Introduction

It would be impossible to write this book without dedicating a significant part to the wonderful women of Radio Scout and their KalangouWomen’s Listening Association in the outskirts of Niamey who welcomed me frequently into their group, filling me with awe and admiration not only of their drive and determination to fight for themselves, their families, and community given so many societal constraints but also their spirit of fun, camaraderie, and the endless laughter and giggling that filled the air as we entered the radio compound to meet them. Whilst traditionally theoretical and academic, this chapter is inspired by these women and it is they who bring life into my discussions of participatory communication, defined as the ‘type of communication in which all the interlocutors are free and have equal access to the means to express their viewpoints, feelings, and experiences’ (Diaz Bordenave, 1994: 43) and empowerment theories on collective power. Rather than focusing on the radio output of radio studios, which has been the case in previous chapters, the chapter draws on the women at Radio Scout to illustrate how local involvement by women in community radio and listening associations can promote women’s empowerment and contribute to an empowering environment. Although the ability to earn money may improve life, an empowering environment for women cannot centre purely on income and being given funds, a criticism of many development programmes. It must also promote women’s right to speak and make their own decisions, work, and property within their existing relationships and structures (Sholkamy, 2010). Participation, be it in formal or informal structures, brings together marginalised people, women in this case, who are excluded from decision-making processes and raises their role within them. Women not only gain power over decisions through their own participation in these processes but also by becoming aware of what is oppressing them and their own internalised oppression (Rowlands, 1997: 14).

Empowerment, as conceptualised by Batliwala (1994: 132), is ‘a spiral, changing consciousness, identifying areas to target for change, planning strategies, acting for change, and analyzing activities and outcomes’. It is this very environment that radio provides to enable a change in consciousness by disseminating information through broadcasts and via associations that can, transformatively, give time and space to identify, discuss, and further the reach of that information. The concept of social space for empowerment has been widely promoted (see as long ago as Evans, 1979: 219–220 in Mosedale, 2005), and it is evident how this relates to the environment provided by radio and listening associations. The latter provide social spaces where people can develop an independent sense of worth in contrast with their usual self-perceived or actual status as second-class or inferior citizens. Through the appointment of leaders and others, role models emerge as examples of those who break out of patterns of passivity. Listening associations can use their space to discuss broadcasts and apply new information to local contexts, explaining sources of oppression and their effects and questioning a qualitatively different future. This information does not remain static but ripples beyond officially registered association members, allowing new networks to be created through which a new interpretation can spread, activating a social movement and forcing individuals to confront inherited cultural definitions. Thus, radio not only fulfils the role of promoting ‘collective solidarity in the public arena as well as individual assertiveness in the private’ (Kabeer, 1999: 457) but it, and its associations, also support the fact that empowerment is a process and awareness, importantly, facilitates the ability to transform this into action. Without action, the process stops.

When discussing empowerment, distinctions between four different concepts of power relations based on Rowlands (1997: 13) are widely made and were outlined in the Introduction. These types have been applied to the economic domain (Alemu et al., 2018; Pereznieto & Taylor, 2014) and more broadly, for example, Mosedale (2005), Tandon (2016), Solava and Alkire (2007) and are: (1) ‘power to’, referring to ‘generative or productive power’ or power that promotes others’ abilities and potentials without domination; (2) ‘power over’, or a controlling power, for example over access to and control over financial, physical assets or information, and (3) ‘power with’, or collective power; and (4) ‘power from within’ or psychological power, self-acceptance, and self-belief (Rowlands, 1997: 13). Power relations are therefore recognised and categorised to become more productive and less controlling. Rowlands also groups activity into three spheres: individual empowerment, collective empowerment, and empowerment in close relations (1997: 22). The first are unique experiences, but others might have experienced something similar; the second are group actions working towards a common goal; and the last may be the most complex, as it involves changing individuals who face resistance from decision-makers over their lives within their own homesteads. This could increase the risk of male backlash, which has been documented in several studies evaluating the consequences of women’s increased economic independence, e.g., Luke and Munshi (2011), and Weitzman (2014), both papers concern India; Alesina et al. (2020) on Africa. Male backlash, the risk of which permeates many of the discussions in this book, may occur as a result of men feeling that their role as head of the household and breadwinner is being undermined. Women’s empowerment may be perceived as meaning male disempowerment.

Using the example of women’s listening associations formed in 2018 in the outskirts of Niamey, the chapter demonstrates how, as Rennie states (2006: 134), small-scale, bottom-up solutions can be more effective than general macro policies. We see how women, used to being under the domination of men, gain the opportunity to ‘reassert and reclaim their capacity to transform their daily lives’ (Howley, 2010: 184) by participating in community action. We also see how shifts in women’s critical consciousness occur from perceiving themselves as secondary or incapable of effecting social change.

Participation, Listening Associations, and Women’s Empowerment

Participation can emerge in many forms. Carpentier, for example, distinguishes between participation in the media and participation through the media, or ‘content-related participation’ or ‘structural participation’ (2011: 68). Content-related participation involves programme production; the selection, provision, and scheduling of programmes; and the availability of technical resources to ordinary people. Structural participation involves participation in the structuring of the station, such as the election of those leading it, policy making for the station, its management, and financing (Carpentier, 2011). Whilst these are specific forms of participation, this chapter shows how a specific group of women became involved in the structure of their listening associations, on one hand, and contributed to the radio output, on the other.

