By George White

In Ghana, anecdotes about Radio Ada abound. They are accounts in which the station is both reporter and community avatar.

Collectively, these chronicles are chapters in a story about the power and promise of community radio – a tale with lessons that could help community development advocates unleash the potential of community-based audio worldwide. That includes the United States, which is where the founder of Radio Ada gained his early experience in listener-funded non-commercial broadcasting.

I heard many of these accounts about Radio Ada during a recent stay in the West African nation, which became the first black African country to end colonial rule  when it gained independence from Britain in 1957. Radio Ada is based in Big Ada, about 65 miles from the capital of Accra near the confluence of the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Volta, the largest reservoir in the world. The Ghanaian government dammed the Volta River to create the reservoir in 1964, which is 3,275 square miles.

Ada is near the confluence of the Volta Lake and the Atlantic Ocean.

Big Ada is in the Dangme region, an area that relies greatly on fishing and farming. Subsistence farming is the leading form of employment. It's a relatively poor area. About 20% live below the nation's poverty standards. In Dangme's West District, royalties on industrialized salt mining – an emerging industry in the region and the country – are becoming an important source of revenue for development.

Information and Community Activism

The power of Radio Ada was demonstrated recently when it decided to cover a protest related to salt mining in the New Ningo in the Dangme West District of Ghana. This summary of the event is based on interviews:

A company with a government contract to mine salt had not been paying royalties on its operations – depriving local government of important finances

Initially, only about 70 people took part in the protests. However, when Radio Ada began to broadcast reports on the protest, the demonstration quickly swelled to about 500 people.

In addition, the government's district executive, who reports to the president of Ghana, heard the broadcast and took action. As a result of the news coverage, protests and government action, the company was forced to agree to pay the past due amount.

Origins, Mission and Leadership

Community radio is characterized by access, some level of public participation in production and decision-making and by listener financing. Under such radio charters, the community usually controls or elects the management of the station.

Radio Ada, Ghana's first independent community radio station, was officially launched in February 1999 following test broadcasting that began in 1998. It would be the first station in the Ghana Community Radio Network (GCRN), which now includes a total of eight broadcast outlets. The network also has licensing applications to launch six more stations.

As stated in its constitution, the GCRN aims to "enhance the use and build the capacity of Community Radio to enable marginalized communities and groups to generate and share their knowledge and experience, to participate in discourse and decision-making at every level, to develop the richness of their culture, and to strengthen their communities as part of the national and global family."

Global leaders in promoting media development on the grass roots level recognize the network's achievements. OURMedia/NUESTROSMedios http://www.ourmedianet.org/, an international association that operates an emerging global network dedicated to facilitating learning and dialogue on citizens' media initiatives, has decided to hold its 2008 annual conference in Accra, Ghana in August. OURmedia, founded in 2001, has more than 600 members in 40 countries – media professionals, communications scholars and independent media activists among them.

The conference theme will be "Identity, Inclusion, Innovation – Alternative Communication in a Globalized World." It will be organized by a coalition that includes the Media Foundation for West Africa http://www.mediafound.org/, which defends press freedom and human rights, and GCRN.

Downtown Accra

The Ghana coalition is coordinating planning for the 2008 conference with OURmedia's international working group, which lends assistance for each of the organization's annual meetings. The organization chose the Ghanaian capitol largely because members believe that the founders of GCRN are engaged in pioneer work, says Clemencia Rodriguez, a founding member of OURmedia and a member of its international working group.

"Too often community radio is misused by those who replicate aspects of commercial radio," says Rodriguez, an associate professor in the department of communication at the University of Oklahoma. "When one finds people who know what they are doing and how technology should be used at the grass roots, those are the kinds of leaders we want to cultivate to help them teach all of us."

GCRN has helped advance civil society in Ghana by initiating a project on community participation in local government and by providing extensive time to the coverage of elections – something community radio does in the West. However, Rodriguez says GCRN and other community radio advocates in other African nations are breaking ground by producing programming on peace-building and conflict management and resolution – using traditional means and resources.

Rodriguez says she also expects to learn how Ghanaians and other West Africans – particularly young people – are integrating media platforms by converging community-based radio with photographs and the Internet.

As for digital progress on the grassroots level in Ghana, UNESCO (United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization), which provided some of the financial support to launch Radio Ada, has been working with the GCRN to create community multimedia centers to bring more digital technology to stations and their communities.

