What has not yet been touched in this blog is the fact that most African states are old colonies of European countries. This post is based on an article that can be found in Kaja’s blog.
Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) ended up under the administration of the British Colonial Office in 1923. In the colonial times, communications were managed by the means of print, film, and radio. These are a few ways in which the Colonial Office tried to tackle the challenges that African PR faced (and still faces today), namely illiteracy and the multitude of different languages and dialects.
Print
The Northern Rhodesian administration started to produce a government newspaper for Africans in 1936. This was done in an effort to manage communication primarily with African miners. The paper was called Mutende (meaning “peace” in the Bemba language), and it was designed for an African population of 1,366,00 of which 10% were literate. The paper was published in simple English and in the four African languages – Bemba, Nyanja, Lozi, and Tonga – spoken by the largest groups of people. Mutende contained global and local news and articles, sport, a women’s page, a health page, a children’s page, competitions, job and commercial advertisements, English lessons and letters from Africans. The paper was criticised about it not allowing its readers full freedom of expression as their letters concerning chiefs, Europeans and the government were not published. Nonetheless, the paper provided a platform for new opinion leaders, the educated Africans to demonstrate their language and polemical skills and also acted as a long-term agent of change, inducting its readers into the social norms of western society.
Film
Africans on the Copperbelt had been exposed to Hollywood entertainment films since 1928, while the British Colonial Office had also been interested in the use of films in adult education since 1927. Adult education was a popular topic in the 1930s, and there were positive experiences from mass education programmes elsewhere that urged the British to take on this endeavour. They saw both films and broadcasting as ways of “spreading thought among the natives” and overcoming the challenge of illiteracy. Cinema was designed to help the illiterate Africans to adjust to the coming of Western capitalist society with its alien social and economic standards.
Radio
During WW2 only a few Africans had access to radios and numerous technical troubles interfered with transmission, which caused broadcasting to be essentially experimental. Most listened in on communal sets; at the end of WW2 there were approximately 200-300 community receivers in welfare halls, and bomas throughout the country. Halls were crowded and noisy, and the programme in each language did not last longer than 7-10 minutes before it was repeated in another language. There was still enthusiasm about the potential of radio for mass education after WW2. By 1950, broadcasting hours had reached 24.5 hrs a week with programmes being transmitted in six of the main languages.
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Smyth, R. (2000). The Genesis of Public Relations in British Colonial Practice. In Public Relations Review 27 (2001), pp. 149-161.
Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) ended up under the administration of the British Colonial Office in 1923. In the colonial times, communications were managed by the means of print, film, and radio. These are a few ways in which the Colonial Office tried to tackle the challenges that African PR faced (and still faces today), namely illiteracy and the multitude of different languages and dialects.
The Northern Rhodesian administration started to produce a government newspaper for Africans in 1936. This was done in an effort to manage communication primarily with African miners. The paper was called Mutende (meaning “peace” in the Bemba language), and it was designed for an African population of 1,366,00 of which 10% were literate. The paper was published in simple English and in the four African languages – Bemba, Nyanja, Lozi, and Tonga – spoken by the largest groups of people. Mutende contained global and local news and articles, sport, a women’s page, a health page, a children’s page, competitions, job and commercial advertisements, English lessons and letters from Africans. The paper was criticised about it not allowing its readers full freedom of expression as their letters concerning chiefs, Europeans and the government were not published. Nonetheless, the paper provided a platform for new opinion leaders, the educated Africans to demonstrate their language and polemical skills and also acted as a long-term agent of change, inducting its readers into the social norms of western society.
Film
Africans on the Copperbelt had been exposed to Hollywood entertainment films since 1928, while the British Colonial Office had also been interested in the use of films in adult education since 1927. Adult education was a popular topic in the 1930s, and there were positive experiences from mass education programmes elsewhere that urged the British to take on this endeavour. They saw both films and broadcasting as ways of “spreading thought among the natives” and overcoming the challenge of illiteracy. Cinema was designed to help the illiterate Africans to adjust to the coming of Western capitalist society with its alien social and economic standards.
Radio
During WW2 only a few Africans had access to radios and numerous technical troubles interfered with transmission, which caused broadcasting to be essentially experimental. Most listened in on communal sets; at the end of WW2 there were approximately 200-300 community receivers in welfare halls, and bomas throughout the country. Halls were crowded and noisy, and the programme in each language did not last longer than 7-10 minutes before it was repeated in another language. There was still enthusiasm about the potential of radio for mass education after WW2. By 1950, broadcasting hours had reached 24.5 hrs a week with programmes being transmitted in six of the main languages.
--
Smyth, R. (2000). The Genesis of Public Relations in British Colonial Practice. In Public Relations Review 27 (2001), pp. 149-161.
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