China Radio International (CRI), China's only radio station running a world service, celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Kiswahili broadcast on September 1.

CRI's Kiswahili broadcast provides 17 hours of programming a day to about 100 million listeners in central and eastern Africa. Established in 1961, the broadcast has developed into a comprehensive medium, integrating SW radio, AM radio, overseas FM radio, and online radio together with overseas Confucius institutes.

"CRI has made an outstanding contribution to the relationship between China and East Africa, offering African listeners opportunities to realize what happens in China, and to learn Chinese culture and language," said Omar Ramadhan Mapuri, the Tanzanian Ambassador to China. "Many African people have learned a lot about China through the broadcasting program, before arriving in China."

CRI launched its first overseas FM radio station in Nairobi in February 2006, marking a new era in Chinese international broadcast. Today, CRI has established FM radio stations in three major cities around East Africa, and its AM channel covers all of Kenya.

"Before the CRI broadcast appeared, Africans could get news about China only from Western media like BBC. They wanted to hear the real Chinese voice," Sun Shangxin, a CRI expert who has worked in Africa for 10 years, told ChinAfrica.

Meanwhile, the first Chinese television program, dubbed in Kiswahili by CRI experts and Kiswahili actors, is set to air on Tanzania's national television channel this November.