French-speaking Africa

Francophone Africa refers to all African countries that share the French language. This includes more than 18 contiguous countries where French is used as an official and/or lingua franca. These countries cover a vast territory, representing nearly half of the African continent, approximately 5,000 kilometers from north to south and approximately 4,000 kilometers from east to west (from Tangier in northern Morocco to Lubumbashi in southern DRC). In 2018, there were an estimated 140 million African French speakers in 31 French-speaking African countries and territories. French arrived in Africa with colonization by France and Belgium, and these African French speakers now form the largest part of the Francophonie. Don't hesitate to ask if you need any further information! 😊

French-speaking Africa: from November 22 to 26, Lomé 4 will focus on the theme "Youth and the Media."

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Press release

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, FOMECAF officials have decided to organize a fourth edition of the Lomé meetings from November 22 to 26, 2021. They will focus on the theme "Youth and Media" and will welcome Dr. Abdoulaye Sangho, Director of TWR Africa, as their main guest. The event will be broadcast publicly on the web, but the number of participants attending in person will be limited to around 50.

Registration open for the Lomé 4 seminar

The fourth annual meeting of Christian media professionals from French-speaking Africa will take place from November 22 to 26, 2021, in Lomé. The theme will be "Youth and Media." "We are seeing a generational divide in the French-speaking Christian world of Africa," explains Pastor Etienne Kiemdé, director of Radio Évangile Développement in Burkina Faso. An older generation no longer speaks the language, music, and means of communication of young people, 63% of whom are under 24 in West Africa!(1)" For many Christian leaders, the risk of failing to pass on the faith is now very high. "It is time to reach out to young Africans, and it is up to radio to set an example," adds Pastor Etienne Kiemdé.

Etienne Kiemdé on the left (FOMECAF) and Abdoulaye Sangho (TWR speaker in Lomé 4) flank Emmanuel Ziehli (Radio Réveil France).

Dr. Abdoulaye Sangho as keynote speaker

The keynote speaker was unanimously chosen to be Dr. Abdoulaye Sangho, director of TWR Africa, a recognized and influential specialist in the African Christian radio landscape. Dr. Abdoulaye Sangho, originally from Mali, lives and works in Côte d'Ivoire. He is the author of several books. He is also a Commander of the National Order for his contribution to the development of faith in Côte d'Ivoire.

Number of speakers recorded on video

Lomé 4 will be similar to Lomé 3. Fifty (50) carefully selected individuals will be invited to attend plenary meetings and workshops in person. These meetings will be broadcast live and recorded on the various social media channels of FOMECAF (Forum des médias chrétiens d’Afrique francophone), particularly Facebook and YouTube. For the record, around 100 people took these training courses online in 2020.

The afternoons will provide an opportunity for FOMECAF leaders to continue laying the foundations for the forum's activities and to devise a program for 2022.

Most of the speakers will be recorded on video. They will thus continue to enrich the radio/press training video library launched in 2020 by the previous edition of the Lomé meetings (2).

Despite the difficult health situation

The decision to organize Lomé 4 was made by FOMECAF leaders who met via videoconference on Friday, July 30. They assessed the health situation in West and Central Africa as well as in Europe. For the time being, travel remains very complicated and particularly expensive due to the pandemic. Despite this, the FOMECAF leadership confirmed that Lomé 4 would go ahead and reasonably postponed the organization of the national event "FOMECAF Benin" until spring 2022. The leaders of FOMECAF have given CICERI Lomé and Radio Réveil France, specifically Mr. Koffi Ahonon and Mr. Emmanuel Ziehli, the mandate to organize the event. (c)

The FOMECAF website (Forum of Christian Media in French-speaking Africa): https://medias.africa/

More information:

Africa: Pastor Étienne Kiemdé, Director of Radio Évangile Développement in Burkina Faso. Tel. + 226 70 38 81 83. Email: ekiem1[at]gmail.com. Website: https://medias.africa/

Europe: ÉEmmanuel Ziehli, Director of Radio Réveil France. Tel. +33 06 52 02 89 42. Email: emmanuel.ziehli[at]radioreveil.ch. Website: https://radio-reveil.org/

Notes:

1 See: https://www.populationpyramid.net/sources
2 See: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkEVvei_tLkEfTaJn31DTsQ/playlists

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The Lomé meetings in brief

The "Lomé" meetings began in January 2019. They offer Christian media professionals from French-speaking Africa the opportunity to receive a week of training and to network in order to develop a dynamic of exchange between professionals from different countries.

