Handling of Sexually Offensive Expressions on Zimbabwe's Selected Radio Stations

Abstract

Sexual and reproductive health-related communication in Africa is culturally regulated. This chapter analyses the handling of sexually offensive expressions on Zimbabwe's African language radio stations. The conceptual lens for this study is grounded in the indigenous knowledge systems perspective, which underscores indigenous communication systems as indispensable assets for African cultural communities. The chapter shows that African language radio stations are expedient channels for sexual and reproductive health-related communication in the contemporary society. However, this study shows the widespread use of inconceivable sexually explicit language and ineffective euphemisms in a manner that diminishes the relevance of the radio programmes. Therefore, the chapter maintains that it is imperative to remodel African language radio's language use conventions in programmes that relate to sexual and reproductive health issues in ways that match the cultural traditions of the respective audience.

Sex Gospel in Zimbabwe’s Pentecostal Christianity as a Response to Social Change: The Case of Apostle Kapandura and Mai Lucia Gunguwo

“…The presence of sexuality and vulgarity in the public domain is a controversial subject, and scholars, parents, religious figures and other stakeholders have objected to the increased sexual and pornographic content in public spaces such as the media (Bayraktar, 2013). Existing studies in Zimbabwe have focused on sexualised content in African language broadcasting (Mpofu and Salawu, 2020a, 2020b) and vulgarity in Zimdancehall (Parwaringira and Mpofu, 2021a, 2021b). No study known to us has interrogated the presence of vulgarity in Pentecostal Christian sex gospel.…”

“…Therefore, we advance the argument that, though it is valuable to explore and impart sexually related issues in the church, presentations and sermons must be grounded in people’s culture and philosophy about sex. With regards to speech, Mpofu and Salawu (2020b) argue for the framing of language use and traditions of sexually offensive terminology in the public domain in ways that are commensurate to the cultural traditions of the audiences. However, while it is not easy to reproduce the traditional institutions and spaces, in the absence of fundamental and functioning Shona institutions and spaces, the church can be a veritable space for propagating sexual knowledge in modern-day societies.…”