According to Melkote (1991: 191), participation avoids top-down reductionist development approaches and instead allows ‘people who are objects of policy […] to be involved in the definition, design, and execution of the development process’. If individuals are given the opportunity to take part in these processes, they can talk about their own experiences of the problems they encounter and how awareness-raising could be optimised to benefit their communities. Participation can, therefore, empower communities through inclusion at the grassroots level. However, to achieve this, media—or radio in this case—‘must be justified by the terms of the needs and interests of recipients and not exclusively in terms of those of the media organisations, professional media workers or advertisers’ (McQuail, 1987: 122). Community radio stations such as Radio Scout, the focus of this chapter, act as a participatory space allowing members of historically disadvantaged or marginalised groups to deliberate issues that affect them and their community.

The way in which the women discussed here use and become involved in radio’s communication flows to gain a previously unheard voice supports key components of participatory communication theory, as summarised by Figueroa et al. (2002: 11):

The process and content of communication is owned by community; communication gives a voice to previously unheard community members; communities become their own change agents; the communication process is characterized by debate and negotiation on issues that affect community; emphasis is placed on outcomes that go beyond individual behaviour to widely recognized social needs.

The Role of Community Radio

The World Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC) defines community radio as ‘one that offers service to the community in which it is located or to which it broadcasts, while promoting the participation of its community in the radio’ (O’Sullivan et al., 1998: 213). It has been widely discussed as a form of participation (Berrigan, 1979; Forde, 1997; Forde et al., 2002; Fraser & Estrada, 1998, 2001; Lennie & Tacchi, 2013; Milan, 2008; Myers, 2008) and within an African context (Fraser & Estrada, 2002; Manyozo, 2012; Myers, 2011). It provides the environment for participatory communication, empowering ‘ordinary people to freely share or exchange information, and to reach consensus on what they want to do, what they want done, and how to do it’ (Melkote, 1991: 191). Servaes likens community radio to a rhizome, promoting dialogue among those involved in the development process and building linkages or networks of relationships (2003), while Tabing (2002: 9) defines community radio as a station ‘that is operated in the community, for the community, about the community and by the community’. It is Gumucio-Dagron’s (2001) observation about community radio’s empowering ability that is particularly relevant here, in that it allows ordinary people to become active producers of information and opinion rather than mere passive recipients. However, for listeners to be involved, they do not need to be owners of the radio stations. By design, community radio is operated on a non-profit basis for non-profitable purposes (Fraser & Estrada, 2001), and ownership can take multiple forms. They can be initiated by community members themselves, by NGOs working in communities (Mtimde et al., 1998: 15), by civil society organisations, or by the local government operating in the area (Rennie, 2006). Although wholly owned by communities, many rely on contributions from external bodies to keep them financially afloat (Fraser & Estrada, 2001). Community radios can promote empowerment among listeners by organising visits and talks by NGOs and supporting their initiatives, encouraging participation and allowing radio to provide an enabling environment and space for communities to discuss, debate and better understand the challenges they face and take action. They also enable women to support each other and learn from each other’s actions and the opposition and challenges they face through the creation of radio listening associations.

What Are Listening Associations?

Radio listening associations or clubs are defined as ‘a small listening and discussion group that meets regularly to receive a special radio programme, which the members then discuss’ (Rogers et al., 1977 cited in Manyozo, 2012: 29). They act as an extension of community radio, rippling their effect throughout community members and encouraging and reinforcing their active participation in community events. Rather than limiting the radio’s effect to the level of the listener, listening associations ask the listener to take this further and pass on knowledge, newly acquired via the radio programmes or group discussions, to include those not in the association and particularly, as we will see below, to those without radios or unable to listen. Low levels of education among many listeners means that many will have difficulty grasping certain concepts and therefore become empowered by discussing them in groups, sharing information, and pooling knowledge (Held, 2006).

Community radio contributes to this communication process, broadening its scope beyond the provision of broadcasts to logistical support, informal training, and structural support (see, for example, Mhagama’s study on radio listening clubs in Malawi (2015)). In doing so, interdependence emerges between the community radio station and its listening association, as the latter gives feedback about what their members want to hear, thus gaining a voice. The desire for more information on income-generating activities, for example, was strong among the women I would chat with at Radio Scout. Many were reliant on their husband’s incomes, which were either meagre, not shared, or non-existent, especially if husbands had migrated to seek seasonal employment. The women were interested in hearing about the trades that other women practised: ‘some are involved making shea butter (beurre de karité), others are learning to sew, this is the type of activity that women do and that we want to hear about’ (RW1). This feedback does not stop at the level of the community radio but is filtered back to their providers, in this case Studio Kalangou and to other larger broadcasters who purchase airtime. Broadcasters on multiple levels, therefore, receive feedback from communities. Community radio plays a central communication role connecting the various players involved, aiding social change through empowerment, inclusion, and participation (Girard, 2007). It bridges the gap between its listeners and its own suppliers and between various associations and its sub-associations, so they are not (and do not feel) isolated. The participatory flow of information is reinforced, exerting power over and influencing external NGOs that also determine the content of awareness-raising information.

Radio listening clubs and associations are often formalised two-way endeavours whereby the radio stations, maybe in conjunction with NGOs or external organisations, train members in basic radio production and give them access to equipment. The clubs then discuss their community needs and problems, and these are recorded, edited, and converted into programmes with responses from various experts and policy makers for broadcast. The formalised club then discusses the broadcast and provides feedback on the extent to which their needs have been addressed. This approach provides community members not only with structural participation in radio but also with content-related participation by ensuring a way in which the topics of main importance to them are foregrounded, which might not have been the case had the choice of subject been left up to others. Formalised radio listening clubs have been discussed in various African contexts and regions; see, for example, studies by Banda (2007), Ojedele (2016), Manda (2015) Manyozo (2005), Mchakulu (2007), and Mhagama (2015).

