/ 16 January 2006

New Era Dawns

In the 1990s, when it appeared that democracy was breaking out all over Africa with the fall of one-party states and military dictatorships, the rallying cry of the pro-democracy activists and the fighters for freedom of the press was ”the hour has come”. This cry was accompanied by either an open hand or a two-finger victory salute.

It appears to me that the hour has now come for Africa to invest heavily in building a continent-wide media system, made up of sustainable media in each of the countries and a network of continental or transnational conglomerates. What are the signs that this opportunity is more ripe than ever?

One legacy of the democratisation process has been the emergence of commercially-driven and privately-owned radio stations – and to a lesser extent television stations – across the continent. From South Africa to Mali there are more radio stations than there were in the 1980s. From Kenya to Uganda commercial FM radio has given a voice to opposition parties and alternative factions. Even more exciting, they have introduced a new brand of irreverent talk show – comparable in quality to some of the better programmes on South Africa’s Talk Radio 702.

Some of these radio and television stations in Uganda, Senegal, Nigeria and Ethiopia have recently annoyed their respective countries’ leaders. Although these heads of state are considered to be a new breed – solid representatives of the African Union’s good governance principles – the stations were closed, albeit temporarily.

In Ghana, commercial radio has played a key role in preventing vote rigging during the counting phase in elections. In Mali, easily the poster country for democratisation, commercial radio has promoted and advanced democracy by giving a voice to the voiceless across the social spectrum.

These stations have broken the monopoly of the yet untransformed state broadcasters. Combining news, information and popular music, they appeal to a new generation of Africans – young go-getters that want to be part of the benefits of globalisation. These are Africans that want to adorn themselves in the same fashions and designer labels that are popular with young people across the globe; they want to engage with the same forms of entertainment and leisure. Narrow ideologies of political and cultural nationalism do not appeal to this generation; instead it makes them politically apathetic. Equally though, biased and censored news and political oppression can bring them into the streets in violent demonstrations. Quite clearly, commercially driven FM stations understand and speak to this new class. These stations have, in turn, changed the media, entertainment and political landscape in ways that cannot be easily reversed. Africa will never be the same again.

But perhaps even more importantly, the FM stations have introduced to the continent a new model of commercial broadcast media – a model that Africa previously lacked due to the state funded monopoly over broadcasting. New technologies allow these stations to stream live over the internet, to engage with audiences through email and mobile phones. A new era of democratic or participatory communication is dawning in Africa. And together with newly liberalised economies, the FM stations are driving new forms of consumption – the products being consumed those of privately owned-businesses or South African supermarket chains.

The emergence of these FM stations, with their combination of independent information, popular entertainment and mass marketing of goods and services, are contributing to the renaissance of African economies and societies. These are the very aims of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), and as such should be celebrated and encouraged.

It follows therefore that Nepad and Africa in general should focus on the radical reforms necessary to allow this revolution in communications to continue. The revolution will enable the continent to create the media density it needs to achieve higher levels of economic development, and to democratise further. To be precise, it is important for African countries to address regulatory bottlenecks, which have resulted in some countries not issuing new licences for FM stations and maintaining regulations that do not allow consolidation of the commercial broadcasting sector. If the sector does not consolidate, its viability and sustainability is in doubt. The losers will not only be the emergent media moguls but also the economies and democracies of these countries.

Addressing such bottlenecks requires that independent regulators with sufficient capacity and expertise to licence, referee and nurture the industry be put in place. These independent regulators should focus not on imposing onerous licence conditions but instead on getting stations to develop local content in sustainable ways over a period of time. Such an approach would ensure that the commercial broadcasting sector in African develops the capacity to produce local programming in a range of African languages, which is of a high quality, and which can be exported.

Exportable local content will improve the image of Africa through music and stories sung and told by ourselves about ourselves – another Nepad goal. It will create a new revenue stream for the continent’s economic development. For this to happen, African policymakers and independent regulators will also need to develop regulations that nurture and encourage cross-border media ventures.

Equally, the continent’s media companies themselves need to enter into creative cross-border ventures, whereby they can pool capital and share local knowledge and business acumen. African media companies should simply stop being the media version of market stalls – or spaza shops, in South African parlance – that cannot grow into big viable businesses. In many African countries the media market is just too small, and cross-border ventures are the best way to make media viable.

Beyond the encouraging story of the rise of commercial radio and television across the continent is the much slower transformation of the state broadcaster, which many a government still wants to use as its own personal megaphone. Gone are the days when audiences have no choice. Even in countries with low levels of media diversity, satellite broadcasts expose state propaganda and fuel political discontent. So state broadcasters are feeling the heat of competition, especially since most African governments no longer subsidise them (even if they still co-opt them for purposes of propaganda). It is now urgent that these large broadcasters with their national reach are transformed into genuine public broadcasters, which independently advance the African renaissance and Nepad through balanced information, worthwhile education and culturally enriching entertainment.

Properly managed and run, with professional journalists and talented and creative productions teams, national broadcasters would also contribute to democratisation and development and add value economically. As the SABC is attempting to do, the national broadcasters are well placed to form a network of continental mass media that can push African unity and advance the aims of the African Union. Through well planned and well-costed programme exchanges and co-productions, they can tell true and balanced stories about Africa. Something to counter the stories of the western media’s parachute journalists, with their stereotypical doom and gloom framing of the continent.

Professor Tawana Kupe is Head of the School of Literature, Languages and Media Studies at Wits University.