GCRN also developed a plan calling for the licensing 97 additional community radio stations throughout Ghana, proposals that the country’s federal broadcast authorities have adopted.

To be sure, the young Ghanaian network is beginning to take a leadership role in an industry that was actually born in the United States nearly half a century ago. The first community radio station was created in California by journalist Lewis Hill and a group of radio professionals, pacifists and intellectuals. In 1946, they created the Pacifica Foundation.

Three years later, KPFA Radio signed onto the air in Berkeley, California. It is still broadcasting as the world's oldest listener-sponsored station. The Pacifica network also includes major affiliate stations are in Houston, New York City and Washington D.C and Los Angeles.

Alex and Wilna Quarmyne

It was at Pacifica's Los Angeles affiliate – KPFK – that Alex Quarmyne, a young Ghanaian studying at the University of Southern California in the1960s, first gained experience working in community radio. Alex and his wife, Wilna – who was a community radio pioneer in her native Philippines – are the founders Radio Ada and the Ghana Community Radio Network.

Alex Quarmyne explained the goals of the network at a World Press Freedom Day address in Sri Lanka last year: "The challenge here will be to ensure that listening communities are not only consumers of information, however rich and appropriate. Rather, to be consistent with its objective of promoting indigenous knowledge, the station will need to work … to enable the listening communities, especially the most disadvantaged groups, to upload and grow their own knowledge."

Alex, who actually grew up in Big Ada, started his broadcasting career in Liberia in the 1950s before gaining experience with community radio at KPFK in Los Angeles in 1960s. Later, he served UNESCO as a communication specialist for its division of communication and information for 26 years, working throughout Asia and Africa. While serving as UNESCO regional communication adviser for Africa, he was instrumental in the establishment in 1982 of the Homa Bay Community Radio Station in Kenya, which, though short-lived, is considered the first community radio station in Africa.

Alex returned to Ghana and he and Wilna launched Radio Ada as volunters. Alex is executive director of Ghana Community Broadcasting Services, the nonprofit entity that operates the network.

Alex recalls how he and his wife had to quickly expand their vision and broadcast reach in response to community demand after the launch of Radio Ada. Although the station had a broadcast range of about 50 miles, he says they originally planned to only involve people who live within a radius of about 18 miles of Radio Ada in the programming. 

“The original intention changed,” he says, “because the more distant Dangme-speaking communities insisted on being fully part of Radio Ada and to participate to the same extent that they heard other communities on the air. Their participation has been greatly supported by the selection of volunteer stringers in those communities and by the introduction of mobile telephone services to some of them. One important goal of Radio Ada is to be able to give these outlying communities even more support.”

The launch of Radio Ada and the creation of Ghana Community Radio Network has dramatically changed the media landscape in Ghana, says Kwame Karikari, founder and director of the Accra-based Media Foundation for West Africa, which defends and supports a free mass media and promotes human rights and democracy.

"It's important that the network has introduced the whole idea of community radio in the country," says Karikari. "Until then, I'm not sure too many people knew about community radio … The network has made an historic contribution by introducing the concept here in Ghana."

Radio Ada reaches 600,000 people in about 150 towns and villages. English is the official language in Ghana. However, Radio Ada broadcasts in the Dangme language, the third largest linguistic group in Ghana. The other stations in the network also broadcast in the dominant African languages of their respective regions.

Karikari says the network is making "major contributions in cultural development" by broadcasting programs in African languages.

The programming format at Radio Ada and other network stations is broad. Some shows are taped and some are live. There are news summaries, coverage of news events, interview programs, advice programs, music and call-in talk programs.

The Quarmynes say that the call-in segments are particularly important because it's the way listeners share information, news and raise issues that are important to the community. For many, it is the only community outlet for news and views. It's also a way for residents to learn from each other.

Radio Ada and the other stations in the network provide news and other content related to the building blocks of development – education, agriculture, civics, environmental management and health among them.

Co-founder Wilna Quarmyne explains the philosophy of the network in a paper on community radio: "GCRN regards the airwaves, like seas and rivers, as a basic natural resource. Like all natural resources, rights and equitable allocation are central issues. GCRN considers that marginalized communities have a prior right to use the airwaves for their own development."

