Wrestling with the Present, Beckoning to the Past: Contemporary Zulu Radio Drama

Gunner, Liz

doi:10.1080/03057070050010084

Cited by 37 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…While the exploration of radio drama in Europe and other western countries has tended to focus singularly on the aesthetics of such productions (Crook 1999), radio drama in Africa has been noted to play a functional role as well (Gunner 2000, Ligaga 2005). Moolman's collection should be applauded as it shows radio's ability to be part of important ongoing discourses in South African history.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blind Voices: A collection of radio plays

Ligaga

2009

English Academy Review

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Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blind Voices: A collection of radio plays

Ligaga

2009

English Academy Review

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“…While in South Africa radio began in 1924 and became South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in 1936, when the state took over, the rst programme aimed at Zulu listeners was aired as early as 1941 (Gunner 2000). King Edward Masinga, the rst Zulu news reporter and journalist, in collaboration with the journalist and ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey, wrote the rst musical play, Chief Above and Chief Below (1944) which is an adaptation from a folktale (ibid: 224).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance to print and print to performance: Plays, adaptations and book reading on South African radio

Sibiya¹

2001

Journal of African Cultural Studies

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A signi cant number of IsiZulu literary titles have been developed from radio plays. This does not mean that no literary titles have been made into radio plays. Indeed, as I will argue, there has been a dialectic between radio drama and literary developments, a dialectic that has been mutually bene cial to the development of both art forms. Despite this dialectic, however, there has been a notable silence, where research is concerned, on the role of radio, and media generally, in the development and promotion of African-language literatures . The corollary also applies: not much has been written on the contribution of these literatures to the development and promotion of radio drama. What we have had instead are expressions of resentment -often overstated -of what on the surface appears to be the media's indifference to literature. This paper, then, hopes partly to provide a corrective to this perception by arguing that radio has played a role in the development and promotion of African-language literature . Discussion and analysis of radio plays, adaptations and book-reading programmes form the basis for this argument.

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“…Hadebe, along with the versatile and intellectual Alexius Buthelezi, and his mentor as sports commentator, Thetha Masombuka, were part of the small group of black broadcasters based in Johannesburg and employed in what was then a heavily racially strati®ed and racially hierarchical organization with African language radio securely (or so it seemed) in the hands of the architects of apartheid and their acolytes. 12 Hadebe's role, when appointed to Radio Zulu in 1974 was, in the main, to act as the sports commentator for football and boxing in the Johannesburg region, learning the trade 13 The facilities available to the black commentators of football were, Koos Hadebe recalled, consistently minimal but they were adored and revered and their voices ± the timbre, range, turn of phrase, key words used ± became household property not only in the townships of the Rand but well to the north of Johannesburg. Moreover, so skilled was their commentary that they were often listened to by speakers of SeSotho, SeTswana and SePedi as well.…”

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confidence: 97%

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confidence: 99%

Resistant Medium: The Voices of Zulu Radio Drama in the 1970s

Gunner¹

2002

Theatre Research International

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The making of culture in South Africa through different but linked forms and genres focuses on the medium of radio, and the ‘emergent genre’ of Zulu serial radio drama. Using Benedict Anderson's notion of ‘socioscape’ a link is drawn between the wide sweep of historical events and the production of culture. Beginning with the case of the musical, uMabatha [Macbeth], its performance history, and its links with serial radio drama in Zulu, this article focuses on the ways in which this, in turn was linked to the ‘performance’ of African football commentary on radio, and points to the national resonances that the act, and art, of commentating built up for both announcers and listeners. Finally, three representative radio serial plays from the 1970s are examined in relation to the ways in which they engaged with the social and political realities of the time. Through the multi-accentual nature of language and the polysemic nature of the plays themselves these plays might appear to endorse or, at least, acquiesce in the dominant apartheid ideology of the era, yet at the same time they offered resistant alternatives to it.

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Wrestling with the Present, Beckoning to the Past: Contemporary Zulu Radio Drama

Cited by 37 publications

References 3 publications

Blind Voices: A collection of radio plays

Blind Voices: A collection of radio plays

Performance to print and print to performance: Plays, adaptations and book reading on South African radio

Resistant Medium: The Voices of Zulu Radio Drama in the 1970s

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