Breakfast Live S2E2 |Media Women in Northern Ghana

Voice on radio in the northern region is still a male dominated one. Programs like current affairs and serious discussions are reserved for men while love/relationship and programs that are considered less important to the station are reserve for women. The debate has always been; are women denied the chance to host those programs or women in the region are not ready to take the mantle. But with all these debate going on, there are still some few women who are taking the bold steps to be heard on radio and be taken serious.

Sanatu Zambang Breakfast live team hosted three women in the media space who are working in different areas. They are Ewurama Attoh, host of Kesmi Drive, Aisha Gomda, lecturer at Tamale Technical University and Rahama Zakaria, new editor for Sanatu Zambang.

‘’My breakout point, I was doing the brunch time and the security man came and told me someone is looking for me and the person said he is not coming out of his car. I had to put on the auto playlist. I got outside and I see this nice car and I was like, who is this. So he rolled down his screen and called my name and I said yes. He said I have been listening to your show and I like jazz Tuesdays. He gave me two hundred Ghana cedi. So when the driver was about to live he asked me, do you know who I am? He was then the judge for the high court in Tamale. I just stood there, I was shocked. It is now down on me. These are the kind of people listening to me. I cannot come online again and misbehave or make errors. Now, I have to man up and master up. I told my boss and he was like but you who do you think were listening to your show.’’

Ewurama Attoh

‘’NAM 1 came with Zylofone and they picked Seth as the general manager he said he wanted to move there and they said since he is moving, I should move to the drive. For me, I did not see it as a challenge. I saw it as an opportunity for me to now show what I have got. But what people were saying almost got me down. Almost made me say this is not for me. You know when he announced that he was leaving the drive, and I am now going to take over from him. He tagged me, people did not care. They said what they wanted to say. They don’t want a female to host the drive. A female cannot do the drive. Drive is for a male. So I was like Seth are you sure it is going to work because people don’t like the idea.  So he said yes. Whether you liked it or not you will do it. To date, now that I have left the brunch no one has been able to do it. My boss always says it is your fault because you made it that way, that nobody can do it.’’

Ewurama Attoh

‘’Growing up it was always like a nom for my dad and me to listen to the six o’clock news. What I can say is, it was mostly male-dominated. So growing up, I already had this preconceived notion about the fact that serious issues being discussed on the radio are being discussed by men. So consciously or unconsciously I never really took female voices on radio seriously. Because most of the time what I would hear them play is cool music and then give a few announcement with the sweet voice and you go like this is not your real voice. You are speaking in line with the music that you are playing. It was not working for me. The female voices on radio, Apart from the international media that you would see females into serious issues as their male counterparts. Back home, I wasn’t seeing it, except on TV.’’

Ayisha Gomda

‘’For women writing or in the media, it needed to happen a long time ago but unfortunately, it did not happen. But we can still do it now. Ewurama and I and the other women in the space can take it from there. We need to mentor more young girls to fill up the space. We can meet up and draw up plans to see how we can encourage more girls into the media space. So I think mentorship is the way to go.’’

Rahama Zakaria

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