Just as women are not a homogenous group, contradictions among men regarding their own expectations of their role and position were common. Male respondents had their own understanding of empowerment. Hegemonic masculinities—a discourse that legitimises men's dominant position in society and justifes the subordination of women (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005) and therefore their disempowerment—was justifed by many of the male respondents through their conception of 'complementarity' rather than competition, where men are the central fgure and the 'breadwinner' and women are the carers and homemakers. Shifting the power balance in favour of women would alter the husband-wife relationship and was used frequently as an excuse to prevent women from working:

As for empowerment, when men leave the home and women leave it as well as men, who will be left in the family to educate and raise the children? Not everyone can leave. There has to be at least someone in the family. I go out to earn the money for the condiments and the necessities for the family. If I go out and the wife goes out to do the same, then we are still the ones taking care of the family's needs, not the women. What women earn is their concern. It is up to them to solve this, not the men. (UM2M)

This concept of complementarity rather than competition between men and women was a strong theme in the focus group discussions, with men believing it and women resigned to it. Empowerment was perceived as being a Western concept that was diffcult to relate to or implement within Malian or Nigerien society.

Empowerment within a Malian or Nigerien context would therefore have to be shoehorned into existing social norms rather than becoming a substitute for them: 'marriage requires patience, mutual respect and friendship within the performance of traditional gender roles' (Rebhun, 1999 in Brzezinska, 2021: 261). This is important when looking at radio broadcasts, as social norms are the immovable framework within which debates are conducted with little scope for change.

'Empowerment' therefore had generational conceptions, with younger respondents' defnitions aligning more with individualised development defnitions than older married women and men, where women are understood within the family (Biewener & Bacqué, 2015; Mama, 2011) and benefciaries of women's empowerment would be the household.

# Whose Voice?

The two studios in this case—Studio Kalangou in Niger and Studio Tamani in Mali—both produced a series of programmes directly related to marriage in 2018–2019. Studio Tamani's programmes focused on domestic violence and female genital mutation (FGM) and were in the formats described previously (debates, magazines, portraits, motion designs). Studio Kalangou's series, comprising 45-minute debates and 3-minute magazine programmes, focused on child marriage covering a range of topics from child marriage and Islam, means of recourse, health risks, the legal framework, the role of the police, education, NGO involvement and traditional practices. In both series, the radio studios broadcast awarenessraising information, yet a fne line existed between providing information enabling listeners to make their own informed decisions and providing direct advice and advocacy. In this case, radio was used as a vehicle to articulate and disseminate narratives held by, sometimes opposing, experts, listeners, vox pops and associations. According to Fondation Hirondelle's website, empowerment through radio, unintentionally, suggests a topdown approach through the phrase '*giving* voice' to women.3 However, do the programmes *give,* or do the women *take* that voice and, given the multilingual and multicultural context of the two countries and the abovementioned interpretations of empowerment, to what extent do the programmes refect the intersecting oppressions associated with child marriage, domestic violence and FGM? Whatever the case, the studios face an enormous challenge in balancing these taboo topics in their radio programmes. They must combine 'spoken' and 'heard' voices, the styles used, and the very diverse audience to whom they broadcast, representing a range of cultures, religions, and political positions. The following content analysis of the broadcasts helps answer this.

Studio Kalangou's series was funded by UNICEF, whose own agenda aligns with the UN SDG5, target 5:3: 'Eliminate [by 2030] all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation'. UNICEF's (2019) key partners are regional political structures, governments, civil society organisations and communities, and development partners. Whilst this approach draws directly on a development defnition of empowerment, by addressing the underlying conditions that sustain child marriage, a feature of Studio Kalangou's programmes here, and by calling for specifc laws to protect girls' rights, the UNICEF-funded series broadcast by Studio Kalangou still raised the voice of women and responded to the listeners' own defnitions of empowerment. Studio Kalangou's empowerment discourse also aligned with that of the audience. The programmes did not undermine or attack prevailing social norms but rather targeted persuasion, inclusiveness, and 'light touch' encouragement with relatable examples to inform their audience. Women were represented by studio experts during debates and lay women in the magazines.

The complex issue of voice and intervention, or time on air speaking, on radio programmes is important when discussing women's empowerment. This is wide-ranging and concerns not only the voice of the person heard on radio (in-studio guest, presenter, rural vox pop, etc.) but also whose voice they are representing (members of associations, rural or urban communities, specifc age groups, and even donors or the radio studio, for example) and who they are reaching (women, men decision makers, policymakers). Tension exists between the number of guests invited to

3 https://www.hirondelle.org/fr/donner-voix-femmes

programmes and the amount they are permitted to speak. In this Studio Kalangou series on child marriage (17 programmes), for example, there are more women than men participants (57% women, 43% men), which could be justifed by the subject matter of the broadcasts. However, 'talk' by men (presenters and guests) was proportionately greater than their number of appearances (54% men vs 46% women). Regarding just guests invited on to the various shows, the number of male participants was 34% against 41% women, yet this was inverted for their corresponding airtime (41% for men and 23% for women). This increase in talk by male presenters and guests is at the expense of female guests, whose coverage time is signifcantly reduced in comparison with their appearance percentage*.* Therefore, when on air, men gain more airtime, intentionally or not.

That men gain more airtime than women, regardless of their physical number in the studio or in the feld, is even more important when discussing radio; women, if they are not talking, are effectively silenced because of the lack of their visual presence. The number of women on 'womenrelated' programmes, in other words, programmes whose themes could focus on women's lives, issues or perspectives, could also suggest that the topics under discussion only concern women. However, if men should be involved in women-related discussions to trigger societal change, then a greater male presence in such programmes would reinforce their essential role in empowering women. This would require either the presence of progressive men in the debates prepared to challenge prevailing normative hegemonic masculinities or a strong counterpart to a man who was challenging his own disempowerment. However, a male presence on radio could lead to even more male talk, reinforcing acceptance of the prevailing self-perpetuating male dominance (see Spender, 1985).

Focus group respondents were generally in agreement with this and held clear opinions on women's voices on radio. One focus group discussion with unmarried women respondents in Mali ended in great hilarity after they refected that there were defnitely more men than women on the radio and that women did not tend to cover men's subjects, but then they did not appear able to defne what a 'man's subject' was. Men agreed that women were, and should be, the principal voices in discussions on taboo subjects related to sex and sexual health and on women-related themes generally: sexual health, contraception, childcare, family, etc. As a result, women access a voice via radio to act as leaders in public debate in ways that are respected by both women and men. Both unmarried and married women respondents confrmed, having listened to the broadcasts, that women trust broadcasting in women's voices, as women are the best advocates for other women in regard to their victimisation and oppression: 'Women talk a lot on the radio. Especially about the diffculties they face. Violence against women and girls. Women discuss this a lot on the radio' (RUMW3Mb). Both radio studios recognised this by including women in their broadcasting on women-related themes.

All the respondents, men and women alike, agreed that men's voices are also important when broadcasting about women's empowerment, particularly if they support it. The inclusion of more men who have been involved in female empowerment may enable other men to identify with the broadcasts, underpinning the message that female empowerment does not just concern women. Male voices have an accepted space on radio programmes broadcast on general themes, and including them, as standard practice, in women-related programmes will not only raise the profle of these potentially taboo topics but also normalise them.

# *Témoignages*: A Radio Tool to Promote Message Retention

Understanding the idea of the 'voice' of guests in the studio is not problematic, even with a discrepancy between those of women and men and their corresponding airtimes. Usually, these guests were clearly introduced, and it was made known whom or what they represented. However, to avoid relying on debates with potentially unrelatable guests talking on abstract issues even if they were useful in broadcasting a plurality of women among women, Studio Kalangou and Studio Tamani used *témoignages*, also widely known as exemplars or testimonies, as a stylistic feature. These proved effective as they were recalled by listeners during focus groups (see Heywood, 2020) and, by being remembered, reinforced the message being broadcast. *Témoignages* are a particularly useful radio tool and are short spoken statements or accounts widely used in the child marriage magazines and in the FGM magazines but also by other Fondation Hirondelle studios and are received by audiences as being clear and relatable. One respondent said:

All the approaches, all the styles. The main thing is that what is said is accessible to everyone. The questions are not so technical that we can't follow them. It's early marriage after all—we're talking about age, the damage it does, none of that is too technical. (RM1N)

They bring together broad but intimate publics linking expert urban women on the one hand and poor rural and invisible women on the other, thus making the connection between different groups of women (and men) geographically, culturally and educationally. *Témoignages* provide a case illustration to exemplify an underlying problem presented in general statements containing base-rate information (Brosius & Bathelt, 1994; Lefevere et al., 2012). In other words, they present individual experiences to clarify and exemplify societal problems. They are secondary in their information-conveying role, as they serve only to support general statements, but they provide episodic insights that contrast with the representative overview in the main information, be it news or debates. They can also explain information in general statements that may be diffcult to comprehend. Listeners therefore do not have to systematically examine or research the main information because a clarifying example is provided in the *témoignages.* Their vividness is high and, as a result, can evoke a higher level of interest from the listener. However, listeners may go on to generalise information heard in *témoignages*, considering it to be typical of all people concerned by this issue. They then may assume that this information is applicable to all of society rather than just that one individual presenting their testimony (Brosius & Bathelt, 1994).

