Bringing stories from the frontline to the frontroom
Spent yesterday filming with effervescent social entrepreneur Mark Farahani in Kilosa, Tanzania. He set up East Africa’s first independent ISP. He now runs numerous ICT businesses and is piloting a number of innovative projects.
A busy sports bar screening premier league football matches is the last thing you would expect to find in Mamoyo – a remote village in the heart of rural Tanzania.
But Tanzanians love football and the only thing they love more than regular football is premier league football.
The village pub (or sports bar) is owned and run by Rehema Somboja and business is booming. For big matches she can expect to pack out the pub with up to 60 people.
“Watching a premier league game costs 500 Tanzanian shillings,” explains Rehema, a bubbly, genteel woman, “Even though the satellite TV package costs US$78 a month I can still make more than I did from selling chickens and vegetables from my garden.”
And what’s more it gives her a sustainable income throughout the year. “During the off-season when we cannot harvest it’s very hard for us to earn a living,” Rehema adds.
Rehema and her husband Bokari in their village pub.
Mamoyo is a small village with a mixture of houses made with bright red mud bricks and thatched roofs. There are just a handful of houses made with concrete. You can spot Rehemas house a mile away because it is the only one with two big satellite dishes.
Tarmac roads don’t exist here, its just dusty, pot-holed tracks in every direction. Reaching anywhere requires a slow bumpy, dusty journey.
Most people here are farmers – particularly the older generation. Many of the young boys are trying their luck in town hawking oranges or bananas for a few shillings each day.
Rehema got a micro-loan to kick-start her business from KIRSEC (Kilosa Rural Services and Electronic Communication Centre).
She got a satellite dish, a TV, made some seats and spread the word. The village pub is now a social hub in the community.
Of course there are challenges – access to a steady power source is one. With no money for a back-up generator the village is frequently plunged into darkness.
But the football matches are just for starters. Her next micro-loan will be for a computer and internet connection allowing her to start an internet cafe right in the heart of her village.
We’ve finally arrived in Tanzania.
Afer the snow and freezing conditions in the UK it was a welcome change to step off the plane into the Tanzanian sunshine.
We’re here to research how open data, innovative ICTs and mobile and SMS collide and can be used for compelling storytelling and local and global advocacy.
Read all about what we are doing here on our Project Tanzania page. We’re making last minute preparations before we head off on our journey which will take us from the capital of Dar es Salaam to rural Tanzania.
We’ll be telling the story of who we meet along the way. So stay tuned to our Tumblr, and follow us on Twitter (@LizScarff and @dcfieldcraft)
Where do storytelling, SMS and open source technology, social networks and advocacy collide?
Stories are how we learn about what is happening in our world. They inform how we think, learn and adapt. They’re how we justify our decisions or teach our children.
They’re how we share our indignation and persuade and inspire others to join our cause.
Technology, open data and social media have turned storytelling upside down - sideways - every which way but the way that we knew.
Social media gave the Arab Spring activists the tools to quickly organise, share information and bring about change. And access to data has driven global stories like Wikileaks.
But while Facebook and Twitter may have grabbed the headlines in the Middle East and Maghreb there is another digital revolution taking place in Africa.
Lack of a ‘fixed line’ telecoms infrastructure has dictated that the continent ‘leapfrog’ technology straight to mobile. And Africa has one of the world’s fastest growing mobile markets with subscribers expected to reach 750 million by the end of 2012.
The country is fast becoming the envy of the world with its ability to innovate. Mobile phones bring access to health, social networks and entertainment. One of the most visible innovations being Kenya’s mobile payment system M-Pesa.
But technology doesn’t tell stories or hold governments to account - people do.
So what would happen if you joined this new vanguard of storytellers, bloggers, hacktavists, citizen journalists (really anybody with a mobile phone or computer) with the new tools, with greater mobile penetration, innovative partnership, open data and open source tools, and mashed them up on the new frontier of storytelling – of hyperlocal advocacy?
That’s what we are in Tanzania to find out.
We’re on the ground meeting people and organisations that are working on ground-breaking projects. From people who are working to combine radio (which has the highest penetration) with open source programs like Freedom Fone to inspired individuals setting up rural ICT projects to organisations using SMS to hold local government to account.
We’ve also partnered with Tweetminster who are going to be running a report for us on the use and penetration of Twitter in Tanzania.