Station programs are developed and produced with the active participation of people in the respective communities.  Radio Ada, for example, narrowcasts to certain economic groups in the area – farmers, fishermen, fishmongers, drivers and separate programs women – who use the station as a resource. Such groups determine the content of their own programs and act as co-producers. Radio Ada is obligated to give people such a voice, says Wilna.

“In community radio,” she says, “we have an inimitable resource and tool for the exercise of a basic right – the right to communicate. That right is basic to two other ‘Cs’ – the right to community and the right to culture…If the three are held as indivisible, as you exercise one, you grow the other. Community radio…connects and supports the web for these three Cs.”

In a bid to involve and ensure a community voice in its operations, Radio Ada has trained about 500 people in various broadcast operations – the following among them:

• Program recording

• Producing and delivering the news

• Marketing

• Music programming

• Programming on conflict prevention

Radio Ada has a staff of about 50 – most of them volunteers from the community. The station has been able to retain many volunteers for long periods.

“As it celebrates its continuing vitality,” says Wilna, “the challenge for the next decade is to deepen its institutional base and practices – community engagement, training, programming, resource mobilization – so that it continues to be a self-renewing and responsive. Capturing the imaginaton of the youth will be the key.”

Some of the volunteer contributors are government officials from ministries involved in sustainable development, culture, human rights and education.

Among them are Dickson Agyeman of the wildlife division of Ghana's forestry commission; Isaac Djabtetey, district director of the national culture ministry; Elizabeth Hammomd Agyeman, who is with the human rights commission and station coordinator Kofi Larweh, who is with the education ministry. Each frequently participates in broadcasts on topics related to their development mission.

For many, Radio Ada is the only source of information because they have no television and more than 50% of the 600,000 in the station's broadcast range are illiterate. Larweh says community radio is a major tool in the effort to create national functional literacy.

"We're building people's capacity to learn,” says Larweh. "There is a connection between knowledge and development."

Says Djabtetey of the culture ministry: "I can't walk and talk to all the people in this region but I can sit behind a (radio) console and reach them."

Dickson Agyeman of the wildlife division, says Radio Ada has been instrumental in informing district residents about hunting laws, fisheries management and the importance of preserving certain species and forests. The station sometimes puts a spotlight on violators of the environment.

“The station recently covered a case involving a man convicted of stealing large amounts of beach sand to make bricks, says Agyeman, recalling one incident. “The court fined him $400. Since Radio Ada covered that case, people have been afraid to steal sand…However, the programming is actually designed to deter illegal activities – and it works. Station operators and government officials prefer deterrence to court action because legal sanctions sometimes result in resentment.”

Elizabeth Hammong Agyeman of the human rights commission hosts a weekly show, covering topics such as the treatment of women, land ownership and the welfare of children.

"We offer a voice to the voiceless," she says. "We used to say, 'We need to see our children – that is all.' Now we say, 'We need to hear our children as well.' Also, some cultural traditions restrict women's rights. We try to address those traditions and practices."

GCRN has received plaudits from AMARC, an international non-governmental organization serving the community radio movement, with almost 3,000 members and associates in 110 countries. Its goal is to support and contribute to the development of community and participatory radio.

In one report on community radio, AMARC says the following:

“Community radio is effective in poverty reduction. Access to voice, information, and knowledge are vital factors in facilitating the achievement of poverty reduction and sustainable human development, as voicelessness is a key dimension of poverty and exclusion. Radio Ada (Ghana) [and] Radio Oxyjeunes (Senegal) are good examples. The strength of Community Radio is to restore the capabilities the poor to participate in development." http://africa.amarc.org/index.php?p=CRSIA_Chapter_06

To be sure, members of AMARC appreciate the changes on the Ghanaian media landscape. Janice Windborne, an AMARC member who teaches in the communications department at Otterbein College in Ohio, recalls that the Ghanaian government began to relinquish its monopoly on the airwaves in 1995, allowing the establishment of private FM radio stations.

“When I went to Ghana … [in] 2002," she recalls, "the whole media scene was changing to a more American style of radio with music and ads and lots of hype.  It was more dynamic, perhaps.

”I began to ask people about the new scene and what I found was that they liked the music and the variety, but the most relevant radio stations were those in the smaller cities – the community radio stations that dealt with local issues, had contests with local folks and gave information most relevant to local people.”

