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In this century of radio history, Africa has its part, sometimes beautiful, sometimes painful. Some memories … To peel with delicacy.
A century of radio existence. Can we say here that in the history of mankind, the invention of radio is undoubtedly one of those that had and continues to have a decisive impact on human life?
You can say. But, of course, saying so can arouse suspicion of corporatism. And yet! So think of the number of people around you who, even before they opened their eyes and turned on the light, turned on their radios or were woken by it! And to those who drink the flow of information as they prepare to move on. Add all those who listen to the radio in the car, in traffic jams and who fall asleep in the evening, calmed by the radio, without forgetting the crowd who during the day, out of need, of interest or through reflex, turn on the transistor to follow a program, a newspaper.
You seem to be dying to admit your own addiction on the radio …
How could you have guessed that? I speak today at RFI, and yet I never wanted to be a radio journalist. On the contrary, I only dreamed of the written press, when radio was in my life, present, as a common thread that I stubbornly ignored, to suppress. On January 13, 1963, locked in our houses, it was on Beninese (Dahomean) radio that we learned about the assassination of President Sylvanus Olympio, and it is again via radio that we will know when it’s time to take to the streets without danger.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the BBC was widely listened to in Africa. Voice of America was also listened to a lot, especially since two major African voices served there: Cameroonian Georges Collinet and Togolese reader Roger Guy Folly, “RGF”. Our child’s ears only remembered the long, repetitive music that made it possible for listeners to discover the right signal at each frequency change. Radio France Internationale then fought in random magma of short waves. But with some much appreciated programs: “Memories of a Continent”, with Professor Ibrahima Baba Kaké and “Mille Soleils”, with Alphonse Marie Toukas.
In high school, I competed regularly in a program called “Argumentation”. On a particular subject, it was necessary to state in a few sentences five arguments for or against. The two best proposals were selected and in front of a jury of academics and researchers, the candidates developed their arguments live on national radio. I often won and got in the reward offered by Sparbanken, sponsor of the show.
So you are finally home, at RFI! …
Besides it was hard to love the radio so much, without risking being … a “polygamous listener”, with at each station one or two special preferences, going from one station to another and sometimes having seasonal preferences .. As in the days when you must not miss a press review by Dominique Souchier on France Inter, any newspaper by Patrice Bertin, any edition of “L’Oreille en coin” …
At RFI, the number of deliveries of certain programs or chronicles has a real density. Listen to the quality of the work produced by most journalists when processing news or in RFI magazines, the written press journalist that I claim to say to himself, seven times a week, that with such content, just by transcribing and barely retouch the texts, RFI would have material to produce, every week, two publications of the quality of the best world newspapers: we’re talking about Time Magazine, The Economist … The level is good and even very good. And this is proof that we already do good, very good journalism with good radio.
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