October, 17th – Ibadan
We almost feel like regular students at the University of Ibadan now and have another lesson coming up today. This time some of us participate in Lanre Okuseinde’s German class, which was originally scheduled for last Thursday. Apparently, Lanre is one of the most popular teachers in the German department. This does not surprise us as he makes the learning process entertaining rather than overwhelming the students with a lot of knowledge that they cannot digest in a short timeframe. The class (B1 language level) consists of about 20 students and we all gather in Lanre’s office. People sit on benches, chairs, tables, and some even stand. Lanre raises various topics and tries to engage the whole class in discussion. He also makes use of German bands and artists such as Culcha Candela for cultural and language learning purpose.
While some visit the German class, the rest of our groups is invited to visit the campus radio station Diamond FM. When we arrive at the radio station, we meet with its manager Emokhare Paul Anthony, who kindly explains the production process to us. Diamond FM is a non-commercial station and focuses on entertainment and education. Most of the people we see working here are in fact student volunteers and interns from different subjects. To ensure the quality of the broadcasting, every unit has trained staff, like editors, technicians and engineers, who monitor and help the trainees. However, even though this is a campus radio station, the audience is not limited to the university’s premises but reaches people statewide. Therefore, Anthony explains to us, the station is open to critical call-ins as they aim to improve their broadcasting quality constantly. After this introductory meeting, we get a tour through the different units of the station. In the newsroom, we are told that the content of news focuses on 70% local news, 20% national and state news, as well as 10% global news. 40% of the program is broadcasted live, while 60% are recorded and undergo inspection before being broadcasted. As students of linguistics, we are also interested in the language situation: 80% of the content is in English, 20% in Igbo or Yorùbá. At the end of the tour, we are taken to one of the studios, where one of the weekly programs is live in progress. While we are in the studio, our professor is even asked to say something on air. It is very interesting for us to see how production and broadcast work behind the scenes of a radio station because most have never been inside a broadcasting studio before.
In the afternoon, we are taken to a shopping mall close to the campus where we decide to go to the cinema. The film industry in Nigeria is often referred to as Nollywood and we did not realize how big it actually is, i.e., it is the third biggest and most valuable film industry in the world after Hollywood (USA) and Bollywood (India). We soon realize that going to the cinema in Nigeria is another new experience for us as the audience’s reactions are more lively than back home. The film called ‘The Women’ is about four women and their husbands who celebrate one of the women’s 40th birthday. The plot ends in a lot of drama and chaos. The story itself catches our group’s attention to varying degrees: while some watch intently, for others the plot is a bit too dramatic. Hence, we are quite glad that the film ends after an hour; however, it was definitely worthwhile watching.
If you are interested, check out the trailer of ‘The Women’ here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blspmlPiNvc
Text: Sandra Hesse, Anna Korneva und Valerie Pobloth
Online gestellt: Matthias Zimmermann
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