Spotlight Story

Zimachitika Is Back On Air

After almost a year off air due to lack of funding, the oldest and most popular radio soap in Malawi, Zimachitika, is back on air. This time around the soap is funded by ArtAction.

With the previous European Union funding, Zimachitika was a vehicle for agriculture messages targeting the rural Malawian population.

Zimachitika was designed in such a way that it carries any social message because the soap is village based. Its characters reflect and represent the different life styles of ordinary Malawians. The stories are relevant and the daily life encounters are real. It is therefore easy for the listener to identify with the characters and draw lessons on how they overcome barriers and improve their lives for the better. It was therefore easy for us at Story Workshop to use the old and new characters in Zimachitika to dramatise issues of Democracy and Good Governance as they affect Malawians.

Judging from the number of feedback letters flooding our Monitoring and Evaluation office, the loyal Zimachitika audience is back. They are listening and learning from their beloved characters as they confront corrupt civil servants, stand up for their human rights, defend and protect the rights of the vulnerable in their society, demand accountability from their leaders and government, discourage nepotism, break the barriers of oppression and intimidation in their quest for justice and more. These characters bring to light laid down procedures that ordinary Malawians don’t know about because those in positions of authority would like to keep the illiterate and semi-illiterate Malawians ignorant of their rights. The positive characters in the drama reflect the importance of responsibility in the course of fighting for one’s rights. Citizen participation is given prominence especially now that the country is waking up from a decade of handouts, when politicians encouraged Malawians to wait for the government to address their problems. Zimachitika characters promote the ideology of initiative.

So, all is well in Mbonekera village until November 2008 when the ArtVenture funding comes to an end. We hope that ArtAction or indeed any possible funding partner will find our initiative worthwhile for continued funding especially in the remaining months of 2008 and the early months of 2009 leading to the 2009 general elections and even beyond. This is a crucial time for voter civic education in Malawi. In a country where radio is the most important source of information, radio soaps like Zimachitika impart very important unbiased information to the masses. Right now the state radio, which has the biggest reach and listenership, is already involved in a tussle with the opposition parties for the state propaganda that it is carrying out. A professional and independent production like Zimachitika broadcast on the same state radio, gives the ordinary Malawian an alternative source of information for them to make informed choices during the run up to the elections.

ZIMACHITIKA FACT FILE

Implementer: Story Workshop Educational Trust (SWET)
Language: Chichewa

Messages: Human Rights, Democracy and Good Governance, Accountability.

Target Audience: Rural Malawians

Broadcasters: Malawi Broadcasting Corporation. (MBC)

Budget

Annually $200,000 for one soap episode a week, M&E, outreach and support activities.

Funders: Currently ArtAction.

Stakeholders

Funders, government and other NGOs working in Malawi.
Reach: 6 million regular listeners, with a strong rural audience as well as urban. Listeners are of all ages and both genders. In a nationwide study of randomly selected households, 85% of the population knew of the show, and 70% listened to it, giving a national listenership of 64%.

Impact

Zimachitika was voted the number one radio drama in Malawi from 1998 to 2001 in the entertainers of the year show (before the end of the entertainers show) ; 93% of listeners ranked it as their favourite or second favourite show; 81% said they listened every week. Letters indicate a high degree of positive role-modelling: 71% of listeners said they had changed agricultural practices, while significant numbers reported other social changes related to gender, health, diet, conflict negotiations, and resource management.

Philosophy

Based on cumulative examples of other soap operas, it draws on Bandura's theory, PCI's values grid approach, and the BBC World Service Trust approaches, adapting the best to the Malawian context. The objective is "to create community dialogue so that barriers are acknowledged and ways to overcome them are more easily understood."