‘Men Between’: The Role of Zambian Broadcasters in Decolonisation

Robert Heinze

Journal of Southern African Studies, 2014, vol. 40, issue 3, 623-640

Abstract: This article traces the history of a group of Zambian broadcasters who established the first radio station in the country and made their mark on broadcasting for years to come. It describes their contribution to modern Zambian culture and to nationalist mobilisation. African broadcasters developed formats, ways of presenting and choices of music that appealed to Zambian listeners and established new, authentically local styles.While radio quickly established itself as an integral part of everyday life and culture in the colony, its effect was highly ambivalent. Broadcasters at the same time undermined and enforced the colonial project of using the medium as a transmitter of modernisation ideology. The article explores Thomas Turino's characterisation of this team as ‘cosmopolitans’ and shows how they were influenced by BBC ideas of journalism and modernisation ideology. To do so, it analyses the relationships African broadcasters had with Europeans in senior positions and with colonial and postcolonial governments. This shared value system brought these Zambian broadcasters into conflict with the post-independence government and its plans to bureaucratise radio, despite their nationalist commitment and strong support for the United National Independence Party (UNIP) before independence.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03057070.2014.909663 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cjssxx:v:40:y:2014:i:3:p:623-640

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/cjss20

DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2014.909663

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Southern African Studies is currently edited by Ralph Smith

More articles in Journal of Southern African Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().