“Othering” and “Others” in Religious Radio Broadcasts in Tanzania: Cases from Radio Maria Tanzania and Radio Imaan

This article presents part of the findings of ongoing research on two religious radio stations and their audiences in Tanzania: Radio Maria Tanzania, owned by the Association of Radio Maria Tanzania; and Radio Imaan, owned by the Islamic Foundation based in Tanzania. Investments in religious radio stations are a product of the liberalization of the broadcasting sector which took effect in the 1990s in Tanzania. As a result of the liberalization, as of July 2011 the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority had registered seventy-five radio stations, twenty-six of which were owned by religious organizations. The proliferation of religious radio stations in Tanzania has changed the media landscape as well as Julius Nyerere’s Ujamaa version of African socialism. Nyerere’s socialism prohibited private media and the inclusion of aspects of ethnicity and religion in the public domain because of their divisive tendencies. Conceptualized by Spivak’s theory of othering, this article examines the othering strategies and “others” in increasingly religious radio stations. The collection of data for this study was done through interviews, qualitative content analysis, and discourse analysis. The findings show that the proliferation of religious radio stations in Tanzania perpetuates the othering tendency of religions to the extent of threatening the peace and unity Tanzania has experienced since independence in 1961.