In contrast to the debates between high-level experts during the longer broadcasts, the *témoignages* allow a reversal of power by taking the voice and airtime from distance experts and instead giving it, via the mic, to non-expert lay women. In this case, the women are allowed to 'speak back' to both the radio and its experts and to the listener. Mare (2013: 31) refers to this term in relation to how listeners can use social media to 'speak back' to radio. It is a useful term here, as it describes the imagined two-way relationship of the listener with their radio. By making their lived experiences known via their testimony on this trusted medium, the speaker, who is also a listener, gains the confdence to talk as if to a best friend, allowing the intimacy to continue. The virtual listener-radio closeness is thus further reinforced, overcoming the geographic physical separation, and this feeling generated by mediated information is without necessarily noticing the existence of media (Lee, 2004).

The *témoignages* in this Studio Kalangou child marriage series recount the specifc experiences of girls who have been married as children or have fought against it. These range from testimonies from a girl who wants to wait until 23 to marry, to the story of a child marriage dispute that was resolved easily, to the example of a teacher who intervenes and prevents some marriages and then alerts the *chef de canton,* who is able to stop others. A clear illustration of female agency was given by 'Nafssa' (22 October 2018), who refused child marriage because she was aware of the associated risks and took action to remain at school:

I was not happy about the announcement of the marriage because I was still going to school. I always preferred school to avoid the consequences of early marriage like the problems that arise during childbirth. I informed my boyfriend who in turn went to my father [to say] that I don't want to get married now.

This message was further reinforced by the testimony of her father, which extended the relevance of the series to male listeners. Enabling the father to have a voice is a clear example of how male support for female empowerment can be incorporated into radio broadcasts. The positive impact of these *témoignages* was noted during the second round of focus groups in Niger, when not only were they accurately and systematically recalled by many respondents, but so were the messages they contained. Listeners recalled many of the témoignages in the child marriage series and the messages they contained, such as laws against child marriage, information on legal documents, what to do, or to whom to turn if in a similar situation. They also spoke in detail about the consequences of child marriage, a marked shift from the more abstract information they provided during the frst focus group discussions. Many of these improvements in awareness had been triggered by the broadcasts:

It was really the programmes that helped us understand the content. For early marriage, that meant that the damage this practice does to children since it can lead to early pregnancies, and there are children who drop out of school. So, the information has really got through. (UM1N)

I've learnt some new things because before, I didn't have much information, but with the involvement of everyone, because in the programmes there are lots of people who intervene, not just one person, and everyone tells their own story, or their view according to the experiences they've had. […] It's become clearer—the consequences of early marriage and for the victims too. (RM2N)

Two such examples of audience recall, underpinning the role and relevance of radio as an information source, were the story of a young girl who was married at a very early age and who suffered from incontinence after giving birth and the story of a girl who was forced to marry but told her teacher that she wanted to stay at school. Studio Kalangou's inclusive approach of widening the range of voices to include men's testimonies led to a broad appreciation among listeners that the subject had been approached both seriously and holistically and had targeted all sectors of the population. It also undermined the normative ideals to which men should strive. Thus, by disempowering men through the suggestion that they could relinquish some of their masculine obligations, they also become empowered. The prevailing discourse was one of education, motivation, and raising awareness. Once the facts had been presented, the overarching tone was not to attribute blame to the population but to provide clear information regarding child marriage and the law, to fnd and offer solutions by naming organisations and giving examples, to raise awareness about the situation and to focus on the need for dialogue. In other words, by stressing empowerment through education, the series encouraged the audience to listen rather than become antagonised or feel accused.

Studio Tamani used *témoignages* extensively in their broadcasts on domestic violence and FGM. They were used as stand-alone statements in magazines, inserted in debates and as part of the *flms documentaires*. These frst-person testimonies from survivors helped to raise awareness and reduce the stigma attached to domestic violence by adding that 'component of enjoyment involved in listening to other people's stories' (Milan, 2008: 31).

The programmes on these topics, particularly domestic violence, revealed forms of power beyond the above-mentioned hegemonic masculinities, which rely on common consent, and discussed male dominance achieved by force, coercion or domestic violence (Brzezinska, 2021; Groes-Green, 2009). As with child marriage and its consequences (fstulas, etc.), domestic violence within marriage and FGM are taboo topics in this society yet are simultaneously widely acknowledged. Problems culturally are resolved by elders in communities or by families which does not align with much of the information on radio on the law or appeals to turn to the authorities.

One documentary, for example, includes a powerful anonymous *témoignage* of a woman who fed an abusive and violent husband with the help of her brothers:

In Mali, it is the woman who is always blamed when there are problems in the couple. The man is never held responsible. I was ashamed. I was afraid to leave him because of the way others looked at me and the pressure of society. I had resigned myself to dying in this marriage if I had to. (30 October 2018)

Because this account is spoken by the woman herself rather than been relayed second-hand by a journalist, it allows the speaker's voice to be both expressed and heard directly without signifcant management of the content or intonation. The *témoignage* therefore helps listeners to identify with the speaker and hear an example of a successful and realistic exit strategy that they too could implement. However, 'go-to' information remains vague, with little direct information on the various services and associations to which victims could turn for support when faced with abusive situations. This increases the burden on women to be either problem solvers or to make the passive, empowering choice to remain silent, which in many cases will only lead to further disempowerment (1 August 2019).

The FGM series by Studio Tamani comprises six *magazines* each with *témoignages*, but none from survivors, which concurs with a statement from one advocacy campaigner on the *Grand Dialogue* that she would never be able to persuade victims to give their testimonies on this topic on radio. The testimonies are from former traditional cutters, or circumcisers, and from awareness campaigners, each of whom look back on a time when FGM was performed as an 'ancestral rite' as part of a large ceremony with just one cutter, with no medical knowledge and shared equipment. Girls would be cut at the age of 15 and married four months later. It was part of the marital process:

I remember that when we were young, we used to give out information about the dates of excision by beating the tom-tom. The parents would then send their children to the cutter. We would bring the girls together by organising a big ceremony for the excised. Once it was done, they would all stay together in a room where a woman elder would counsel them. [When I was excised], none of us had any problems. There were about twenty of us.  It was also a way to control the virginity of girls before their marriage. It is a matter of honour for the parents. (Studio Tamani *Magazine*, 10 February 2019)

Studio Tamani used the frequent *témoignages* to highlight the consequences of FGM that were not necessarily known or fully understood:

We cannot talk about all the consequences of excision in one day. There are deaths, tetanus, diffculty urinating, hepatitis B, and AIDS because 20 girls can be cut with the same knife. So, if one of them is infected, the others can be contaminated. Some people tell me that I had a lot of money and that's why I gave up cutting. But this isn't true. It's because I have seen the consequences. Some girls have been cut twice, because the frst one wasn't successful. And often the girls suffer, but they are ashamed to talk about it with their parents. They also face diffculties getting pregnant or giving birth. Some ancestral practices have to be abandoned. (*Grand Dialogue*, 4 January 2018)

The *témoignages* underline the signifcant differences between previous and current practices, with babies under 40 days old now being cut. Previously, there were few cutters; now, it is perceived as a good moneymaking opportunity ('today, a baby girl is cut after 2 or 3 days. It is no longer a tradition, it's become a business' (*Grand Dialogue*, 4 January 2018)), especially as there is no law against this practice in Mali.

The women campaigners in the testimonies use the opportunity of being on radio to reach out to men as decision-makers. They reveal their own challenges not only in gaining permission from their husbands to campaign but also in persuading them to pay the fuel for them to do so. The women had to work hard to make husbands understand the consequences of FGM for women. Then, they must raise awareness among other women's husbands:

I invite men to join us in this struggle. Even if it is practised less and less, our wish is that it will stop for good. The support of men would counterbalance the demands of some mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law who push for the practice. (*Grand Dialogue*, 9 February 2019)

We're aware that men are not very interested in this subject. That's why we target women frst, asking them to pass the message on to their husbands. […] I ask men to understand our approach. As the head of the family, they can infuence women's thinking and keep them healthy. Women, on their side, should not agree to having their daughters cut just to imitate others. (*Grand Dialogue*, 13 February 2019)

Both of these examples highlight how campaigners recognise the importance of radio as an information tool by purposefully using the space afforded to them via the *magazines* and their *témoignages* to target men as the head of the family. Few other sources of information have such a reach, especially as programmes are broadcast in multiple national languages. The testimonies underline the conception of empowerment within marriage and complementarity—in this case, it is a case of cooperation rather than competition—to eradicate FGM. They also foreground the role of women in perpetuating this harmful and dangerous practice, providing a clear example of Freire's conscientization (1996), or the process of developing a critical awareness of one's social reality through refection and action. The campaigners advise women to not just copy what others are doing but to take action based on informed decisions, as this triggers the process of changing reality. Given that, as Freire says, we all acquire social myths that have a dominant tendency, and acquiring and internalising the awareness-raising information from these FGM campaigners would be a critical process of discovering and understanding real problems and needs.