Empowering the Community on Agricultural and Environmental Issues

Radio Ada can empower communities only by listening to stakeholders. It is the listeners who determine much of the programming and their voices are dominant in much of the content. This approach helped Radio Ada galvanize farmers to address an environmental crisis. Radio Ada station coordinator Kofi Larweh recalls this story in a recent paper http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-105004-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html on natural resource management in Obane, Ghana:

“The people of Obane still remember that the waterway is the reason that their forefathers chose to live there. The waterway, the Luhue River, is a tributary of the mighty Volta River. It supplied fish, provided water for irrigation and served as a bustling transport course. The water was so abundant that Obane used to be the food basket for Big Ada. The women were, among other occupations, fishmongers, farmers, mat weavers and petty traders, while the men fished, farmed or hunted.

“That was over 40 years ago.

“The creation of the Volta Dam during the early 1960s reduced the flooding of the fields at Obane. Weeds, trees and debris choked the waterway…Obane became one of the poorest communities in the district...”

Radio Ada organized a conference to listen to community leaders. During the conference, one local leader was invited to share his perspective, Larweh recalls:

“He narrated how during the past their fathers occasionally cleared the waterway to support ecological processes and to sustain flora and fauna…Having facilitated consensus- and decision-making on the ground, Radio Ada fuelled the communication bonds within the Obane community and connected them to other communities and institutions to support the communal labour needs…

“Before long, four groups from different communities – Obane, Gorm, Togbloku and Tekperkope – were working together to dredge the Luhue River. Other groups from other communities joined them to show solidarity and were duly acknowledged on air.”

Such successes attract the interest of those seeking stories about the links between communications and development. Many scholars – experts on development, researchers on farming and sustainable environment as well as leading thinkers on communication – have produced research papers on the network.

More and more journalists are also producing reports on Radio Ada or the GCRN. Among the more recent chronicles is "Good Morning Dangme," a 2007 documentary by Takaya Kawasaki. Kawasaki is a reporter and columnist for the Japan Times, the largest and oldest English daily in Japan. He has also produced reports for the BBC and Public Radio International.

The filmmaker's synopsis describes the film: "Radio Ada, the first community radio station in Ghana, has become a powerful engine of social change for poor fishing communities in this Western African nation…Radio Ada now serves as a forum to address community issues previously not spoken about, like women's rights."

The acclaim encourages Alex Quarmyne.

“Radio Ada,” he says, “has turned out to be what we hoped it would be – perhaps even more than we expected… There is nothing more satisfying than seeing it in the hands of the community, in the hands of our villages, in the hands of the fishermen, in the hands of fishmongers, in the hands of the farmers – using it themselves in support of what they identify as their development needs.”

Lessons Learned

Young deejay plays music for Radio Ada's listening community.

I first became aware of Radio Ada immediately after attending a 2005 "experts" conference in Cairo sponsored by the African Union, the coalition of African nations. The conferees examined ways to start a Pan African TV and radio network.

In the wake of the conference, I agreed to do prepare a research paper on how a global network could incorporate some local broadcasting that would promote development for Alfred Opubor, a leader at two Benin-based organizations – the West African Newsmedia and Development Center (WANAD) http://www.wanad.org/en/home.htm, which is a center of expertise on the relationship between media and development and an organization called Communication for Education and Development (COMED) http://www.comednet.org/, which develops communications initiatives for education ministries and promotes improved news coverage of education issues.

Opubor, a Nigerian, suggested that I include a review of Radio Ada in that research. Ironically, Opubor was a student at the University of California, Los Angeles  (UCLA) when – like Radio Ada founder Alex Quarmyne – he learned of the value of community radio by contributing to the Los Angeles-based KPFK in the 1960s. It was through this research that I began to learn more about the potential of community radio to empower marginalized people.

Fotunately, the Quarmynes, Kwame Karikari, director of the Accra-based Media Foundation for West Africa, and other media development advocates have convinced the Ghanaian government to provide more licenses for community radio. Unfortunately, there is a great unmet need for community radio in the United States, broadcast operations that can provide poor urban neighborhoods and rural areas with more local  news, content that promotes development and information that links advocates for change.

Community development in the U.S. have the option of creating community audio operations on the Internet. However, they should also lead campaigns to convince the Federal Communications and Commission to provide more licenses for community radio and more low power radio licenses for marginalized neighborhoods.

Those planning or hoping to launch community media operations can more directly meet local needs by adopting parts of the Radio Ada model – giving residents a substantial say in the development of programming as well as more of a voice on the programs.