Mwanza stands out as an icon in the media
- Experienced media guru
- Involved in research, media and communication
- Founded media institute
CROSBY Mwanza is not your ordinary media person next door. His long history in the media and communication fields separates him from the rest in the entire Sub-Saharan region.
Background
The 50-year-old Mwanza who now lives in Lesotho is originally from Zambia. He spent many years as a media practitioner and later developed and sharpened his skills, which later made him an obvious choice for several organisations and institutions when it came to consulting services in the area media communication and training. He then expanded his horizons to more challenging things and more personally fulfilling areas of media and communication. And has never looked back ever since.
Today, Mwanza has amassed a countless number of achievements and stands tall amongst highly-acclaimed and celebrated media gurus in the Sub-Saharan Region. His conspicuous talent in the field of media and communication has been getting due recognition from many organisations nationally, regionally and internationally over the years.
Involvement in media development
For the most part, he is involved in media and development issues in the region. His expertise in media and communication has already been tested on different grounds. However, non of them have proved insurmountable to his abilities, as evidenced through a number of research studies he had been commissioned to carry out in the past. Amongst them was one relating to children in Swaziland.
Study on child-related issues
Mwanza was attached to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Swaziland for six years from 1945 to 1991. This is where his vast experience as a media giant was put to test. He was commissioned to conduct a research study on child issues. The study covered seven topics all related to children’s matters, which include child mortality, child labour, child sexual abuse etc.
Mwanza carried the study over a period of three months during which time he looked at stories and contend published by the two national dailies, The Swazi Observer and The Times of Swaziland and their sister weekly publications, The Weekend Observer, Swazi News and the Times Sunday.
Out of over 3000 articles and stories published by the above newspapers, he discovered a disappointingly low number of stories relating to issues affecting children in Swaziland. From over 1700 stories carried by the Times Group of newspapers, less that 400 touched on children related matters. The Swazi Observer Group of Newspapers were no different. Out of over 1600 stories, less than 300 focused or addressed children’s issues.
He was also commissioned to develop several media houses in the region, including a ‘Code of Ethics’ for the Swaziland Association of Journalists (SNAJ). He also developed the Lesotho News Agency as well as BOPA in Botswana.
A will to share experiences
Mwanza established a media institute named ‘The Swaziland Institute of Mass Communication’. “I decided to start the project after realising that the country had no institution dealing with media studies at the time,” he recalled, adding that the whole idea was to circumvent the shortage of basic training in the media by developing tailor-made programmes to address a particular area of need, which included inhouse training for practising journalists.
However, he was later forced to change his plans and focus of the organisation after prospective sponsors of the project in the United States complained that Swaziland did not adhere to the acceptable standards and principles of press freedom, which was cited as a basis for withholding funding. He later relocated to Lesotho and founded the ‘Information Society Institute of Southern Africa’ where he currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
A chance for rural communities
Speaking about his organisation, Mwanza said its primary objective was to take the media to the people at the grassroots, especially those folks living in the country side whom, he said were disenfranchised, even by the media over the years. “We want to allow rural communities to have a voice in the media,” he said, adding that such a situation would also influence content in the media.
Mwanza explained that the idea was to go to a rural community and identify individual who show potential in the media. These are then trained in basic reporting skilled after which they would be responsible to feed the media with stories about and affecting their very communities, a thing he said was never heard of in the past. Mwanza said traditionally, the media overlooked the importance of the involvement of the country folks in the media.
“Stories had their emphasis on urban people and the news could only be accessed by those living in town and cities,” he said, mentioning that Information Society Institute of Southern Africa was trying to bridge that gab and involved the full participation of rural people in the media. He said this would lead to informed debate from every section of society, create awareness and critical analysis of issues and enable rural people to contribute meaningfully to policies. “A situation like that leads to social cohesion and development,” Mwanza stated.
“Our organisation is growing in leaps and bound throughout the region,” he said, further mentioning that they plan to cover the whole continent in a few years time. But speaking to the man makes one feel that his eyes are already cast beyond the African shores.
