What’s the Frequency, Nkurunziza?

Radio is king in Africa — anyone who has spent much time on the continent knows that. Virtually no African government lacks a friendly frequency. A coup isn’t really a coup here until the general commandeers a local radio station. In Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, the only weapon as infamous as the machetes that the country’s ethnic Hutus wielded against their Tutsi neighbors was the Hutu-allied Radio Mille Collines, whose broadcasts incited them to do it. The experience has taught the region that a radio station that traffics in rumors, subtle threats, and political accusations can be dangerous in and of itself — and a sign of darker things to come.