Welcome



Talk Africa Radio Network is a new initiative by the Intercontinental Science Foundation (ISF Inc), aimed at reaching, informing and educating the most number of people who hail from Africa, and their friends for a common good.
Original Six Founders of TARNET
What is ISF, Inc?
ISF Inc is a non-profit organization that supports and facilitates the production, application and transfer of knowledge. We collaborate with individuals, organization, institutions of learning as well as businesses to promote the generation, incubation, application and transfer of innovative ideas and insights aimed at improving the lives of the people. Our motto, “No Insight Without Understanding” is aimed at motivating us to create a community of inquirers, seeking to create opportunities for further insights that lead to even higher viewpoints, indeed to development.

Rationale for Talk Africa Radio:
Faced with the verifiable lack of credible progress in Africa, and in black communities in the United States of America, and elsewhere in the world, a good number of people have given up the struggle, leaving the politicians in charge. This is a big mistake but it is true the people back home have very little fight left in them. That is not the case for those in the diaspora. We, in the diaspora have to pick up the baton for the prevailing unhealthy situation in Africa does not affect people in Africa only. Like a shadow, the chronic lack of progress also haunts people of African descent who have emigrated. As long as Africa is unhealthy, people of African provenance, however much they may prosper in their adopted countries, are still associated with the home continent and are judged as such. Whether you are an active politician or not, we all are affected by and should thus be concerned with what is going on, and act as convicted. Thus, the decision to act is not purely altruistic. This is called authentic living and it informs our theme which is to learn about, teach about and act for the betterment of Africa. Our latest answer to this call to duty is a new initiative we have called Talk Africa Radio Network (TARNET).

A Look in the past
In the eyes of any amateur anthropologist, precolonial Africa was in total disarray, complete with unceasing internecine wars, disease, and general ignorance. To a seasoned and open-minded student of this era, however, like a jungle, this was orderly chaos. In the civic area for instance, the sense of community and humane living are highly cherished values in the majority of communities. In a typical pre-colonial African society, the community is sacred, rather than secular, and several religious forms and symbols surround it. It is this stress on community, on the ‘we’ rather than on the ‘I’ that makes the African primarily religious (John Mbiti, 1990). In traditional Africa, the individual does not and cannot exist alone except corporately. He owes his existence to other people, including those of past generations and his contemporaries. Whatever happens to the individual is believed to happen to the whole group, and whatever happens to the whole group happens to the individual. "I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am (J.S. Mbiti 1990, 106).

The community is at the same time a religious community, organized in families, lineages, clans, tribes and kingdoms or chieftainships, sharing life intensely in common. There are communal farmland, communal trees, streams, barns, and markets. There are also communal shrines, squares, masquerades, ritual objects and festivals for recreational activity, social, economic and religious purposes (Ejizu, 1980).The ambivalent encounter with the veiled violence of nature pushes the living to invoke the invisible members, especially ancestors, who are believed to be more powerful and superior to human beings. Nature, like the gods, is both feared and revered; it terrorizes but at the same time, it fascinates those in it (Kearney, 2003). This latent violence of nature, its sublimity and ambivalence push man to trust in the- more- than- himself; to transcendence himself, to faith. Ejizu maintains that, closeness to nature, the experience of life in terribly hazardous environment, and the crucial need for security and better performance in means of livelihood are some relevant factors that combine to deepen the natural impulse for gregariousness and sense of community.
The African world-view is thus one that is fundamentally holistic, sacred and highly integrated. In it, religion is indistinguishable from morality, for traditional Africans, Ejizu writes; the line dividing the two is very thin indeed. African traditional religion plays a crucial role in the ethical dynamics of the different groups. .. 'gods serve as police men'. African traditional world-views invariably outline a vision of reality that is, at once ethical in content and orientation. Human beings and their world are the focal center of a highly integrated universe. Human conduct is seen as key in upholding the delicate balance believed to exist between the visible world and the invisible one.

But we are Modern
One may counter, and rightly so, that Africa is no longer traditional. Truly the situation in Africa has changed radically. The African system has been under assault for centuries by the machines, cultures and religions of the more technologically advanced Eurasian systems. The experience of colonialism; the ambivalent Christian missionary activity and the sometimes-overzealous Islamic religious campaigns have given rise to a radically different socio-political and religious background in Africa. The colonial nation builders created artificial nations by patching together hitherto discrete groups with diverse language and cultural identities and urbanization, and modern formal education have actively sustained the transformation.

