Grassroots, participatory communication in Africa: 10 major lines of research.

White, Robert A.

1. Introduction

This review essay by the former editor of COMMUNICATION RESEARCH TRENDS, Robert A. White, S.J., comes from his new enterprise, African Communication Research (Vol. 1. No. 1, May 2008), published by St. Augustine University of Tanzania, where Fr. White currently teaches. We draw the material reprinted here (with his permission) from his introduction to the first issue and from his review essay on grassroots, participatory communication in Africa.--Ed.

For many involved with communication research in Africa, the study of grassroots, participatory communication may seem quite marginal to the central issues of our field. However, as the review article makes clear, this question touches the heart of the problem of communication in Africa. The focus of this research is not only how people in local communities communicate among themselves to solve local problems but rather how people at the grassroots level can articulate their views, needs, and interests up to the district, regional, and national level.

There is a huge communication gap between the modernized elite sector and the vast majority who live in peasant farming, the informal economy, or on the verge of survival. If the modernized sector has a wealth of newspapers, magazines, and better broadcasting, little of this wealth of information reaches the grassroots. The agricultural extension services and health education services have offices in the regional and district towns, but little of this information gets to people in local communities and even less is actually brought into the rhythm of their lives. The people live largely through their local, indigenous knowledge and forms of communication. How is the information of the technical sector to become part of the knowledge of the people?

Nowhere is this gap more evident than in the realm of politics. The people at the grassroots generally know little of what their political leaders are doing and make few demands on them. Political leaders, for their part, generally see their election as an opportunity for personal enrichment or to help their clientelistic following, through legal or illegal means. Few see their election as a mandate of accountability to their electors. How do we close this gap so that the people at the grassroots in Africa become truly "citizens" influencing the decisions of their nations?

There are no easy solutions. The basic structure of communication is still the top-down control system of the colonial period. The colonial masters certainly did not invite the people to tell them what to do and they did not encourage the people to communicate too much among themselves. The system of district and regional commissioners established in the colonial period is still the dominant structure for creating "silence" and "non-communication" at the grassroots--as is made clear by the wealth of research on local government in Africa summarized briefly in the review article.

A. The vision of the independence movements

All of the leaders of independence were aware that for real independence the basic structure of communication had to be changed. None were more clear about this than Julius Nyerere:

 Growth must come out of our roots, not through
 the grafting on to those roots of something
 which is alien to our society. We shall draw sustenance
 from universal human ideas and from
 the practical experience of other peoples; but we
 start from a full acceptance of our Africanness
 and a belief that in our own past there is much
 which is useful for our future.

Curiously, what many independence leaders did was quite the opposite. To carry out their vision, they chose to use the colonial broadcasting and press system, the colonial transport system, the colonial system of agricultural extension and marketing control boards, the colonial educational system, and, above all, the colonial state apparatus.

They may not have been able to imagine alternatives because they were in a hurry. Also, part of the problem may have been that they were heavily influenced by the then dominant linear model of communication: source, message, channel, receiver, effects-with-feedback to know whether the message had been imposed or not. (Interestingly, this is still the dominant model of communication taught in communication schools in African universities.) They tended to think that they could leave in place the structure and only change the content. They did not fully realize, perhaps, that the structure is the message.

Many of the founders of communication research in Africa--Paul Ansah, Frank Ugboajah, Isaac Obeng-Quaidoo, Francis Kasoma, to mention but a few--have seen clearly that the problem of communication in Africa is in the structure. Much of the research on grassroots, participatory communication in Africa goes back to their insights. Ansu-Kyeremeh (1997) argues for nothing less than a complete transformation of this structure. He contends that the present centrifugal structure--communication flowing from the center to the periphery--must be replaced with a centripetal structure--communication flowing from the grassroots to the center. The review article suggests that Ansu-Kyeremeh's views could form the basis for a more general theory of grassroots, participatory communication.

B. How does a new structure of communication come about?

Out of the crisis of the independence visions in the 1980s and 1990s there has gradually emerged a new discussion about what the structure of communications in Africa could possibly be.... A first and central theme running through virtually all of the current research is the validity of the local knowledge, the traditional forms of organization, and the indigenous modes of communication for effective communication in Africa. This is a complete reversal of the conceptions of the modernization and state-centered models of development.

A second theme is that the most effective 'research' and experimentation are not to be found in the 'established centers' such as Western-oriented universities, but in the constant trial and experimentation that is generally carried on in local communities. It is effective because it is done with the people's awareness of their local farming or health systems, the local ecology and history, and the local cultural values....

A third theme is that the most effective structure of communication in Africa, with roots in African culture, is dialogical--the ongoing conversation, palaver, and interchange of all actors involved in the process. As Tarawalie (2008) notes, the most sustainable communication for development is an ongoing discussion centering on the questions of the local people but involving those in agricultural or other technical services, representatives of the university-based research centers, political leaders, religious leaders, and all other stakeholders....

[A] fourth theme [is] that the structure of communication is focused on the issues and questions raised inside African countries, not expecting that the best ideas will come from the outside global communication. The very successful Nigerian film industry has been created almost entirely from indigenous capital, independent of the financial structures linked with the Breton Woods institutions, and with little reference to international canons of what film should be.

A fifth theme is the belief that the source of the vitality and creativity of African culture in all aspects--literary, dramatic, scientific, religious--is to be found, not among educated elites, but in the popular, 'intermediate,' classes. Karin Barber's fascinating study, briefly summarized in the review below, shows how Yoruba popular drama has been created in the context of the intermediate classes and has become one of the sources of the television and film institutions in Nigeria.

Other themes that are often highlighted include the communalistic nature of African communication and importance of media that are close to the local community communication, as Wilson (2008) brings out. Authority gains its legitimacy not by being 'over' the community but insofar as it listens to the community and articulates and coordinates what the community wants to say and do. Mongula (2008) brings out strongly the difficulty of introducing a new structure of communication in the context of the highly concentrated power structure that derives from the colonial and modernization model but that, above all, is so closely monitored and guided by the global political-economic system. His conclusion that new movements proposing a new structure of communication will do best by negotiating from a position of power with the existing power structure represents still another important theme....

C. Introduction to a review of 10 major lines of research on grassroots, participatory communication in Africa

A major criticism of research in this area is that it is scattered, superficial, and with little significant capacity to explain the social, economic, and political problems of Africa. In response, this article begins with a rather extensive review of Ansu-Kyeremeh's (1997) formulation of a more general coherent theory of the role of grassroots, participatory communication in Africa. Not everyone will agree with his choice of the four basic dynamics--fostering the centripetal rather than centrifugal processes of national communication, communalization, indigenization, and the sankofa or renaissance of traditional communication. Nevertheless, his work remains an important theoretical landmark.

A second line of research is concerned with the continued vitality and importance of indigenous communication in African cultures. Riley (2005) and Mugambi (2005) are good examples of the role of women in developing traditional song, dance, drama, and storytelling in contemporary contexts.

Wilson's (1987) study of the use of traditional instruments in community communication is now something of a classic template of the research in this area.

A fourth important area of research is the study of the way popular arts at the grassroots level--drama, music, and ritual--"articulate up" the local cultures into national cultures. Barber analyzes how the Yoruba traveling drama groups in Nigeria formulated a world view and values that are now important in the Nollywood video film industry.

The fifth area is the enormous mass of research on the validity of local knowledge, local experimentation, and local information exchange networks in the areas of agricultural extension, health, education, and many other aspects of African life.

The research issues regarding community-based natural resource conservation community forestry, wildlife conservation, community preservation of fishing stocks, etc. are introduced well in Fabricius and Koch's collection (2004) of research reports.

Communication for survival in the face of extreme poverty and the communication foundations for the informal economy, the livelihood of 60-70% of Africans, is a seventh important line of research.

The moves for better governance in Africa have given a priority to strengthening local government and decentralization of administration, but the weakness of communication and media at the local level is a major problem. Some areas for research on communication for local government are advanced as priorities.

A ninth line of research, evaluation of local community administration of educational, health, and other services in Africa, is briefly touched on.

Finally, what many would consider the typical research on grassroots, participatory communication--research on communication for personal and social empowerment--is particularly well summarized by Cornwall, Guijt and Welboum (1993). They evaluate the comparative strengths and weaknesses of the methods of farmer participatory research, rapid rural appraisal and participatory rural appraisal, participatory action research, DELTA (Development Education and Leadership Teams in Action)--widely promoted in Africa--and theater for development.

None of these lines of research is uniquely African, but an attempt has been made to highlight the emphases in the African context.

2. A comprehensive theory of grassroots, participatory communication

Ansu-Kyeremeh's publications are a useful starting point because he provides a broad theoretical framework for the analysis of grassroots participatory communication in Africa. In this he is building on Ugboajah's concept of oral, community-based media (1985), the more recent research of Wilson (1987, 1997, 2005, 2007) at the University of Uyo in Nigeria, and considerable study of traditional communication institutions in other parts of Africa. In Ansu-Kyeremeh's view, grassroots, participatory communication is not a matter of a few participatory dynamics in community action but a fundamental remaking of the dysfunctional structure of communication imposed on Africa during the colonial occupation. His perspectives are part of the wave of rethinking that is taking place in agricultural extension, political communication, educational methods, and virtually all areas of African life.

