RFI launches Kiswahili service in ten countries

Radio France Internationale launched its Swahili language daily radio broadcast on Monday.  A team of nine journalists is based in Dar-Es-Salam and headed by manager David Coffey. They will broadcast news, features, sports and music magazines  for two hours daily to RFI stations throughout the continent.

You can listen to all of the broadcasts from RFI Kiswahili (4.30, 5.30 and 15.00 UT) on its website at www.rfikiswahili.com.

In the morning broadcasts, there will be two half-hour slots of Africa-centric news with international news followed by sports, says Coffey. "We have daily magazines that will last about ten minutes, ranging from environment, to politics to a 'knowing your rights' segment discussing legal issues here in Africa," he adds.

The second program will focus more on international programmes, especially since all the local stations focus on very local news, he says. "We're trying to bring in more international news with an East Africa angle, of course," he adds.

The broadcasts will be aired on RFI stations in Mombasa (105.5 FM) and Nairobi (89.9FM) in Kenya, Dar Es Salaam (94.6 FM) in Tanzania, Kampala in Uganda (93.7FM), Manga (103.7FM) in Burundi and, eventually, southern Rwanda (92.1FM). Some of the programmes in Kiswahili will also be broadcast in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, southern Sudan, Madagascar and the Comoros.

RFI-Kiswahili is on the air from 4.30 to 5.00, from 5.30 to 6.00 am and from 15 to 16.00 Universal Time.

Swahili is the most widely-spoken and widely-taught Bantu language and there are over 100 million speakers around the world. It is currently spoken in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Malawi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Mozambique, and the Comoros islands.