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Gugar Goge & Ruwan Dare Radio Serial Dramas
STORY LINES FROM RUWAN DARE
Ruwan Dare is addressing issues such as reproductive health, family health, women’s empowerment, the rights of children, HIV/AIDS, and drugs and alcohol. The issues are being addressed by four interwoven storylines. Two of the storylines are outlined below.
Jummai’s Story
This story is centered on a character named Jummai. Jummai has a friend named Ummi who is a low-class film actress that spends her time partying and sleeping with producers and directors. Jummai becomes engrossed with Ummi’s flashy lifestyle, Western dress, and material possessions. Jummai’s mother sees the change in Jummai’s behavior and warns her about the risks.
As time goes on, Jummai and Ummi get involved in drugs, are almost raped, and even end up in jail. After spending the night in jail, Jummai makes an effort to avoid Ummi, but Jummai is lured in again when she sees Ummi driving around in a fancy car with a new cell phone. Soon thereafter, Jummai and Ummi end up going out to a club and getting very drunk. A director invites the girls back to his house and continues to give the girls alcohol. Jummai is too drunk and decides to go to bed. The director suggests that they join Ummi in bed, and, just as Ummi and the director start to get undressed, to get into bed with Jummai, his wife storms in and throws the girls out of her house. Weeks later, Ummi and Jummai see the director’s wife on the street, and she fights with Ummi and tells her to stay away from her husband. At the end of the story, Ummi is permanently disfigured and no longer able to act anywhere; she lost everything when she lost her looks. Jummai comes to realize that Ummi is a bad role model and decides to change her ways.
Azumi’s Story
When the story begins, Azumi is pregnant while breastfeeding her four-month-old son. She is married to a man named Lawai. During her pregnancy Azumi becomes very sick and must be taken to the hospital. Azumi nearly dies, but ends up delivering a healthy son. After the terrifying delivery, the health worker tells Azumi and Lawai that Azumi needs to take time to recover after the pregnancy or she will die.
During Azumi’s recovery, Lawai and Azumi decide that they need to space their children. Lawai is unsure of their decision and goes to the malam to ask if it is okay to space their children. The malam advises them that child spacing is allowed under Islamic law because it is good for the health of the mother and child. So Lawai and Azumi decide to practice traditional methods of birth control, like the rhythm method. As a result, their marriage suffers, so Lawai goes back to the malam for more advice. He asks the malam how they can space their children and keep their marriage alive. The malam suggests they see a health worker to see if there is another method. They adopt a new method, and their marriage improves. Despite the improvement in their marriage, Azumi remains too weak to bear children. As a result, Lawai marries another wife named Asibi.
Asibi has trouble getting pregnant at first, but eventually she gets pregnant with the help of an herbalist. She ends up giving birth to twins. Soon after giving birth to twins, Asibi gets pregnant again and falls very ill, because the subsequent pregnancy came too soon. She ends up giving birth to another little girl. Azumi ends up caring for Asibi and her children, because Asibi is too sick. Azumi encourages Asibi to rest before having another child, but Asibi says she is going to conceive as soon as she can. She wants more children because that means her children will get the inheritance, for she will have more children than Azumi.
Azumi’s parents are not pleased when they learn that Azumi has decided to space her children, while Lawai’s other wife, Asibi, has three children. Azumi succumbs to the pressure of her parents and decides to get pregnant again. Lawai expresses his concern for her health, but she insists. Again Azumi becomes very ill, worse than the last time. She gives birth to another daughter. Just after the birth, there is a severe drought and, as a result, Lawai’s harvest is very lean. He has trouble providing for his sick wives and many children. To survive, he must sell some of his cattle. After another near encounter with death, Azumi says that she now fully understands the need for child spacing. So she goes straight to a health worker to obtain a family planning method.
Next, Asibi tries to get pregnant again. Against Lawai’s will, Asibi visits the herbalist that helped her get pregnant the first time. Asibi ends up getting pregnant, and once again, Azumi becomes jealous of Asibi. Azumi wants to stop using family planning so she can get pregnant, but Lawai insists that she continue to use birth control, because the risks of pregnancy are too great. Azumi is still not convinced.
This story concludes when Asibi goes into labor and dies during a difficult delivery. Asibi’s death is the final argument that Lawai uses to convince Azumi that she should not get pregnant again so soon. Asibi’s children stay with Azumi and Lawai, and Azumi treats them like her own.
