Young Kenyans are excited about the new comic book series “ShujaazFM” which means ‘heroes’ in Sheng, a combination of Swahili and English. Through a free monthly insert in the Saturday Nation newspaper, a daily syndicated FM radio and TV program, youth are learning sustainable agriculture practices from protecting chickens from New Castle disease to fish farming. Lessons from DJ B or DJ Boyie the main character, along with characters Malkie, Charlie, and Maria Kim, are expected to reach approximately 12 million readers a month.
According to a recent United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) report, ShujaazFM distributed more than 5 million copies that carried an agricultural story. The comic has 10, 000 Facebook fans, over 500 followers on Twitter, and receives up to 2, 000 SMS messages a month. Paul Peter Kades, the voice of the popular character DJ B, says, “I’m excited, I’m proud, I’m honored to be part of this team.”
This comic series may not feature the traditional comic superheroes like, Batman and Robin or Superman, but in developing countries where agriculture is essential to survival, ShujaazFM is a hero. Each edition of the comic book includes a story about an innovative agricultural technique along with an illustrative step-by-step guide that is helpful for all ages. The ShujaazFM story lines are seasonal and give tips on fruit drying, improving crops, and seed selection. One reader told DJ Boykie,“Hi DJ Boyie, I learned and planted sukuma (kale) in a sack and it has provided us with food during the dry season.”
The ShujaazFM Youth Communication Initiative is one development from the Research into Use (RIU) project funded by the DFID. It is a partnership between Farm Input Promotions Africa Ltd. (FIPS-Africa) and Well Told Story, a Nairobi-based communication company. Rob Burnet, from Well-Told Story developed the comic book and uses real research from FIPS-Africa to create the agriculture story lines.
As the Director of Research into Use, Ian Mauldin’s goal is to improve lives in the developing world by encouraging researchers to make use of “those dusty volumes of scientific journals.”
In an interview with RIUtv Mauldin states, “There are 2.5 billion people in the world who are entirely dependent upon agriculture for their livelihood.” Mauldin explains that lack of resources is the problem in these areas but RiU is building capacity for them to be self-sufficient.
The ShujaazFM team’s mission is to create a platform to communicate with the youth in Kenya and teach them how to become heroes in the fight against hunger and poverty. Not only does ShujaazFM discuss agriculture practices, it helps to enlighten the conversation about gang-awareness and inter-racial violence.
For that reason, the project focuses on regions in the developing world where poverty levels are the highest. The creation of ShujaazFm comic book is an innovative way to increase productivity, by providing knowledge to the next generation of agriculture producers, and promoting sustainable agricultural development.
Guest Post By Kaia E. Clarke
Danielle Nierenberg, an expert on livestock and sustainability, currently serves as Project Director of State of World 2011 for the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, DC-based environmental think tank. Her knowledge of factory farming and its global spread and sustainable agriculture has been cited widely in the New York Times Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, the Washington Post, and
other publications.
Danielle worked for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. She is currently traveling across Africa looking at innovations that are working to alleviate hunger and poverty and blogging everyday at Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet. She has a regular column with the Mail & Guardian, the Kansas City Star, and the Huffington Post and her writing was been featured in newspapers across Africa including the Cape Town Argus, the Zambia Daily Mail, Coast Week (Kenya), and other African publications. She holds an M.S. in agriculture, food, and environment from Tufts University and a B.A. in environmental policy from Monmouth College.