Less formal approaches also exist that are equally worthy and empowering and may be more closely associated with women (Heywood & Ivey, 2021b), building on existing networks or associations (Heywood & Ivey, 2021a). Listening associations or gatherings may be set up by local radios as a space for ordinary people to participate in public life. They enable members to discuss radio programmes, understand them and explain their relevance to others, cascade information throughout the community, raise awareness and increase a sense of unity and solidarity. This can be through collective organisations or associations or through tontines or savings groups, which are examples of cultural, social, and economic solidarity (Bruchhaus, 2016). As discussed in Chap. 3 on women’s financial empowerment, Tontines were first created in Niger by CARE International (2017) and were called Matu Masa Dubara (MMD), which can be translated as ‘Women on the Move’. Acting as a major driver of women’s economic empowerment and boosting financial inclusion, ‘tontines’ were designed as groups of poor rural women contributing small weekly amounts of money to a collective fund to access loans for different purposes (small income-generating activities, special occasions, and celebrations). Thus, while it is true that the associations’ activities are oriented, at their origin, around radio, they extend significantly beyond just ‘listening’ (Banda, 2007: 132). Communities use the radio association as a starting point to facilitate discourse in various topic areas, involving audiences and encouraging them to contribute to the public sphere.

Listening in Niger is ‘formalised’ or ‘structured’ in collective spaces called fadas, which are informal gathering places and part of the street culture where unemployed men gather to while away the hours, socialise, play cards, listen to radio, and drink tea (Masquelier, 2019). However, these are predominantly masculine spaces, particularly popular among male youth, leaving women to assemble in less formal associations or impromptu gatherings. Fadas populate the streets in Niamey and, walking to gatherings and FGDs, I would be welcomed into the spaces these groups had claimed for themselves. Each fada would mark its turf by graffitiing its name or symbol on compound walls or, more flamboyantly, with painted low-wall breeze block structures, which gained them greater street status. One group of youngsters vaunted their freshly painted red and white 3-meter square fiefdom, emblazoned with Junior Fatal Show (in English) and the acronym J.F.S. (Fig. 6.1). This was theirs, they said—a grandiose but also desperate claim given their economic precarity. They were less vocal when teased about the fada’s symbol—a silhouette of a masked fighter with crossed assault rifles with ‘danger’ inscribed below—and laughed self-consciously as their tough street culture façade crumbled .

Fig. 6.1
A photograph of Junior Fatal Show's base. The text Junior Fatal Show is written on the wall. There is a symbol below with 2 rifles and a skull at the center.

Junior Fatal Show’s base

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Women tend to gather in women-only associations they have created, rather than mixed associations, which provide a ‘time and space’ for them to critically and collectively examine their lives. These associations allow members to enter into deliberative dialogues on women-related topics, which are dismissed by men because of their own stereotyping but about which they show great curiosity. As the power of a group is greater than that of an individual, the ensuing collective power (power with) can reinforce a feeling of self-confidence among women. Experiencing the same oppression in the face of male dominance, women’s empowerment depends on both public collective solidarity and greater self-belief in private spaces (Kabeer, 1999). The benefit of association membership, be it formalised or not, thus extends to improvements in the quality of relations domestically and to the respect paid to women (by husbands) as carriers of knowledge acquired via radio and applied to their own circumstances.

The chapter can now discuss the women mentioned at the start and the case of Radio Scout, a community radio station near Niamey and its listening associations. Drawing on the many examples they provided, it demonstrates how, on the one hand, women are brought into the decision-making process through collective organisation, challenging power exerted ‘over’ them, and, on the other hand, how women have gained public recognition on various levels through membership of listening associations or their sub-groups, as individuals, knowledge purveyors, and awareness raisers gaining community status and authority. It goes on to question changes to individual and collective consciousness, both for association members and for women and men in the community, and whether this can be sustainable.

However, before doing so, my own positionality, mentioned in the Introduction, should be recalled. By the time of these meetings to discuss the new listening association, I had already met many of the women several times. Whilst they were used to international and local NGOs coming to talk to them, having a Western researcher focus on them was a novelty. I was aware that this placed considerable responsibility on me in retelling their stories and experiences. I was coming from a white privileged educated background from the Global North; I was the other, the outsider. I could not identify with their experiences beyond what they told me, and I acknowledge my own implicit and explicit biases and the power dynamics involved. Whilst we could exchange on having children, our shared experiences were limited. However, we appeared to have established a relationship of trust; those in the Main Association based at Radio Scout stated after initial visits, ‘you said you’d come back, that you’d be back at the end of the year, and you have. We’ve waited for you and have gathered our thoughts’. I was also aware that they attributed the very idea of creating this listening association to my first focus group discussions with them. They were evidently keen to tell me how well the association and its sub-groups were progressing. Social desirability bias, or the ‘tendency to say things which place the speaker in a favourable light’ (Nederhof, 1985: 264), had to be considered, and attempts to counter this bias were made through lengthy conversations with the women together, leading to contradictions, confirmations, and complementary information. However, being an ‘outsider’ in this way also allowed interviewees to speak more freely than had a local researcher led the conversations, who might have been in a position of authority, exerting their own power, or been in a position to judge, or who may have had assumed knowledge and therefore would not have been given so many details. Avoiding such biases is aspirational; nonetheless, this project made all attempts to place everyone involved in the discussions at ease, avoid judging, and allow them to express themselves freely and at length.

Radio Scout and Its Women’s Listening Associations

Radio Scout is located in the district of Koira Tegui, meaning ‘new village’ in the outskirts of Niamey. In 1989, it was forcibly relocated to the extreme northern edge of the city from the site chosen for the construction of the Stade Omnisport (Stade Seyni Kountché). Its new location was targeted to relieve the city centre of pockets of poverty mainly comprising round thatched-roofed huts, presenting a serious fire risk (Gilliard, 2005). Displaced residents were given land titles, as were the many people with disabilities, particularly those with blindness and leprosy, who were moved to this area (Hungerford, 2012). Despite attracting attention from many international aid organisations, extreme poverty in the neighbourhood escalated, and it gained its current reputation for large numbers of beggars and high crime rates. Unemployment is high, particularly among youth, and Radio Scout, the district’s community radio, is an important focal point, uniting the community and raising awareness.

