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St Francis Magazine Vol 9, No 4 | August 2013
North Africans were trained in radio production, but ‘the number of people listening was still so low
that it was felt it did not merit the amount of money spent. ’ 216
6. Conclusion
6.1 Indigenization
The beginnings of NAM’s involvement in radio production were conceived among the western
missionaries of NAM, and management of its media organization, RSB, was always fully western.
The dependence of RSB on its Arabic production personnel ensured that in major managerial
decisions their opinions would always be taken very seriously.
Initially, NAM and RSB endeavored to have North African speakers for its programs. However,
since 1966 the main speakers in the programs, who also worked fulltime in RSB, were Arabs from
the Levant. These people were invited to work for RSB as it was difficult to find staff from North
Africa. From a Pan-Arab viewpoint that could be called indigenization, but from the perspective of
the audience in North Africa, these Arabs were not indigenous.
6.2 Contextualization
NAM’s initial choice to broadcast programs in colloquial Arabic and Amazigh was a choice to
speak in the languages of its audience. The later choice to broadcast in MSA was made in order to
be able to speak meaningfully to all of North Africa, as NAM had missionaries in all North African
countries.
For radio broadcasts to North Africa, this choice of using Middle Eastern speakers using MSA
created unnecessary distance with the audience. Not only did these speakers use a language that was
not the mother tongue of anyone in North Africa, but they also had an accent in MSA that was not
North African. The culture of these Middle Eastern speakers was Levantine and Christian, which
was also an added hurdle for producing programs that were contextualized.
Immediately after independence, only a small minority in North Africa could read and write, hence
understand MSA. The problem RSB’s audience had with understanding MSA was clear from the
fact that initially the majority of the audience was interested in doing the French, not the MSA
BCCs.
During the 1980s and 1990s, RSB was prepared to use brief inserts in colloquial Arabic in its
programs, but MSA continued to create the framework for the programs. At the beginning of the
21 st century RSB underlined that it wanted to take the desires of the churches of North Africa
seriously. That could possibly change RSB’s language policies.
In its programs, RSB did not use Islamic language. That would have been unacceptable to the
Levantine Christians in RSB, but it was also respectful to the Christian communities in North Africa.
These converts from Islam wanted to distance themselves from the mosque, not perpetuate its forms.
The content of RSB’s programs was, in general, focused on individuals and their most direct
needs, without any reference to a Christian view of political matters like dictatorship or human
rights. To those who were not interested in these issues, and who did not turn off their radio, these
programs were obviously good, but the gospel should also address corporate evil, so this was a
missed chance. Though RSB underlined that the gospel had concrete implications for the lifestyle of
the audience, and the gospel was allowed to play its prophetic role in their lives, this was only
adhered to in respect to the personal implications of the gospel, and not in its societal implications.
That was a loss for the audience. At the same time, as the churches in North Africa avoided
involvement in socio-political issues on a national scale, RSB’s approach to not speak about politics
or Islam in its programs was in a sense contextual.
6.3 General
AWM’s Statement of Faith, that had to be accepted by all its missionaries including the Arabs
working in RSB, was rather detailed and a western expression of the evangelical faith. It did show
RSB’s adherence to absolute truth as revealed in the Bible and Christ. It was commendable that the
organization, at the beginning of the 21 st century, expressed its belief in the liberty of the churches of
North Africa to describe their own theology as they deemed suitable for their own context. It
216 ‘Prayer’, in Vision Vol. 2 (2003), p. 4.
St Francis Magazine is published by Arab Vision and Interserve 31