# Asymmetry Within Marriage and Passive Empowerment

Whilst the broadcasts appeared well received by the listeners and seemed to fulfl radio's role as an information provider and knowledge resource (Heywood, 2020), context must always be considered; radio guests may support pre-existing attitudes, behaviours and levels of awareness, reinforcing cultural and societal norms rather than promoting an empowering environment. Certain misalignment emerges, for example, between the empowerment discourse of the audiences and that of experts in Studio Tamani's debates. In one example on 2 August 2019, the debate on domestic violence supported distinct power relations in the family, with the man being portrayed as the central fgure and women being subservient. It was not clear how women listeners acquired a voice in this debate or how their quest for empowerment was represented. Promoting the voice, not just the presence, of women on radio could mean giving a voice to invisible women throughout the country. In this case, the programme centred on a discussion, moderated by the male presenter, between Oumou Diarra, a well-known female radio broadcaster in Mali, and Moussa Traoré, a male spokesperson for village chiefs in Ségou, a large town 150 miles northeast of Bamako, Mali's capital. Pursuing the idea that hegemony relies on common consent and is sustained and reinforced discursively (Brzezinska, 2021), Diarra advocated that women take an active role in their marriages to avoid domestic violence and take marriage seriously before committing, seeking ways to improve their interpersonal relations, which included submitting to their husbands and the authority of their mothers-in-law. Moussa Traoré advocated a misogynist stance affrming that feminism is a Western import and that women can only reduce violence by obeying and submitting to their husbands. Neither voice provided a perspective advocating the protection of women from violence from a legal or health standpoint. While Diarra called on men to reduce violence, the main advice presented to women suffering from domestic violence was to submit to the patriarchal authority of the husband: 'It's the man who is the head of the family, you are in his house. He's the one who feeds you'. In other words, rather than supporting development concepts of women's empowerment or listeners' defnition that empowerment means a lack of dependence on men, this 45-minute discussion legitimises men's dominant position in society and justifes the subordination of women (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005). If such debates target both men and women listeners, the narrative will serve not to empower women and defnitely not disempower men or redress the balance. It reinforces rather than undermines the asymmetry within marriage that focus groups mentioned as being a fundamental cause of women's disempowerment and serves to underpin a hegemonic ideal of manhood. The debate did not address domestic violence and its emotional impact on women but diverted attention to women's own behaviour and responsibility, attributing blame to them.

## Radio and the Elephant in the Room

At very few points in the two studios' broadcasting did the various voices discuss divorce as an option, despite it seemingly being a possible way out of a violent marriage. Women respondents reported that divorce was a major source of fear and shame and a major barrier to women's empowerment. Both unmarried and married women were visibly alarmed by the thought of their marriage ending in divorce, suggesting that divorce was perceived as a problem rather than a solution for women in their empowerment. Many said they would prefer to suffer in silence rather than undergo social shame and resultant fnancial hardship. The taboo surrounding this topic extended beyond the married couple, and decisions on divorcing, even if raised following domestic violence, are made on an extended family level, highlighting not only women's disempowered position in patriarchal communities but also that other women in the family (sisters−/mothers-in-law) perpetuate this disempowerment by upholding, rather than challenging, social conventions. Young unmarried respondents frequently recounted that families would pressurise their daughters to return to their abusive husbands rather than have the marriage fail: 'Even if a woman decided to go to court to address her problems, her mother would not allow her to do so' (RUMW3M).

The studios, like all other radio stations in Mali and Niger, therefore face an enormous challenge balancing taboo topics in their radio programmes, the voices who are spoken and heard, the styles used, and the very diverse audience to whom they broadcast and the range of cultures, religions and political positions they represent. This was raised by one respondent in Mali in relation to gender-based violence, which is a culturally sensitive issue in different parts of the country. He rang the studio questioning the manner in which a women guest had spoken about gender-based violence and how it could be poorly received in his region. He wanted the studio to consider how specifc topics were covered to prevent listeners from being emotionally affected (RM2M).

Radio broadcasting on a national scale in Mali and Niger faces different responses across diverse and heterogeneous regions, especially on culturally and socially sensitive issues of child marriage, FGM and domestic violence. Nonetheless, radio is thought to be a powerful communicative tool (Gatua et al., 2010) for raising awareness, and as the men in an urban focus group stated (UM1Mb), many of these taboo topics have ignorance as their root cause.

## Conclusion

By viewing empowerment through the lens of marriage, the chapter has been able to focus on various aspects: the defnitions of empowerment among listeners whose opinions must not be sidelined, as they are the very target of empowerment campaigns; the voices used by radio for certain topics with the inevitable risk of stereotyping; hegemonic masculinities as a pattern of practice; and the use of testimonies as a tool to convey important awareness-raising information to listeners. Whilst the chapter focuses only on Studio Tamani, and they are not necessarily representative of all radio output in the two countries, the same challenges they encounter will be faced by radio generally. The concept of promoting women's empowerment is complicated by the need to include so many perspectives in the life cycle of an on-air empowerment campaign. This means considering funders whose end goal may differ from that of the studio production team (development versus cultural defnitions of empowerment), the voices to be used and represented during broadcasts, and the styles to be used for maximum effect.

While hegemonic masculinities, based on gender inequality, prevail in the two countries, these remain normative. Many male respondents suggested that changes in mentalities leading to greater empowerment for women would in fact relieve them of the need to live up to society's expectations for men and of the potential for violence against women that results from frustrations and diffculties in meeting these expectations. These men on the lower levels of the dominant patriarchy stated that increased awareness via radio and broader acknowledgement and examples of accepted practices that empower women would be welcomed.

Women's voices on radio are preferred and trusted when disseminating women-related information, both as experts and as laypeople during testimonies. Respondents also agreed that men's voices should also be included in broadcasts on women's empowerment to encourage men to identify with the topic and their own involvement. While women should not only be given a voice on radio when it relates to women's issues, if radio is to be a tool for women's empowerment, the voices of women themselves must be prioritised. Diverse voices of women must also be included in general broadcasting to support women's empowerment. However, gender discrimination is more than a structural issue; within that structure, women face disempowering choices that can be deceptive to development practitioners who advocate 'choice' as the ultimate goal to empower women. Radio broadcasts should be designed such that women, to become empowered, are made to question perceptions and dominant social myths. However, centring women within empowerment campaigns can wrongly suggest to development practitioners and policymakers that changes triggering women's empowerment can only be achieved by women (Khader, 2018).

## References

Bandura, A. (1997). *Self-effcacy: The exercise of control*. WH Freeman.

Barry, A. (2007). *Femmes, pouvoir et prise de décision en Afrique au sud du Sahara. Présence Africaine 175–176–177 (1-2-2008–1)*. Éditions Présence Africaine: 713–726. https://doi.org/10.3917/presa.175.0713.

Spender, D. (1985). *Man made language*. Pandora.

UNICEF. (2019). *Phase II programme document 2020–2023*. UNPFA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage. Retrieved April 28, 2020, from https://www.unicef.org/media/69671/fle/GP-2020-Phase-II-Programme-Document-ENG.pdf

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

# Radio, Women, and Inheritance

*Inheritance is part of how our society controls women. —Woman respondent*

## Introduction

On the death of their husband, depending on the type of their marriage, many women have no entitlement to an inheritance. Instead, according to certain cultures, they are considered part of the estate themselves and are married to the deceased's younger brothers through the levirate system, and the inheritance returns to the man's family or goes to the (male) children. The woman can be left disempowered or can experience a signifcant downward shift in her socio-economic status. This chapter examines representations of women and inheritance in Mali by radio on one hand, and by its audiences on the other, and the extent to which, and how, the broadcasts raise awareness and promote women's human rights and empowerment, not only among the women who are only too aware of the diffculties they face but also among men and extended family members who hold power over the women. It uses a framework that repositions itself from the neo-liberal development approach we have considered thus far and that highlights the importance of the individual and emphasises the man/woman binary to that of African thought, where the emphasis is on woman as an inextricable part of the community. It returns to the *ubuntu* understanding that 'a self that does not exist in exclusion of the

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E. Heywood, *Radio and Women's Empowerment in Francophone West Africa*, Palgrave Studies in Communication for Social Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35985-9\_5

other, but *through* the other' (Coetzee, 2018: 9). The chapter does not essentialise the discussion by developing a development versus African thought binary. Rather, it looks at the complex tensions between social norms and change, donor dependency within Mali, the role of religion and culture within households, and international issues and agreements on women's rights. It frst explores general understandings of the topic among FGD respondents and what content they feel could be broadcast and places this in opposition to content broadcast on this theme by Studio Tamani. Various aspects covered by radio are explored, such as awareness of legal texts, types of marriage, civil status, and self-awareness and promotion of self-esteem among women. It highlights key information that is side-lined or omitted from the radio broadcasts, such as widowhood and orphans, which are mentioned as being necessary by listeners, representing misalignments between audience and editorial priorities.

