A Radio Drama for Apes? An Entertainment-Education Approach to Supporting Ape Conservation Through an Integrated Human Behaviour, Health, and Environment Serial Drama

Abstract

This is a report on how Population Media Center (PMC), based in the state of Vermont in the USA, developed a Swahili-language entertainment-education programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to support attainment of measurable objectives in the Jane Goodall Institute’s (JGI) 2012-2022 Conservation Action Plan (CAP) for the Eastern DRC. The PMC initiative consisted of a 156- episode radio serial drama titled Pambazuko (“New Dawn”) that aired from February 2016 to August 2017. Pambazuko was one of three unique serial dramas broadcast in the DRC by PMC, the other two being Vivra Verra (“Time Will Tell”) in French and Elembo (“Footprint”) in Lingala.