The radio broadcasts from a series of one-storey flat-roofed buildings accessed from a labyrinth of dusty alleyways crowded with traders, fadas, goats wandering aimlessly, children running in and out of buildings, caring for siblings, or rolling car tyres. Walking through the corrugated iron gate, the chaos of the journey disappears, and a spacious red-brick courtyard opens out. A single tree in the centre of the yard surrounded by stacks of plastic chairs and rickety wooden benches provides much-needed shade for associations and other groups to meet. Around the L-shaped courtyard, opposite the radio building, is a library with an impressive selection of children’s reading books and activity tables for scout meetings. Radio Scout, which provides a haven of peace from the bustle of life in this deprived quartier, was created in 2013 by the Scouts Association in Niger but had to wait two years to obtain full authorisation. It started its activities in Koira Tegui on 1 August 2015 and was officially launched on 29 November financed by the Scouts Association of Luxembourg. Its origins were in a competition launched by the Ministère de la Jeunesse and the Institut de formation et d’information et de communication (IFTIC). The 20 ambitious young competition winners were offered the opportunity to be trained as journalists and create and run a radio station. Not knowing much about community radio, they were sent to Senegal to learn about transformational leadership and how to motivate their community and encourage it to take ownership of their radio. The journalists sought to create links between the community and the radio station and raise awareness about the various problems the community was facing to encourage them not only to want change but also to become agents of that change.

Having set up listening clubs, leading to community members wanting to take part in the broadcasts and becoming active themselves, Radio Scout became the heart of a community working from all directions to everyone’s benefit (funders, organisations, youth, men and women, those at the station). One of its strengths, as with many community radios, is the energy of its 12 animateurs/ animatrices—men and women presenters—who are volunteers at the radio station with only their travel costs covered. The animateurs/ animatrices receive training from Radio Scout on how to present a radio programme and on the topics they discuss in their own programmes. They provide the vital link between the villages in rural areas where they were born and neighbouring areas, those working at Radio Scout and correspondents at Studio Kalangou and other larger radio stations in the capital. They cascade information down the chain to ensure that the information broadcast to those in the rural villages is relevant to them and to pass information up the chain from villagers for local broadcast via Radio Scout and even national broadcast via Studio Kalangou.

While Radio Scout provides a community service and awareness raising, as a community radio in Niger, it does not have the right to broadcast news and therefore has to work with external broadcasters, such as Studio Kalangou, who, in turn, pay for the airtime to broadcast news. Radio Scout is a member of CN-Racom, the National Coordination of Community Radios in Niger, a network of 184 community radios throughout Niger. It is a non-profit organisation but receives finance through awareness ‘spots’ or awareness-raising publicity and advertisements. Radio Scout receives payment for broadcasting pre-produced spots or for producing and then broadcasting them, with themes predominantly focusing on health, protection, education, and peace. Awareness raising is central to Radio Scout, and animateurs/ animatrices are used to introduce the short spots on air to reinforce the message they contain.

Radio Scout broadcasts daily from 7 am to 10 pm in Zarma, the most widely spoken national language, with the most popular slots being 8 am–10 am (particularly amongst women) and 8 pm–10 pm. Given the popularity of these slots, Radio Scout uses them to foreground specific themes to educate the community. Operating in a particularly disadvantaged area, this community radio stressed that they are more than just a radio and that community interaction and involvement are central. Being the only community radio for approximately 30 km,Footnote 1 Radio Scout is proud of the responsibility it bears for its community. While Radio Scout is in an urban area, it broadcasts to rural zones, including the listening association sub-groups discussed below. Levels of poverty are high in all these areas and in rural communities where a lack of electricity and tap water is common. Women carry the burden of caring for the family,

There isn’t a single one of them who has anything to do that can make money, and there are times when all the men leave as part of the rural exodus, and they are the only ones left. So sometimes, even if the child gets sick, they can’t pay for medicine or provide for themselves. Only bundles of millet are brought to them to put on the roof, so that’s all there is. You get some, you grind it up, you make porridge, and you eat. So that’s all there is. That’s the daily routine. (Zouera Nouhou Hamidou, Radio Scout Director, 2019)

Eighty percent of their programmes concern youth and women, not because the station excludes men but because, as Zouera Nouhou Hamidou, the Director, states, the term ‘youth’ includes all both men and women, and because when awareness-raising targets women, men are affected too, and families will benefit. Radio Scout boasts an active mixed listenership that regularly rings the station with comments, suggestions, and requests. The links that Radio Scout has forged with youth in this deprived area are not only significant but welcome. Each week, for example, through a programme called ‘Fada fadente’, fadas or groups of mostly male youth have been successfully encouraged to contribute to the community to the extent that they now take turns to patrol areas in the district where there are high levels of delinquency and armed robbery. Theft was a specific problem frequently raised among the women who recounted that they could not keep anything with them in their houses because people would simply get in and take it. One animateur uses his programme, Kuara Mo Zadam, which focuses on villages and village life, to raise awareness among all listeners but especially among youth. Rather than sitting around drinking tea and playing cards in fadas, he encourages them to go and learn a trade and become active in the community but also to join the activities at the radio and train to be a presenter. In doing so and in training youth, they aim to ensure the sustainability of the radio station in the event that they can no longer present the programmes themselves.