## Women as Individuals or Within a 'Web of Relations'

Women's rights and empowerment underpin much of the development approach discussed here. They draw on universal human rights and the associated transformational agenda and are often cited for 'their emancipatory capacities and potential to empower vulnerable members of society' (Ngira, 2022: 1). However, they have also been widely labelled as an imperial imposition based on an individualised neo-liberal approach that is to be perceived as 'universal' but fails to consider socio-cultural particularities. This failure to consider cultural specifcities was raised by Mali in 2018 in the case brought against it1 before the African Court on Human and People's Rights challenging its 2011 Family Code2 and stating it violated human rights law. As one of its arguments, Mali used cultural relativism to claim that it would be futile to bring in legislation such as the Maputo Protocol and CEDAW, as they would be diffcult or impossible to implement because of the social, cultural, and religious realities of life in Mali (Kombo, 2019). These protocols are used as a tool to force governments to uphold their responsibilities with regard to citizens' rights. However, by locating responsibility for change at a state or public

1 'In July 2016, the Malian APDF and a pan-African IHRDA jointly submitted an application to the African Court challenging provisions of the 2011 Malian Family Code' (Kombo, 2019) APDF &IHRDA v Mali, (11 May 2018), Application 46/2016, para 67.

2Loi 2011–087 du 30 décembre 2011 Portant Code des Personnes et de la Famille.

sphere level, the private sphere where women's rights, such as female genital mutilation (FGM) or gender-based violence, are violated by communities or individuals can be overlooked and instead considered under the jurisdiction of 'culture' (Fox & Hasci, 1999; Tamale, 2008).

It is this latter point regarding cultural considerations and universality of rights that is problematic here and results not only in international declarations being viewed as foreign impositions (Kombo, 2019) but also deepens the divide between the 'imposers' (the Global North) and the 'imposees' (the Global South). This is no less the case with communication. Indeed, Dutta (2006: 222) confrms this contending that 'international development communication practice is in fact an uneven feld with information and communication from the core actors to the actors in the periphery' and that information and communication organisations decide from a position of power what the recipient public's need is for information, how it is presented, and what the goal of that information should be (Abdulla, 2020). Dutta (2006) further emphasises that this is part of the discourse surrounding development work in which the Global North is advanced or developed and the Global South should strive to replicate their practices for their own better outcome. He suggests that the audience thus becomes 'marginal discursive spaces in the peripheries […] and act as targets of campaigns manufactured in the center' (Dutta, 2006: 222). International development communication discourse, therefore, determines what empowerment should be, and 'audiences require some sort of aid or help to achieve this "empowerment" in order to achieve the liberation of certain marginalized populations' (Kamlongera, 2022: 318).

Of interest here is whether Studio Tamani—the radio studio discussed in this chapter—promotes this 'top down' international development discourse. Does it impose cultural considerations from the Global North without considering local contexts, and does its journalism act as a loudspeaker for top-down messaging, deciding what the audience's information needs are?3 As we know, Studio Tamani is run by Fondation Hirondelle, a Western development-oriented organisation, like its funders, and states that its activities 'contribute to the achievement of a number of Goals under UN Agenda 2030' (Fondation Hirondelle, 2021), including SDG5 on gender equality. Fondation Hirondelle's mission and values refect a number of fundamental principles anchored in the legal

3For further discussion on radio's responses to the information needs of audiences, see Heywood and Yaméogo (2023).

instruments of international law and human rights, which could suggest that it does indeed adopt a top-down approach to its radio output, imposing predetermined solutions to situations labelled problems according to universal defnitions. However, Studio Tamani itself, like all other Fondation Hirondelle radio studios, is run by locally based (not Western) journalists and editors based in Bamako, the capital, and a network of over 45 correspondents throughout the country, all of whom are also part of the local cultural framework. This aligns with the organisation's mission statement to 'produce its programmes entirely within the country, and broadcast them from within the country when they are broadcast over the air, with only local journalists appearing on air or in productions' (Fondation Hirondelle, 2016: 8). As such, they broadcast, via partner radio stations, to local and rural communities and aim to provide the link between Western development messages broadcast as stipulated by donors, in this case regarding women's empowerment and gender equity, on one hand, and local discourses on the other, and therefore between individualism and the tightly knit networks of people, performing multiple roles in accordance with entrenched cultural norms.

Whilst traditional or cultural practices such as FGM, polygamy, or other practices, and media representations of them, may well contribute to discourses keeping women in their subordinated position, Tamale states 'there are many cultural norms and values that are rights-supportive, egalitarian and uplifting; many aspects of 'African culture' promote and reinforce women's rights' (2008: 49). She challenges the opposition of culture and rights and the resultant culture/universality binary, instead recognising that solutions to women's oppression can be found in the 'careful and creative deployment of the more familiar cultural norms and values' (Tamale, 2008: 64). In other words, imposing top-down alien human rights laws may have limited impact on African women's rights, and bottom-up approaches embedded in local cultures and traditions will no doubt work better than those that exclude them and draw solely on topdown legal frameworks (Butegwa, 2002; Tamale, 2008). Culture/universality binaries also ignore the fact that (a) cultures are not static but evolve through their interactions with other cultures, thus creating new versions, and that (b) 'universal rights', as contained in declarations such as UDHR, are derived from an ethnocentric stance that reinforces a culture—that of the white privileged and the male and heterosexual North.

The dominant men/subservient women binary created in this neoliberal approach is important, as women, frst as individuals and then as a mobilised collective group seeking empowerment, are systematically placed in opposition to men. Terms and concepts such as power *with*, which we discuss in other chapters, are used in development policies and strategies 'to effect transformative social changes in "structures of subordination" so as to free [women] from subjugation" (Biewener & Bacqué, 2015: 61). In other words, women as individuals, autonomous immutable entities, come together and relate to one another to become empowered, but only within the existing patriarchy. Women are, therefore, categorised using this label, and this is their primary identifer in their fght for liberation (empowerment). This binary, established as a legacy of colonialism that was raised in Chap. 2 on women's political empowerment when women mobilised in opposition to men, emerges again here. Women are rarely perceived as independent individuals but rather as a group or collective.

In this chapter's discussions of radio broadcasts about, and audience perceptions of, inheritance we contrast this to an African relational perspective according to which the community, or *la grande famille* [extended family], dominates and members cannot be considered as autonomous individuals, as in the Western (colonial) understanding. People cannot be extracted from their community or relations with others because the common good prevails. However, they do not remain immutable entities that remain constant regardless of their activities (such as 'man' or 'woman' (Tamale, 2008)). Instead, individuals are fuid, and their identity is in constant fux depending on their interactions with others and their differing roles. Their identity is 'not constituted in opposition to that which is the other, but in relation to otherness' (Coetzee, 2018: 10). They are, therefore, part of a web of relations (Heywood & Ivey, 2021; Kabeer, 2012), in which, as Senghor stated, 'the group has priority over the individual without crushing the individual, but allowing the individual to blossom as a person' (1966: 5).

A woman in a community, for example, may be a mother, an entrepreneur, a wife, a daughter-in-law, and so on, shifting between different positions in society, each with different expectations, obligations, and pressures and cannot, as Oyewùmí states, be considered in isolation or as unitary ̆ constructs (Heywood & Ivey, 2021; Kabeer, 2012). Women are not isolated individuals; they are embedded in social relationships. This is especially relevant in more collectivist cultures where social relations exert a signifcant infuence on people's lives and well-being (Huis et al., 2020). However, because relational roles are insuffciently considered in Western thinking, women in African or other Global South contexts, for example, are reduced to being mothers or carers, beholden to men as the main providers and to being in a subject/victim relationship (Chilisa & Ntseane, 2010). Thus, existing 'webs of relations' are conditioned by the prevailing patriarchy in which man is standard or centralised, and woman therefore becomes 'the other' or inferior. Women remain positioned in the 'ideological domestic site of the family—a gendered space closely associated with women (albeit headed by men)' (Tamale, 2008: 55),—and despite their undisputed central role in the family and community, their voice is side-lined in decision-making, exacerbating their positions of marginality (Lelei, 2005).

Inheritance, as a topic, allows us to discuss the tensions between the various thinking about (by audiences) and representations of (by radio) women's rights, especially given women's own inextricable and unenviable position within the process. We consider concepts such as those in the UN's four-year Gender Action Plan from 2007 (UN, 2005) seeking to empower women by 'increasing women's access to land, labor force participation, agriculture, infrastructure, and fnance' (Biewener & Bacqué, 2015: 62) and more recently in SDG 5.5a (UN, 2022), which aims to 'undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, fnancial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws'. We examine the audience's own perception of women and inheritance and that represented by Studio Tamani's radio broadcasts.