A central premise in Ansu-Kyeremeh's thinking is that the stagnation in African economies, the lack of vibrant indigenous cultural development, very little theoretical creativity, and the continual political dysfunction is due to the lack of building on the indigenous institutional roots of African societies. He envisages four major dynamics in the revitalization of African growth: (1) recognition of and reinforcement of the efforts to move from a centrifugal model of development in which innovations are formulated and emanate from a center of control to a centripetal model in which the innovations are initiated at the grassroots level and are the material out of which nationhood is constructed; (2) communalization, the recognition that the social action of African people at the regional and national level must be based on the traditional organization and forms of communication for decision making and action in the local communities; (3) indigenization, adapting all supposedly improved forms of education, agriculture, and other technologies to the core African values, motivations, and forms of communication so that these innovations do not supplant but reinforce existing African institutions; and (4) opening a space of freedom for and encouraging what Ansu-Kyeremeh calls sankofa or renaissance of local forms of communication and community rituals. The various publications of Ansu-Kyeremeh incorporate research showing the process and significance for development of different aspects of these four dynamics. Indeed, what Ansu-Kyeremeh proposes has become the dominant paradigm in virtually all writing about development in Africa, even if what is actually taught in universities and what is practiced in governments is far from this. Cultural lag is always with us.

A. Moving from a centrifugal to a centripetal model of development

In Ansu-Kyeremeh's view, at the core of the revitalization of African institutions, especially the communication process, is "the imperative need for a structural transformation of the socio-political organization of centrifugalism" (1997, p. 107). The term "centrifugal" indicates an action which begins in the center and flows out through a hierarchical structure to the periphery. The centrifugal structure of communication in Africa was installed with the imperial conquests of Africa as a means of political control, economic extraction, and cultural domination of the European nations. The colonial control system attempted to incorporate local community decision making into the centralized structure of action through indirect rule, and set in motion a process of cultural hegemony through the schools. This control system drew in information from the periphery through the reporting system of the district and regional offices; reformulated this in terms of the codes, language, and ideology of the colonial government; and retransmitted this as the only valid, effective knowledge through the technical extension systems, incipient press and broadcasting, and other forms of official pronouncement. Politically, this system implies no accountability to the native people, an inherent characteristic of a centrifugal model. The model of communication is the familiar linear concept which begins with source intentions and seeks the best channel for its message to impose effects on receivers and uses feedback to adapt the message until the source gets the desired effects.

After independence, the dependence on the imperial powers continued. The centrifugal system of knowledge and communication was reinforced by the modernization and strong centralized government planning once the bureaucratic elites prepared by colonial governments got control of the state apparatus (Ansu-Kyeremeh, 1997, pp. 92-94).

B. The weakness of the centrifugal communication process

Ansu-Kyeremeh's interest in a centripetal communication model began with his studies of the existing systems of the Ghana government's adult education and extension efforts and the analysis of why these were so ineffective. He found that the health, agriculture, or youth extension officers who visited the area thought that the informal networks were mostly just frivolous entertainment and idle talk, not worthwhile working with. The preferred communication method was the set lecture method with time for questions. The villagers were often puzzled by these lectures because they seemed so unrelated to their real questions, interests, and possibilities. There was little purpose asking questions or posing problems because the answer was always the same: the government has set productivity goals and the villagers had to fall in line. In fact, the agents were often not really that concerned whether the villagers did or did not comply because the agents felt that the villagers were incorrigibly traditional and uninterested in progress, but the agents had fulfilled their mission by presenting the official line of the government. The primary motivation was always technological efficiency, never moral behavior that would bring honor and respect in the community. There were few stories, no poetic songs, and absolutely no proverbs.

Many of the villagers were hesitant about speaking out or voicing problems because they knew that these extension agents were representatives of a control system and that they came to impose predetermined goals that had been fixed in the national planning office. According to Ansu-Kyeremeh, there is a long tradition in villages of keeping silent before these representatives of the central government because they are often suspected of being spies gathering information that might later be used against the villagers (Ansu-Kyeremeh, 1997, p. 40). In any event, these representatives were not taken too seriously because they almost never came through with their promises and would be replaced with still another wave of NGOs, projects, and programs, often with quite different, even contradictory, objectives, in the not distant future.

C. The logic of the centripetal structure of communication and social action

Centripetal is defined as action which is initiated at the periphery and moves toward the center. The centripetal model implies a genuine democratization in which the "central government derives its power from the villages, not vice versa, as is the case now" (1997, p. 107). Action starts with the initiatives of the people in grassroots communities to solve their everyday problems of economic survival through the traditional forms of social organization, communication, and decision making. This became evident to Ansu-Kyeremeh and to many others during the 1980s and 1990s when there was a massive reduction of government and other services during the period of structural adjustment. There was growing awareness that up to 70 or 80% of the people in most African countries are fending for themselves, with little or no assistance from the government or other NGOs, in the "informal economy" outside of the formal financial and marketing system. Ansu-Kyeremeh became increasingly aware that people were carrying forward their cooperative survival tactics largely through the traditional forms of organization, communication, and decision making which existed before the imposition of the colonial centrifugal structure. The people could survive because they were bringing into play their indigenous knowledge and incorporating from the modernization influences what "worked" within their traditional forms of economy.

The evidence of the importance of traditional organization and communication in the lives of the people led Ansu-Kyeremeh to carry out a detailed study of the intra-village communication among the Bono people of central western Ghana. He discovered that the ordinary villager was a member of a great many formal and informal groups for virtually every life function. The effectiveness of group action was due to the fact that every villager, young and old, had the opportunity to voice his or her opinion about every cooperative action in the village. This meant that everyone was drawn into the discussion, planning, and motivation to carry projects to a successful conclusion. Group decisions were further ratified by traditional village leaders whose main function was to 'listen' to what people wanted to do and to give those intentions the stamp of authority. This constituted what Ansu-Kyeremeh described as "centripetal communication," beginning from the people and articulated up into community action. The enthusiasm of the people for these participatory projects, in his view, contrasted sharply with the listless disinterest for projects initiated by extension agents representing the "centrifugal communication" coming from central government.

Ansu-Kyeremeh also discovered the remnants of a broader pre-colonial regional political system of the Bono people that coordinated the decisions of the villages in effective regional action. "Communication and information which flow within centripetal indigenous political systems worked so well in the past that the British colonial administrators described it as 'a democratic government to a degree of which there is not any modern parallel in Europe'" (Ansu-Kyeremeh, 2005, p. 184, citing Maxwell, 1928, p. 34). The visible elements of this traditional centripetal system of communication were largely dismantled by the British colonial control structure in spite of their expressed admiration. Nevertheless, Ansu- Kyeremeh believes that the traditions of cooperative group action at the local level and the articulations of initiatives from the village to the district and regional level remain alive and can be revitalized if the people are given the freedom and support to develop them. This is brought out in Tarawalie (2008).

D. Communalization

The emphasis on the village or neighborhood as the most important and effective site of communication derives from the observation that African life tends to be very socially interactive, probably more so than in other cultures of the world. The obligation in Africa to support the family, clan, or village over individual aspirations is well known. The socialization and personal identity of Africans are said to be much more linked to intimate social groupings. One waits to see what the community, especially the authority in the community, wants before making a personal option. Many African philosophers see communalism as a central African value, and many communication scholars argue that Africans see good communication not in terms of the effects it can have on an individual or as a means to express one's personal identity, but in terms of the capacity to build bonds of solidarity and the integration of the individual into the group (Ugboajah, 1985; Moemeka, 1997, 1998; Faniran, 2008).

Ansu-Kyeremeh thinks that the model of mass communication, the transmission from one point to individuals alone, must be "communalized." Typically, people in Africa watch television or home video in groups and they talk about media in groups. The news may come to an individual and then the individual spreads the news within the community through oral networks. Ansu-Kyeremeh is thinking of the dense infrastructure of groups in the typical African village or neighborhood. Groups for him are traditional aspects of village social structure, the family, age groups, and cooperative action groups that people are socialized into. The rites of passage are successive stages of group integration, and the emotional high points of life are not individual success but the rituals of village celebration with music, dance, and group singing. Communication in this context is largely singing, dancing, speaking with rhetorical effect, the rhythmic cadence of words and proverbs, and storytelling. All communication should build on this network of oral communication.

Ansu-Kyeremeh (1997, p. 105) believes strongly that development efforts should not try to introduce new structures of communication but build on the existing patterns of communication in communities, especially the ongoing systems of interaction and personal relationships. All educational efforts should be based on a study of the existing communication channels in a community. It is this communal communication which is the strong basis of the centripetal structure of communication in Africa.

E. Indigenization of communication

For Ansu-Kyeremeh indigenization means that the norm of all good communication is what is considered good communication in African cultures. For example, good communication is not just the expression of personal opinion, but what builds solidarity in a group. Communication in African contexts has much more of a ritual respect for the persons involved, especially for those who have been endowed with authority or who are considered elders.

Morrison (2005), in her chapter in Ansu-Kyeremeh's edited collection, has a particularly good description of the cultural characteristics of African communication. Her characterizations may be more typical of Burkina-Faso, but she would argue that they are the communication culture found to some degree throughout Africa. Words in the African context have power and have a kind of sacred sense about them. She stresses that good communication in Africa is performative, that is, it projects a mood and atmosphere in a group, and she cites the view that all Africans learn to perform with some degree of proficiency (Stone, 1986). To be part of a community is to know about singing, dance, drama, story telling, good rhetorical speaking, the effective use of proverbs. All communication is expected to teach, to communicate community values, and to honor people in the group. The art of "palaver," rhythmic discussion, is highly prized.

