AFRO-NETS> The Story of Africa

[Warren Feek <wfeek@comminit.com>]

The Story of Africa
-------------------

To: 
* People and Organisations in Africa who are part of The Drum Beat 
  network 
* People and Organisations with a close working relationship to ini-
  tiatives in Africa 

From: Warren Feek - Director - The Communication Initiative

Many best wishes. There are two purposes to this note. First, to 
share introductory information on the series "The Story of Africa" 
which commences this Friday. Second, a couple of quick requests re-
lated to The Communication Initiative. 

1. The Story of Africa 

In the BBC's words: The Story of Africa will be broadcast in Africa 
at the following times starting this Friday: The programmes can be 
heard on the radio in Africa only, but the full programmes will be 
available at the web site on:
http://bbc.co.uk/worldservice/thestoryofafrica

Each programme will be put online as soon as it is ready for broad-
cast.

All times GMT. 
Every Friday at 0930 in East/Southern Africa; 
Every Sunday at 0431 in East/Southern Africa and 0731 in West Africa; 
Every Tuesday at 1630 in East/Southern/West Africa; 

The running order of the programmes is as follows:

1-Origins 
2-Africa & the Nile Valley 
3-The Berber 
4-Bantu migration 
5-Traditional religions 
6-Growth of Christianity 
7-Rise of Islam 
8-Ancient Ghana and Kanem 
9-The Kingdoms of Mali and Songhai 
10-The Swahili Coast 
11-Central Africa & Portuguese penetration 
12-The Art of Ife and Benin 
13-Hausa City States & Fulani Jihad 
14-Roots of African slavery 
15-The Transatlantic Slave Trade 
16-East African slavery 
17-Africa in 1800 
18-The Mfecane 
19-Partition & Resistance 
20-Life under Colonialism 
21-The Challenges to Colonialism 
22-Independence 
23-The Nation State 
24-Apartheid

This new BBC African Service series made possible by a grant from the 
Rockefeller Foundation.

Contact: African History Project
mailto:david.stead@bbc.co.uk 
mailto:bola.olufunwa@bbc.co.uk


2. The Communication Initiative

We very much welcome and appreciate your support and engagement with 
The Drum Beat, the web site and the on-line discussion forums. In re-
lation to some initiatives we are taking we are keen to increase the 
information we have on: 

TRAINING

One of the new sections of the site will focus on training events and 
workshops. If you are planning a training event or workshop please 
send the details. We will list them on the web site and include them 
in a special theme Drum Beat on Training. See:
http://www.comminit.com/training.html 
for the prototype. Much more information will be added soon.

COMMUNICATION TRENDS 
http://www.comminit.com

There is increasing interest in communication trends - from rural ra-
dio to the internet. There are two ways in which we are upgrading our 
coverage. On the home page of the site there is now a section called 
"Tempo - communication trends & strategic opportunities" that links 
to stories on these themes. Though we have always covered communica-
tion trends in the body of the site, there will soon be a special 
section on these issues that can be linked from the left hand naviga-
tion bar. Please advise us of the results of your work and/or recom-
mended links that we can make from the home page.


COMMUNICATION and CHANGE THEORIES 
http://www.comminit.com/power_point/change_theories/index.htm

Early in the life of The Communication Initiative we made an attempt 
to summarise some of the relevant change theories. These have proved 
to be extremely popular - for example, 1,500 individual visitor ses-
sions in January 2001. We are looking to upgrade this section of the 
site. If you are able to send us brief descriptions - preferably with 
appropriate diagrammes - of your preferred change theories [be they 
yours or others] that would be excellent. We will of course reference 
you as the source for this information. We are particularly inter-
ested in change theories that come from African academic and cultural 
traditions. 


UNIVERSITY COURSES 
http://www.comminit.com/university.html

We are also looking to expand the number of University Courses that 
are described in this section of the site. Please see the listing for 
the University of the Philippines Los Banos:
http://www.comminit.com/misc/university/u8.html 
for an example of the type of information that suits our purposes.


