Ferial Haffajee In your ear
With radio booming, the number of independent production houses is growing to titillate the ears and provide quality local radio. One of them is Wola Nani, an Aids- support organisation that has also produced a series of programmes on different aspects of living positively with the HIV virus.
Other non-governmental organisations do similar work; among them are Soul City and the National Progressive Primary Healthcare Network. Their programming is broadcast on many community radio stations around the country, providing slickly produced documentaries and dramas which ensure that community radio doesn’t equal tacky aural torture.
The Wola Nani series uses an interesting mosaic of different types of radio to deal with a range of topics. Each of the programmes lasts for about 15 minutes and tackles a specific topic. They include basic education around HIV; safer sex; workplace discrimination; healthcare rights; pregnancy and childbirth; the plight of domestic workers who are HIV-positive, and disclosure. The series has been broadcast on 34 community stations and one SABC station.
An anchor hosts the 15-minute slot, which is produced like a current affairs programme. The ones I listened to included jazzy music with an Aids theme; vox pops on the streets of Cape Town; taped and live interviews as well as testimony from those living with HIV. It’s the testimony that is the most poignant radio and includes everyone from domestic workers to teenagers, who often suffer a double whammy when they find out that they are HIV-positive and pregnant. Many people suffer a further burden when faced with great prejudice.
In the programme on healthcare rights, a man with HIV recounts going to a state dentist and waiting until the very end for treatment and then being threatened with prosecution if he was found spitting.
Each topic is canvassed out on the streets and then edited tightly. These vox pops can make for very entertaining radio which can quickly sum up the mood on the ground. Wola Nani’s are particularly good because they contrast opinions very cleverly. In interviews with women who are asked what they would do if they discovered they had the Aids virus and were pregnant, opinions varied from “I would kill myself” to “I have no intention of getting pregnant.”
The programmes are designed to help people seek help. They provide relevant telephone numbers of organisations around the country and keep repeating these for listeners. The pilot series has been produced in English and Xhosa.
To reach a mass audience, many of the educational radio producers are branching out into different languages. Their costs are reasonable and one hopes that the messages will not be confined only to community stations.
Soul City, for one, has secured a deal to broadcast on the SABC’s 11 public service stations which, together, are the listening zone of millions of South Africans difficult to reach through traditional sources of media.
The Wola Nani programmes are at their best when hosted by the funky Kennedy Phiri. The anchor, Tina Schouw, lectured a little too much and just occasionally the very relevant background music (It’s My Life; Don’t Give Up;) was too obtrusive.
Wola Nani can be contacted at 021 237385 for programme details