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Mai Moyo traces the history of FAMWZ
Federation of African Media Women - Zimbabwe (FAMWZ)
November 21, 2002

It must have appeared as wishful thinking to the professional men of the day, and indeed other women who lacked perseverance and foresight. But for Mrs Mavis Moyo, founder member of the Federation of African Media Women, it was just the beginning of a long journey.

"It has been a long journey, " Mai Moyo recalls in a recent interview. "It so happened that during the late 70’s some media women in Africa were disgruntled about the way they were treated, it was a male's world. It is still like that," she says.

Mai Moyo recounts how the women felt trivialised particularly because they were considered as unsuitable for the profession. They were perceived as unsustainable at work, for instance, they were accused of falling pregnant, having to nurse babies, not being highly educated and could not be transferred due to family commitments.

Concerned about such problems at their work places, media women from various African countries organised a consultative meeting in Lusaka, Zambia in 1977 aimed at forming a strong media organisation that would look into such issues.

These women came from among other countries, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Among them were renowned African women journalists such as Thelma Awori of Liberia, who, in later years worked in Zimbabwe as the head of the United Nations Development Programme, Chechiwa Khonje of Malawi who also had a stint with the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Zimbabwe and Jennifer Sibanda of Zimbabwe, who was later to become a former Assistant Director General of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s Montrose Studios in Bulawayo and now the head of FAMW SADC, a vibrant regional media women’s organisation.

The dream came true in 1981 with the launch of the pan-African body, the Federation of African Media Women in Marondera town, about 80 kilometres east of Harare. Zimbabwe was chosen to chair the Federation of African Media Women since it had just acquired its independence from Britain. It was also among the few countries in the world, which, had set up a Ministry to look into the affairs of women, headed by a former freedom fighter, Joyce Mujuru.

"For some time, nothing much happened. However things gained momentum when we started preparations for the international women’s conference that was to be held in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985.

"We decided, as Zimbabwean media women, to go to the world conference with one voice. So we came up with our own chapter of the Federation of African Media Women - Zimbabwe (FAMWZ)," Moyo says.

So in June 1985, FAMWZ was constituted and has existed since then.

"Discussions with other media women from developing countries at the Nairobi conference strengthened us. We came back and vowed we were going to use media for development, we would develop the media women professionally and the women in general, as it was not only the media women who were sidelined. The situation was worse in the rural areas. When we spoke to the women in the rural areas, we found that they lacked information which was important for them to make informed and intelligent decisions," Moyo explains.

Moyo says since then, FAMWZ’s aim or focus has been development of media women and other women in the urban and rural areas.

Moyo is also grateful for the unwavering support that FAMWZ received from the then Minister of Information Cde Nathan Shamuyarira, in the formative stages of the organisation in 1985.

"Cde Nathan Shamuyarira was very instrumental in the formation of this organisation. He encouraged media women to stand firmly, he was indeed very supportive," Mai Moyo explains.

So, most of the 1980’s and 1990’s were spent in developing media women in various ways including exposure to other media women in the region, that is, by members attending local and regional workshops. Zimbabwean media women had the opportunity to network and share experiences with other women from different parts of the African region. It is through this networking that the regional FAMW -SADC was formed in 1992.

FAMWZ also took advantage of the South and Eastern African News Agency Development (SEANAD) programme run by UNESCO to train media women in various aspects of the media, including specialised subjects such as economic coverage, feature writing, gender reporting, development writing as well as management and leadership courses.

Highlights of the successes of the organisation include the hosting an international conference for women in the media in 1993. This was done in conjunction with FAMW-SADC and the conference was instrumental in the coining and subsequent formation of an African Women’s Media Centre headquartered in Senegal.