In January 2019, Radio Réveil en Suisse, an association that produces radio programs for the entire French-speaking world, decided to mark its 70th anniversary by inviting its radio partners in Africa to a training session in Lomé. Around 100 people took part in the event and signed the Declaration. of Lomé. The signatories pledged to renounce competition between evangelical and Protestant radio stations and to pool resources to improve the quality of their programs.

During the second edition of the Lomé meetings, the 170 or so participants engaged in a discussion on the theme "Let's invent integral radio!" ." They also decided to create the Forum of Christian Media in French-speaking Africa (FOMECAF) with the following founding committee members: Olivia Adiko, journalist and editor-in-chief of La Voix de l'espérance (Ivory Coast), Dr. Alphonse Teyabe, communications consultant (Cameroon), Timothée Amegan, pastor and CEO of Médiafrique (Togo), and Emmanuel Ziehli, director of Radio Réveil (Switzerland).

In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lomé 3 offered around 50 participants in person and around 100 online the opportunity to reflect on "Media convergence and job versatility."

The Lomé 1 report: https//bit.ly/lome-1 
The Lomé 2 report: https://bit.ly/lome-deux 
The Lomé 3 report: https://bit.ly/Lome3 

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Members of the FOMECAF committee

The following individuals are members of the FOMECAF core network or steering committee: Olivia Adiko Beugre(Radio la Voix de l’Espérance, Abidjan), Timothée Amegan(Médiafrique, Lomé), Etienne Kiemdé(Radio Évangile et développement, Ouagadougou), Koffi Ahonon(CICERI and Compassion Togo, Lomé), Dr.Abdoulaye Sangho(TWR, Abidjan), Dr. Alphonse Teyabe(media consultant, Yaoundé), and Emmanuel Ziehli(Radio Réveil France).

Download the press release in PDF format
Registration open for the Lomé 4 seminar
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FOMECAF two online meetings in May

Lomé, May 21, 2021,

With the aim of strengthening ties between members and continuing the training courses initiated in Lomé, FOMECAF is organizing two online meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 25 and 26, 2021.

On the agenda:

Tuesday, May 25, 2:00 p.m. GMT:

The principles of effective communication

Freely inspired by Valérie Geller's bestseller "Puissance radio" (Radio Power). Some of the points that will be covered:

  • Tell the truth (fact-checking)
  • Give the listener good reasons to listen to you.
  • Never be boring
  • Use vivid language so that the listener can visualize
  • Start with your best topic
  • Speak as if you were addressing a single listener
  • Make engaging transitions
  • Highlight your colleagues' successes
  • Be yourself on air
  • Take risks

Speaker: Denis Stephen, Director of Stephanas Conseils in Lyon

Denis entered the world of radio as co-founder of Radio Certitude in 1982 (now Phare FM Grenoble), so it's fair to say he's no novice.

After two years of audiovisual training at the University of Grenoble, he moved to Paris and was elected secretary and then president of the FRTC (Federation of Christian Radio and Television Stations). He was also a member of the board of directors of the CNRA (National Confederation of Community Radio Stations). Denis Stephen currently advises radio stations on their applications to the CSA (Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel, the French broadcasting authority) and is developing a training course entitled "Create and manage a Christian radio station," the first two lessons of which are available online.

The link to the training session will be shared in the FOMECAF WhatsApp group on Tuesday morning, May 25. If you are not a member of FOMECAF but would still like to participate in this training session, please leave your contact details here https://medias.africa/contact/ A valid email address + a phone number = a guaranteed response.

 

Wednesday, May 26, 2:00 p.m. GMT:

Full radio coverage: it's your turn to speak!

In January 2019, around 100 radio stations and media outlets in Lomé 1 realized their desire to work together http://bit.ly/lome-1 without competing with each other. On this occasion, they signed the Lomé Declaration  http://bit.ly/DeclarationLome  arguing in particular that "Christian radio programs in French-speaking Africa should be more concerned with the concrete needs of the population. The Gospel should be proclaimed in a holistic manner, in the image of Jesus Christ, who touched his contemporaries by responding to the needs of the body, soul, and spirit." That same year, these actors came together around the concept of "holistic radio" http://bit.ly/lome-deux . It is now May 2021, so what's new? During this online seminar, you will have the opportunity to share your experiences with "integral radio."

