Talkative Polity. Florence Brisset-Foucault
Sematimba,28 who since then has become a celebrity, artistically and politically, and one of the most well-paid DJs in the country: “He was very lively, very American. You know he’s a Muganda who’s been living in Los Angeles, so he came and gave a very lively sound. Then . . . [we also hired] a famous club DJ. [. . .] So basically we switched to club people.”29 Soon, being a radio presenter became something glamorous, fashionable, and well-paid. The sociology of radio presenters was thus very different to that of print journalists.
Talk shows had to be infused with entertainment and accommodated a double heritage, depending on the station. In 1995, Capital FM launched Capital Gang, taking the same name as another show from CNN.30 In Uganda, as in the United States, every Saturday Capital Gang gathered a panel nicknamed “the Gang” or “the Gangsters,” composed of famous or rising members of the political intelligentsia, as well as journalists, to comment on the weekly news. The tone was openly lighthearted, as in a discussion among friends. Similarly, the Andrew Mwenda Live show on KFM was conceptualized in 2000 by Oliver Murray, a Canadian journalist, based on a North American model: it was largely centered on the personality of the host.31
On Radio Simba, the People’s Court was inspired by a UK program, but also reflected its producers’ training and experience in local drama. There was already a vibrant tradition of social and political theater in Uganda that had arisen since independence, part of which was broadcast on radio.32 Playwrights suffered a lot under Amin, but after 1986, small troupes flourished across Kampala and were fed by the prestigious Department of Music, Arts and Drama at Makerere.33 The first producer of the People’s Court, Michael Kisenyi, was originally a comedian. He studied music and theater at Makerere before working for Radio Uganda and later at Radio Simba.34 The Ugandan theater culture thus strongly permeated the airwaves.
Talk shows were not very expensive to produce, but they still required more resources than broadcasting only music. Generally, guests in the studios were not paid, but permanent panelists got an allowance, which could reach USh50,000 (around £10) per show for the most successful ones in Kampala. Ebimeeza required more resources than indoor shows. Some stations rented the space where debates took place, although many organized discussions in their courtyards. Numerous talk shows were sponsored by local companies, especially brewers and real estate agents. In these circumstances, and also when the airtime was bought by NGOs or politicians, stations could make money from political talk shows.35
Elections were a particularly fruitful time in terms of the creation of new shows. Politicians were ready to pay to get exposure and engage with listeners. Station managers were looking for original media products that could be launched in order to gain momentum, bringing advertizing and more listeners to their stations. The heated 2001 electoral campaign, which saw former president Museveni’s close ally, Kizza Besigye, run in the presidential election against him for the first time, also witnessed an upsurge of many new programs, including famous and controversial political editor Andrew Mwenda’s Andrew Mwenda Live on KFM, and Ekimeeza on Radio One. In the 2001 electoral context in particular, many radio journalists took their role as conveners of political debate seriously, and talk shows were a way for them to underline this.
This particular election also occurred at a moment when stations had gained in experience. Individual newspaper journalists and editors became talk show hosts or permanent panelists, which was an opportunity to enhance their status as political commentators and intellectuals, as well as to supplement their incomes. Insisting on their position as spokespersons of the “common people,” some talk show presenters took advantage of these platforms, sometimes assimilating their work with a religious calling to defend the “voiceless,”36 sometimes entering politics more actively by converting this media capital into a more traditional representative position and trying to get elected as MPs.37 Generally speaking, interactive talk radio helped radio journalists to enhance their status compared to political elites, as well as to acquire the self-confidence and credibility to counter politicians in intellectual arguments, acting as self-appointed representatives of the “voice of the people.”
As mentioned earlier, a few months after Radio One launched its Ekimeeza show, other stations followed: CBS produced Mambo Bado from a pub in Mengo;38 and Radio Simba created Simbawo Akatii (in Luganda, “Point of information!”) in another bar, in Kampala’s popular Nakulabye area. Eight other ebimeeza appeared in the capital city between 2004 and 2009. Most were tackling national political topics. As one of the producers explained: “Fundamentally, we take the same topic as those which made the front page during the week.”39 For example, in the corpus I gathered for Radio One’s Ekimeeza (sixty-three topics collected, from 2002 to 2008),40 the most-aired themes included: national policies and the political strategies of the executive, inter- and intraparty wrangles, peace negotiations in the North of the country, corruption, human rights, electoral reform, land reform, and more rarely public health (two topics on cholera and Ebola). Issues concerning the kingdom were quite rare (only once, on the fifteenth anniversary of the coronation of Mutebi II). In my sample, there was one topic on economics, and one about the management of the national football federation. Whatever the topic was, speakers quickly shifted the debate toward discussing the decisions and behavior of the state elites, and on making hypotheses about their strategies to get into or remain in office.
TABLE 2.1. Topics of Radio One’s Ekimeeza
Some topics were chosen for their potential to create a heated debate. Nevertheless, their wording also reveals the producers’ preoccupation with avoiding government confrontations. They encouraged a balanced analysis and tried to avoid simple partisan antagonisms. For example, in August 2008, right after several kingdom officials had been brutally arrested by security services, the topic of discussion in Club Obbligato was “The arrest of the Buganda Kingdom officials: What are the implications for the rule of law and lessons for Buganda?” By wording the topic this way, journalists encouraged using this episode as the basis for a more general reflection on what it is to respect the law, a recommendation that seemed to target both the authorities who did not respect the legislation on detention, and the kingdom officials who were accused of violating the constitution by engaging in politics. Generally, topics encouraged making an intellectual analysis.
FIGURE 2.1. Flyer showing Ekimeeza topic at Club Obbligato.
Talk Radio and Transnational Development
The advertizing market increased massively in the 2000s. Radio in urban areas became a profitable business: some Kampala-based stations were among the most important taxpayers in the country.41 The number of stations soon exploded. As of 2014, there were 257 radio stations officially registered at the Uganda Communications Commission.42 Stations have also mushroomed up-country. Nevertheless, the market and thus potential profits have been much smaller outside the capital city; the possibilities of relying on private advertizing have increased but are still limited.43
This market structure affected what could and could not be said on-air. Indeed, the politicization of the airwaves was even more difficult up-country than in the capital. Economic sustainability outside Kampala implied a different positioning toward the state, and also toward NGOs, which were both critical in supporting the local media economy by being the prime buyers of airtime. This financial dependency directly affected working practices. But beyond mere financial considerations, it is important to stress that working in collaboration (however unequally) with local government authorities and international donors was not always viewed negatively by media workers or felt as a constraint.
All this was very apparent on Radio Buddu, a private radio station in Masaka, a small town 150 kilometers west of Kampala in Buganda. It was created in 2001 by a businessman. A former manager recalled of the time when they launched the station,
The government projects that would bring projects like nutrition programs, health