Welcome to Chikuni Community Radio Station 91.9 FM

About the Radio Chikuni Snail

In any culture there’s an element of folklore, mysticism and tradition. Tonga is no different from any other culture in this regard. The Tonga people are farmers of the land and have been farming for a long time. Rains are hugely important to them and this is where our story begins…

Legend has it that if you see snails in January, the month right in the middle of Zambia’s rain season, then it was going to be a very good rain season. So the snail became associated with good tidings and good things to come.

Now when Radio Chikuni was being built, people watched our 69 meter radio tower being built. There was suddenly talk of good things to come throughout the region; the prospect of being able to communicate throughout the wider Chikuni, Monze and Choma districts. The radio represented a chance to improve peoples socio-economic conditions and every day lives. The opportunity to learn, to discuss, to remember and to be entertained was suddenly becoming a reality.

Radio Chikuni is a Catholic radio station and as such adopted the mascot of a snail because just a Jesus used the fig tree, a common sight in that area of the world, to explain things to his people, Radio Chikuni uses the snail, a familiar symbol to the Tonga people, to get across it’s mission to improve their lives and be a symbol of things happening and to come.