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April 03, 2005

Bukari and friends

'Hey, Bukari, is it 3.30 yet?'
'Not yet. I will tell you when 3.30 comes.'

Bukari Hamadou is sitting on a broken wicker chair underneath a shade shelter of old millet stalks. In front of him is his stall - a folding table with separate compartments for tea leaves, sugar, cigarettes, powdered milk and dates. A couple other young men are squatting on a mat near Bukari and there is a large radio between them, sporting the oddly familiar brand-name Sonny. At the moment it is blaring out 'Inchana Massina', one of the greatest hits of Malian pop singer Ali Farka Toure. The lads wag their sandaled toes to the beat of the balafon and wait impatiently for 3.30.

'Make sure we don't miss the start, Bukari.'
'Shut up. We never miss the start.'
Bukari is one of many petits commerçants in Djibo, waiting around by the side of the road all day and hoping that someone will stop to buy a cigarette or a handful of dates. From dawn till dusk he sits with various friends and listens to music on Radio Mali. Except for 3.30 in the afternoon when he switches over to the national radio station of Burkina Faso to hear twenty minutes of programming in his mother tongue Fulfulde. It is only news, and it isn't even local news, but it is in Fulfulde and that is what counts.

When the rains come in June, Bukari and his friends will be out in the fields every day and they will only listen to the radio in the evenings. But for eight months of the year radio is a constant companion. It is not just a town thing either: visit any Fulani village in the north of Burkina Faso and you will find a cluster of Listeners under every acacia tree. Even the lonely Fulani herder out in the bush walks jauntily behind his cows with a staff across his shoulders and a radio to his ear.

Unlike the other provincial capitals in Burkina Faso, Djibo does not yet have its own FM radio station. If there is to be an aid distribution or a polio vaccination programme, a town-crier will go round the market banging a drum and shouting the news. Many in town will not hear, let alone those who live out in the villages. When locusts swarmed in the Sahel last year the whole of Djibo province was caught unprepared and 90% of the harvest was lost.

Christian missionaries face a similarly daunting task when it comes to announcing the good news of Christ to the Fulani in this area. Bukari and his friends have probably heard bits and pieces about Iisaa Al Masiihu (Jesus the Messiah), but not enough to understand the Christian message. As for the thousands of isolated settlements within 50 miles of Djibo, they are just as unreached as they were 300 years ago. As missionaries we can not hope to visit them all. But radio can.

Our vision is for a Christian radio station in Djibo which will bless the town and the surrounding villages. We will broadcast predominantly in Fulfulde and celebrate Fulani culture with lots of local music, folk stories and proverbs. In cooperation with local NGOs we hope to air programmes about AIDS, child health, animal-husbandry, agricultural techniques and pest-prevention. And in culturally sensitive ways we will announce the news of the Good Herder, Iisaa Al Masiihu.

The radio station project will be overseen by ABEDD (Association Betel pour l'Entraide et Development à Djibo), which includes members of SIM, World Horizons and the Assemblies of God. We are in the advanced planning stages and are now looking for partners both here in Burkina Faso and overseas who might help to fund the station.
Together, perhaps we can give Bukari Hamadou and his fellow radio-addicts something really worth waiting for.

The full project plan for Djibo FM can be downloaded here (password protected - if I know you, I will be happy to give you the password for this. Just email me)

Posted by sahelsteve at April 3, 2005 09:54 PM