## Mali Context

Mali's legal framework, inherited from French colonisation, is built around a constitution that enshrines the secular nature of the state and prohibits confessional political parties and, more generally, any interference between religion and politics (Crisis Group, 2017). However, Islam, practised by 90% of the population, occupies a dominant role in domestic life (Koné & Calvès, 2021). Divergencies in laws render inheritance rules complex to understand and even harder to challenge, resulting in discrimination, particularly amongst poorer, rural, and less-educated widows. The topic of inheritance simultaneously brings to the fore many aspects of life, such as polygamy, fnance, land ownership, education, widowhood, and others, where women's actions are closely intertwined with those of other community and family members and from which they cannot be extracted to act as autonomous individuals. However, when one part of that community construction breaks or disappears (death of a husband, in this case), the whole structure is threatened, particularly women, unless all involved agree to carry out pre-assigned and long-established roles. Discussing these complexities will make it easier to understand why it is important to consider women in relation to others rather than as individuals, particularly when broadcasting information or awareness raising programmes on this topic.

According to Mali's Family Code of 2011, 'religious and customary law is the default applicable law in matters of inheritance and the Family Code's inheritance provisions that provide for women's and men's equal share in inheritance would only apply in the event that one could not establish the cultural or religious practice'. Islamic law provides that women receive half of what men receive and that children born out of wedlock do not have the right to inheritance unless confrmed by the parents4 (Budoo, 2018; Davi, 2018; Kombo, 2019). The Family Code (2011) also provides that female and male surviving spouses have equal rights to inherit assets5 and that sons and daughters have equal rights to inherit assets from their parents.6 However, men, as we have seen previously, are the sole owners of family property, and women's right to land use, typically lost when the husband dies, is contingent on marital status. Inheritance rights are also closely bound to marital status.

Inheritance is generally understood to cover the goods of the deceased person, but differences exist depending on cultural understandings (religious, customary, traditional) between *succession des biens* [succession of property] and *succession des femmes* [or widow inheritance or levirate]. Rights to the legacy, however defned, just like women's right to land use, depend on the type of marriage entered into. These are (a) civil marriage, generally among more educated, richer communities; (b) religious marriage, now covered by law in the Family Code 2011; and (c) traditional marriage conducted without any legal paperwork placing widows in

4As mentioned above, a challenge was brought by two organisations before the African Court against Mali and its implementation of the 2011 Family Code. They contested, and this was upheld, amongst others, that Mali had contravened international agreements on protecting the right to inheritance of women and natural children. Mali was ordered to amend its Family Code to align with international human rights standards (Budoo, 2018; Davi, 2018; Kombo, 2019).

5Loi No. 2011–087 Portant Code des Personnes et de la Famille, Arts. 770, 798 et 800.

6Loi No. 2011–087 Portant Code des Personnes et de la Famille, Arts. 753 et 773.

positions of extreme vulnerability. In the last case, the deceased's estate goes back to the '*grande famille*' (parents, brothers, sons), and the widow can remain within her deceased husband's family household with her children, often being married to the deceased's younger brother through the levirate process, or if she refuses, she must return to her own family with nothing and often relinquishing rights to her children.

When discussing inheritance, family organisations must not be examined from the perspective of a Western nuclear family where 'conjugal pairs' dominate (husband-wife). Instead, in this context, extended families are organised in co-residential forms built around lineages. A woman has multiple co-relational identities (mothers, daughters, sisters, and not just wives or co-wives), and affnal relationships to, and obligations with, all members of the husband's *grande famille* are as important as conjugal relations. Whilst women might defer to husbands, their social position can alter depending on their role (mother-in-law, elder sister, senior female family member, etc.) and over time as they gain seniority. Deference is then offered to them, and they exert signifcant infuence over junior male and female family members (Sudarkasa, 2005). Therefore, the man/ woman gender binary found in many Western rights declarations must be contextualised here because '"woman" as a unitary construct fails to take account of women's interests as members of generations, families of economic groups […] women's relationships with other women may in themselves be exploitative and hierarchical' (Cornwall, 2005: 4).

International human rights agreements regarding the inheritance rights of women, for example, Article 21(2) of the Maputo Protocol, which provides that women and men shall 'have the right to inherit their parents' property in equitable shares' (Davi, 2018: 2) and that countries are obliged to 'eliminate traditions and customs that are harmful towards women and children (also in 5(a) CEDAW and 1(3) ACRWC)' (Davi, 2018: 2), do not, according to Mali, consider Mali's cultural complexities (Kombo, 2019). Instead, if viewed from the Western perceptive of women being a unitary construct within a conjugal pair, they can misrepresent the realities of co-relational extended families in many African societies. Polygamous families and their complex internal hierarchies of women (mothers, wives, co-wives, sisters-in-law) are not fully considered. However, many cultural specifcities can lead to further discrimination against women, including widows, their use of land, their place in the community and community responses to them, fnances, the possibility of losing their children, levirate, polygamy, position as mother,7 shame, accusations from the community of witchery or of triggering the husband's early death, all of which were raised by focus group respondents.

#### *Land Laws*

When discussing representations of a topic within an international human rights framework, we must also refer to the strategy and mission documents of the organisation producing those representations, Fondation Hirondelle in this case. Their strategic aims and vision were discussed in the Introduction, but as a reminder, Fondation Hirondelle aims to provide 'independent, credible and impartial information that is close to its audience and contributes to ending confict and building more peaceful societies'.8 It refers to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, 'Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers'. Its strategy also states that its 'mission and the values which guide it refect a number of fundamental principles which are anchored in the legal instruments of international law and human rights. Fondation Hirondelle operates where journalistic activity intersects the humanitarian-development-peace nexus,9 and its activities contribute to the achievement of a number of Goals under UN Agenda 2030, in particular 16 (peaceful, just societies), 5 (gender equality) and 10 (reduced inequalities)'.

The chapter discusses Fondation Hirondelle's journalistic activities, via Studio Tamani, and the extent to which it draws on contextual particularities 'presented without commentary', enabling its representations of universal rights, in various topics areas, to remain relevant to the corresponding audiences without giving in to discriminatory social norms. Drawing on responses from FGD participants and a content analysis of Studio Tamani's broadcasts on inheritance, we examine the extent to which inheritance

7Malian women's status is largely derived from their roles as mothers: childbearing and rearing (Madhavan, 2001) and links 'Motherism' and the centrality of the mother in African thought. Conversely, single or infertile women and widows can be severely disadvantaged (Van de Walle, 2013).

8 https://www.hirondelle.org/en/who-we-are

9The policy term used to outline stronger collaboration and coordination among the humanitarian, development, and peace sectors (Nguya & Siddiqui, 2020).

affects women, families, and communities, both rural and urban, how it is represented on the radio, and, if any advice is given, whether it aligns with 'imposed' international laws while remaining culturally relevant. We also look at how the radio's approach is perceived by listeners.

# Audience Perceptions

Responses given during the focus group discussions evidenced the complexities surrounding inheritance in Mali. Each time a consensus about a particular statement or defnition was reached, a contradiction or condition impacting that clarity was instantly evoked, suggesting that explanations via radio, for example, might prevent a reliance on discriminatory customs that are maintained because 'that's the way it is'. The very defnition of inheritance ranged from goods and animals to a broad acceptance that it also included the family name and human inheritance (RMW4Mb). Whatever the defnition, there was general agreement that women were disadvantaged on many fronts and that the various laws, religious practices, and customs were both gendered and gendering, depriving women of their inheritance rights and discriminating against them. Throughout the discussions, religious law prevailed consistently over state law, with many blurred lines between religious laws and traditions and customs. The actual practice of apportioning estates according to religious (Islamic) law was understood either from personal experience following the death of a father or husband, and several respondents could provide details of the various calculations. Whilst superfcially the outcome is clearly in favour of male and/or family heirs rather than the widow, several of the male FGDs justifed it through a community approach that benefts all.

In rural areas especially, property does not belong to any specifc person. The property primarily belongs to the family. In other words, the family's property is not given to the wife just because the husband has died. The property still belongs to the family and not to an individual in rural areas. (RUMW2Mb)

According to participants, sons or the *grande famille* into which the wife has married inherit all the estate, including the wife—an understanding that was challenged in the broadcasts—as this would cover the cost of supporting the inherited wife and her children, offset the bride price, and ensure that the family land and family name are not divided or ultimately become the property of a new husband outside the family. They explained that sons inherit twice that of daughters and are responsible for taking care of their widowed mothers, sisters, wives, and possibly inherited wives, unlike the daughters who do not have that duty. Added to this is the land law of 2017, which prevents women from inheriting land in any case*.* The combined outcome serves to entrench discriminatory patriarchal practices that bind women to the *grande famille* with no clear exit route. They are instead forced to abandon their own right to independence, and those of their children, to the beneft of those in their web of relations. We can look at these points and perceptions of them amongst listeners one by one, although it is just as diffcult to separate them as it is to extricate women from the resulting web of relations.