In this view, African styles of communication are not just incidental, but incorporate fundamental cultural values. To lose these styles would mean ceasing to be African and losing something very valuable in the panorama of cultural diversity in the world.

Mediated communication in Africa should adapt to this. Indigenization is not Africanization. To Africanize communication is not simply to incorporate Western communication styles into African contexts as, for example, when Africans took over the positions in colonial or newly independent states. Nor is indigenization a form of hybridization in the sense of somehow adapting African styles of communication to the Western mass media forms.

F. "Sankofa" or promoting a renaissance of African communication

A vision and policy of sankofa, that is, policy which enables the indigenous African forms of communication to develop in a holistic way is at the heart of Ansu-Kyeremeh's proposal of indigenization (1997, pp. 77-80).

Although he is somewhat defensive and a bit despairing that this might be possible, in fact this is now becoming the dominant paradigm for communication, at least in areas which touch upon rural development such as agriculture, health, and, interestingly, tourism.

The central premise is that forms of indigenous communication which are briefly described above are, in various ways, alive and active in the culture, in the personalities of the major actors in communities. The premise is that the people, especially in rural communities, know these forms of communication as "local knowledge" and feel more competent in this than in the use of new technologies.

It is important that development actions open a space of freedom and encouragement to allow the people to choose the forms of organization and communication that they prefer. Tarawalie, in an article on blending (2008), states that when the FAO People's Participation Programme (PPP) allowed the people the freedom to choose the kind of organizations they felt most competent in, most chose the traditional forms of organization, type of projects, and communication. What is most significant is that these were the most successful and sustainable programs because the people felt they understood what was to be done and that they truly owned them as their own.

A further important point is that the truly indigenous is never a static institution but is continually evolving and incorporating new elements. As Ansu-Kyeremeh stresses, the indigenous which has roots in the traditional must be the norm, but that is seldom a question if the people have the choice. There is a striking pride in regional, tribal, and African identity in the leadership in grassroots communities. As Uwah (2008) points out, when the young people were given the possibility to organize festivals of more traditional communication in Eastern Nigeria, they enthusiastically took this up. In Zambia, the income-generating projects of the PPP used the traditional, indigenous forms of organization and communication, but the people recognized some of the deficiencies of this and asked outside advisors to help them formalize certain safeguards to improve them. The important thing is that this was done through a process of participatory discussion and planning and the decision to ask for outside help came from the people themselves. The opening of a space for free discussion enabled the local people to become more conscious of their own cultural heritage and the people never lost control of the process.

One of the greatest obstacles is that the universities of Africa, on the whole, do not understand the importance of indigenous communication and have little expertise in this. The university planning commission in Nigeria has apparently established traditional communication as one aspect which should be taught, but this is not present in many countries. Most graduates in communication have virtually no introduction and no idea of the nature and importance of indigenous communication and its role in the process of national development.

Finally, there has to be a conscious and consistent public policy of sankofa. This rejuvenation of indigenous African cultural practices may be popular practice, but the centrifugal central control system is extremely strong in most African countries. It may not be wise to establish certain practices as "indigenous" and then impose these on the people. That was one of the mistakes of the "ujamaa" policy in Tanzania. The government and other agencies must open a space of freedom for the local people to decide what they want to do in a given locality and encourage a participatory process of discussion and decision making.

3. The continued vitality of indigenous communication in Africa

Rather than dying out there is considerable evidence that traditional indigenous communication may be growing in importance, especially in development programs that are seeking more participation and commitment. Riley (2005) describes how a health campaign in Ghana incorporated ritual, singing, dance, and "forum drama" to gain the commitment of women to vaccination and other health practices. As we have noted above, drama, singing, and dance are not "shows" for the public, but are expected to be participated in by all present. Meetings typically began with a sacred ritual, like a prayer, to invoke the divinity but also the ancestors to give this lesson a moral dimension and link these activities to the obligation to continue the values of this community. Meetings and instructions that dealt with issues that could have some resistance such as family planning which depend on the husbands' cooperation were often carried out as dramas inviting audience participation. Putting issues such as family planning in a dramatic format lowered thresholds of resistance, encouraged all to explore these possibilities, and invited alternative views.

Creating a self-understanding and a social understanding of the central role of women's identity in development is important (Rosander, 1997), and research on the role of traditional media in creating this identity is an area of much needed research (Mlama, 1994).

A. Creating a space for women's identity in the African nation

Mugambi's (2005) study of women's organizations in villages of Uganda used an interesting methodology to reveal the changing culture and world view of rural women. The women's groups quite spontaneously used the indigenous forms of singing, dance, and drama as a central form of communication. Given the participatory nature of these media and the traditional freedom to improvise the content and formats with one's own ideas, these media enabled the women to rethink their roles in their families and communities. The study followed the evolution of the songs, drama, and dances created by the women of the Buganda region in their women's club activities and shows how they are a medium that allows a great deal of participatory creativity for social change.

The women's clubs were originally organized in the late 1950s and 1960s to provide an opportunity for women to gain literacy skills. This was a response to the gender inequalities caused by the preference of education of boys in the British colonial system. This is but another example of how the colonial centrifugal sociopolitical structure created concentration of social power, in this case, reinforcing the gender hierarchies. In various ways, however, the women's clubs opened a space of freedom for the women to take initiatives to affirm their own role in the domestic space of the home and then in the community and nation. It is one more example of the centripetal expansion of the indigenous culture from the grassroots when the opportunity is offered.

The women's clubs were another case of opening a space of freedom for a subordinate group because the women had to obtain permission from their husbands to attend meetings. Some men would not give permission because they feared it would be a threat to the traditionally ascribed male authority in the household. Most men, however, saw it as a harmless way to allow wives to become more skilled homemakers and improve the homemaking capacities of the women. In fact, the clubs focused on child nutrition, food preparation, gardening skills, and home improvement and, while pleasing to the husbands, also increased the power of the women in the domestic space.

The gathering of women in the villages for work together was part of traditional village life and continued their traditional indigenous singing during work as part of their club activities. Women had always used their gatherings to introduce variations in the songs or dances and now in the clubs there was a quite strong development of singing themes. Soon, the creation of new songs, dances, and drama became a focus of club activities in itself and competitions of singing, dancing, drama became part of the festivals and fairs in which the different clubs presented their innovations in their home improvement practices. The style of singing maintained indigenous traditions, and the texts of song and drama worked with many of the traditional themes and myths of the Buganda people.

In her report of one of these festivals Mugambi notes the relation between the new confidence that the women gained in the improved homemaking practices, the increased power in the domestic space, the changing consciousness of the women regarding themselves, and the changing texts of the songs. Many of the songs and dramas presented in the festival were a reworking of traditional Buganda myths that provide explanations of the roles and relative power of men and women.

Many of the songs celebrated the new income-generating activities that the women's organization had encouraged and the fact that this income gave the women greater power over decisions in favor of children's education and other aspects of family welfare. "It is women's labor and creativity that brings health and development to the household," was the chorus of one of the songs. One of the main interests of the women in the clubs was entry into the informal economy to supplement the weak and failing incomes of husbands. The informal economy, which has little support from the centrally controlled official economy, emerges largely from the indigenous traditional knowledge and capacities. As in the case of these Ugandan women, a significant part of the informal economy of African nations is due to the ingenuity of women.

Many of the texts of the songs and the dramas revealed the awareness of the expansion of the women's indigenous knowledge and creativity out onto the national stage. One song, entitled "We the mothers of the nation," celebrated, as the basis of the development of the nation, their work in agriculture, in energy-saving ovens, in the use of traditional medical practices, and in the introduction of an ideal homestead. An important point in the songs was the insistence that women's domestic work and gardening with the hoe, generally considered demeaning in contemporary African culture, was just as important and dignified as any work in the nation. The women were particularly proud of the fact that they had done all of this with very little help from any government or NGO agencies.

4. The classification of the variety of instruments of traditional media

The instruments used in traditional, indigenous media of communication in Africa--drums, horns, woodblocks, bells, and gongs--are of great communication and cultural significance because each instrument has a quite highly developed language of its own. These are part of the normal communication in villages, but are also a part of the communication in many other contexts of public gatherings in Africa. For those who have grown up in a particular African culture, the sound of a particular kind of drum, played in a particular way is a language signaling the meaning of the occasion and setting off a train of connotations and emotional resonances.

Wilson's research (1987, 2005) on the traditional media has become something of a model of classification putting order in our understanding of the immensely diverse use of these kind of instruments. This kind of classification may be the stock-in-trade of folklore and popular culture researchers, but Wilson has brought this into the field of communication research. His research is most pertinent for Nigeria and southeast Nigeria in particular, but the way he sets up the classification is valuable for research on traditional, indigenous media throughout Africa.

The classification entails the following:

(1) Identification of the various kinds of instruments used. His classification includes

* Idiophonic: self-sounding instruments--drums, metal gongs, woodblocks, wooden drum, bells, and rattles.

* Aerophonic: sound produced by the vibration of a column of air--ivory horns, wooden flutes, and the deer horn.

