Maybe a Change

Chenje (1998) said, “People need alternatives to ecologically destructive development practices. All these call for innovative communication skills to which we, as environmental journalists, can contribute.” The Egazini exhibition, held in Extension 6 on Monday, has never bought those words more home to me. We explained our aims and visions to members of a community more severely affected by poor waste management, littering, lack of sanitation, water and electricity issues than most of the Grahamstown public, and more then we will ever experience as middle class and highly privileged students. We played them the audio slides and television outputs produced by our photography, television and radio members of our group. And then we waited, nervous, unsure and slightly anxious about the language barrier as the sound of crunching chips filled the echoing room. One of the men stood up at last. He spoke about the terrible rubbish problems in the community and how sick he feels from the smell when he walks to work, raising concerns about the children who pass the same area. The ball was rolling, the people started talking and the response we got finally showed in practice the role that journalists can play in the community.

Once everyone had agreed that the municipality needs to take a more active role in environmental issues, the members of Extension 6 turned to each other, remarking that it was high time they start to take responsibility for their environment as well. They spoke about how they need to teach themselves and those around them to put their rubbish in the dustbin and the importance of keeping their streets clean. When one individual claimed that they need to stop pointing fingers at the municipality, and start pointing them at themselves, we all exchanged relieved and proud looks.

Bongani, the man who runs the Egazini Community Centre, thanked us for creating the space for the community to reflect on such issues. He also proposed the notion that there are more events where the community can come together and reflect on issues so that they can come up with solutions, instead of waiting for the municipality to sort them out, as well as a mass clean up drive.

After a long semester, filled with hard work, planning and ideas as well as incrediable team work, the experience at Egazini showed what it means to be a journalist. If two people walked away from that, conscious of putting their rubbish in the dustbin then we helped facilitate some sort of change. It is very easy to criticise the municipality from far, but if we are going to start looking after our environment and ourselves, inhibiting the rapid declining state of our world, then we need to start making some changes now. Our media production seemed to generate that idea for a few people and thus, it seems we served our purpose.