Jamie MInton's Album

Radio Taboo Music Trailer

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Social Forum at S.F. Prep on Martin Luther King Jr. Day 20170125 135935

I personally don't support not seeing someone without knowledge.

Issa IsTeaching a 55 years Woman to Read.  2017

Issa Artoonist Introducing the 9th Art to 7 & 8th grade  20171102 090830

Radio Taboo is a community radio station and a development pilot and off-grid project based in Cameroon.  Community Radio - local frequency 96.0 FM. "The Voice of the Voiceless".  Radio Taboo is first and foremost a development project. The idea comes from the founder of this community radio project, Mr. Issa Nyaphaga, and is supported by his collaborators and members of the organization, Hope International for Tikar People (HITIP).  It is a non-profit, community-based organization established to improve the quality of life for marginalized indigenous Tikar and Bedzan (Pygmy) people in Cameroon.  HITIP collaborates with local villages to implement sustainable health, education and art projects to meet the needs of at-risk individuals and communities as a whole.

Radio Taboo is based in the Central Region of Cameroon, Mbam and Kim Department, and the Ngambé-Tikar District. This community radio station powered by solar energy and is the first radio station established in this remote area. As its name suggests, Radio Taboo is created to address taboo topics which are a large part of the culture in rural areas where people lack access to infrastructure such as schools, community libraries, running water, electricity, decent medical care, and passable roads. These people are hard working farmers whose ethno-traditional culture is vast and largely oral.

The cultural and traditional rites of the people living in the ‘Tikar Plain’ region are immense and diverse; there are about twenty local languages ​​and dialects that are primarily oral. The cultures are expressed in dance, art, and music. One of the continent's oldest first nation ethnic groups, the pygmies, live here. This specific group of pygmies originating from the Tikar plain, are called Bedzan. They are connected to the forest and live in more or less social cohesion with their Bantu neighbors, the Tikar people.

The complex polyphonic songs of these two tribes give to their music its richness and intensely. (It was a week after the launch of Radio Taboo in late July 2017, that Radio Taboo members and their collaborators realized 85% of the pygmies had never listened to a radio before July 2017.)

The target audience is mostly indigenous, illiterate, and socially marginalized. People living in the area are victims of deforestation that threatens their ecosystem and their way of life. Agriculture and artistic and cultural practices are less valued than the proceeds of logging. The goal of Radio Taboo is to fight rural isolation, illiteracy and the rural exodus of young people. The Tikar people have a popular saying: “People are our best investment.” One of the primary goals of Radio Taboo is the empowerment of rural women who are the backbone of indigenous societies. Another is to educate the entire community about public health and environmental issues - e.g. HIV/AIDS is poorly understood, polio vaccines are avoided in some areas, forced marriages, domestic violence, breast ironing of girls, and other abuses affecting women and young girls in Cameroon. This radio station will provide a necessary voice to communities in an area that has limited access to the outside world.

The slogan of Radio Taboo community radio is "The Voice of the Voiceless". The project’s goal is to serve about one million people in 10 languages - French and English (languages of the colonizers) as well as local languages Tikar, Balon, Bamoun, Djanti, Hausa, Bavek, Foulani, and Babouté. Why so many languages? In rural Africa, which is a largely tribal society, different ethnic groups share challenges and realities, and so HITIP's goal is to create a radio station with several voices under a single frequency that promotes togetherness and understanding. Radio Taboo is intended to rehabilitate spoken languages ​​and disappearing cultures. It also provides practical information such as advice on public health, agriculture, sport, and rural development.

Radio Taboo community radio station

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