By Uyapo Majahana
While democracy is heralded as a key tenant in modern times, it is not always attainable, especially in marginalised communities that still do not have access to services like internet connection and electricity.
In most, if not all African countries, rural communities are the ones that find themselves lagging when it comes to robust participation in democratic processes.
In countries like Zimbabwe where rural populations constitute around 90% of the total population, the participation and inclusion of rural folk in the public discourse becomes paramount if democracy is to be upheld.
Not only should they be heard, but rural folk should also be privy to information that they can understand through media that is accessible to them.
To fill this gap, Community Podium, a non-profit participatory media organisation, has for the past three years been championing civic participation, community voices, and access to information in rural Zimbabwe.
Nkosikhona Dibiti, the organisation’s founder said their mission is to create an inclusive platform for reliable and trustworthy content that amplifies and brings to the fore the voices of marginalised communities, particularly the rural Matabeleland region.
“For the past three years, our work has been focused. We are driven by the conviction that promoting access to information and strengthening the inclusion of marginalised voices leads to meaningful public participation. We operate in a region that is largely excluded from the media and information ecosystem as a result of social, economic and political marginalisation. This has presented an uncontested space for the previously excluded voices of ordinary people to be heard, whereas the mics of legacy media are a preserve for the elite, the experts and the authorities,” Dibiti said.
He said they use a participatory civic media approach to ensure that they produce content for and with their target communities.
“We subscribe to the notion that at the core of community media is active citizenship whereby community members actively participate both as audiences as well as content creators thereby ensuring their voice is heard. We work with citizen journalists in eight districts of rural Matabeleland, these citizen journalists are the backbone of our media coverage and are trained to tell their own community stories to the broader national discourse. This is because we believe stories are best told by the affected people in communities rather than outsiders,” he said.
To date, Dibiti said the organisation has trained over 120 citizen journalists, and published over 700 news articles to date all focusing on the rural communities they serve.
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Impact?
When journalism is done this way, communities tend to benefit immensely. The impact that Community Podium has had comes as no surprise.
“Our reportage sparked support, enabling the completion of important community buildings such as Sontala Clinic in Matobo, Matabeleland South, Gwelutshena Secondary School in Matabeleland North, Bazha registry office in Matobo Matabeleland South, and a borehole in Matobo.
“In 2020, one of our content creators wrote a story about the Ward 12 villagers in Sontala, Matobo, trying to finish the construction of a clinic to increase local access to primary health care for which they travelled seven or eight kilometres to access. After the story was published, wellwishers, mostly from the diaspora chipped in with funds to complete the clinic.”
They have also produced four documentaries covering issues such as human and wildlife conflict, access to healthcare and education, environment, and climate change. One of these, produced in 2021, and titled Of elusive healthcare, education and water: the story of Nkayi, has resulted in well-wishers donating over US$7,482 towards the completion of Gwelutshena Secondary School after a GoFundMe campaign was organised by the Citizens Initiative.
Overcoming hurdles that hinder access to information
The Matabeleland region under Community Podium’s radar has quite a few languages, and so in order not to leave anyone behind, they incorporate the local languages in their reporting.
“We use local languages in our news articles, documentaries, podcasts, and infographics because we acknowledge and respect that the Matabeleland region is unique in that each community has its unique language. For example, you have Tonga in Binga, Kalanga in Plumtree, Ndebele in Lupane, as well as Nambya in Hwange,” said Dibiti.
He, however, said the pronounced digital gap in terms of access by rural communities as well as by women and girls, and groups with lower levels of education is a challenge in the organisation’s quest to reach everyone with their work. This, he said, is compounded by poor telecommunication infrastructure in these marginalised communities characterised by erratic network coverage and power cuts.
“We are still grappling with internet connectivity challenges in some parts of the districts we currently serve. We have tried to circumvent this challenge by conducting physical community round table dialogue meetings and using WhatsApp groups to share information which is usually received with delays depending on internet network strength. But, overall, WhatsApp has been an integral content distribution platform for our work in terms of promoting access to information as we have WhatsApp groups in all the eight districts for disseminating credible information,” he said.