Host: Etienne Kiemdé, CEO of Radio Évangile et Développement in Ouagadougou

The debate was moderated by Pastor Etienne Kiemdé, CEO of Radio Évangile et Développement, which has eight stations based in Burkina Faso. http://red-burkina.org . He is a key figure in the Lomé seminars, a member of the FOMECAF working group, and probably, more than 20 years ago, the inventor of the concept of development adapted to radio broadcasting. At 58, this father is also a pastor, trained in Denmark, France, and England. Upon his return to the African continent, he embraced the radio ministry as a matter of urgency. Before FOMECAF, he was behind several attempts to network French-speaking Christian radio stations in Africa.

For more information: https://radio-reveil.org 

The link to the training session will be shared in the FOMECAF WhatsApp group on Tuesday morning, May 25. If you are not a member of FOMECAF but would still like to participate in this training session, please leave your contact details here https://medias.africa/contact/ A valid email address + a phone number = a guaranteed response.

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Religious extremism in Africa: Augustin Ahoga believes that "Africans must be re-evangelized."

The issue of religious extremism is a hot topic in Africa, which is under serious threat from jihadism. This raises questions about the role of Christians in such a context. For Augustin Ahoga, a pastor and teacher in Benin, the rise of religious extremism is linked to Christians abandoning African cultural values. Christians are developing a fear that prevents them from approaching jihadists with a different perspective. In order to reach these people, whose lives are generally stigmatized, Christians need training and to enter into authentic discipleship following Jesus of Nazareth.

Augustin Ahoga was one of the speakers at Lomé 3, a gathering of media professionals from French-speaking Africa organized by FOMECAF and Radio Réveil last November.

Read the rest of the interview on the website lafree.info

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Lomé 3: Jean-Luc Simbilyabo from the DRC receives the François Sergy Prize

The training seminar for Christian media professionals in French-speaking Africa ended on Friday, November 27, with the awarding of the François Sergy Prize to a deserving media initiative. Jean-Luc Simbilyabo from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo won the prize for an original "integral radio" project.

On Friday, November 27, during the closing ceremony of the training week of the Forum of Christian Media in French-speaking Africa (FOMECAF), Congolese pastor Jean-Luc Simbilyabo received the François Sergy Award. "In the province of Ituri, a region deeply marked by intertribal unrest, this radio director took up the challenge of 'integral radio' and contributed through the airwaves to bringing a message of peace and reconciliation," noted Emmanuel Ziehli, director of Radio Réveil and the driving force behind the Lomé 3 organization.

Read the rest of the interview on the website lafree.info

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DRC: "Since Lomé 2, they've been calling me 'Papa Météo'"

From November 23 to 27, around sixty media professionals traveled to Lomé, Togo, for a week of training. During this third edition, some participants testified to the changes brought about by this new dynamic initiated by Radio Réveil (Bevaix). Here is the testimony of a radio station president from Congo Kinshasa. This written contribution is accompanied by a radio program produced byDodji Juliette Kpessou (Radio Hosanna, Porto-Novo, Benin) and Benjamin Holl (Radio Vie nouvelle, Douala, Cameroon).

His name is Johnson Kipesse. He is the president of Radio and Television Evangelical and Development Hermon in Rutshuru (RTEDH), a town in North Kivu some 70 kilometers north of Goma. This citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo participated in Lomé 2 in November 2019, a meeting organized by the Forum of Christian Media in French-speaking Africa, which addressed the theme: "Let's invent integral radio!"

Listen to the interview
Read the rest of the interview on the website lafree.info

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Ivory Coast: Lomé seminars give rise to a corporation of Christian audiovisual professionals

After Lomé 1 and 2, organized by Radio Réveil and its partners, Christian media actors in Côte d'Ivoire understood the urgency of coming together and ceasing to operate in scattered ranks. With this in mind, two presenters created the Union of Christian Journalists and Presenters of Côte d'Ivoire (UJACCI) in August 2020.

