Uganda learns politics via radio

In the United States, radio talk shows are just one of many possible ways citizens can participate in politics.\nBut in Uganda, where literacy rates are low and rural areas are often without electricity, radio shows can be a powerful tool for generating political participation, journalism graduate student Peter Mwesige said in a speech Tuesday afternoon in Woodburn Hall.\nMwesige's lecture, "Radio Talk Shows, Political Participation and Democratization in Uganda," was an explanation of results from his study in Uganda and his own experience as a journalist and scholar.\nUganda, a nation of 23 million people located in central Africa, has strict limits on formal political participation, such as political parties and rallies, according to a U.S. State Department report.\nThe government calls itself a "no-party democracy," but its political system can at times seem like a reincarnation of one-party states from the Soviet era, Mwesige said.\nYet Uganda's radio shows are full of criticism of the government and are a vehicle for debate over the country's future, he said.\nUntil 1993, Uganda had only one radio network run by the government -- Radio Uganda. Since then, dozens of private stations have opened up, Mwesige said.\nMwesige called the situation a paradox. He said political life is highly regulated, but the media is relatively free.\n"This ubiquity of private talk radio has become one of the defining institutions of political life in Uganda," Mwesige said.\nHe quoted from an interview with one elderly Ugandan: "The discussions on talk shows are very enlightening -- it is our parliament."\nAnyone with a telephone can call in to radio shows, Mwesige said.\n"The president (Yoweri Museveni) has several times placed impromptu calls to local stations," Mwesige said.\nMwesige said when former president Milton Obote, currently exiled in Zambia, called a radio station in Kampala, traffic in the capital stopped as people listened to the voice of the former leader. \nCabinet ministers, parliamentary leaders, opposition figures and journalists are also guests on such shows, he said.\nPeople can participate in talk radio in two ways, Mwesige explained. First is the traditional call-in format, familiar to most American listeners. \nBut since many Ugandans can't afford telephones, some radio stations hold their shows in public places -- "normally bars" -- where a moderator leads a discussion.\nMwesige called this second format "very close to town halls," and noted that the government is displeased with them.\n"Every time there was someone who would speak up against the government, there would be applause from the crowd," Mwesige said.\nTalk radio has a special significance for some African countries, African Studies Program Assistant Director Maria Grosz-Ngaté explained.\n"Many people in the rural areas don't have electricity, so they couldn't receive TV even if they could have a set," Grosz-Ngaté said. \nHowever, "most people or many people have small radios, transistor radios or battery-operated radios," she said. These radios can be powered by batteries, unlike television sets. That means, Grosz-Ngaté said, people listen to the radio for their news.\nRadio has another advantage, she said. \n"As an oral medium, it's accessible to people who don't read," she said. \nAll of this means nothing if radio broadcasts are in languages unfamiliar to most Ugandans. \n"When the radio was primarily state-run radio, they did have indigenous language broadcasts but they were restricted," Grosz-Ngaté said. "Most of the communication was in the form of colonial languages (like English). One of the innovations of these new private stations is they broadcast in indigenous languages."\nStill, radio has not cured all of Uganda's political problems. While it is a powerful way to generate discussions, some Ugandans are disappointed that more has not happened.\nMwesige said he talked to one woman in Uganda's north, where the country's ongoing civil war is fiercest. \n"You know, people have talked, they have fought, they have said all sorts of things," the woman told Mwesige. "But there is no improvement, there is no change."\nThe African Studies Program hosted Mwesige as part of its series of talks open to all students held most Tuesdays at noon. \n-- Contact staff writer Paul Musgrave at rpmusgra@indiana.edu.