Respondents' combined knowledge of religious, customary, and civil laws revealed deep-rooted and gendered discrimination. Civil laws were often considered futile in many contexts or not a valid option, given the widespread conviction that both education and fnances were essential to be in a position to apply them. Respondents' understanding of the various laws depended on their levels of education and location (urban or rural), with men understanding the most. The rural married women said, 'We've been told about laws but if you don't have someone who can help you to access these things, it's not easy. If you don't have anything, nobody will listen to you' (RMW4M). Some respondents were specifc and were able to explain details of various inheritance laws, particularly the younger unmarried women in urban areas, suggesting that awareness campaigns (radio, associations, schools) were effective in some areas at challenging the more established information among older generations. However, many respondents were not aware of any laws on inheritance or how they could be relevant to them, and they did not recall broadcasts about it. 'We haven't really heard this topic on the radio, it's rare that we talk about it. We don't talk about this subject' (RUMW2Mb). This highlighted the gap that radio, as the declared main source of information, could fll, challenging a situation whereby tradition and customs are accepted because, as one women respondent stated, 'Yes, you could go to the courts, but it's in society that things are really settled, just because this is how it is, it's already established and understood, this method of sharing things out' (RUMW2M). Given the low literacy rate among women caused by educational disadvantages, women are again discriminated against, as they are not in a position to seek justice via the courts, despite this being the main solution suggested by all the FGDs. Women are, therefore, dependent on others to help them extract themselves from the situation that those same relationships have put them in.

She could go to court to claim her share, but it depends on the mental strength of the woman because some are afraid, others are not. It really depends on their education. (RUMW3Mb)

Discriminatory inheritance practices are also rooted in tradition and rituals that bind women, with traditional practices prevailing over civil laws, particularly in rural areas. However, all respondents knew and/or had experience of widowhood and therefore knew how it worked in practice. Yet, all their information merged, and lines appeared blurred between rules and types of marriage and the associated diffculties, again highlighting the need for clear information. One male respondent explained the main types of marriage—civil, religious, and customary—and the various inheritance outcomes for women. He stated that religious marriages now have the same value as civil marriages, as they both offer marriage certifcates, which are important for the registration process for future children. Many councils and mayors, he said, were actively encouraging couples to marry through offcial routes and thus be in receipt of marriage certifcates, giving women rights and changing mentalities (RM2Mb).

In the absence of a legal marriage, be it civil or religious, a widow's family-in-law can claim all the inheritance, leaving her and her children with nothing. 'Here, for example, rural people don't get married at the town hall. Therefore, once the head of the family dies, it's the parents who claim it all for themselves because there wasn't a legal marriage' (RMW4M). The negative role of other female family members on widows was frequently raised during the women's FGDs. They provided multiple examples of women being driven from their deceased husband's home, having their goods and animals taken, or being treated badly in their new home, confrming Acholonu's statement that 'women are part and parcel of, if not the power behind' male dominance (1995: 28).

Younger, educated, unmarried women respondents in urban areas were optimistic about their future rights, suggesting that attitudes were changing and that having a civil marriage could 'save' a woman and give her a rightful inheritance, evoking the concept of independence from the family.

Women have a smaller share of the inheritance because when the husband dies, the majority of the shares are given to the parents and then to the family. But the woman can be saved if she has been married through the Town Hall. If she has a marriage certifcate, she can have a percentage. (RUMW2M)

However, their rural counterparts recounted a different situation involving levirate, the process whereby a widow is 'given' to the deceased's younger brother in marriage. This keeps the estate of the deceased in the family along with his children, yet respondents also reported the many tensions that this imposed system creates. For example, the younger brother is also obliged to accept the widow as a new wife regardless of whether he has the fnancial means to support her and her children or older children who would prefer to stay in their own home with their mother rather than moving in with their uncle and his family. The web of relations, therefore, extends beyond widows, affecting many. Respondents said that the widows have to agree to levirate but, in reality, have little choice: either they agree and stay with their children in the family household, or they are cast out with no fnancial support, no children and must return to their own family if they can support her.

It is said that a woman is the inheritance of a man. When the man dies, she has to stay in that family, marry one of the brothers. And they don't even ask her which brother she wants to marry; they just give her to one of them. (RMW4M)

Many younger unmarried women respondents railed against the injustice of this subjugation and the fact that widows are considered a belonging of the family rather than an individual with agency and rights. They objected to having to prioritise the *grande famille*. Urban respondents amongst them were adamant that 'it'd be better to give the woman the freedom to decide herself who she wants to marry, or if she wants to remarry' (RUMW3M).

Inheritance is further complicated in polygamous marriages, which affects almost 40% of women in Mali (Millogo et al., 2022). When up to four unions are legally permitted (for men) at one time, dividing up an inheritance can be problematic, especially if the marriages are formed under different laws, as legally married widows and their children will have greater entitlement than those married according to customary law. However, because hierarchies in families are gender-based, the more sons a widow has, the greater her share of the inheritance:

Even if the head of the family has two or three wives, the woman who has the most boys is the one who will beneft the most compared to the other women. And now there are boys who do not agree to share the inheritance even in the family. (RUMW1M)

However, as one woman said, levirate does provide widows with an element of stability and certainty, despite the reluctance they may have towards the arrangement. She explained the alternative:

You'll have all the problems in the world if you refuse.  Some people will even chase you away. You'll have no means to support your children. You'd have to have a *petit commerce* to support yourself. You're the one who's got manage with your children now. It's not easy, and you have to pay for your children's education, everything, shoes, clothes, health. (UMW2MB)

Nonetheless, widows may also be reluctant to stay in the *grande famille* through levirate because of communicable diseases, and many respondents said that women preferred not to marry their husband's brother to protect themselves (RUMW2M). However, widows who have decided not to stay within the marital household are perceived as a fnancial burden by their birth family. They are deemed troublemakers because they did not show respect for their marital family and will consequently be unsuitable to be married into another family because 'any woman who tries to claim her rights will be shunned by society. They'll call that woman all sorts of things. They'll say that she is not respectful, they will even banish her' (RMW4M). The perceived signifcant risk that widows present to family communities if they leave the *grande famille,* thus becoming an 'individual other', escalates to the circulation of serious threats and rumours. Female participants recounted rumours about the part played by young widows in the deaths of their older husbands and of women who are fearful of speaking out as they have been threatened with spells (RMW4M). This has a double-edged effect, as it prevents widows from leaving the family through fear of being shunned by society and prevents society from accepting them into their families. As individuals, particularly in rural traditions, widows are not considered healthy for the community and continue to be entrapped in this societal web. Widows are thus subsumed quietly into the marital family with older married respondents drawing on 'tradition' as a justifcation:

There are women who struggle, who fght, but it's rare. The majority of women remain silent. They accept how it is and resign themselves to it. This is our reality; these are our traditions. (RMW4Mb)

When questioned as to whether widows think this is fair and whether they should have the same rights as other members of society, they simply replied: 'They've no choice. Worse still, the inheritance is split without their agreement. But that's just how it is' (RMW1Mb). Universal rights do not extend to this group of women.

However, alternatives to the discrimination faced by women and to their inability to pursue steps towards empowerment as proposed by development organisations emerge, particularly amongst younger married women and educated married women. Male respondents are less condemnatory when discussing levirate, inheritance, and women. They describe a seemingly reasonable process that involves consultations between the wider family and the widow with no obligations on the latter to agree. The reality of the choice presented to widows—marrying a younger brotherin-law against their will or losing their children—is minimised and barely proposed as a believable option. The emphasis, instead, is placed on the other members of the family who would be harmed if the widow leaves.

Solutions proffered by respondents are constructed within the framework of a man/woman binary. Few female participants talk about oppression emanating from the members of the broader patriarchy, for example, their mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, and senior co-wives. However, concerns regarding fnance and the break-up of the extended family and its estate dominate rather than those about women's empowerment versus men's empowerment. Wills are suggested as a viable, but rare, solution to widows losing their inheritance:

If a woman's husband dies, the succession is basically managed in two ways: there is the traditional way that says that the woman is already a family member, and she stays in the family. She can remarry a brother of her deceased husband. And everything that belongs to the deceased husband goes back by right not necessarily to the wife but to the one who inherits the wife and her children. That's the frst way, and what is rare, the second way, is that the man before his death made his will in accordance with the law and this will is applied. (RM2Mb)

However, wills are also perceived as a threat to the *grande famille,* as they can result in family estates being divided to the beneft of individual widows. There is a generational and geographic divide regarding wills. Younger unmarried women in urban areas are aware of wills and the need for them as a tool to obtain their rights and stated that they would encourage their future husbands to organise one. Those in, and those talking about those in, rural areas, however, dismiss wills as barely relevant and not aligned with traditions, as most marriages are not legal and little paperwork is completed in any regard. The rights of the community, driven by strong social values, currently prevail over those of the individual, reinforcing Oyewùmí's ( ̆ 1997) assertion that women cannot be considered in isolation or as unitary constructs.

As with many other topics discussed in this book, respondents stated that women, not just widows who are not portrayed as a discrete group, must trigger change themselves by working together towards a common goal, but this is only possible through increased awareness. Women's organisations are cited as an essential channel to inform women of their rights, particularly those in rural communities with lower education. The laws themselves are not criticised but rather their application (RMW3Mb). They were adamant that only the law could bring change, but it is the responsibility of educated women and women's associations to raise awareness among other women, thus calling for horizontal and vertical solidarity among them. Nonetheless, they acknowledge that change is coming, albeit extremely slowly,

We have the means for advocacy because even the authorities are doing a lot now. For example, in the community dialogue spaces, the village chiefs, leaders, traditional chiefs, everyone is looking at the issue, to know how to move forward with rights, with laws. But without women, nothing is possible, so we have to give back to women what belongs to them […]. The road ahead is long, very, very long. But I think that with determination, with a synergy of actions, with the support of the state and partners, we will get there one day. (RMW4M)

Radio was regarded by all as an important and accessible tool for raising awareness. Many respondents attributed changes in knowledge to radio broadcasts.