* Membrophonic: the vibrations from leather stretched over an empty space and beaten by hand or stick.

* Symbolographic writing: cryptic representation on an absorbing surface.

* Demonstrative communication: Music, storytelling, rhetoric, use of proverbs, etc.

* Iconographic communication: Objects such as the kola nut, floral arrangements, and palm fronds.

* Visual: especially color symbolisms and color combinations.

* Institutional: that is, the symbolic connotations of chieftaincy, secret societies, shrines, masks, and masquerades, but also rites of passage such as name giving and marriage.

* Extra-mundane: that is, sensitivity to the communication not visible to others. In the African context this is a major form of communication, and guides important events in personal and public life.

(2) A description of how the medium (sound, pictorial, etc.) is made from the instrument.

(3) The occasions on which it is used and the purpose for which it is used. For example, in the case of drums, among the Ibibio people, the obodom is used to call specific individuals or the whole community to the chief's home.

(4) The code language of the instrument. For example, the language of the obodom ubong is based on the tonal patterns of the local language and is understood by those who have grown up in that culture. In some cases, the language is designed to be understood by only an initiated few.

(5) The social connotation. The obodom ubong (royal drum) is used on the occasion of the installation of tribal and clan kings, royal celebrations, and the death of kings.

(6) The symbolic connotation. Among the Ibibio people, the frequent use of the obodom in moments of emergency has given it the symbolic connotation of grave danger.

All of these media are present especially in more ritual contexts and in contexts where the communicators want to link those present with more traditional memories. In rural communities, where there is a stronger continuity with the history of the locality and where the modern media may not be accessible because of the poverty of the people, the traditional media are of greater importance.

5. Popular art as grassroots, participatory communication in Africa

Ansu-Kyeremeh's conception of grassroots communication is based more on the material conditions of rural communities, subsistence agriculture, and the socio-structures of traditional pre-colonial society. Another dimension of indigenous communication is the popular culture of the huge urban conglomerates such Lagos, Kinshasa, and Nairobi and the now increasingly urbanized rural areas. This is the world where the informal economy defines the material conditions of cultural production and life is more sharply divided between work and leisure. The leisure time communication is very much structured around the popular arts of Africa: home video, television, and radio with genres of entertainment that have their roots in the popular theater, local music, and popular novels of the recent past. This popular communication is framed in the cultural memory of the many local language regions of Africa: Yoruba, Akan, Swahili, Zulu, to mention but a tiny fraction.

Barber's (2000) studies of Yoruba popular culture are particularly interesting from the perspective of her research methodology. She reveals something of the "centripetal process" in tracing the evolution of Yoruba popular theater from the popular entertainment of Yoruba villages and the under classes of colonial Lagos, to the Nigerian post-independence era when more than 100 little theater troupes traveled from village to village in Yoruba land, to the transformation of live theater into television and home video. One begins to get an idea of how the regional and national cultures of Africa are emerging from the poor and marginal peoples. In Barber's analysis the popular arts of the Yoruba evolved out of the values and aspirations of people struggling in the informal economy of the densely populated southwest of Nigeria--poor traders, servants of the middle classes, artisans, taxi drivers--some still linked to agricultural villages and others attracted to the towns by Nigeria's petro-Naira boom. The actors in the theater troupes were often just as jobless and poor as their audiences and the leaders of troupes such as the Oyin Adejobi group she studies in detail were people who thrived on the whistling, shouting audiences in village squares and tumbledown halls of small Yoruba towns.

Barber's analysis opens to view the same tensions between the power of Westernized elites of Africa and what she calls the "intermediate sectors" of poor but upwardly aspiring Nigerians. The intellectual avant-garde in universities on the whole "despised the popular theater for its vulgarity and lack of social or political 'radicalism.' Though modern, this (popular) theater had little in common with the 'art' theater of the universities which was usually scripted and in English" (Barber, 2000, p. 3). The popular theater was more defined by what it was not: not like modern European literature, not like the treasured, ancient traditional heritage, not the conscientization and development theater spearheaded by a university-based intelligentsia and much described by scholars in Europe and America. It received virtually no official recognition and was never lionized as was the economically successful home video industry--even though it clearly developed the tastes of the public for the now enormously successful home video boom.

"This theater was oriented toward the ethos of school, church, progress, and literacy and was dedicated to the transmission of 'lessons'" (Barber, 2000, p. 3). The typical hero was the poor boy, simple and sincere, who was successful through honest hard work and a lucky "destiny." The dialogue was a weaving together of traditional proverbs that the young, mostly male audience knew from their elders. There was much gentle lampooning of the Westernizing clerks who liked to sprinkle English words in their dialogue, showed fastidious cleanliness, continually criticized Yoruba rowdiness, and dreamed of going to university. Villains were often the flamboyant, arrogant rich who beat women, neglected parents, and mistreated the elders. In the end the basic aspiration of the heroes is achieving the security of steady income and honor in life.

The popular theater that flourished between the 1960s and the late 1980s (when the new video technology made home video production easy and profitable) was essentially an oral form. The troupe leader would get an idea, describe it to the producer who in turn described it to the actors to work out in rehearsals. If the audience was responsive a two-hour drama might easily go beyond three hours with actors heaping up the boisterous action. The early plays were really sung operettas, revealing the origins in choirs of the colonial era. Actors drew out the artistic beauty and expressive potential of the Yoruba language with a spate of rapid-fire back-and-forth repartee that could last 20 minutes. Some of the ideas came from popular novels of the time, some from traditional folklore stories, some from stories handed down in their families, some from real life experiences that had a sharp and appropriate lesson for the audiences. The evil of marital intrigues was interwoven in most plots, but was certainly titillating to audiences.

Almost all of the plays drew heavily on Yoruba mythology, folklore, and life at the kingly courts of the many royal families. Spirits abounded, and heroes often got magical powers in the sacred forests. What Barber brings out particularly well is the role of Yoruba popular theater in articulating the aspirations and values of the emerging "intermediate class" which today makes up the great majority of Africans and reflects back to them their cultural identity. There is much of the methodology of E. P. Thompson (1963) and Richard Hoggart (1957) which was the foundation of British cultural studies. What Thompson and Hoggart showed was that the popular literature that elites in Britain condemned as "bad taste" enabled the British working class to affirm the validity of their cultural identity as an important part of the nation. There are also great similarities with the methodology of Martin-Barbero (1993) who analyzed how the telenovela of Latin America is articulating the culture of the "intermediate classes" of that continent and enabling them to affirm their importance in the national culture. It is an art form which resonated with the feelings of the people and gave them a sense of empowerment.

Likewise, in Nigeria the plays of the traveling theater groups became in the 1980s the immensely popular television programs and then the basis of the video film industry.

The "intermediate classes" could now feel that they are part of the Nigerian nation.

6. The demise of the "extension model" of development communication

In no part of the field of development communication has the switch to the grassroots, participatory paradigm been more radical and complete than in the thinking about how to communicate improved technology to farmers (Scoones & Thompson, 1994). The extension model, that is, the system of "extending" new technology from the research plots of agricultural universities out to farmers through district extension agents, was the unquestioned prototype of development communication in the foundational era of development studies. The theory of diffusion of innovations of Everett Rogers and the Shannon-Weaver model of communication seemed to provide a strong theoretical foundation. The extension model apparently had proved its effectiveness in the striking rises in agricultural production in Europe and America. The regional agricultural research institutes applying the principles of genetics to local seed varieties were producing the green revolution with the miracle rice, wheat, maize, and all other major food staples.

The extension model was an integral part of the modernization paradigm which hoped to raise productivity in developing countries by rapid transfer of technology from the First to the Third worlds. In most of the new nations in Africa in the 1960s the vast majority of productive workers were peasant farmers, and improving agricultural productivity was central to efforts toward capitalization and paying the bill of modernization. What the extension model did not take into consideration was that colonial governments had not developed the basic institutions to provide the credit and other supports to peasant agriculture nor had they developed the communication and transportation system to market the products of peasant farmers. Moreover the logic of the post-colonial political institutions favored the bureaucratic governing elite and did not respond to the needs of the rural areas. Agricultural productivity has fallen steadily in many African countries, and most African countries have become net importers of food consumption needs.

Even if African peasant farmers would have had good prices and good marketing facilities to motivate them to increase production--which they did not--the extension model as a communication system was faulty. The extension system depended largely on visits of professionally trained (and professionally paid!) agronomists to individual innovative farmers. The extension system was originally designed in the United States to serve larger commercial farmers. The peasant farmer of Africa is important for national food production, but an agricultural technical service for semi-subsistence peasant farming requires quite a different approach. Africa would never have enough trained agronomists to reach the millions of small farmers and would never have the funds to pay professional extension agents. Unfortunately, the administrators of the extension system rarely learned to work with groups of small farmers, and governments have been slow to encourage the autonomous organization of peasant farmers.

The classical model of extending the technical knowledge of the research centers and agricultural universities might be applicable to larger commercial farmers, but not to the small semi-subsistence cultivators who are the basis of agricultural production in Africa. Many African countries began the development process after independence with the belief that the increased production of the small farmer would generate a major part of the capital for national development. Instead, the failure to increase the productivity of the small-farmer sector remains the root of poverty and a huge wealth divide that increasingly afflicts most African countries. The "farmer-first" school of thought argues that in Africa, with some notable exceptions, the fault lies mainly with the governing elite: the present systems of agricultural universities, government development planners, the agricultural extension bureaucracies, and the schools of communication in African universities.

