Taxi Tunes

This project uses the medium of radio to share information - to the end of raising awareness, stimulating dialogue, and motivating behaviour change. Development issues are explored in an entertaining way: Cassette topics are accompanied by popular or new music tracks that are marketed and distributed by Ingwe Studios, and other tunes that are popular amongst different members of Bulawayo’s community.

Taxi Tunes are distributed only to Radio Dialogue members, which include community omnibus associations such as the Bulawayo United Public Transports Association (BUPTA). Commuter omnibus owners have, according to organisers, helped make Taxi Tunes popular among the community of Bulawayo. The drivers play them in their kombis, enabling the messages to reach a larger audience. One strategy for widening distribution is the participation of ward representatives in each ward who come to collect the taxi tunes.

Content for the cassettes is designed to engage listeners through music and commentary, as well as through interviews with prominent local personalities, politicians, and artists. The 7 programmes include:

• Taxi Tunes 1 introduced Radio Dialogue to the community of Bulawayo. It contains messages from influential members of the community such as Dumiso Dabengwa and former Highlanders coach Eddie May. Popular personalities in Bulawayo such as Siza Khoza and Master Masiku were also interviewed.
• Taxi Tunes 2 focuses on the 2002 Presidential elections and includes an interview with the late former Zimbabwean President, Reverend Canaan Sodindo Banana.
• Taxi Tunes 3 is a promotional cassette on one of Radio Dialogue biggest projects, the Umthwakazi Arts festival, which is held in the city every Easter holiday. The organisers believe that the cassette was well received by youth, in particular, because of the interview from a guest show at the festival withSouth African Kwaito artist Mzekezeke.
• Taxi Tunes 4 was produced in conjunction with the Bulawayo City Council's health department. The cassette "Keep Bulawayo Clean" was aimed at encouraging the community of Bulawayo to keep the city clean by avoiding activities such as littering and urinating in alleys.
• Taxi Tunes 5 was dedicated to all of Bulawayo’s young and up-coming artists who were part of the compilation album Ingwemabala, released in June 2004. The cassette contains interviews with the artists and samples of music on the album.
• Taxi Tunes 6 focuses on the affairs between school girls and “touts”, abusive language, and pick pocketing. Organisers claim that this cassette is very popular among the kombi drivers, as interviews were held with touts, kombi drivers and school girls alleged to be having affairs with touts.
• Taxi Tunes 7 focuses on adolescent reproductive health topics; it contains extracts from speeches presented at a speech contest by Radio Dialogue in July 2004 on issues such as HIV/AIDS, premarital sex, sexually transmitted infections, teenage pregnancies and abortions.

As of May 2006, Radio Dialogue has produced 30 taxi tunes. One of the more recent tunes explored the effects of Operation Murambatsvina, which affected more than 2 million people in Zimbabwe. As part of this programme, organisers talked to displaced members and churches which gave shelter to these people.

Along these lines, Radio Dialogue has integrated a component of the project that involves working with community members in Bulawayo. As part of this initiative, organisers meet with residents in community halls to discuss the social and political issues affecting them such as food shortages, refuse collection, corruption, and so on. In preparation for the meetings, organisers work with the community to produce local news which is read at the meetings. Radio Dialogue invites government and council representatives, councillors, and members of Parliament to attend the meetings in order to answer questions and respond to allegations. The meetings are aired live as part of a live broadcast programme with a presenter, news readers, and the panel of guests. Radio Dialogue also records these meetings, bringing tapes and CDs back to the community. The strategy involves trying to empower the community, giving residents a platform to express their views and to articulate the problems that affect them. Another goal is to make local authorities, government officials, and politicians acountable to the people they claim to serve. The aim is to conduct these meetings in all the 29 wards in Bulawayo every weekend, but limited resourses sometimes prohibit regular meetings, which "affects the momentum and the zeal of the community members."

Democracy & Governance, Environment, Health, Reproductive Health, Youth.

The project hopes to equip the Radio Dialogue staff with better production skills; Taxi Tunes productions involve research, and require expertise in the operation of the studio equipment in packaging the final product.