Today, in addition to tribal, added divisions include urban versus rural; rich versus poor, educated versus illiterate; easterners versus westerners; Christians versus Muslims, and Democrats and Movementists. In short, as Chinua Achebe (1959) says, “Now he (white man) has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (176). Briefly, a wedge has been driven between the sacred and the so-called secular aspects of life. Unfortunately, Africa today is not modern either. The majority of Africans are affiliated with one of the three major Judeo-Christian religions but this has not radically deprived them of their pre-modern world-view. Africans are no longer what Leonard said of the Hindus; "they eat religiously, drink religious, bathe religious, dress religiously, and sin religiously”. In a few words, the religion of these natives, as I have endeavored to point out, is their existence, and their existence is their religion". (A.G. Leonard 1968; 409)
 
Indeed the African religious-culture dualism no longer enjoys exclusive dominance and control it used to. The prevailing social and political order in most parts of contemporary sub-Saharan Africa resembles more and more the state of affairs in European countries. Partly thanks to formal education, the elders have lost control to the young people who manage the modern state. Civil society now prevails. There are civil governments, civil law, agencies of government responsible for law and order, Western-type schools for formal education and socialization. The only difference is that in much of the continent, and in most of the predominantly black communities elsewhere in the world, these new ways are half-baked.

With the perfect attitude, we can ask the right questions and get the correct answers. Without action, however, all this labor is but in vain. This radio, therefore, will not be merely a talk show; we shall go a step further in taking action and implement the findings, and this is what we mean by empowerment. The people who feel like they are not concerned about what is going on around them must wake up and take action to improve the situation around them for the common good. The politicians have taken the long-suffering, but resilient people of African, for a long and dreadful ride; it is time for the people to look at their own hands and assume responsibility for their own lives and states.

Taking a cue from Paulo Freire in his “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, we shall make the road by walking. We shall naturally find setbacks, and that is alright. And yes, lateral movements too shall occur, but we are confident we will always be able to go forward using the wisdom-based progress strategy that harnesses both the tried and true strategies of the elders, and the modern forward looking of the young and restless. Below is a table that includes all topics. The list is by no means exhaustive, nor is the order shown the one to be religiously followed.

Program in Detail


Talk Africa Radio will be a radio format containing discussions of past, current and future affair; interviews, literary readings and sometimes debates about topical issues. At least in the first two years, most shows will regularly be hosted by a single individual, and often will feature interviews with a number of different guests. Typically it will include an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live conversations between the host and listeners who will "call in" (usually via telephone) to the show. Listener contributions will be screened by a show's producer(s) in order to maximize audience interest and, for the sake of raising revenue, to attract advertisers. We shall organize the shows into segments, each separated by a pause for advertisements or music.

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Below are some of the thoughts (put down unedited) by some of our to-be presenters:
1.       Susan on Mental Illness
In Africa, the mention of the word “mental health" is enough to send most people scowling. This is because for a long time, this has been a controversial and stigmatized topic that for the most part stems from lack of knowledge about what mental health means and how it affects each of us.  For most Africans, the visual image of a man or woman, eating from a "dustbin" or Trash, throwing stones at people and talking to oneself (which would be the worst form of schizophrenia) comes to mind when mental health is mentioned.  I believe that there is a lot to learn about healthy mental health vs unhealthy mental health in order for Africa to make progress in being educated about what is healthy and what would be frowned upon in terms of decision making, behaviors, ways of thinking, ways of communicating in order to get our needs met…etc. Most people believe that when you have a broken leg or arm, you need medical attention; when you have a fever, you control the fever in various ways and if the fever does not stop, you seek medical attention. What happens then when your brain stops functioning at its best or you have chemical imbalances that make you think, believe and behave a certain way that would be considered unwelcome to those around you, what do you do then? You might decide 1. To ignore the problem, in the hope that it will go away or 2. Seek help from a professional and lead a most productive life. I think that to continue to ignore the state of our mental health in Africa is to choose option 1 which leads to living below our most desired outcome.  I strongly believe that "breaking it down" in order for us to understand the role mental health plays in our lives is the way forward.

2.       Omega on African Wisdom
African wisdom is largely embedded in oral presentation and preservation of culture. Before the advent of the radio, video and print media, elders took on the stage to educate and inform their children and peers by either telling stories or reading scripts for them. It was a great way of communicating facts and ideas as well as imparting knowledge from one generation to another. Utilizing the current Information technology, Talk Africa Radio is transforming and taking this culture of learning to another level , where by instead of sitting together and listening to the narrative of the Wiseman, you simply click an app on your phone or computer and get a bunch of wisdom in a winch of an eye. Talk Africa Radio provides a distinct advantage and a platform to Africans and all other people to talk, listen and act in such a manner that is rooted in African culture to fight the common enemy, that is neo ignorance, biases, prejudices, corruption and poverty. It’s a treasure for us all that no one should be denied. Let us go Talk Africa.

3.       Lanre’s Super Summary

The ISF organizational purpose is to engage in fervently pursuing the objectives of promoting Natural sciences in tandem with Social/Human sciences, viable Information Technology,  cohesive Cultural Reforms as well as Societal Infrastructure Development in the Continent of Africa.

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