The fundamental problem is the communication model used. Most of the agricultural development programs began in the national planning offices which would develop goals of increased agricultural production and the introduction of new crop varieties. These goals were passed to the agricultural extension bureaucracies, and these bureaucracies would pass down orders to extension agents to persuade farmers to meet the government's goals. This was the classic centrifugal model of communication that Ansu-Kyeremeh refers to. The effects model of communication assumed that peasant farmers were passive and attached to traditional ways, an innovative vacuum, and that farmers had to be persuaded to accept the technological package of new seed varieties along with fertilizers and other expensive inputs. There was relatively little understanding of how complex semi-subsistence farming systems are and how many risk factors have to be considered in the introduction of the smallest modification. The knowledge and preferences of the farmers themselves were rarely considered. Needless to say, these production campaigns were almost always a failure. Usually, the farmers were blamed for their resistance to new ideas, their inability to adapt their production systems, or simply their laziness in new production methods.

By the 1980s the accumulated research--largely by cultural anthropologists who studied the culture of semi subsistence cultivators--showed that small farmers in Africa are continually analyzing the factors of better production and are continually seeking information on how to improve production. A number of experimental projects with subsistence agriculture showed that by building on peasant farmers' existing knowledge and on the existing ways of introducing improved practices, agricultural production could be improved significantly. Out of this new perspective there has emerged a new model of communication. By the early 1990s a new paradigm of participatory communication for rural development had become widely accepted, at least by the leading thinkers in the field. The Farmer First (Chambers, Pacey, & Thrupp, 1989) and Beyond Farmer First (Soones & Thompson, 1994) books in the 1990s became almost canonical texts for development communication. It is worth sketching briefly the major dimensions of this new paradigm to pose the question: has this area of research progressed much in the last 10 years?

A. Building on the local knowledge of farmers

The basic dimension of the farmer-first model is that the communication process must begin with the search for information by the farmers themselves. In fact, in the effort to survive, rural cultivators are always experimenting and searching for ways to increase productivity. Outside advisors need to be attentive to the initiatives of farmers themselves who know what their farming systems are capable of producing with the soils, climate, marketing possibilities, and other factors they are aware of. The starting point of any attempt to provide outside technical advice or application of the controlled research must be the questions and problems posed by the farmers. In virtually all of the published reports of programs with some success in introducing more productive farming methods, the method was a problem-solving approach, building on what the farmers were already doing and exploring with the farmers the various avenues of solutions. The solutions almost always involved a gradual rethinking of the whole farming system, and the farmers themselves worked out the solutions. In some cases, where farmers were fatalistic about finding solutions, the extension agent or, more often, a paraprofessional farmer-leader, might serve as a "catalyst" discussion animator leading the group toward a definition of the problem and a more systematic search for a solution. Part of the role of the catalyst was to raise the hope that there are solutions to the problems they are facing and know how to go through the process of finding solutions.

B. Communication among organized groups of small farmers

A second dimension of the communication model is that the most important flow of information is the horizontal exchange of ideas among farmers themselves. Usually there are already community organizations and networks of informal information exchange, but there is also a great deal of internal conflict and differences in power. Virtually all of the successful programs included some training in conflict resolution, participatory decision making, and accountability to the local people. The preferred method of communication in the groups is not the lecture by a professional representative, but a discussion among the members led by a local leader or outside catalyst with some skills in group animation in which members define their problems, exchange the information they have available, and come to some consensus on what information they think would be most useful for them at this moment.

Some of the greatest obstacles to this kind of open, trusting information exchange in African rural communities are the patron-client dependency relations. Local political, religious, ethnic, or economic leaders build their following by setting rural people against each other and presenting themselves as the people who can obtain solutions for them. With many adult males migrating for work, there may not be stable leadership. Yet residents do want solutions and they respond to outside catalysts who are able to introduce a sense of mutual respect and civil discussion. In these situations the desire to find some kind of solution usually leads to informal interaction and building ad hoc interdependence. Leadership that is ready to work to attain concrete goals more easily gains the consensus support of the people involved. Later this can develop into more formal organizations. The witness of groups that have improved their life situation through cooperation is a strong motive. Communication which leads away from a focus on power-seeking, self-interests, and bureaucratic status--all features of the centrifugal communication structure that has its origins in the colonial, modernization and centralized state institutions--helps to forge information exchange around practical solutions.

C. Trained paraprofessionals and leadership living in the communities

The extension system tended to build a dependency on outside technological bureaucracies and the belief that outside information was superior. This downgraded the creativity and initiative of local people and devalued indigenous knowledge. The farmer-first communication paradigm seeks to strengthen local organization, local information exchange, and local creativity and initiative. The indigenous analysis of problems is much more likely to take into consideration the memory of the peculiar local soil or climate circumstances, what has or has not worked, the fine-tuning of local vocabulary and meanings, who is a particularly trustworthy repository of local knowledge, and what is much more likely to be holistic, that is, to fit well with every aspect of the local rhythm of life. The provision of information is done through the local leadership structure either by persons elected by the group who get the instruction necessary from professional agronomists or through local leaders residing in the community who have received some training and can act as resident paraprofessionals. The peasant leaders or paraprofessionals often have greater knowledge of local conditions and risks than outside professionals and are better able to communicate with the local farmers. Working through local leadership not only multiplies the effectiveness of the few professionally trained personnel, but leaves the process of innovation to the initiatives of the local communities.

D. On-the-farm experimentation

A fourth dimension is the development of the informal experimentation and testing of new methods that many farmers do on their own in Africa into a more systematic testing of new practices in the conditions of the local community before these are widely introduced among the local farmers. Often a seed variety or a particular soil preparation method that may do well in the conditions of the experimental grounds of the agricultural universities does not do so well in the local communities. Local farmers should test their own adaptations of recommend practices to adapt these to conditions in their local community. This information is then articulated up to professional extension agents through local leaders and paraprofessionals. Thus, the agricultural research process incorporates the farmers as the principle protagonists.

E. Radio and print media coordinated with farmer questions

A fifth dimension of the communication process is a much more active use of radio and other media not as an extension of the lecture method but as an inter-communicator among farmers' groups. Radio has the advantage of being immediately present to listeners and of being inexpensive to broadcast and receive. Radio broadcasts are very flexible to produce and with new mobile technologies can broadcast directly from the farmers' groups. The basis of programming is not a set of lectures decided by outside specialists who may not be aware of what is actually going on at the moment in the farmers' production groups. Rather the communication must start with the questions and problems of the farmers or other groups in the audience and respond to these. If the programs are dealing with agricultural production, they must follow the production cycle and deal with the typical problems and questions that are presented at that moment in the production cycle. An important role of the radio station is marketing news, availability of resources, new government legislation that may be important for them, and any other information which affects the entrepreneurial decisions of small farmers. Much of the programming becomes an exchange among farmers' groups regarding innovations, how they are dealing with particular problems, and the successes they have had. One of the most important functions is to provide an open forum to discuss common problems of marketing, lack of farm-to-market roads, the lack of agro-industry processing, government policy, and other issues that can involve all and raise the consciousness of all.

F. Extension services as co-researchers and links with major research centers

The communication role of the professional extension agent continues to be important but is changed. The extension agent must become more than an information transfer agent from the agricultural research centers to the farmers and more than just a catalyst in the action of the farmer groups. The professional agronomist has more systematic training in analyzing the causes and solutions to the problems the farmers are facing. The professional agronomist becomes a co-researcher with the farm groups. The professional agronomist also plays an important role in training paraprofessionals and in organizing training courses for the leaders of the farmers' groups. The professional agronomist also brings the agricultural research centers more directly into contact with problems and ongoing experimentation in the farmer group.

G. Developing farmer-controlled NGOs that negotiate with marketing and resource agencies

Still another dimension of communication is the linking together of local groups at the district, regional, and national levels. Most of the major problems of small farmers such as marketing, credit, agro-industry processing, an ongoing commitment, national price-support policy, farm-to- market transport, finding international markets, and many similar problems can only be solved at a broader regional and national level. The problem is that farmers have not had any voice in how these problems are solved. There are no accountability procedures on the part of government. Policies are established for farmers in the interests of the governing elites with continual disastrous results for the farmer producers. The participatory structure enables farmers to voice in their local groups how they think these problems can be solved and then through elected representatives articulate their views up to the regional and national level. This is a structure that makes possible the centripetal process of communication that Ansu-Kyeremeh speaks of.

H. Recognition of the central role of women in agricultural production

Much of the smaller semi-subsistence, peasant farming that provides the domestic consumption needs is carried out by women. In the new model of farmer control, women are accorded a central role in training, experimentation, and direction of farm organizations (Bryceson, 1995; Verma, 2001).

7. Community-Based Natural Resource Management

The Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) movement is one case of more decentralized, local participatory governance that is gaining political and institutionalized acceptance in Africa. Although there has been considerable discussion of environmental planning at the policy level in Africa (Salih & Tedla, 1999; Keeley & Scoones, 2003) and some discussion of the ethics of environment (Msafiri, 2007), another important area of analysis is how this is being carried out at the grassroots level. The colonial view of the indigenous people as ignorant poachers gradually disappeared with the awareness that local communities have traditional knowledge and a spirituality of protecting the ecological harmony of their homelands. Independence governments found that they did not have the personnel or funds to maintain close supervision. Many local groups began movements to recover their land and resources, and the spread of common property theory legitimated the claims of these movements. The development of tourism and the conservation of wildlife proved to be a source of livelihood for local people. Political leaders gained support by concessions to local leadership.