DRUM BEAT CHAT FORUM

Many of you will be interested in contemporary thinking on communica-
tion and development issues. Some of these have recently been ex-
plored in the Drum Beat chat forum, which is an occasional on-line 
debate amongst a network of people interested in these issues. Two 
themes have dominated recently - Bill Gates' comments that new tech-
nologies in developing countries will not help health status and 
whether you can prove that communication interventions have a direct 
impact on development issues. Subscribe and contribute on:
http://www.comminit.com/email_forum.html#drumbeatchat 
Review contributions on:
http://www.comminit.com/majordomo/drumbeatchat/threads.html


VACANCIES 
http://www.comminit.com/vacancies.html

There have been 295 Vacancies listed in the Vacancies section of the 
web site and through the Vacancies Special Drum Beat. That Drum Beat 
goes to the 10,000 plus international development people in the net-
work. To date in January 8,000 people have reviewed the summary of 
listings on <http://www.comminit.com/vacancies.html> with most also 
looking at specific Vacancies that are of interest to them. The next 
Vacancies Drum Beat will be issued February 13. As part of our drive 
to diversify revenue streams we often make a charge for listing these 
Vacancies [there are exceptions].

DRUM BEAT SUBSCRIBING

If your colleagues wish to subscribe to The Drum Beat they can do so 
at 
http://www.comminit.com/subscribe_drumbeat.html

Past issue can be searched and reviewed at 
http://www.comminit.com/drum_beat_archives.html


FORTHCOMING ADDITIONS- INFORMATION SOUGHT

In the next 3 months we will be adding these sections to the web 
site. Any information you can provide would be most gratefully re-
ceived. 

a. Electronic Magazines - A listing, summary and links to Electronic 
   Magazines - please send information on the ones that you have found 
   most valuable to wfeek@comminit.com

b. On-line discussion Fora/Chat Rooms - A listing, summary and links 
   to relevant chat rooms and on-line discussion fora - please send in-
   formation on the ones that you have found valuable:
   mailto:wfeek@comminit.com

c. Awards - information on Awards that are offered - e.g. the X award 
   for outstanding work on Y! Please send details of Awards in your 
   field of work to wfeek@comminit.com

d. Ageing - any information on programmes, training events, materi-
   als, policy documents, etc in the field of ageing 

e. Tobacco in developing countries - any information on programmes, 
   training events, materials, policy documents, etc in the field of ac-
   tion on tobacco issues. 

f. Tuberculosis - any information on programmes, training events, ma-
   terials, policy documents, etc in the field of action on Tuberculosis 
   issues. 

Well, there is lots more I could add - probably this is too much al-
ready. Many thanks for your assistance as we try to build a web site 
and communication process that responds to your needs and helps to 
advance your work. I hope to hear from you soon.

Best Wishes.

Warren

*****

Background on use of some of The Communication Initiative "vehicles"

1. Drum Beat: 10,542 people are in the network that receives The Drum 
Beat. It is estimated that 5 times this number receive it as many 
people 'forward' to their colleagues and networks. New registrations 
are coming in at 250 to 350 per month. The network includes a cross-
section of people and organisations, communicators and non-
communicators, engaged in development work.

2. Web site use:

Visitor Sessions: Nov - 29,560; Dec - 25,587; [Jan 2000 - 12,979] 
Page views: Nov - 174,927; Dec - 197.865; [Jan 2000 - 85,285] 
Unique/Distinct Visitors: Nov - 11,440; Dec - 10,205; [Jan 2000 - 
6,184] 
Average Visitor Time: Nov - 19 minutes 25 seconds; Dec - 
18:59; [Jan 2000 - 16:36]

--
Warren Feek 
Director 
The Communication Initiative 
Tel: +1-250-658-6372 
Fax: +1-250-658-1728 
mailto:wfeek@coastnet.com 
http://www.comminit.com 

--
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