INTRODUCTION

Launching nationwide on July 25th, the Kumekucha radio drama will highlight the role of women and youth in contributing to Tanzania’s food security.

Top artistes like Bongo movie star, JB, comedians Mau and Monica Sizya, and renowned musicians, ‘JFK’ John Katime and Mataluma, feature in a new, talent-rich radio drama set in Tanzania’s farming heartland.

The weekly radio serial drama, Kumekucha, will take audiences on a stimulating audio journey into the world of small-scale farmers in the SAGCOT corridor and will focus on the roles of women and youth in agriculture. The drama goes to air across the nation on July 18th and will broadcast weekly, in partnership with Radio Free Africa (National), Abood FM (Morogoro), Ebony FM (Iringa) and Bomba FM (Mbeya).

Kumekucha was commissioned by Africa Lead, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) primary skill-building program for food security in sub-Saharan Africa, as part of Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative.

Tanzania’s agricultural sector is a key driver of social and economic development in Tanzania, generating 25 percent of GDP and 24 percent of exports. Agriculture employs over 75 percent of Tanzania’s population with a labor force largely provided by women and youth. While women are central to Tanzania’s food security, they are least involved in household decision-making and have little say in how the fruits of their labour are spent.

Existing legal frameworks and socio-cultural norms limit women’s economic opportunities because they don’t own land, or lack access to farm equipment, water resources and credit, which they need to be economically successful. These barriers prevent women from escaping poverty, providing valuable nutrition to their families and reaching their full potential as farmers.

Similarly, young people represent nearly a third of the agriculture labor force, and yet their jobs are often temporary, informal and vulnerable to seasonal contracts without benefits.

With support from USAID, Kumechucha was prepared by Africa Lead, in conjunction with Media For Development International (MFDI), which previously produced the long-running radio drama Wahapahapa and the TV series, Siri ya Mtungi. This radio series is the latest in a wide range of USAID-supported projects in Tanzania that aim to sustainably increase food security and nutrition by expanding economic opportunities – particularly for women and youth – in the agriculture sector.

Kumekucha was designed in close consultation with several of those USAID projects, including NAFAKA and Mwanzo Bora. Other agricultural stakeholders from the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Center (TFNC), Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA), Land O’Lakes, RUDI, The Rice Council of Tanzania, Technoserve, ANSAF (Non State Action Forum) and AMSHA (Youth in Agribusiness Forum) were also part of the design process.

STATIONS & SCHEDULE

CHARACTERS

LISTEN TO THE KUMEKUCHA RADIO DRAMA

BEHIND THE RADIO DRAMA

HADITHI ZA KUMEKUCHA: FATUMA

She’s a farmer. He’s a pest.

A traditional rural woman has always risked body and soul, without reward or thanks, to farm her husband’s land and keep the family fed and cared for. She fights unfavourable weather, pests and poverty. But when Manyusi squanders her prized harvest, and schemes to marry off their daughter, Fatuma has to fight her husband.

HADITHI ZA KUMEKUCHA: TUNU

Mashoto’s life in the city is a hustle. It’s a fast life in the fast city of Dar es Salaam. There’s no time to stop and Mashoto likes it this way. There’s no time to think about the people he left behind in the village.

Until silence cuts through the city racket with three words: mother has died. With those words Mashoto’s life changes forever. He returns home, to the place he abandoned, to bury his only ally.

Yet his mother has left behind a gift. Her voice, her unseen presence, a gentle whisper urging him to open his eyes and strain his ears- to learn the lessons of nature, of the earth and the roots that draw their nourishment from it.

Cast out by his father after losing the little money his mother had left, Mashoto must learn to survive from the land. He must learn to face old enemies and forge new alliances, to fight and to love. Most of all, Mashoto must discover what it is he is fighting for.

WATCH THE FULL FILM

Tunu

Fatuma

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