The local community management of forestry use, wildlife conservation, and maintenance of the delicate biodiversity of ecological systems generally proved more efficient and successful than the centralized state management. The perennial conflicts among local people seeking livelihoods from forests or wildlife, expanding commercial farming, game hunters and tourist interests, and domineering government officials have subsided once management rights are ceded to locally elected leadership. The worldwide movements to protect ecological balance and interdependent biodiversity included the rights of local communities as part of their demands, and most African countries became signatories to conventions and treaties that protected CBNRM. International tourism was as much attracted by meeting local people and their explanation of the meaning of their habitat for them as was the contact with the beauty of the African natural world. Many NGOs found a role in helping traditional leadership learn new management skills. In short, the decentralization of natural resource management to local communities seems to be a case of win-win for all interested parties.

In fact, the problems with CBNRM lie in the area of communication. Most communities remain very poor because they do not have the skills or support to develop the economic potential of the natural resources. It would be necessary to form communication linkages among communities to get the investment, markets, and training needed for serious economic development. The most successful community management is carried out by smaller units in which there is face-to-face interaction and full consensus on decisions, especially distribution of financial benefits, with full accountability of leadership to the people in the community. Most of the conflict and breakdown of management was caused by continued connection of government officials or private entrepreneurs with a privileged sector of the community. There needs to be much more training of outside government and NGO officials in how to be a catalyst and promoter of participatory local action in a way that does not instrumentalize local management organizations for state purposes but increases the autonomy and complete self-governing capacity of local groups.

The most valuable asset of the community is the traditional knowledge of wildlife and other resources, but this needs to be conveyed to the young of the community by ritualistic performative communication and the integration of broader knowledge of conservation by youth and women's organizations. In general, the rationalistic deliberation over economic and technical issues is not the typical African mode of deliberation. Community is built through drama, dance, choral singing, traditional rhetoric, and colorful display in connection with the contemporary institutions of education, the school, the local churches, and community improvement.

In Africa everybody comes back to the home village and reintegrates the urban with the local at the times of ritual celebration of marriages, funerals, or other rites of passage. The singers at these celebrations are skilled in linking the old and the new. The case of the women's organizations in Uganda illustrates how traditional singing, drama, proverbs, and poetry can use world views to deal with contemporary and new issues. Community radio has also been successful in some parts of Africa in setting in motion a communication and debate process that integrates traditional knowledge with new knowledge to deal with contemporary problems and lack of community consensus. Performative communication in storytelling, drama, dance, and rituals emphasizes that every community has its own unique history, its own problem-solving resources, and its unique way of dealing with local issues.

8. Community communication for survival in poverty

Still another important line of research on grassroots participatory communication (Fraser Taylor & Mackenzie, 1992) began in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the crisis of rural poverty that followed structural adjustment programs, historic droughts and creeping desertification, and increasing population pressures in many African countries. In the 1970s, many African governments, with the burst of development efforts following independence, had raised the expectations of rural communities with assistance in building schools, dispensaries, roads, and other assistance.

By the 1980s, however, the governments were far overextended and could not continue earlier development efforts, especially in rural areas. With the increase of government bureaucracies and the demands of the political patronage systems, public expenditure was increasingly directed toward an urban middle class. The government agricultural marketing systems were very inefficient, but rural people found markets and some monetary income in the growing regional and district towns. There was increasing education in rural areas and a growing rural leadership of somewhat better off peasant farmers, small businesses, teachers, and government employees. From the late 1980s on, young university educated graduates, who could not or would not work in government, formed NGOs to help the rural poor and many donor agencies preferred to work with these NGOs.

Left to themselves many rural communities began to activate traditional communal practices of working together, but with many new ideas of community development and community organization that were spreading in rural areas. The studies of organized community development efforts, collected by Fraser Taylor and Mackenzie (1992), document the growing presence of local organizations. A major motivation is to continue the process of improving health and education and get access to simple modern appliances such as transistor radios. Village leaders often lead the way in building schools and dispensaries with volunteer work and some contributions of the communities. During periods of drought, communities dig wells and build small dams.

Small saving and loan associations are helpful in paying school fees, getting medicines, or buying batteries for radios and electric torches or other simple appliances. Groups of peasant farmers buy old lorries to transport their produce to local markets. Women form communal gardening projects to raise and sell fruit and vegetables in the markets or on the streets. Women also work together to produce some income in brewing local beer, milling maize and millet flour, tailoring, creating local crafts (making baskets, pots, and other household items), or maintaining small retail stores. The traditional burial societies continue to multiply. Young men use local blacksmith skills to make hoes, knives, charcoal stoves, buckets, and cooking utensils. Men are involved in cooperative livestock and charcoal production and sales. Churches are moving from a clergy focus to a lay-directed group focus not only for religious prayer and reading but for community action. Tree planting, water harvesting, and other resource conservation projects are often communal efforts.

These organizations imply a process of communication for problem solving. Accompanying these community self-help organizations are many movements of group and community communication applying consciousness-raising discussion methods inspired by Paulo Freire. Virtually every African country has agencies promoting popular theater as a way to foster community organizations, although this tends to be stronger in southern Africa. Most NGOs include training in participatory communication in their work with rural communities. Many of the churches have programs of training in participatory communication. In rural communities and in many African countries, churches are also establishing local educational radio stations that are attempting to support community organizations.

The question which Fraser Taylor and Mackensie (1992) and others pose is whether these local level organizations really represent the foundation of the kind of centripetal communication that Ansu-Kyeremeh would propose. All current studies suggest that the key to success of this process is the realization of information and communication goals by all the actors involved, a win-win communication process:

* The energy for upward communication comes from the initiatives of the people in the communities who get the information they need and can create sufficient communication to help all in the community to see how they will benefit from the action.

* All stakeholders in the process--paraprofessional representatives of outside organizations, better-educated localites, or even professionally educated people residing in the community--must continually encourage the community to see that the local problems are solvable. They must also stimulate community discussion or be ready to feed in new ideas from their communication with a world of ideas.

* The development of local community "survival organizations" involves district, regional, and national level networking and coordinating bodies led by people elected by local organizations and responsive to the local organizations. This pyramid of representatives are both horizontal communication linkages with the network of local organizations and vertical linkages to negotiate with national elites the resources for local communities. It is of crucial importance, however, that the major cultural, political, and economic communication of these representatives is with the local people they represent and not with the national elites they are attempting to persuade to support the local people they represent.

* Very important are permanent beneficent organizations at the regional level--professional associations, churches, local foundations, etc.--providing communication training, sustaining a broadcasting and print communication for local communities getting support from national or international organizations, and translating local culture into a populist culture that makes local culture and knowledge the foundation of a national culture.

* It involves government policy which forces its service bureaucracies out of the enclosure of their own internal communication (internal power struggles, etc.) and makes responsive communication exchange with the initiatives and requests of local organizations a priority.

* Finally, it is important to have a process of dialogue between people's organizational networks and national governing elites and other major power holders which argues that allowing people's organizations to realize their goals is not a threat to their power. Rather, this dialogue argues that a pluralistic power structure (Gramsci's concept of hegemony) which negotiates the mutual benefits on all issues is for the benefit of all. A pluralistic power structure is ready to continually admit new social actors and continually reformulate conceptions of prestige, preferred cultural identity, and communicative symbols for the benefit of all. The national media are of crucial importance in forming a pluralistic, continually changing national cultural identity.

9. The movement for participatory local government in Africa

A particularly important effort toward a more participatory, centripetal process of social action in Africa is the movement for strong local government (Olowu & Wunsch, 2004). The appeal for decentralized governance is a central aspect of the world wide response to the problems of the centralized state governance all over the post-colonial world and is included by many political scientists in what Huntington has called "the third wave of democracy." In this perspective, the first wave is constituted by the 18th century movements in America, France, Latin America, and other parts of the world to establish democratic constitutional governance; the second wave, by the independence of the former colonies after World War II; and the third wave, by the movements particularly characteristic of Africa in the late 1980s and 1990s that brought multiparty regimes, freedom of the press, a more central role for the civil society, the downsizing of central government, and a host of other political change including decentralization of governance.

Since 1990, African governments have introduced three general types of decentralization (Tordoff, 2002):

* Decentration, keeping control of all decisions in the central government but moving some administrative authority out to appointed bodies such as regional and district commissioners (Kenya and Cote d'Ivoire are cited as examples).

* Devolution, allowing local areas to elect officials or representatives in local governing councils (political control) but often keeping control of resources for local administration in the hands of central government (Uganda, Zambia, and South Africa).

* Decentralization, giving local bodies varying degrees of political elective and accountability control and the administrative resources to carry out local collective decisions (Chad and Botswana).