Christian media outlets in Côte d'Ivoire have long suffered from a climate of competition and a lack of collaboration between the various people working within them. The Lomé 1 and 2 seminars, organized by Radio Réveil in Lomé, Togo, in 2019, helped these media professionals understand the similarities in their challenges: radio station funding, precarious staff salaries, lack of effective evangelism strategies, etc. In light of this, Christian journalists, presenters, and broadcasters decided to set up an association that will address the various problems they face.

Read the rest of the interview on the website lafree.info

Zenabou Ndocki (Radio Bonne Nouvelle, Douala, Cameroon)

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#Lomé3: Minister of Communication calls on Christian radio journalists to strive for excellence

On Monday, November 23, 2020, FOMECAF launched the third edition of the Francophone African Christian Media Forum (FOMECAF) training program. In his speech at the opening ceremony, the Minister of Communication encouraged religious radio media actors to strive for excellence in communication.

"Information is a valuable asset and a weapon," said Akodah Ayewouadan, Minister of Communication, in his speech at the opening ceremony of Lomé 3. The minister, who also serves as government spokesperson, said he was "impressed by the theme of media convergence addressed during the training week of the Forum of Christian Media in Francophone Africa (FOMECAF), because it promotes excellence in communication."

Read the rest of the interview on the website lafree.info

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The president of the Christian Council of Togo will participate in the opening ceremony of Lomé3

The Christian Council of Togo, in conjunction with the third edition of the training seminar for Christian media professionals in French-speaking Africa.

With the third week of training for media professionals from French-speaking Africa set to begin in a few days, the President of the Christian Council of Togo, Rev. Djakouti Mitré, received a delegation from the Lomé3 Organizing Committee led by Emmanuel Ziehli, Director of Radio Réveil Suisse. At the end of the meeting, the clergyman promised to attend the opening ceremony and to accompany it with a prayer of blessing.

Read the rest of the article on the FOMECAF website

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Lomé 3, the gathering of Christian media professionals, will take place from November 23 to 27, 2020.

"Media convergence and career versatility" is the theme chosen for the third edition of the "Lomé" seminars. From November 23 to 27, around 50 Christian media professionals from French-speaking Africa are expected to gather in the Togolese capital. In light of the current health situation, the event will also be accessible online.

Lomé, August 25, 2020. FOMECAF (West African Christian Media Forum), Radio Réveil, and CICERI will organize the third edition of the "Lomé" media training meetings in Togo from November 23 to 27. During this week of training, the focus will be on media convergence and the necessary versatility of journalism-related professions.

In person and online
In light of the current health situation, the "Lomé 3" seminar will only welcome around 50 participants in person, who will be accepted on the basis of their application. All other interested parties will be able to follow the conference online. The organizers are thus adapting to the health situation and are committing extensive resources to ensure high-quality web broadcasting.
Workshops will enable participants to develop their skills in image capture, web radio, animation, journalism, and FM techniques.

Two pioneers of radio in French-speaking Africa as distinguished guests
Abdoulaye Sangho, director of Trans World Radio (TWR) Africa, and Illia Djadi, currently director for Africa at the NGO Open Doors and former French-speaking correspondent for the BBC in West Africa, will be among the speakers. Businessman Kurt Buehlmann, author of the course "40 Days to Revolutionize Your Finances" and the radio program "Your Money Matters," will also lead a workshop on the economic management of media. It will enable radio promoters and financiers to seek solutions to promote the self-financing of their media.

The horizon: multimedia
Today, more than ever, the media are converging toward multiple distribution channels. The internet is gradually revolutionizing usage in West Africa, particularly among young people, and impacting the media. The challenge is no longer the construction or ownership of a traditional broadcast channel (TV, radio, web, or print media), but rather the content. Any well-trained person, especially young people, can create texts, sounds, and images from well-chosen topics and professional information processing that can be picked up by any broadcast channel.

Busy week for FOMECAF
This week will also help strengthen ties between members of FOMECAF, the Forum of Christian Media in West Africa. As a reminder, in early 2019, more than 40 media outlets signed the "Lomé Declaration," a founding charter for a network of West African media outlets that emphasizes collaboration and exchange. Together, they signed a document summarizing this initiative, which now brings together around 100 media outlets in a dozen French-speaking African countries.

The website of the West African Christian Media Forum
Pre-registration
The Lomé Declaration
Radio Réveil France
CICERI Togo

 

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