First Lady of Zambia Congratulates the IWMF for “Changing the Way We Perceive News”

by Kathleen Currie

The first lady of Zambia, Thandiwe Banda, has noticed the change in her country’s news media.

A self-described “keen reader and follower of events in the global and local media,” the first lady visited a recent meeting of the International Women’s Media Foundation’s project, Reporting on Agriculture and Women: Africa, held in Lusaka, Zambia, to offer her thanks and encouragement to the IWMF “for providing the training that is set to change the way we perceive news, particularly women in agriculture.”

“You are sowing a seed whose fruits our continent will harvest with pride and satisfaction,” she said.  She commended the IWMF  for giving “a voice to the voiceless women in agriculture. … Some media institutions have gone out of their way to show us that in as much as they would want to make profit, they are also determined to provide a service.”

Mrs. Banda described reading the Times of Zambia story written by Stanslous Ngosa about Monica Mulongoti, a blind woman who is also a successful farmer.  Ngosa’s story of a “very ordinary and humble” woman in a rural area who is “massively contributing to the national bread basket “ is “the way to go,” she said. She said that women contribute to global food security as 80 percent of the world’s farmers.

Too much media coverage is given to “official functions and government functionaries,” Mrs. Banda  said. She challenged the media to “blend our reports with what is happening on the ground where the women economic drivers are. Let us go out and look for success stories of the voiceless women who are doing amazing things and providing the fuel that keeps moving the wheels of our country’s economy.” 

• Read the full text of Mrs. Banda’s remarks.
• See Stanslous Ngosa's article that was referenced in Banda's speech.

Kathleen Currie is the deputy director of the International Women's Media Foundation.