The wife is part of the husband, so the inheritance should be divided. Before, people used to say that only the men were entitled to the inheritance. But now, because of the radio broadcasts, we've learnt that it's not just the man. Even if there's a woman who is pregnant, whose child hasn't yet been born, the child has the full right to take their share of the inheritance. We found this out through the programmes. (RMW4M)

However, it was felt that more awareness raising was needed, as it would only be by chance that a listener would hear the rare radio broadcasts on inheritance. However, programmes, as we have already seen, would also have to be in an attractive format or the information would have to be disguised using an edutainment approach to win over many listeners. African radio listeners, according to unmarried women in rural areas (RUMW4M), are especially diffcult to convince, describing them as stubborn and preferring to do the opposite of what they are advised, thus adding another layer of complexity to the task of broadcasting awareness-raising programmes. 'If they listen to radio, they'll scoff and say, "What are they talking about, they're crazy". Others simply change the radio station, so they don't have to listen. They are very stubborn; it is not easy' (RUMW4M). In other words, laws, changes to laws, and the implementation of laws would have to be imposed on communities for change to be brought about, confrming Tamale's (2008) assertion that while it is necessary for local cultures and traditions to be taken into account as part of bottom-up procedures, constitutional and legal frameworks can act as the foundation touchstone for women's rights.

The complexity of the inheritance process in Mali was clear from the listeners' responses. Not only did listeners not understand the various rules or their application, but very few grasped their relevance and were instead resigned to customs and traditional practices being prioritised. However, there was a sense that the situation may be changing, mainly among younger listeners who spoke of measures being taken by authorities and awareness-raising campaigns led by radio, NGOs, and schools. Both male and female respondents were aware of gender discrimination yet could not see how women could be extracted from their 'webs' without being ostracised; it was an 'either/or' situation. Remaining within the family was perceived as being the preferable option for a woman's and a family's long-term security. This was reinforced by statements that widows are often badly perceived by society in any case, let alone if they are cast out having refused levirate offers. Whilst they welcomed information on the radio on inheritance and considered it an important channel to help improve awareness, if not the actual situation, they stated that the topic of widowhood was rarely addressed, refecting how widows are subsumed into 'women' rather than being a discrete group worthy of attention. So how did Studio Tamani address these points? Did it consider the gap between the concept of rights, laws in force (religious, civic, or customary), and widows' reality? What did the programmes promote, or did they follow, mission statements to promote awareness, therefore encouraging informed debate and decision-making amongst men and women for women's beneft?

## Studio Tamani's Representations

Studio Tamani's inheritance series comprised ten programmes: one *Grand Dialogue*, from Kayes in western Mali, with the regular male presenter and one male and three female guests; seven '*portraits*' or *magazines* (all of women) also shown in a televised format; one *flm documentaire* (a mix of women and men); and one *motion design* (voiced by a woman)*.* The broadcasts aimed to provide a space for dialogue, articulating a range of perspectives through different voices in varying formats that, based on the discussions in Chap. 2, should be attractive to a broad audience. While customary, civic, and religious laws are discussed generally, specifc details are not provided, and traditional practices emerge as the dominant social framework. As one guest stated, 'The frst thing to do is to sit down and talk. Talk about how the estate must be shared according to the customs, traditions, and religions of those concerned' (Sogodogo Binta Traoré, representative of the Ministry for the Promotion of Women, Children and the Family, *Grand Dialogue*, 14 October 2019). The empowerment message that emerged strongly in many of the other radio series is replaced here by one of cultural norms, and women's stereotypical entrenched submissive and passive position in many situations is reinforced.

In line with Fondation Hirondelle's vision to provide 'independent, credible and impartial information', there is little judgement on the treatment of women, and when there is, this is voiced directly by a speaker (studio guest, or via a testimonial), avoiding any confusion that they are acting as the mouthpiece of the radio studio. Radio is only heard through the voices it allows to speak, and superfcially, there is a balance providing a range of perspectives about inheritance. The programmes portray women in a wide range of relations, including with in-laws, siblings, widows, husbands, men, family, and children, yet the widows are homogenous, contrasting with the range of roles mentioned by the focus group respondents. They describe dominant male heirs in opposition to submissive widows within the extended family. The *Grand Dialogue* presents inheritance from an Islamic, Christian, and legal perspective, all emphasising that the woman should receive her due entitlement. It is explained that, according to Islam and traditional practices, women receive half that of a male heir. The Christian perspective states that the wife and children receive the estate, and the legal representative on the broadcast stated that rules are in place to be observed but a marriage certifcate or birth certifcate is obligatory.10 Without a certifcate, no legal proceedings can proceed. This places many women at a disadvantage, as they have either lost their offcial documents during forced displacement or they have never had them. This, guests confrmed, was particularly the case in rural areas.

In our country, the sharing of inheritance has rules; you have to have a marriage certifcate, a birth certifcate, that's compulsory. Nowadays, if you don't have these papers, it's quite diffcult. If you have these papers, we can guide you towards the structures that can solve your problems. (Diaby

10The Law 2011–087 on the Code of Persons and the Family (30 December 2011) provides the legal framework for birth certifcates. This document is essential not only for identifcation but also to gain access to education, to health services, to be able to vote, for inheritance rights, to travel and for marriage certifcates which, in turn, are required to register children.

Kalissi Doucouré, lawyer and director of the Kayes legal clinic, *Grand Dialogue*, 14 October 2019)

The overarching narrative in this series, however, while explaining how the system works, how the apportionment of the inheritance is calculated, and how possible disputes could be resolved, is still situated within deep-seated social norms that, through a development lens, remain discriminatory. Clear defnitions are provided throughout the series from various speakers, and many align with listeners' understanding. Nonetheless, there are statements that challenge cultural practices, such as 'widow inheritance' or levirate, and these are addressed from a religious perspective rather than the socio-economic perspective of the focus group respondents:

Before, women were part of the inheritance, but that was a lack of understanding. Qur'anic verses have taught us that women should not even be part of the man's inheritance. She can be given some property. But she should never be part of the inheritance. (Adama Issa Sacko, a traditionalist from Kayes, *Grand Dialogue*, 14 October 2019)

Some direct or implied recommendations from the *Grand Dialogue* guests include warnings about the consequences of going to court and completely severing links with other parties. They suggest instead that all concerned should be convened to divide the estate of the deceased according to the Qur'an. Whilst not deterring widows from going to court, they use the platform of radio to make it very clear that the consequences of pursuing this path may prove to be even more detrimental to women. There are, however, numerous examples and testimonies of when the inheritance process proves prejudicial to women, especially when implemented too zealously in the interests of the deceased's family.

When the deceased dies, the wife encounters many diffculties. Her husband's brothers impose themselves on her. They claim that the property belongs to them, not to the wife. These women suffer as do their children. I have an example. One widow had nine pregnancies with her husband, and among the nine, one child died. And the eighth, is the only boy. He was twelve years old when his father died. After the husband's death, the wife went for the funeral to the extended family. After the funeral, she came back to fnd that her house had already been occupied by her late husband's relatives, and she was told to take the small hut that was next door. The woman stayed in that hut with her eight children, while one other person occupied her late husband's house. They forced the woman to stay in that hut. The woman was crying as she explained the situation to me. (Mme Djénéba Sissoko, President of the Tekereni Benso Association in Kayes, *Grand Dialogue*, 14 October 2019)

Guests on the *Grand Dialogue* (14 October 2019) advocate that widows should aim for continuity, 'avoid disruptions and tension', and abide by the law, without clearly stipulating which law they are referring to. The guests promote a widow's place as part of a community or web of relations, suggesting that the social practices of the majority in many listener communities confict with development discourses that promote women's (individual) empowerment and equality. The broadcast provides no mention of any positive action that widows could take but does give several examples from representatives of women's associations of how women have been 'cheated' out of their inheritance. There is no critique of prevailing structural inequalities or lack of rights to property. Whilst the Christian perspective is provided initially by one guest claiming that, in this framework, sharing the inheritance is not too problematic, the other guests go on to say that they cannot comment further from personal experience: 'We don't know anything about Christian law'. Therefore, they mostly cite Islamic rules, which they speak of as being law. Universal rights are not referred to, nor are cultures outside Africa or Mali; thus, the discussion is situated within a specifc context with its structural inequalities.