The station runs a successful and popular mixed listening association that organises weekly awareness raising activities for listeners and when they can discuss broadcasts and feed ideas back to the radio for future programmes. The association has its own weekly hour-long slot, allowing listeners to learn more about its activities and therefore its awareness raising. In December 2019, the topic focused on Harmattan, the cold season between November and March, and the need to wrap up children to prevent them from catching colds. Whilst temperatures could feel balmy during the day, possibly reaching 30 °C, they could fall to 15–16 C in the evening. Given poverty in the district, colds can prove costly and even fatal for families without the means to buy medicine. Information was targeted at mothers raising awareness about how to protect their children and at school principals encouraging them to prevent people selling iced juice to children as they were getting ill as a result.

In contrast to Manyozo (2005), who stated that women dominated the radio listening clubs in his study, the reach of this mixed listening association was limited, as many women were prohibited from attending by male members of their families simply because the association was mixed. Women were therefore deprived of access to information, and this information, in turn, was not passed on to families, reinforcing a circle of disempowerment. As a result of focus groups run by this research project, a women-only listening association was set up in summer 2018 to create a ‘time and space’ for women, allowing them to critically and collectively examine their lives to become empowered, linking them to others in similar situations. Over 80 women assembled in Radio Scout’s dusty compound to attend its inaugural session, voting in a president and vice-president, determining subscription levels, and setting an agenda for meetings in a women-only environment (Fig. 6.2). This formed the main women’s association, and surveys of listeners’ telephone calls to the station were used to identify additional villages within Radio Scout’s reach to create sub-groups. This extended the association’s enabling environment to women at the village level who were unable to fund transport to come to the centre while also focusing discussions on issues of local relevance. Each group, on all levels, has 10 members, including a president and other officers. More sub-groups are planned. Members of the main association and sub-groups collaborate both in choosing which awareness-raising themes broadcast by Radio Scout will be discussed during weekly or fortnightly listening club meetings and in encouraging activities on that theme beyond the meetings. The association, named Groupement féminin Kalangou [the Kalangou women’s group] (GFK), is now legally registered in accordance with the law.Footnote 2 According to the GFK’s statutes, its aim is to ‘improve the lives of women in Koira Tegui’. It has the right to collect money from its members, elect officers and operate as an association with branches.

Fig. 6.2
A photograph of Kalangou women's group gathering, outdoors under the shadow of trees.

Groupement féminin Kalangou [the Kalangou women’s group]

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The Need for a Leader

Although the role of the community remains central to the ongoing success of Radio Scout and while the process of empowerment must take place collectively (Kabeer, 1999), this must not underplay the essential role of a motivator in setting up community radio projects and ‘to introduce into it notions of community ownership, management and programming’ (Banda, 2006: 3). In other words, however important it is that community members—and particularly women in the case of GFK—own and drive the project, someone had to initiate it; the women could not have achieved this without a leader. Whilst power can be perceived as negative and can be disempowering, certain sources of power can enable individuals to overcome systemic powerlessness (Batliwala, 2013), and once united with those of other individuals creating power with, it can work to reinforce collective action and trigger an empowering environment. This motivating force can be an organisation or NGO or, in our case, an individual.

Exemplifying the positive role of individual ‘power to’ or the power to drive collectivity and the ambition to see a group achieve what it is capable of is Zouera Nouhou Hamidou, director of Radio Scout. Zouera is a journalist by training and has been part of the Scout Association since she was 11. One of the young journalists in the Ministry of Youth competition mentioned above, she quietly and modestly drives the success of the station. She encourages listeners to see the value of radio in their community and take ownership of it:

We have done everything we can for the community to love radio and take ownership of Radio Scout. And that’s what happened. There was the creation of listening clubs, especially the initial mixed listening club where listeners were so appreciative because it was a poor neighbourhood. People didn’t think anybody was thinking about them, who could do something for them. We have really built up a bond between the community and us scouts and also the radio staff. We’ve built solidarity between the community, and we’ve also made them aware of various problems they are facing, and they also want to see change in that sense. (Zouera Nouhou Hamidou, 2019)

She attributes the respect she has gained amongst those she works with and those in the community to being a woman. Young people see her as a maternal figure, there to advise them even asking her to make a contribution to their group. She is also trusted and, in contrast to a man, she is not viewed as a risk of wasting their money. This level of trust and leadership also emerged among both the main women’s listening association and its sub-groups. The women listeners would talk openly to her, as a woman, about their needs, enabling her to organise relevant training and networking opportunities between groups. As the main contact within the radio station and as the principal motivator, she is aware that to be effective and sustainable, the women’s association and sub-groups need encouragement to set their own collective agenda:

I continue to talk to them about the links between them and the other groups. We’re doing everything we can so that they can travel, even if it’s just two or three of them from here to meet the women from the other group, to strengthen and exchange with each other to ensure the group’s continuity. I know there are women who are ready for us to leave them alone but if we don’t do anything, if we don’t help them, they might leave. So, from time to time, we have to be in contact with them so that the group can continue growing. (Zouera Nouhou Hamidou, 2019)

Structural Participation and Membership

The leadership role extends beyond motivation and includes the administration of the groups. To operate legally, the association had to apply for registration, which, in turn, allowed them to set up a bank account for the weekly or monthly contributions. A safe place to deposit the money was essential in this district where crime rates are so high. This legal recognition gives the association further status within the community.

Structurally, the group comprises the main association, which is based at the Radio Scout premises in Koira Tegui, and currently (in 2021) four sub-groups, two in rural areas and a fourth in an urban area.Footnote 3 Each has a formal structure with a president and officers. In some cases, these roles are more developed, with officers being appointed to organise meetings or arrange events. In the Urban Association, for example, they organise exchanges with groups that are not associated with radio, enabling them to pool knowledge. The respective presidents and officers meet informally at ceremonies (marriages, baptisms, etc.). Each group is restricted to 10 members and passes on information from group discussions to non-members. Some women who attended the inaugural meeting of the main group became members of sub-groups because of the limit on group numbers for the main association. Whilst the rules on membership are clear, frustration amongst those not able to join was evident during the focus group discussions leading to Zouera pursuing her leadership role, explaining that they could create additional sub-groups, without any conflicts of interest, expanding GFK and organising activities amongst them.

