The African National Congress's Radio Freedom and its audiences in apartheid South Africa, 19631991

Abstract

This article discusses the social history of Radio Freedom, the African National Congress's (ANC) clandestine radio station between 1963 and 1991. The article focuses on the audiences of Radio Freedom, how they listened to the station, which messages they appropriated from it, and the impact of these messages on political mobilization in the country. The article advances arguments about how radio broadcasting became a strategic priority for the ANC and its allies in the aftermath of the violent crushing and the turn to the armed struggle. Radio became one of the key tools used by the liberation movement to counter the apartheid state's propaganda messages and to articulate an alternative political perspective. Through Radio Freedom, the ANC could directly connect with its supporters inside the country and influence political mobilization particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. Despite the illegality of tuning into the station and the jamming techniques used by the state to block signal transmission, individuals from the younger, more politically active generation of black South Africans did find creative but discreet ways of tuning into Radio Freedom. This station was arguably one of the major sources of information on the ANC, shaping political education and understanding of the developments and influencing political activities inside the country.

Informal Education and Collective Conscientisation in the #FeesMustFall Movement at Nelson Mandela University

“…These knowledge resources were banned by the apartheid state, but they were created by Pan-African leaders of the liberation movements to conscientise ordinary people across the continent and abroad. Radio Freedom was broadcasted in over 11 countries in the southern African region, targeting communities of oppressed black people and young activists, particularly those in South Africa and in exile (Lekgoathi, 2018). Its studios were located in Zambia and its purpose was to communicate the strategies and tactics of liberation movements in their noble attempts to surface the freedom struggle (Mbete, 2019).…”

‘Sikhuluma Isikhethu’ : Ndebele Radio, Ethnicity and Cultural Identity in South Africa, 1983-1994

“…Despite the budget cutbacks which adversely affected smaller services such as Radio Ndebele (as well as Tsonga, Venda and Swazi stations), 'these services had to continue in the midst of the intensified anti-South African propaganda campaign by hostile stations broadcasting from outside the country's borders' (SABC Annual Report 1986: 46). The latter was a veiled allusion to the African National Congress's Radio Freedom, which was headquartered in Lusaka, Zambia, but broadcasting illegally into South Africa (Davis 2009;Lekgoathi 2010).…”

“…In recent years this medium has begun to receive some serious scholarly analysis from media studies scholars, anthropologists as well as from historians (Gunner, Ligaga & Moyo 2011;Fardon & Furniss 2000). A number of studies in South Africa have explored public radio and African language radio in particular (Gunner 2000(Gunner , 2002(Gunner , 2004(Gunner , 2005(Gunner , 2006Lekgoathi 2009Lekgoathi , 2011Lekgoathi , 2012Gqibitole 2002;Mhlambi 2009;Theunissen, Nikitin & Pillay 1996) and even fewer have focused on the use of radio by the liberation movements in Africa (Lekgoathi 2010(Lekgoathi , 2013Davis 2009;Mosia, Riddle & Zaffiro 1994). Except for Lekgoathi's (2012) article, no scholarly work has been produced on Ndebele radio.…”

Radio in Africa

“…Broadcasters do try to actively build their communities, but there needs to be something that can be built on and someone who communicates back. This becomes clear in Gunner’s account of broadcasters in exile, as in Sekibakiba Lekgoathi’s work (which Gunner and Moorman build on) on radio Xhosa and the ANC-operated “Radio Freedom” (Lekgoathi 2010; 2022). In the space between the broadcasters’ “voices” (meaning both their actual voice and their distinctive style) and the multivocality that Englund and Brisset-Foucault describe, radio’s communities are formed and have, as the Internet age is wont to say, effects “IRL” (in real life), beyond the medium itself.…”