West Africans Celebrate Access to Live Sessions of General Conference

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Every six months, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Africa West Area are asked to share pictures of themselves watching General Conference on the Church’s social media site. During the April 2024 conference they shared photos of themselves watching on television from home, meeting together in church buildings, or just watching on their phone or laptop. Access to all live sessions of General Conference is not something that these saints take for granted. "It has been a long, incremental journey," noted Emelia Ahadjie, retired Church Communication Director for the Africa West Area.

For years, access to General Conference was limited to satellite broadcasts to Stake Centers, video recordings sent to the Stakes, waiting for printed copies of conference in the Liahona, or on-line from the Church websites. "On-line and satellite access was difficult, limited without strong wi-fi connections," said Sister Ahadjie. And for those who didn’t speak English as a first language, it often took months before the translations were available, and then only in print.

The challenge for the Church Communications was to "expand the reach of the prophets voice to our Heavenly Fathers sons and daughters in West Africa" said Sister Ahadjie, and added, " we decided to use media to bring live sessions of General Conference into the homes of our dear members and their friends." This message resounded with the saints and the process of partnering with various media outlets throughout the Africa West Area began.

President Russell M. Nelson told the Church that the April 2020 General Conference would be special. For the members of the Church in West Africa it was even more meaningful. For the first time, live sessions of General Conference would be available to members in their homes through local media outlets. In Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, live broadcasts in English were made available through some of their nation's largest television stations. For many in the Africa West Area, French is the predominate language. Members in Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Senegal, and Mali were able to access the Church’s live translations into French through Cote d’Ivoire’s Business 24 Television Station.

In addition, translations of conference into many tribal languages will be made available within a few weeks of conference close. The process of overdub translation of General Conference into Twi, Fante, Efik, Igbo, and Yoruba will begin immediately after the conclusion of the conference sessions. These translations, as well as the written translations, will be made available on the Gospel Library.

In preparation for these broadcasts, local members in 6 countries were chosen to represent the church at media houses in their countries. Local programming included interviews on morning television and radio shows in conjunction with Church ad spots focusing on conference.