Membership selection differed from group to group, with this inconsistency demonstrating how new the concept of radio associations was in this women’s community. Members of the Urban Association sub-group, for example, were simply selected as they were all neighbours and had already formed the habit of discussing radio programmes together. One of the groups in Rural Association 2 appeared to have adopted the most democratic approach, as they selected the 10 group members so that each ‘concession’ or group of households had a representative. This more democratic selection approach also ensured a fair and reliable dissemination of the information broadcast via radio. Not all villagers had a radio set or access to one, so it was the duty of group members to go back to their respective households and repeat information that they had either heard on the radio themselves or that had been discussed in the group: ‘They say that when they meet on Fridays and when each one goes home, they talk about what they have discussed with their neighbours, those in the vicinity, and the women who were not able to come. So, they share with each other, and if there are others who hadn’t listened, this is an opportunity for them to find out…’ (R2W1). The associations are, therefore, fulfilling an essential role that radio cannot by passing on information to those outside its reach.

Membership was also dependent on women obtaining permission from their husbands. Some men encouraged their wives to join, being radio listeners themselves, yet others refused because, according to the women, they refused to understand the benefits of information and raising awareness. Obtaining permission was a gradual process,

They say that they had to discuss it with their husbands because they need to show the men the advantages of radio and the programmes they listen to on radio so that they could help them [the husbands] change their behaviour and so that the husbands would let them join the group. They first had to make the husbands aware of the importance of the radio. (R2W1)

Once achieved, this would build empowerment in the sphere of women’s lives, affecting close relations.

All the groups had similar objectives, but the sub-groups felt they could benefit from developing closer ties with the main group. The Urban Association is geographically close to the main group based at Radio Scout, so members can regularly meet, and the sub-group members can even attend the main association’s Sunday meetings. The rural sub-groups stated that they wanted to meet the main association’s president and its members so that they could form effective bonds of solidarity. They also wanted support from the main group to help them look for partners, perhaps NGOs or banks, to promote learning about and running small income-generating activities (R2W1). Whilst the members were not instrumental in setting up the community radio, they played an essential role in setting up the association, not only acquiring a sense of ownership and increased self-belief in their abilities but also newly found status within the community and the ability to use the association as an amplifier for their opinions and ideas.

The prevailing aim across all the groups was to encourage and promote solidarity among women and to raise awareness of women-related topics (breastfeeding, family spacing, attending clinics, and so on). As a group, they used radio phone-ins to give their opinions and advice. Many also said that this would be their opportunity to have their voices heard and stand up for their rights. To achieve this, they wanted to use their membership of the groups to encourage other women to listen to the radio and understand its benefits. They would use every opportunity, be it during evening chats with family members or when walking with other women to the well, to empower those without radios or phones by passing the information they had received.

The desire to pass on relevant and important information to contribute to building collective knowledge also extended to youth. Female genital mutilation (FGM) and its consequences were often quoted as an example of a topic that youth did not understand. There is a low prevalence of FGM in Niger, with the majority of cases being carried out by traditional practitioners. Group members reported that people in their community were not aware it was still being practised. Passing on information is, therefore, a central aim. Encouraging non-listeners to try to listen enabled them to become better informed, breaking the circle of disempowerment. Even men are listening more to factual information (not hearsay), improving the lives of women.

Collective Power or ‘Power with’

Members said that while it was beneficial to gain awareness through broadcasts and discussions, the principal advantage provided by group membership was the resultant solidarity among women. Many of the women I would speak to were already members of other groups, not connected to radio, but they had been attracted by the solidarity that they had heard about in the Main Association. They said that they had been resigned to men always being always at the forefront and leaders in society but that now this could be them too, supporting Agarwal’s (2001: 7) statement that ‘functioning collectively in women’s own interests is a central component in empowerment’. Taking this further, members of the main group said that they recognised that a change had taken place amongst them:

Now they are in a group, they can exchange among themselves. Before, they didn’t exchange so much, but thanks to the group, they come together and speak on the radio and even speak within their own entourage. They now see themselves as women who perhaps have the right to inform others about what they have found out. (U2W)

They were also able to use the status of being a member of the main group to influence women who did not habitually listen to the radio programmes and empower those affected. The President of the Main Association gave me one clear example:

The day before yesterday, because of the group and what I had learned, one of our acquaintances was going to give her underage daughter away to be married, so I consulted the families. I went to her home and told her, ‘I learnt from Studio Kalangou that they say never to give children in marriage and that there is even a law against this and that if you do, there are penalties. You could be locked up for that’. So, because I made the woman aware, because of this, the child was not given away to be married.

The groups’ influence extended to their husbands and the men in their communities, with many women stating that they had changed their husband’s conduct by bringing information home. As Young (1988: 198) asserts, ‘both men and women need to change if future society is to be more harmonious than in the past’. Men, in turn, were then able to influence other men who were more sceptical about the benefits of radio. This proved effective as, the women said, men understand each other amongst themselves better too (R2W2). By influencing the conduct of men, the main decision-makers in their lives, women indirectly promote their own empowerment.

