Freedom Thursdays

Last Thursday evening I received two phone calls from Tamale. I’ve been in Accra now since December, and have tried to stay in touch with my fiends and colleagues from the North.

One of the calls was from Layata and the other from Somed, both being Radio Justice staff members. During my time at Radio Justice, I worked to re-establish “Freedom Thursdays” which had been abandoned when the last JHR placement had left the station.

The shoe was central to my focus at the station. There were also some great successes through the weekly time slot. One of those successes was with Layata. Though she was hired at the station as the secretary, she would often fill in for late or absent programmers (though she was instructed not to speak on the mic, but to solely play music and commercials) and would be heard on-air whenever a female voice was needed for an advertisement. While re-launching the show I was presented with a challenge in finding committed and consistent contributors. During this process Layata expressed great interest in being involved in the show and became the rock that the slot was built upon.

Over the course of a few months we produced moving programs, and I witnessed tremendous growth in her work. With the rewards came challenges. There were a number of people at the station that felt that, “she is the secretary and should be sitting at her desk”. Others insisted that there needs to be room for growth at the station, and that the quality of the program spoke to her talent and suitability for the role. Through the times of dissent, I stuck by Layata and insisted that she was the best fit for the role.

During this same time, I worked closely with a member of the news team, Somed. Knowing that I would be leaving Radio Justice and that there would be a gap of a month between my departure and the next JHR placement, I prepared to hand over production of the show to Somed.

With my placement at Radio Universe in motion, I felt greatly encouraged to regular calls from Radio Justice about the show. Somed and Layata would call me (mostly on Thursday evenings) to tell me about the guests they had, the topics that they covered, and the responses to the show. It felt great to be doing work down here and to hear about the past efforts having continued momentum.

Two Thursdays ago, I thought that the call would be in the same vain. TO my disappointment, it wasn’t. Layata was on the phone, with a tone in her voice that expressed frustration and disappointment. She was letting me know that she had been removed from her role as host of “Freedom Thursdays” and that Somed may not be producing it any longer.

I was sitting on tro tro heading back to Sakumono as she got the story off of her chest. I was reminded of one evening sitting in Mr. Fresh’s living room, having a nearly identical conversation. Rather than sitting beside her on the couch, I was now on the other side of the country. She told me that she had been removed because ‘she was not supposed to leave her desk’ and that ‘she did not belong in the on-air studio’. Complaints and backbiting had come to the General Manger, and he had made his decision.

I wanted to encourage her to keep on fighting for the spot, but she was tired of going in the same circle.

Instead, the program was now being run between the only two staff members that did not attend any of the JHR workshops that I held at the station.

I have yet to speak with Sam who now works for JHR at Radio Justice, but from Layata’s account she was just as disappointed as I was with the news.