The two-minute *Motion Design* is the one element in the radio package that promotes ideas found in NGO development campaigns that inheritance in Mali is gender discriminatory but also considers women both within her web of relations and in a context where customary laws prevail. With supporting animations, it counters those who support levirate marriage and claim that it protects widows from destitution, using arguments that widows 'experience it as a double penalty'. This is because they are 'forced to marry the brother of the deceased against their will. Second, she may be abandoned by her new spouse who has only accepted this union in order to gain access to the inheritance'. It also situates inheritance within a broader context referring to women's restricted access to land,11

11The land law of 2017 can be gender discriminatory. Women have long been forming associations to improve their land tenure security by using the land for collective use. The new law reinforces this by requiring that 15 per cent of public land be allocated to women's associations. https://www.iisd.org/articles/insight/historic-new-law-secures-land-malian-farmers

especially widows 'who have diffculty accessing full ownership or bank loans to buy land'. By providing recommendations for couples to write a will and to keep their documents safe, this short clear animation underlines the fact that discriminatory practices place the onus on women to prove their entitlement to an estate and avoid being 'expelled from the marital home or having parental authority over her children withdrawn'. However, as previously stated in Chap. 2, the *Motion Designs* are visuals, not audio output, and accessible on YouTube and then via social media, which signifcantly reduces possible audiences for this constructive information, given lack of accessibility and viewing habits. The power and gendered dynamics at work within social practices remain unchallenged, questioning the effect of this programme's message.

The seven *magazines* and their televised equivalents broadcast testimonies that are all spoken by women: three widows and four representatives of women's and legal associations. They provide a variety of opinions from some who have suffered as widows and others who support or advocate professionally for them. The range of voices included in these short broadcasts is one of their key features, yet ensuring that listeners listen to them all given that they are broadcast on different days is somewhat aspirational. This calls into question the 'plurivocal' effect of these testimonies and the heterogeneous nature of Malian women who speak in many voices (Heywood & Ivey, 2021). Widows emerge within two scenarios: one within the family web and the other having been cut off from the web with no fnancial or other support having refused levirate, for example, or having been forced out of the family home. In the former case, women are presented as being passive, subjugated but fnancially secure, performing a traditional gendered domestic role in a disempowered context. In the latter case, widows become individuals without the support and security of the web. They are no longer empowered by being 'independent'; instead, they are alone and isolated. Being deprived of all support, they are portrayed as now having to be active, with agency, and needing to rely on their own competencies for their own survival and that of their children: 'Had I not known how to trade from a young age, things could have been really diffcult for me after our husband's death' (Ouma Fofana, widow). The same advice as in the *Motion Design* to make a will, keep the correct documents and ensure they have a trade is issued to widows, placing the onus on women to fnd solutions, rather than broadcasting messages that confict with the entrenched discriminatory and gendered social norms, which undoubtedly would be rejected or ignored as being irrelevant or impracticable. The mistreatment of widows is attributed by Mme Djénéba Damba (President of the Association Tékèrèni) to greed and lack of faith in God, suggesting that cultural or social norms are not at fault as they have worked in the past; it is more the fact that people no longer respect religious teachings. As a result, society has to resort to drawing up wills rather than simply following religious law.

Men should make a will because no one knows when death will occur. A will would save their wives and children from suffering after their death. In the past, the division of the inheritance was more equitable and better organised than it is today. I invite each of us to turn to faith. It helps us to keep a good heart and get rid of greed.

Fondation Hirondelle also aspires to be 'representative of all segments of society' (Fondation Hirondelle strategy document 2021–2024). Whilst this research has determined that the programmes do indeed represent women, they could go further by identifying sub-segments of women within this marginalised group. Dialogue is at the heart of Fondation Hirondelle's mission statement and is a prerequisite for the gradual approach needed to soften deep-rooted ideas in society. To achieve this, women's voices need to be heard at all levels to refect the complex nature of their multiple relations within their social webs. This would avoid falling into the trap of constructing and reinforcing widow/women and men/women binaries, widely promoted by many donors, and allow the webs in which women are entangled to be revealed as deeply intricate but also impregnable. Although the broadcasts are varied and attractive in form, a more diverse and complex representation of women and women's voices is needed.

## Conclusion

This chapter focused on inheritance and the extent to which the allocation of that inheritance affects women, families, and communities, both rural and urban, how this is represented by radio, and, if any advice is given, whether it aligns with 'imposed' international development discourse while remaining culturally relevant. It also questioned whether the radio broadcasts presented women as individuals or within their societal web of relations.

Respondents' understanding of the various laws depended on their levels of education and location (urban or rural). Educational barriers encountered by women, resulting in low literacy rates, meant that women were again discriminated against, as they were not able to use legal proceedings—the main solution provided by all the FGDs—to obtain justice and remained dependent on others to help them. A difference in understandings and practices emerged between men and women listeners, married older and unmarried younger women listeners, and urban and rural listeners.

Fondation Hirondelle, via Studio Tamani, adhered to its mission statement by producing broadcasts produced in the country, for the country and by those in the country. In doing so, it scrutinised inheritance from the perspective of local communities within the complex framework of extracting women from family structures and their 'webs of relations'. Women were not individualised in this radio series; rather, there was a tendency to homogenise them. The resultant men/subservient women binary that dominated was important as women, frst as individuals, then as a mobilised collective group seeking empowerment, continued to be systematically placed in opposition to men. There are few, if any, programmes on the subgroup of, or within, widows, for example, to the extent that listeners suggested that widows and orphans are absent from the airwaves as a topic but broadcasts focusing on them would be welcome. Individual empowerment, particularly regarding inheritance, was not presented as a viable or attractive option. Decisions are made largely by the *grande famille*, and those taken by widows are barely a choice, more a decision between two negative options.

Unless its core values are compromised, Fondation Hirondelle endeavours to avoid a top-down approach, a criticism widely levelled at NGOs and development organisations. According to Manyozo (referred to in Obregón & Tufte, 2017: 643), this is a development approach or strategy that 'remains embedded in the Western neoliberal development paradigm, which has been criticized for its ethnocentric approach and negative social consequences'. Nonetheless, Fondation Hirondelle's General Director, recognising the organisation's position of power in the countries in which they operate, stated that they aim to 'position ourselves to integrate as an institution so we can make it work for each project and each country' (Vuillemin, 2018).

The information contained in the radio programmes aligned with many of the comments of the FGD respondents, but, in doing so, it tended to confrm embedded gender discrimination rather than suggesting any avenues to challenge it. Fondation Hirondelle's aim is to stimulate dialogue, but on this topic, alternatives (making wills, keeping documents safe, and not challenging the status quo) were barely suggested, with the possible exception of the *Motion Design*. However, this animated programme itself has drawbacks, as it is a visual rather than audio product, signifcantly limiting its reach. Similarly, opportunities are not fully seized to promote women's rights as set down in UN SDG 5.5a, the Maputo Protocol, or CEDAW, for example, regarding inheritance and associated land ownership.

Be it because of the complexity of the topic or the time limitations of the broadcasts, details that could clarify misunderstandings and confusions about inheritance are noticeable by their absence in this series; therefore, radio is not optimised in its recognised role as a principal awareness-raising tool. Greater airtime could be dedicated to a clear and digestible overview of these complex laws and their application and provide listeners with accurate and accessible information on an important topic that could be subsequently discussed, with the possibility of changing behaviour and perceptions amongst men and women of all ages. Rather than attempting to accommodate universal declarations of human rights and local contexts, the series risk reinforcing women's subjugation and oppression in this patriarchal society.

## References

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence and indicate if changes were made.

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# 'We're More Than Just a Radio': Radio Scout and Its Women's Listening Associations

## Introduction

It would be impossible to write this book without dedicating a signifcant 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, flling me with awe and admiration not only of their drive and determination to fght 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 flled 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, defned 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

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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 decisionmaking 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 secondclass 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 offcially 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 defnitions. Thus, radio not only fulfls 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 fnancial, 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 frst 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 fnancing (Carpentier, 2011). Whilst these are specifc forms of participation, this chapter shows how a specifc 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 defnition, 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 beneft 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 justifed 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 fows 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) defnes 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) defnes 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-proft basis for non-proftable 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 fnancially afoat (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 defned 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 diffculty 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 incomegenerating 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 fltered 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 fow of information is reinforced, exerting power over and infuencing 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 fnancial empowerment, *Tontines* were frst 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 fnancial 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 signifcantly 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 grafftiing its name or symbol on compound walls or, more famboyantly, 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 fefdom, 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 fghter with crossed assault rifes with 'danger' inscribed below—and laughed self-consciously as their tough street culture façade crumbled .

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-confdence 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 beneft 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

**Fig. 6.1** Junior Fatal Show's base

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 frst focus group discussions with them. They were evidently keen to tell me how well the association and its subgroups 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, confrmations, 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 fre 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 fat-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 offcially launched on 29 November fnanced 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 beneft (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-proft organisation but receives fnance 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 specifc 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,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

1A private radio, Niger 24, exists nearer Niamey but they are a proft-making entity with more time to produce adverts on all topics. Radio Scout stresses that its aim is awarenessraising and education.

millet are brought to them to put on the roof, so that's all there is.  So that's all there is. That's the daily routine. (Zouera Nouhou Hamidou, Radio Scout Director, 2019)