Decision-Makers and Relational Changes

The husbands also acknowledged that their own behaviour and understanding had been changed by their wife or wives and the information they brought home from the groups. They say: it’s true, if our wives come home, we discuss things with them because there are programmes about women, we listen to what they have discussed, and we too get to understand the awareness messages. If a husband slips up, his wife will talk to him about what she has heard and tell him, ‘What you are doing is not what we were told. We have been made aware of this’. (R2M1)

The group members’ husbands that we spoke to perceived themselves as educators for women and youth, holding greater wisdom and knowledge than their wives:

He said that there are women who ask them questions about the programmes, so what they have understood they pass on to women. So that they are on the same wavelength. There are even children who ask questions about the programmes that are on. (RM1)

The men were vague about what women talked about in the groups but approved of the groups’ dynamism, as it gave their wives confidence and awareness (RM1), potentially reducing their burden as educators.

The husbands were also appreciative of the change brought about in their wives after becoming listening association members, yet any benefits from the listening associations were linked to improvements in their own lives, with little attention being paid to increased levels of empowerment among their wives. They noted that:

awareness has been raised among women. They used to let the men go to work and then just do nothing. But now the women have organised themselves into the listening associations, they have shown the men that even women can get together to find ways to help men or women. (RM2)

Among the GFK members, it was evident that the associations, particularly at the sub-group level, would extend support not only to each other (the 10 members) but also to others within their community. To be a member of the main association and to benefit from the credit facility or the abovementioned tontines, weekly subscriptions are needed. The women in one of the rural groups, for example, contributed a maximum of 100 cfa [£00.13] weekly, and others contributed up to 250 cfa [£00.35]. This was collected and managed by the group’s treasurer, and loans could be made to members who then made regular repayments to reimburse the group. The Urban Association made weekly contributions of 200 cfa [£00.27] and made a draw, and the chosen name would receive the money that week to start an activity. It then rotated until everyone had had a chance. Their aim was to extend this to include more women to increase its inclusivity but also to increase the amount of shared money. Some commented that while they could use the loan to start a small business selling roasted peanuts, for example, the amount was so little, as there were so few of them, that they might prefer to use the loan to pay for something to eat for the family. Another member of the main association added that she had borrowed 50,000 cfa (approximately £68) to pay for sewing materials to set up a small tailoring business. She has been able to repay the loan while continuing her activities. In this case, the women who had previously been deprived of access to financial resources gained power over their economic situation through this collective income generation. The subscription system, however, could have proved exclusive, as not all the women had the means to contribute, risking a narrowing of the scope and potential of the association. Contributions were not compulsory in all the sub-groups. Instead, they invest in a more transformative agenda, raising awareness, challenging inequality, promoting inclusion, and improving women’s voice in the public sphere.

Men also commented on the microcredit or self-help aspects of the listening associations and how their wives’ way of thinking has altered as a result. ‘They no longer wait for us to earn the extra money for little things. They do it themselves. So that’s a point in our favour’ (UM1). Whilst the men acknowledged that there is a limit to how much their wives can contribute financially, they approved of the microcredit as it occupied the women, perhaps selling pancakes or soup. Rather than appearing threatened by the women becoming more economically independent, the husbands acknowledged that the financial empowerment enjoyed by their wives was to their benefit lightening their own load. According to the men, collective strength among the women reinforced their knowledge and understanding and, therefore, their confidence to stand up for their rights. Discussions in the listening groups, therefore, reinforced the awareness messages broadcast by radio.

Inclusion

Inclusion is an important objective of the GFK associations. Listeners could be excluded from discussions not only by not having the means to be a member (also the upper limit on the number of members was restrictive—36 women initially wanted to join Rural Association 1Footnote 4) but also because of social factors. Many women could not listen to broadcasts because they were engaged in their socially reproductive chores at the time of the broadcasts or, more simply, because they did not possess a radio. In Rural Association 1, for example, at the time of the study, there was no electricity despite being so close to the capital. Solar power was the energy source and was used to recharge phones to listen to radio programmes. However, the charge available to the women listeners I met, after the men had charged their equipment, was not sufficient to allow them to listen to the whole programme broadcast by Studio Kalangou via Radio Scout. Many would listen to one mobile phone together, replacing it with the next when the first battery had run out, highlighting both the importance of information broadcast by radio to these remote communities and the social nature of radio. Some managed to record the broadcasts, but the situation was exacerbated by the fact that often, even if their phones were charged, they were with their husbands, or children or cooking and were not available to listen. The listening associations reinforced collective power (or power with) by cascading information that members had heard on the radio and discussed as a group to women (and men) who were unable to listen to the broadcasts.

The sub-groups would meet either weekly or fortnightly, with the main association meeting monthly on Sundays, a day chosen to accommodate working members who could not attend during the week. The Rural Association 1 sub-group, which was created shortly after the main association, meets every two weeks on Thursdays at 1 pm for an hour prior to the start of prayers and rotates around members’ homes. Another group (R2W2) is called to meetings by the president on Fridays at 3 pm after prayers. This president was elected to the position by the other group members, as she no longer has small children to deal with and ‘she is the eldest in the village, she is the one who, when she talks, everyone listens to her. So that’s why they chose her’, illustrating existing power hierarchies, this time within women’s groups and collectives and that women are far from being homogeneous. The Urban Association meets on Thursday evenings at 5 pm and, where possible, they aim, with support from Radio Scout, to invite people to visit them to raise awareness. The groups’ presidents then play the role described by Manyozo (2012) of ‘participant-facilitator’. They would lead the discussion and encourage members to state not only why a given programme is relevant to their lives but also how they could learn from it and pass on any learning to those outside the group, benefiting the community (Mhagama, 2015: 112).

Content-Related Participation

Being in a women-only environment, the listening associations have been able to discuss, and pass on, information about various women-related topics that they considered to be taboo, not readily discussed in mixed environments, or that are determined by men and social norms leading to the disempowerment of women, such as child marriage, divorce, menstruation, or FGM. Whilst the topic choice is important, so is who makes that choice. It is important that it is the group members who identify their own needs during the discussions rather than having that decision imposed upon them. The ability to define one’s own needs and priorities is an essential part of the empowerment process.

