcaster

In most rural communities in Ghana, women are seen as part of the husband’s property, a farmhand and a domestic servant, rather than being a partner on equal footing who should participate actively in all decisions affecting the family. The woman’s subordinate position is further heightened by the bride’s wealth her husband pays to her parents.

Women are not involved in decision-making even in such important matters as the need to save money for antenatal and postnatal clinic attendance. When complications occur, either before, during or after delivery, the woman is often left to her fate. This is one of the reasons why child and maternal mortality rates are so needlessly high in this part of the world.

If the UN Millennium Development Goals are to be achieved, especially in the area of reducing child mortality and improving maternal health, then strong advocacy will be required to remove all such cultural barriers to women’s wellbeing.

As always, try to adapt the script to your local situation. What are the community values concerning childbirth and delivery in your listening audience? Do men and women discuss these matters and make plans together? Are there different opinions on these issues in your community? What do local health practitioners advise? Can health clinics and Traditional Birth Attendants work together? You might want to have a call-in program on these issues, or even conduct a roundtable discussion between listeners with different opinions.

This is part one of a two-part drama. In part one, the setting and some of the main characters are introduced. In the second part of the drama, the action develops and comes to a conclusion. It is recommended that these two scripts be played back-to-back, or on two successive days. You might want to market the drama with a short advertisement or “teaser,� which offers a brief description of the drama or a short audio clip, in order to entice the listeners.

Characters
1. Meeri
2. Haduong (two women friends married into the same clan, the Buwa clan)

Setting: rural community

Scene 1: Gossip on the way to the village waterhole

Background to Scene 1:

It is the dry season and two women in a hypothetical rural community are on the way to a water hole two miles away to fetch water. The clan to which the community belongs is an exogamous one, which means that the men of the clan pick their wives from other clans. Usually the bridegroom-to-be, after sending kola nuts and drinks to his bride’s family, arranges to elope with her to his home. When a new bride is brought into the community, a dance is staged to welcome the bride, and as an honour to the bridegroom.

In scene 1, a new bride has just been brought to the community through elopement, and that is the event the two women are gossiping about. The clan is also a polygamous one, and wives are generally treated as chattel or possessions.

1. Music Signature tune up. Hold 10 seconds and fade out.

2. SFX Ululation of a woman (two successive blasts) and fade out.

3. Hadoung: (Alarmed) What are you up to, woman?

4. Meeri: (Teasingly) Why? Are you afraid?

5. Hadoung: (Sternly) You know for sure that every ululation serves a definite purpose in this community and mustn’t be abused.

6. Meeri: Yes, of course I know that when a hunter kills big game with bow and arrows, especially if it is a ferocious beast like a lion or leopard, his prowess is greeted with ululation.

7. Hadoung: That’s right! Tradition sees it as a feat of skilful marksmanship. Rare bravery. Yes, what else?

8. Meeri: Ululations announce the coming of a newborn baby.

9. Hadoung: That’s another. Yes?

10. Meeri: And thirdly, when a ceremonial dance reaches the peak of frenzy, ululation goes with the excitement.

11. Hadoung: (Amused) Like the bridal dance waiting for us any moment – and dance we must, whether willing or unwilling. Have you hit the end of the road?

12. Meeri: No! Lastly, the ululation that announces the elopement of a bride into the community. This is the situation at hand now.

13. Hadoung: As happened to you and I following our elopement years ago. I remember that day when I was treated like a queen, sitting on my throne, feet in a basin, and powdered white like a ghost. They honour you for one day with a dance as a mother-to-be, the mother of a worthy ancestor lurking for the opportunity to re-incarnate, for clan continuity. (Both laugh).

14. Meeri: Isn’t it tragic that, despite our sacred role as mothers of the clan, we are treated as nothing better than chattels and farmhands?

15. Hadoung: Now seriously, Meeri, in which of these contexts did you make that ululation which could bring the whole community charging?

16. Meeri: Don’t worry. They’re too busy preparing for the bridal dance to have heard the ululation. Even if they heard me, they would probably associate it with the new elopement that is the story of the moment. Barring that, I would still have a way out. The mouth that talks itself into trouble, must find a way of talking itself out.

17. Hadoung: (Teasingly).Yes, thatâ