Advertisement
Published: December 14th 2007
Edit Blog Post
FOUND CHILD
This is an actual found child announcement. Community Focused Media
By Nichole Huck
Tamale (Northern Ghana)
Radio plays a pivotal role in the day to day life of many people in Northern Ghana. The literacy rate is about 60 per cent - and nearly all of the written media is in English. For people who can neither read or speak English - local language radio programs is the only means of getting news.
But radio is more than just news - it’s the glue that holds a community together. It’s a way to educate (on everything from sanitation to sexual health), provoke debate (mostly about politics), and entertain (with local music).
Community based radio plays an important role in Canada as well. People want to know what’s going on in their community and they want to be told about it by someone who lives in and understands that community. But the radio here goes beyond that.
As I discovered, in some cases it even takes the place of the police.
I walk into the small reception room at Radio Justice and see six people crammed onto the little couch.
Me: Are you all waiting to speak with the General Manager?
Them: No
Me: Who are
you waiting to see?
Them: There was an announcement on the radio that someone has found a sheep.
Me: You all lost your sheep?
Them: Yes.
Me: How will you know whose sheep it is?
Them: We can describe our sheep.
(Note: there are always herds of sheep and goats walking around town unattended. I often wondered if people ever lost their sheep or if they got mixed up after a day of roaming the city looking for food. I was told that the animals know where to go back home to at the end of the day. This conversation proved to me that indeed not all of the livestock makes it home each night.)
A few weeks later I again walk into the reception room and see two women sitting on the couch.
Me: Are you waiting to see someone?
Them: There was an announcement that someone found a small boy.
Me: And you both lost your son?
Them: Yes.
I asked one of my co-workers why people don’t go to the police station when they find a child. They said it will be a lot of paperwork and they will be there all day. The old man who found the boy does not have a phone. The station will simply put out another bulletin saying the parents have been located. Even if the elderly man who found the child is not listening - someone who knows him will be and they will deliver the message to him.
I was told another reason people prefer going to the radio station over the police is they are afraid the police will think they stole the child. The police would also require some form of identification such as a birth certificate to claim the child - and many people do not have such paperwork.
People here trust radio and they trust the information they get from the radio. They would rather take matters into their own hands - than rely on the police to solve their problems. This sometimes results in vigilante justice.
My co-worker told me about another incident - where a woman dropped off her child alone in a village and caught a cab back to the city. Some people saw what happened and called the radio station - the station announced it on air and the taxi driver who had picked up the woman was listening.
The driver took the woman to Radio Justice where they picked up some staff members and went to investigate what happened.
Radio feels very organic here - it’s uncensored, accessible, and immediate. But this immediacy sometimes does not allow for reflection or fact checking.
In this case it turned to be more complicated than a woman abandoning her child. It turns out the woman had become pregnant by a man from that village. She was unable to support the child so she was taking it to his parent’s home in the hopes they would support the boy.
Radio that is uncensored, accessible, and immediate definitely creates it’s own set of problems - but it also has a certain charm that is often lost in programming that is sanitized and over produced.
In an effort to give you a taste of what our radio sounds like - I have dug through the pile of announcements our station receives daily.
Found Child (Boy)
Found boy about 2 in age.
Black in complexion and doesn’t talk.
He is wearing a lace shirt and no underpants.
Please kindly contact Radio Justice if you know this child.
Missing Sheep (male)
Hajia Zelia Kolokopey Tamakara is complaining of her missing sheep which she said left left home for about 4 to 5 days now and did not comeback.
The sheep is white with black mark on the head. She is appealing to the general public that if anyone has found a sheep kindly bring it to House no MEX 69 Block or bring it to Radio Justice.
Missing Boy
Name: Abdul Somed
Father: Mummuni
Mother: Tanty
Cloth: Blue Material Long Dress - Somed doesn’t understand any language apart from Gonja.
He is dark in complexion. Anybody who comes across him should kindly bring him to the Lamashegu Market at Sister Mary’s Store near the transformer.
Found Child
Name: Rabi
Age: 9 years
Father: Alhassan
Mother: Mariama
From Kpilgini holding a bag and the colour is black. If you know Rabi from Kpilijini kindly come to Radio Justice for Identification and Collection.
Lost Sheep
Baba Alhassan here by announce to the general public of his missing sheep. A mother sheep and a baby sheep. The mother sheep is black and waist to stomach is white and the baby sheep is white and the head is brown.
The sheep is strange in town.
If found should kindly bring it to Baba Alhassan house at Lamashegu.
Missing Sheep (Female)
Gadafi announces to the general public of his missing sheep (female) which left home about 5 days ago. The sheep is white in colour but red in both neck and head.
Finder should kindly send to Gadafi or Mba Ghanayili near St. Charles Sec. School.
Found Child (Boy)
Baglahi Yapalsi-naa brought a child (boy) to Radio Justice saying the boy left Lamashegu here to Sang when they found him. The boy is about 8 to 9 years old. He is called Mohammed.
The fathers name is Ishawa from Sang the mother’s name is Nasara also of Sang. According to the boy he is with grandfather here in Lamashegu called Mr. Adama and was running to Sang. Baglahi Yapalsi-naa is appealing to Mr. Adams of Lamashegu to kindly come to Radio justice for him.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.106s; Tpl: 0.028s; cc: 6; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0647s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
dave m
non-member comment
great post. this reminds me a lot of my friend adam's descriptions of how radio functioned in round lake, a reserve in northern ontario he worked at.