“Le frequance du plataux…”

By Trond Waage

Somo Boukar is the world first radio journalist in his language. He was among the first among the Pere that had the opportunity to attend formal school. His matrilineal uncle was baptized by Norwegian missionaries, and since the Pere are a matrilineal people, his father was forced to let him go when the uncle wanted him to become a pupil.

The school was not in a Pere region, so Somo Boukar had little contact with his own ”culture” growing up. His interest for his background was known by the elders, through some of Somos high-school projects, so they wanted him as their journalist when the national radio started broadcasting on local languages in the Adamaoua province. He has used his role to investigate the culture he belongs to, but did not grow up in, he has made many program concerning local traditions, on music, dances, fairytales, magic, traditional medicine, feast etc. His role has been significant. His programs have many listeners also on the Nigerian side. And people say that the programs he has made are the reason why many people now start to re-claim their Pere-identity. This process was described in my Ph-D thesis.

I have started the work of a Post-doc project to portray the importance of the radio for peaceful social integration of the population in this multi ethnic region. Many researchers claim that urbanization in Western Africa is a threat to peace because an rapid growth in the population could lead to conflicts on scarce recourses. There are many examples of places where the lack of food, goods, houses and education leads to ethnic conflicts.

As I have followed the development around the radio station in Ngaoundéré, where 6 native languages are represented, each of the 6 journalists represents their native ethnic group through the same frequance. The different native journalists discuss how and what to report in their daily programs, and they cover the same public happening and collaborate on several projects.

The means of mediation is here creating the space for ethnic revitalization and common understanding, at the same time. This makes studies of mediation of cultural knowledge an important topic for understanding identity transformation and peaceful integration.