Olowu and Wunsch (2004) point out that the desire and pressure for more local autonomy has always been present in African communities. In the early colonial period imperial governments were primarily interested in conquest and tight control and either brought local authority under their control through indirect rule or through the public security system of district and regional commissioners. After World War II the British colonial office, in part to reduce its own administrative expenses, introduced elected local councils with at least advisory responsibilities in education, health, rural roads and water supply, and agricultural extension, with local tax support and with grants from the central government. Cooperatives and rural leadership training were also encouraged. Many of the independence leaders came out of this local government structure, but, ironically, these leaders moved to establish a strong centralized power structure and central planning command process which brought all local communities into dependence on the decisions of the leaders of the dominant political party.

There were many pressures on African states to decentralize and devolve administrative services and political decisions to the local level: the increasing local demands with rising educational and awareness levels, the isolation of the central government from the district and regional offices because of problems of communication and transportation, the lack of funds and administrative capacity of central governments to respond to local needs, and pressure from donors to stop the enormous growth of political appointees in central government bureaucracies (Pasteur, 1999). The structural adjustment reforms made decentralization a condition for IMF and World Bank funding, largely to reduce the cost of central government, but most leaders have paid only lip service to these conditions. In some cases, as in Uganda, Yoweri Museveni built support for his movement against Milton Obote by granting greater autonomy and participatory decision making to local communities that were suffering from the exploitation of local chiefs and other local political leaders. In Uganda, for example, the various levels of local government have responsibility for services such as education, health, and especially local security, and a large percentage of local tax revenue is reserved for the local governments.

With the economic and political crises of the late 1980s, insightful African political leaders began to see that national development had to come from the grassroots initiatives of the people and that the major role of government is to encourage and assist those initiatives.

Julius Nyerere admitted in an interview published in 1984 in Third World Quarterly, There are certain things I would not do if I were to start again. One of them is the abolition of local governments and the other was the disbanding of cooperatives. We were impatient and ignorant.... We had these two useful instruments of participation and we got rid of them.... These were two major mistakes. (Nyerere, 1984, p. 828, cited in Olowu & Wunch, 2004, p. 34)

The development of responsible local government has made little progress in Africa except where there has been an almost complete collapse of central government services as in the case of Chad. The dominant political parties maintain tight control of local administrative units to reward local political leaders with jobs and funding and to prevent significant political opposition. Local government is mostly a facade to respond to local ethnic and regional demands or donor agency pressures. The decision- making power of local government remains very limited. For example, in Ghana, local communities can elect representatives to a district council, but the funding and effective permissions are given exclusively to the district commissioner from the central government. African political leaders are extremely reluctant to give up their resources of jobs and funds for their patronage systems and local leaders want to continue their exclusive access to oil and mineral incomes or support of international donors through central governments.

The major problem, however, is the lack of local communication infrastructure to voice needs and make local governments accountable (Clayton, 1998). Increasingly, the national media operating in the national metropolitan city are making central governance more accountable through investigative reporting and continuous reporting on the efficiency of government response to problems. But this kind of media pressure generally does not exist at the district and regional level.

A. The problem of government without communication

The detailed evaluations in the work of Olowu and Wunsch (2004) describing how local government is functioning in various African countries show that the problem is precisely a lack of communication infrastructure at the local level.

(1) Many African countries, such as the Ugandan case described in some detail, have conceded significant functions of local services to local communities and at the district (sub-county level) but, because there is so little discussion of village community problems at the village level, community representatives come to district level decision-making with little knowledge of what the communities want or need. Community organizations are precisely a communication structure, but because community organizations are so weak with little management ability, they do little to facilitate articulation of community needs among local families and clans. Representatives tend to represent only their own immediate clan or group of friends. These representatives do not really have the mandate from the local community and, in the end, get little for the local community and do little to solve the local problems. The tendency to represent only their own immediate clan and to bring them resources causes much conflict in the community and makes community communication even more difficult.

(2) Many African countries are making "poverty reduction," especially in rural areas, a major priority. Funds are being channeled out to poorer rural areas or to urban slums. The district-level government is the representative of the ministries in those areas and the resources are channeled to district-level administration. But because of the lack of communication at the district level, people in the villages often do not know about these resources or only those who have close political connections with the district get the information and these are not really in contact with the community as a whole. Usually, the use of resources to improve health or education facilities requires a certain level of community mobilization, but without good communication, the resources available from the central government are not used at all or are used badly. The use of these funds requires a certain level of supervision and accountability, but with weak communication in the community and weak contacts between the district offices and communities, the resources are often wasted, projects are never completed, and district level officers have little knowledge of what is going on.

(3) The national press in some African countries has been relatively effective. In some African countries community radio has succeeded in opening a space for wide discussion of community problems, such as the irresponsibility of local teachers, the lack of proper hygiene and health measures in market areas, or the lack of response to malarial epidemics. Unfortunately, many African governments do not give the support necessary for effective community radio or even block this. Because of this there is little articulation of problems at the district and regional level and little demand for accountability of district and regional offices (Stren, 1989, pp. 123-129).

(4) The major line of communication of local government in Africa is between the sectors in the district offices and their central ministerial offices in the national capital. In Uganda, which has a more developed structure of decentralization of government, there are village councils, councils at the level of what is called parish and at the subcounty level, and councils at the district level. The subcounty has local taxing powers, but almost no money is levied. The plans are worked out in central offices and the proposals that might come up in the various councils are not taken into consideration. More important, there is virtually no publicity given to the plans and budget allowances coming down from the central ministerial offices. In fact, district offices and their councils are generous in funding their own direct and indirect needs: salaries, sitting allowances, vehicles, etc. are provided for (Wunsch & Ottemoeller, 2004). Little funding is left over for educational, health, and other needs in the villages and wards, and there is no communication forum to discuss this.

(5) Citizens at the district and regional level are represented in the national assembly and some countries, such as Nigeria, have representatives at the state-level assembly. The vast majority of Africans have little knowledge of what their representatives in parliaments and in local and regional councils are doing, and given the lack of local media in Africa it is not possible for them to know.

The answer to most of these problems of information and accountability is to strengthen local media and to introduce a dimension of community service into all local media (Dwivedi, 2002). In the best models of community radio, for example, there is report of discussions and meetings in the local communities in the broadcasting area. There is a constant flow of information and discussion of issues in the community model of local media.

10. Evaluating the communication processes in community-based services

In the face of the inability of central governments in Africa to provide basic education, health facilities, and other services in local communities, the communities themselves have made efforts to set up and manage these services on their own. Significantly, community initiatives are most often found among the poorest, least educated, and least politically integrated sectors in Africa. The book, Community Schools in Africa (Glassman, Naidoo, & Wood, 2007), provides an overview of the successes and problems of these locally controlled services in various countries of Africa, with a good insight into the communication research issues involved.

The community schools, like other similar services, are managed by a local leadership council, selected with some form of participatory election. The major resource for local and national development is the desire of the people for the services and the willingness to assume collective responsibility for this. The major communication problem is the accountability of this leadership to the people of the community both in the representation of the interests of all and making known to the people what the leadership is doing so that the community can control this in some way (Mushi, 2001). The leadership often is not accustomed to promoting wide participation, especially where taboos excluding women, youth, and other marginal groups are influential. It is easy for leadership to favor their own families, friends, and political alliances, with resulting bitter conflict.

In the best of cases the growth of community-based management of local services has been supported by leadership training programs such as that of DELTA(described below). From a communication perspective, the objective is to strengthen the existing traditional horizontal communication linkages that exist through lineage and marriage, cooperative action in agriculture and other forms of informal economy, and the kind of informal interaction that Ansu-Kyeremeh and others describe above. These horizontal linkages not only build solidarity and trust in the local community, but bring together communities for the exchange of ideas on planning and problem solving at the district and regional level. If there exist bonds of trust and easy communication, then accountability to the people flows naturally

A second objective is to strengthen the vertical relationships of communities with resource agencies that can help local schools or health facilities and with authorities that can provide legitimation of local decisions. When conflicts develop at the local level, there is a trusting and legalized relationship with authorities that can quickly resolve local conflicts and mismanagement.

11. Group communication for personal and social empowerment

A line of research of great importance for grassroots, participatory communication is the study of group communication for social transformation or, more commonly, for personal and social empowerment. It is clear that a participatory structure of communication can never hope to develop unless there is a basic redistribution of socio-political-economic power. The empowerment tradition argues that this redistribution of power must begin with new bonds of solidarity, common vision, and determination among the people themselves. This usually begins as a social movement that gives up the hope of solving problems by appealing to the powerful through hierarchical bureaucratic and clientelistic communication structures and seeks a solution by building horizontal bonds of communication among themselves. The group communication for empowerment tradition seeks to facilitate the formation of popular movements by an education in communication for people's solidarity. Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educationist, is often referred to as the foundational theorist for this "education for freedom and empowerment." Freire explained the passivity and dependence of the poor and marginal as a result of a communication relation with elites that instilled in lower-status people the self-perception as socially, politically, and culturally incompetent and that therefore they needed to depend on the elites for guidance. To maintain this vertical dependency, elites do all they can to prevent horizontal intercommunication among the powerless. A typical example of this was the attempt of the apartheid regime in South Africa to forbid all meetings among blacks. This dependency relationship is to be broken by opening a space of freedom for the poor and powerless to discover, in interpersonal discussion among themselves, the solutions to their problem in their own local knowledge and analytic capacities.

