Charisma, creativity, and cosmopolitanism: a perspective on the power of the new radio broadcasting in Uganda and Rwanda

From the mid-198os onwards, the number of charismatic leaders operating in the Great Lakes region of Eastern-Central Africa has risen dramatically. This article draws a connection between this rapid expansion of charismatic authority and the concurrent proliferation of new radio broadcasting cultures across the zone. It notes that practically every new leader who has emerged over the last two decades has engaged in some form of radio broadcasting, and that in a number of instances, such broadcasts have been central to a particular leader's very claim to power. It then examines the reasons why radio broadcasting has emerged as so important here. Through a detailed study of one charismatic leader, Kihura Nkuba - who rose to prominence in Southwestern Uganda in 1999 - the article argues that the power of the new radio broadcasting stems from the 'cosmopolitan' subject position it engenders amongst listeners. However, this is a quite different form of cosmopolitanism which is at least partly unintended, or involuntary (and stems from the insertion of a 'global' technology - i.e. the physical radio set - into the listening context). Yet it is still compelling, a fact which helps us to understand why some listeners of these broadcasts have been motivated - after listening to charismatic leaders' broadcasts - to engage in extreme, socially abnormal, acts. The article goes on to argue that this provides a perspective from which to understand events in Rwanda in 1994, when radio listeners were induced, by a group of charismatic radio presenters (on the station Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, RTLM) to participate in genocidal killings. / Depuis le milieu des années 1980, le nombre de chefs charismatiques a considérablement augmenté dans la région des Grands Lacs d'Afrique centrale et orientale. L'auteur établit ici un lien entre l'expansion rapide de l'autorité charismatique et la prolifération en parallèle de nouvelles cultures de la radiodiffusion dans cette zone. Il note que tous les nouveaux chefs, ou presque, qui sont apparus au cours des deux dernières décennies sont présents sur les ondes de multiples manières. Cette présence radiophonique est souvent un élément essentiel de leurs revendications de pouvoir. Il examine ensuite les raisons de l'importance des émissions de radio dans cette région. Par le biais d'une étude détaillée de l'un de ces chefs charismatiques, Kihura Nkuba, qui s'est fait connaître en 1999 dans le Sud-ouest de l'Ouganda, l'art