Eda Sanga on empowering both girls and boys

QUESTION: You are one of the notable women in Tanzania’s media industry. Can you briefly give us your personal journey and how it all started?

ANSWER: I was very passionate about working in the radio, I like music, so I followed music until we could access the Kenya Corporation Broadcasting at that time known as KCB.

So we would listen to KCB and Radio Tanzania that inspired me, they had professional broadcasters that were given training by the BBC, they had lovely voices, men and women that made me say to myself it was the kind of carrier I wanted to pursue.

Were you the first female anchor?

No, I found other women there.

What were they doing?

You must realise at the time it was just a few weeks after independence so lots of programmes were entertainment programmes were mostly done by women which mostly focused on women and children. Only after four to five years did I start other programmes like interviews but then it was mostly entertainment with the then director categorically saying that women should not work on the news but do light programmes. Then Radio Tanzania had a good way of recruiting by going through vigorous interviews to determine where one fits, and I liked music so I did musical programmes until later in the year.

Please tell us how it was during that critical moment after independence?

There were few women until in 1975 when UN TV declared and in 1980 there was a meeting in Copenhagen and in 1985 another in Nairobi which we attended. There we met other women, who were pursuing issues like wife battery while we were still stuck in fetching firewood, taking care of family. When we returned back to the country we had a dialogue with our colleagues and told them what our counterparts were doing and thought that we could also be having a wife battery that was not being talked about. In 1987 we started the Women Association of which I was one of the founders. We discussed a lot and did some research with the help of women in the University of Dar es Salaam. We Came up with programmes to go to the radio showing that it was not all Rose’s in our homes but it was denied access so we decided to share experience with other countries and tried to make a difference which was still met with resistance from the male and some women who felt we were going to fast.

Is it true that Tanzania was not ready for such content?

At the time we had male dominance some women felt we were going to fast and too strong so we decided to come up with a journal for school girls who would use it to talk to parents and at that point we made an impact

What is the power of a man towards gender equality and what can you say now about women in the media?

At that time we made a mistake by wanting changes without involving the men, we talked more with women and left the men, the same mistake is being done now where we empower the female child and distemper the male child. To make an impact we need to include both a boy and a girl.

What can be done to bridge the gap between women and men in the media?

Look at role models and do training as well as share experience.

You should also have conversations outside work and ensure newsrooms have rules and regulations as well as policies to take care of the problem but also, ensure people in decision making positions do understand it.

Now the number of women in the media has increased but there is still a challenge in leadership equity - what should be done to empower women?

Currently, there are more women in the newsrooms who are editors but more needs to be done for them to be media managers.

Women need to work and follow the rules. There is an organization known as Women in News which when I was the director of TAMWA [Tanzania Media Women Association] I engineered to make a difference. Women have gone through it and encouraged them to be courageous.

Did you have mentors during your time of working in the newsroom?

We had lots of mentors, some were women who were working at RTD who taught us a lot. RTD also had a specific schedule which entailed new recruits undergoing three months of on-the-job-training.

I also had a woman from Deutsche Welle who taught me a lot on how to run programmes, editing and doing stories with an impact. Apart from that, I have also mentored some journalists including those from Sengerema FM, Bomang’ombe, press clubs and even taught journalists from journalism schools. I believe I have done my part to train media personnel on what it takes to be a good journalist.