A major purpose of dialogical communication is to enable participants, who have a superficial attitude of dependency as a tactic of survival in a power structure, to get in contact with their own sense of critical perception deep in their personalities and raise this to the level of conscious affirmation and public contribution. By this education in dialogical communication and mutual respect, participants grow in solidarity and capacity to form their own organizations to carry out their collective decisions. This is also a school of democratic deliberation because it asks participants in the discussions to give reasons for their proposals in terms of the common good of the group and to ask for reasons from others. It is a school in democratic leadership because discussions are guided by animators who do not impose their views but whose main objective is to enable everyone to make their contribution to the group action, all to listen to each other and move toward a course of action that the group feels is its solution.

This approach to group communication for personal, social, economic, and political empowerment is radically different from the "group dynamics" forms of group communication developed especially as part of organizational communication and industrial sociology. While group communication for empowerment has as its primary objective to gain independence from organizational power, group dynamics is a method of devolving organizational goals to the level of small group to enable organizational members to internalize and adhere to organizational goals. Group communication for empowerment aims at exactly the opposite: to gain independence from the organizational, bureaucratic occupation of the life space and to develop people-controlled initiatives from the grassroots.

What group communication for empowerment does is to build on the traditional forms of communication in the culture, but add to this (a) a problem-solving focus, (b) a more reasoned deliberative process, (c) the skill of dialogue and research which now is no longer the monopoly of the modernizing elites, (d) moving discussion toward decision-making and organized action. What this attempts to do is to introduce the lower-status groups to the same skills that make elites powerful, but now to use these skills for the common good rather than for exploitation.

Although Freire has had great influence throughout the world, Africa has its own tradition of group communication for freedom, expressed especially in popular theater and other typically African forms of participatory group communication such as dance, singing, and communitarian rituals. In fact, different forms of group communication for empowering grassroots social movements have emerged in myriad contexts over the last 200 years in reaction to the power relations of capitalism, colonialism, and postcolonialism and, ironically, in response to dictatorial communism.

In the African context group communication for empowerment has been more typical of efforts toward agricultural and rural development. Cornwall, Guijt and Welbourn (1993) is valuable because it brings together in comparative framework five or six of these approaches which are also quite common in Africa: farmer participatory research (FPR), rapid rural appraisal (RRA), participatory rural appraisal (PRA), participatory action research (PAR), Development Education and Leadership Teams in action (DELTA)--a uniquely African approach--and theater for development, which, as we noted, is highly developed in Africa.

A. Participatory research

One of the most striking forms of popular empowerment is to make the poor and marginal the major protagonists of technical research in agriculture, health education, and other key areas of their lives. Technical research has always been thought of as something that is done by an intellectual, theoretical elite, at the top of the power elite in modern society, operating in the isolated conditions of the laboratory that allow scientists to separate out experimental factors from the concrete conditions. Participatory research argues that the most important aspect of technical control, whether it be a matter of agriculture, health, or education, is the combination of a technical improvement with the immensely complex concrete life conditions of the people. It is assumed that only the poor can change their life situation and that the poor and powerless are constantly incorporating aspects of modern technology in terms of their existence in the informal economy. The local knowledge of the poor and marginal regarding their life situation is the framework for continually introducing improvements in their life, given the meager resources they have.

Participatory research introduces the usual group communication for empowerment methods of dialogical discussion led by a skilled group animator. The process not only enables each member to bring to the level of conscious appropriation his or her existing knowledge of agriculture, health, or other problem areas but also enables the group to bring together the best knowledge of all of them to formulate a common project. In this case the group may have an experimental agricultural plot in the village or, in the case of health, a group discussing how best to deal with HIV/AIDS in their lives and in the village. Most often, in these more technical issues the group animator is often a paraprofessional in agriculture or health who is a native of the community. The paraprofessional has some training and is often in contact with extension agents and even the centers of regional and national research to obtain more information when the local group has formulated the question and defined the need for information in terms of their research. It is ideal when groups of this kind can form a network of information exchange, served by radio or other media with a more educational orientation, and the groups can become a self-governing NGO to negotiate from a position of some power with government ministries and other service agencies. Thus the discussing, researching group is at the center of a dialogue of a team of village leaders, paraprofessionals, and professionals in the particular problem area and a much larger information-flow system (Chambers, 1993). The combined knowledge gives local people many more choices of information for solving local problems (Rhoades, 1983, 1990).

This is an empowering process because it introduces to the poor and the marginal the culture of research and sets them on the long, slow process of improving agriculture, health, or other areas of life. They are equipped with the ability to continually incorporate new ideas into their ongoing local research process.

B. Participatory Rural Appraisal and Participatory Action Research

Rural development agencies have long done general, comprehensive assessment as a basis for extension activities and annual budgets, of the state of the quality of life in rural communities touching all aspects from soil conservation, agricultural productivity, and marketing to health and community organizations. Although this kind of general evaluation was always done with the help of the local farmers and their leaders, the local people rarely analyzed the data or used the data for their own planning. With the application of the principles of group and community communication for empowerment, rapid rural appraisal evolved in the 1980s into Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). The difference is that now people of rural communities, not the agencies, define what information is to be sought and retain control of the information gathered as a basis of projects and activities that the village or district will introduce.

Whereas farmer or health participatory research tends to focus on one problem solving process, PRA is a method that enables a community or district to take stock of every aspect of the quality of community life. This can be a powerful tool because it provides evidence for obtaining government or other resources for comprehensive development of the community or district. Where PRA has been introduced, the local population assumes much more responsibility for projects and does more long-term planning.

The introduction of relatively inexpensive, easy to use video cameras has, in the view of many, revolutionized PRA because it eliminates the need for written records and presents the state of the community much more dramatically and rhetorically (White, 2003). Whereas written records tended to become the property of rural elites, the video provided much more public and widely diffused information about the community. What people were thinking was not lost in the translation into summary statistics, but could be heard directly and then discussed publicly.

PRA is often accused of becoming a superficial method of gathering superficial data without addressing the deeper problems of social power. The use of the data assumes the presence of strong community organizations and strong participatory institutions. Many would say that Participatory Action Research is much more effective in mobilizing the community in dealing with local power elites.

Participatory Action Research (PAR) becomes particularly important in situations where the rural and urban poor are considered culturally degraded and inherently inferior and this perception of inferiority is used as a weapon against the poor and leads the poor to think of themselves as inferior. Group communication for empowerment becomes a context for affirmation of the value of the folk culture, the folk forms of theater and poetry, the validation of the popular culture as the authentic national culture in contrast to the tendency of the elites to imitate Western culture. PAR becomes the basis of a cultural revitalization movement and the basis for a major socio-political movement to build a base of power and alliances to significant social change (Fals-Borda & Rahman, 1991).

C. DELTA (Development Education and Leadership Teams in Action)

DELTA can lay claim to being the purest adaptation of the Freirian method and the most widely diffused use of the Freirian method in Africa. DELTA was developed in the 1970s in Kenya by Anne Hope and Sally Timmel, and their four volume Training for Transformation: A Handbook for Community Workers (1995) is one of the most widely used manuals for rural community development in Africa. DELTA has operated in virtually all countries of Africa and recently held a continental congress in Nigeria.

DELTA seeks to build solidarity and trust among grassroots organizations and enable these organizations to form district, regional, and national networks. DELTA places a great deal of emphasis on leadership training, management of people's organizations, capacity of the poor for social analysis, and human rights.

D. Theater for Development

Socio-drama and theater are widely used as a much more actively involving means of group communication for empowerment, partly because in Africa it alway involves singing, dance, and ritual (Mavro, 1991). Drama tends to have a far greater emotional and imaginative impact than group discussion (Mda, 1993). Audiences enjoy this also and members of the audience actively join in the drama. The kind of group animation that DELTA or Participatory Action Research promotes is often too cerebral for the less-educated rural people. Theater is particularly effective in dramatizing the oppressive nature and cruelty of power relations. People see much more clearly how humanly destructive are the forms of authoritarian government and leadership in many parts of Africa. University departments of drama throughout Africa have actively promoted this. In some cases drama becomes a regular and welcome activity of youth clubs in rural areas of Africa. In many countries of Africa there are major centers for promoting and training rural development workers in forms of theater for development.

Afterword

The importance of Robert White's review, "Grassroots, participatory communication in Africa: 10 major lines of research," is twofold. It is one of the first attempts to bring together communication research initiatives concerning development and social change in Africa. And it has been done by someone who has had a lifetime of experience in such research summaries. It may be evident to many that White was the founder and early editor of this journal, but few may be aware that he also worked in rural sociology and communication research in Latin America for years before arriving in London to found Trends. He has always maintained his interest in communication for social change, especially in rural areas. In Tanzania he has brought this large experience to bear in his teaching and is beginning another editorial work to bring together communication research to share with an African and a global audience.

Another important consideration is that Africa is beginning to emerge as a continent with great promise amid enduring problems. White is experienced enough to recognize that the sophisticated technologies of the Internet and satellites will not solve the problems facing the rural poor any time soon--or at all. His summary makes an important point that communication that will help solve problems is people communicating with each other and organizing themselves in solidarity with those who share common ground and common problems.

This is a beginning that should be welcomed by those who see communication research as making a difference in people's lives. It is a blueprint that others can add to and critique, but one that can help in the construction of a new future for communication research and an empowered people.

--Emile G. McAnany

Santa Clara University

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Robert A. White, S.J.

whitesaut@yahoo.com