Many in these communities were of child-bearing age, so discussions on broadcasts that covered family spacing and pre and postnatal check-ups were encouraged. Group members would go on to discuss these topics at home with daughters, raising their awareness, but not with their sons, as these subjects ‘didn’t concern them’. This presented the clear risk that, by depriving the next male generation of information about ‘women’s issues’, the group was perpetuating its own oppression. In the rural groups, three topics emerged as being of interest both for broadcasts and subsequent group discussions: the lack of electricity, the lack of local secondary schools, and youth, both girls and boys, who had dropped out of school. They considered this last theme especially concerning because boys ‘who are at home, they don’t do anything, they don’t have a trade to learn, they are just like that, staying at home, hanging around, loitering and doing nothing’ (UW). The importance of Radio Scout’s community role in encouraging male youth to seek a trade and even become involved at the station becomes clearer in this context.

The issue of well water as a suggestion for radio broadcasts initially appeared disconnected from the more regularly mentioned women’s subjects, yet the link soon became clear. The village in question had no tap water, and it was the women’s responsibility to fetch the water from the wells, some of which were very deep. If the woman was pregnant, it was this that threatened the baby. There were several women who had lost their babies because of this, first because the wells are often at a significant distance from their homes and second because the wells are very deep, so drawing the water and then carrying it home put enormous strain on their bodies and the baby. By tackling the issue of drinking water, women’s load could be lightened, and the health of their unborn babies improved.

Many of the topics that the various group members suggested for discussion on radio and within the groups centred around economic difficulties. For example, in urban areas, insecurity, theft, and general delinquency were the main areas of concern resulting from unemployment and poverty and insufficient schooling. There was a need to discuss activities for those who had dropped out of school early because: ‘kids, when they aren’t at school, they’re just there at home, just hanging about. It is only during the rainy season that there are activities that they can do in the fields; otherwise, there’s nothing for them to do’ (R2W1). The importance of schooling for girls was highlighted. This is because girls would not leave the village or abandon their family, and the benefits of their education, in contrast to those of boys, would be felt by the community. Difficulties in accessing health care were also linked to insufficient money-making opportunities. Providing information on how to set up IGAs would solve many problems:

There’s a lack of income-generating activities. In the health centres, there are no medicines because in order to be able to gain access to them, for the doctor to consult a child or a woman, you have to pay 1,200 francs. And even if you can find this amount, and you pay to see the doctor, and you pay the 1200 francs, he can’t treat you, there are no medicines, there’s nothing. He will just give you another prescription to go and buy the medicine. (UW)

Radio, therefore, provides the space to trigger solidarity with the groups discussing which topics they would like to recommend to Radio Scout and ultimately to Studio Kalangou for inclusion on radio. Whilst they stated that there were too many local problems for them all to be suggested to Radio Scout, these main ones have since been discussed on air by Studio Kalangou.

The GFK listening associations faced numerous challenges. The lack of access to radio because of insufficient or no electricity, as already discussed, was disempowering for women when working as individuals, but when associated with other women, they were able to overcome these challenges through the association. Solidarity can overcome individual challenges through the sharing of information. GFK also faced challenges from the community. Women were reluctant to attend the initial meetings, as they were sceptical about the long-term survival of the association. Community sensitisation was needed for women to understand that the association could work and was for them, also highlighting the need for a strong motivational leader to promote and encourage solidarity. The community needed convincing, as did the men, that the listening groups presented no threat rather that all would benefit, especially by tackling shared problems collectively. Additionally, one of the aims of being a listening association was to provide feedback to Studio Kalangou about past and future broadcasting. However, the women confessed that there were too many problems at the local level to determine which to pass back up to Studio Kalangou for coverage.

The GFK sub-groups supported empowerment at a micro level and influenced interactions between personal, collective, and relational dimensions of empowerment. However, this empowerment must not remain localised. Supporting Kabeer (1994: 262):

The longer-term sustainability of empowerment strategies will depend on the extent to which they envision women struggling within a given set of policy priorities and the extent to which they empower them to challenge and reverse these priorities. It is only when the participation of poorer women goes beyond participation at the project level to intervening in the broader policy-making agenda that their strategic interests can become an enduring influence on the course of development.

This participatory approach to the collective represented by the GFK groups may be localised and context specific, which could restrict its empowering effect. This is why collaboration must be nurtured and extend beyond participation in the sub-groups to encourage involvement in policymaking. In this case, this could involve organising events at the level of the main association or with Radio Scout. By influencing structures at a higher level, it will empower women beyond their collective.

Conclusion

The ‘time and space’ created by the GFK listening association and its sub-groups allowed its members to examine their lives critically and collectively. Whilst away from men for significant amounts of their time, women, through their solidarity, developed a new consciousness, gained new knowledge, and enacted this knowledge. Moreover, the ripple effect of the information beyond group meetings reinforced empowerment among other women. Power with did not have boundaries but rather cascaded to those not in the group, without radios, or who needed help understanding broadcasts. Rather than encountering male backlash, women were able to influence decision makers, with men appreciating their newfound confidence, particularly potential financial benefits. However, as Kabeer states (2008: 2), shifts in empowerment in ‘individual women’s lives do not necessarily translate into shifts in underlying structures of constraint’. This is supported by men’s attitudes, as women’s participation in the groups is perceived as being acceptable only because it is beneficial to men and might reduce their workload and family responsibilities. The benefits obtained by the women may empower them, but they appear to be working harder to the benefit of the family, while this extra work is, in fact, reducing that of their husbands.