Women's Empowerment and Good Governance Through - amarc

Best Experiences for an Action Research Process 24
Chapter 3.
Women and Community Radio in Burkina Faso
By Georgette Koala (25)
Since 1997, with Horizon FM, the first free radio station of Burkina Faso and of Frenchspeaking
Africa, the airwaves have been liberalized and there are now some 77 radio
stations. The Burkinabe have appropriated radio, which as an oral medium follows in
the griot tradition, the fame of which has travelled well beyond the borders of Africa. This has
favoured radio, unlike the written press, which is seen as an elite, intellectual medium, and
television, the cost of which is beyond the reach of the majority. Because of its accessibility,
the fact that it is perceived as a continuity of the oral tradition and because it uses many of
the local languages, radio is the mass medium of choice for African peoples and for those of
Burkina Faso in particular. It was in this favourable context that the State of Burkina Faso set
up six local radio stations in rural areas of the country in the 1980s. The goal of these stations
was to raise awareness and to promote development. According to the president of the time,
they sought the participation of all of the country’s citizens in the national development effort.
Community radio has always had development goals, particularly participative development
goals, hence the notion of community. It is a medium that belongs to the entire community,
which raises community issues and debates about them with the community in order to find
consensual solutions.
As stated in a master’s thesis from the Department of Communications and Journalism of