In addition to WhatsApp featuring greatly in the access to information, it also features heavily in aid of their operations.
“We have a virtual WhatsApp newsroom where all our content creators are and we use this platform to share updates, news stories, announcements, diary meetings, trainings, celebrate each other, and basic hygiene support. We have conducted various WhatsApp trainings with different media experts covering topics such as solutions journalism, digital security and news writing,” Dibiti said.
Community Podium regularly invites content creators for training workshops wherein each is given an opportunity to present what they learned to colleagues. Thandeka Matebese, a content creator and journalist with Community Podium, shared her experiences in these training sessions.
“I enjoy the training sessions that we usually have with other content creators and journalists from other rural communities, I find them very beneficiary as we meet and share information, stories and tips. That has widened my networks, I am no longer restricted to Bulawayo and Tsholotsho where I come from, but I can now venture into other areas and beats. My writing has also improved since we get timely feedback from our editor, who is very patient I must add. He has taught me a lot. Even if I become an editor one day, I’ve got a feeling I have mastered the ropes and would know how to navigate my way around that journalism world, she said.
Matebesi who focuses on governance issues and a bit of climate change issues said she is proud of the growth her career has amassed, and the impact her work has made since joining the team.
“I joined the Community Podium three years ago, and I believe my work has benefited the community a lot. Recently, I wrote a story about a school that was looking for assistance to refurbish the school that had been destroyed by recent storms. I was filled with joy when I saw people starting to donate to the cause soon after the publication of my article.
“Career-wise, I am enthused at grasping issues from the lens of the community, which sometimes come unexpected as perspectives would differ from mine. So now I get to understand at a deeper level, which is in a way in which issues are actually happening,” she said.
Going all out for the electorate
As Zimbabwe gears for its general elections in August 2023, Community Podium has also been involved in a project in partnership with Ekhaya Vote 2023 where they encouraged Matabeleland residents to participate in the electoral processes.
In Bulawayo, they conducted a door-to-door campaign while the rural version of the same project saw soccer tournaments being hosted for this democratic cause.
Providence Moyo, one of the team members who was involved in the campaign, said participating in the electoral process was an important human right that warranted the attention they give it because a lot is at stake as it concerns deciding the leadership of the country.
“By capacitating the public with information relating to their voting rights, we believe we are fulfilling an important role that curbs misinformation and disinformation that pertains to the electoral process. In our civic education drive, we help unpack different issues and vexing electoral terms that citizens may not understand.
“This should not be construed as competition against the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) but rather complementary exercise. All stakeholders should come together to assist, and appreciate the foundational work that the commission has laid with regard to the provision of electoral information,” she said.
Reaching wider audiences
While there are many other innovative projects that Community Podium is involved in, one that deserves special mention is their radio show on one of Bulawayo’s most popular commercial radio stations, SkyzMetro FM.
Dibiti said they are an independent producer at the station intending to profile pertinent issues emanating from rural Matabeleland every week and also provide a weekly wrap to give the audience an appreciation of things happening in their rural homes.
“The programme envisages an engaged listenership that will contribute towards finding solutions and learning how other communities deal with similar challenges for the communities. The radio programme is designed to bring the experiences of people in remote communities to the broader national discourse. It aims to facilitate socio-economic development and leverage the popularity of radio to keep urban and rural people connected,” he said.
When all is said and done, media’s viability, utility in society and innovation in the democratic space all come down to a conducive media landscape in policy and legal terms.
Although the Zimbabwean government under the Second Republic should be commended for supporting media growth by licensing campus radio stations, community radio stations, and commercial television stations, more should be done, even by content creators to ensure that other often forgotten and marginalised communities like the elderly and people living with disabilities are not left out of the frame in the deliberations towards the development of a thriving media industry.
Reporting supported by a micro-grant from Jamlab
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