The Rwandan Archers

By Tom Colls
Today programme

Urunana was Rwanda's first soap opera, but the idea soon caught on

Picture yourself in rolling farmland, the hubbub of village gossip mingling with the bleating of lambs.

Now imagine that instead of rainclouds over fields of wheat, a bright African sun blazes over sweet potato and cassava plants.

And on top of discussing the latest harvest, the villagers also describe the best way to fit a condom.

Welcome to the African Ambridge. Urunana, the Archer's style radio drama from Rwanda, is hotly tipped to win the One World Special Achievement Award for Development Media on 12 June.

Love affairs

Ten million Rwandans tune in to the latest instalment from the fictional village of Nyarurembo twice a week.

The soap is complete with its own loveable rogue, love affairs and agricultural anecdotes.

But the storylines also incorporate advice on sexual health, which producers believe have contributed to the dramatic drop in infection rates the country has seen in recent years.

Felicity Finch, who plays Ruth Archer in Radio 4's The Archers, has been visiting the Rwandan soap opera since its birth in 1999 and nominated Urunana for the One World award.

We are educating through laughter Narcisse Kalisa, Urunana

"Urunana has gone from strength to strength achieving something approaching cult status. To millions of Rwandans, it is quite literally a lifeline," she says.

African Ambridge

The programme was started by Health Unlimited, as a community health project which used radio drama to educate rural Rwandans about the importance of sexual health.

Only one of Urunana production team had radio experience

Apart from the subject matter, its origins are not too dissimilar from The Archers, which, when it started in 1950, was designed to transmit agricultural advice to farmers in a more palatable form.

All the same, Urunana often contains scenes you would be unlikely to hear in Ambridge.

Finch was "amused and a little shocked" watching one scene where a married couple were using a condom for the first time.

"All I can say is that not a lot was left to the imagination," she says.

"I wasn't sure whether The Archers would have ever dared be quite so explicit."

Education through laughter

The concept of a soap opera was new to Rwandans when the programme launched in 1999, but the mixture of entertainment and education soon caught on.

URANANA'S INHABITANTS Bushombe - the Eddie Grundy of Uranana, the village gossip, a lovable rogue and recently went back to school at the age of 50 Mugent - a schoolgirl who had an affair with the village shop keeper. He infected her with HIV but now refuses to sleep with her. A baby from their relationship is expected any day. Agnes - like thousands of Rwandans, goes each year to mourn for her family who were killed in the genocide.

"We are educating through laughter," says Narcisse Kalisa, managing director of the Urunana project.

When the programme started in 1999, the rate of HIV infection in Rwanda stood at 11%. That figure has since fallen to 3%.

"We are making progress, we see that people are changing. We are sure we are making an impact" says Mr Kalisa.

The characters in Urunana often confront the deep-seated cultural taboos, but the programme makers keep in close contact with their listeners and many of the storylines come from the villagers themselves.

Reclaiming the airwaves

During the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s, radio was used to incite killing; even broadcasting the names and addresses of targeted Tutsis.

With the success of Urunana, however, radio in Rwanda has been revived as a force for good, providing entertainment for remote rural communities and helping to lift cultural taboos.

Narcisse Kalisa is proud of the programme's part in the turn around.

"The messages given at that time were poison. What we are doing now is to convey a positive message," he says.

The journey was not an easy one and in the early years no reference was made to the fact that three of the characters were widows from the genocide.

"There is an expression there - Rwandans only live in the present," explains Felicity Finch.

Now characters have been introduced who talk about the country's terrible past, and Rwanda's week of mourning features prominently.

Cult status

Urunana's live broadcasts attract audiences of thousands

The programme's commitment to a realistic portrayal of rural Rwandan life has earned it an audience double that of The Archers.

Live broadcasts attract crowds in their thousands, some convinced that the technical staff are holding microphones in front of real people.

So will the cult status of Urunana last as long as it has for Radio 4's long-running saga of country life?

"I hope so" says Narcisse Kalisa. "I hope [like The Archers] it continues for 50 years."