The same year, FAMWZ also hosted the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IARWART) conference. Media women also benefited from workshops on issues that affect the operations of the media, such as the liberalisation of the airwaves and press freedom

Other highlights of the successes of organisation include the 1986 Non-Aligned Summit, which Zimbabwe hosted. FAMWZ played a big role in hosting international journalists who had come to cover the summit. The organisation also worked closely with others such as the Media Institute of Southern Africa and the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists.

FAMWZ also initiated the prize for the best woman reporter under the auspices of UNICEF for covering stories on abused girl-children. It was a precedent in terms of awards given to women. The first woman to receive this award was Nomsa Nkala in the 1990s. She is currently working for the Herald as the Features Editor.

Moyo recalls that for a long time, FAMWZ operated without a fully-fledged secretariat until 1995 when FAMWZ acquired an office at the Mass Media House in Selous Avenue in Harare before the move to 102 Samora Machel Avenue West.

"This was no mean achievement because for 9 years we had conducted business at our respective workplaces, hotels and homes. UNESCO lent us an office for two years. Thereafter, the Anglican Cathedral at Second Street became our meeting place for quite a number of years."

FAMWZ also initiated one of the most successful media for development programmes for rural women, the Development Through Radio, popularly known as the DTR.

"DTR was born out of consultation with rural women as a needs assessment, and with our partners such as the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, FES, UNESCO and the Association of Women’s Clubs. This programme was important since our aim was to use media for development. FAMWZ took it upon itself to train these women in media for development" says Moyo.

But how have media women and women in general appreciated the work of FAMWZ?
Moyo feels FAMWZ has been successful in that a lot has been done to improve the status of media women. She says some of the work it has done can be measured. For example, the training that most media women received from FAMWZ locally and abroad has seen some of them assuming leadership positions in their organisations or society.

"FAMW - SADC and FAMWZ have worked together and brought more recognition to women in the media in Zimbabwe and in SADC. We have groomed the media woman to broaden her sphere not only in her profession but also in society. Attending international events has broadened their scope, while employers of journalists have been awakened by the activities of the organisation to the extent that they have recognised women as bosses. FAMWZ has created the influence," she says proudly.

"The demand for our service has grown and has been changing with times," adds Moyo. "We had to service other organisations which deal with women, communication and development and needed help in processing information of their activities. We realised that constitutionally, all the citizens of any country have a right to information and freedom of opinion and that FAMWZ should assist in making this available to those in need of it by working with other women who are in development. We want to make information accessible using the old adage that knowledge is power. Therefore, people should be empowered," explains Moyo.

Moyo, a former teacher, found herself in the media when she least expected it.

"It happened that somebody who was supposed to do a programme fell ill. Somebody who knew me as a teacher asked me to come and fill in. After that, they kept me as a part-timer. Later, a vacancy arose and she applied and got the post of an announcer.

"When I eventually became a broadcaster, I realised that it was a powerful tool of communication. As a teacher, I was imparting knowledge to about forty to four hundred people in the class but with radio I could teach the whole country."

Born and bred in Esigodini, Moyo went into broadcasting in 1954. She is now a retired broadcaster who does consultancy work. She also sits on several media boards.

Her memorable successes include establishing the DTR programmes in Angola, South Africa’s KwaZulu - Natal and Namibia and other countries where DTR has been replicated.

A mother of seven children, six sons and a daughter and grandchildren, she feels there is still room for more media women to act as role models.

"We have some great women in the media in this country that I look up to. There is need to profile them," she says.

"We want to see media women taking their rightful places as managers in the media and establishing their own newspapers, magazines and broadcasting stations and film industries. They have the capacity to do this and also to run media training schools. There is a very strong movement of women who have a desire to tap on these fields. Some have experienced hitches but this has not deterred them, they can actually do it."

Moyo sees a bright future for media women since a growing number of them are now business minded. She notes that it would be good for media women to come up with their own newspaper, an idea she says was first muted in 1996.

However, she acknowledges the fact that the current media environment is prohibitive for media women who might want to start their own media organisations due to the lack of liberalisation of the airwaves.

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