This article examines how Kirundi radio drama Ninde ‘visualizes’ sensitive everyday life issues for an invisible audience through the medium of dramatic sound to prompt development. Ninde is a new style of communication borne from the interaction between tradition and modernity to communicate artistically to the Burundian community in order to lead abandonment of beliefs and practices that are considered old-fashioned, dangerous or harmful. The question this article attempts to answer is “how is Ninde framed as a radio play form?” The argument that the article advances is that radio Ninde is framed as a theatre of the mind whose main purpose is to correct people by means of satire especially its inflection – ridicule. The empirical material on which the argument is based is a sample of Ninde plays from Burundi. The analysis employs Erving Goffman’s concept of framing whose major premise
is that particular frames instil a specific worldview in peoples’ minds through priming and making a piece of information more noticeable, meaningful, or memorable to audiences. The article concludes that Ninde relies on dialogue mostly: the comedic, exaggeration, metaphor and a formulaic approach, often one that simply contrasts characters of good moral standing against those of dubious repute to influence the imagination of its imagined audiences. It is an edutainment genre (entertainment content designed to educate) through which the bitter pill of verbal correction of human follies and foibles is sugared with amusement to trigger social change. To use Ninde in communication for sustainable development objectives can pass well because narratives are
something into which people realise themselves. As a recommendation, radio drama projects need to be financially supported very much like other local development initiatives.