INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
The state of the media in Zimbabwe today can only be seen and understood through the prism of the local and global historical developments that took place in the last hundred years. These developments, occasioned by the political, economic and cultural forces at play during the colonial and post-independence epochs, have had a lasting impression on the mass media of this country. This article endeavors to unravel the narrative of these historical developments and how they account for the state of the mass media in Zimbabwe today. It looks at the interplay between the local and global forces during the colonial and post-independence periods, and how these manifest themselves in the mass media today. The article focuses at the colonial period, Black Nationalism and resistance period and the post-independence period and shows how developments in these eras have dovetailed to form the countenance of the media today.
This article discusses the history and current state of mainstream media in Zimbabwe. Advertising and Public Relations, the arts, film, telecommunications, and the Internet are also discussed. Although these media have not really acquired the state of mass communication in Zimbabwe and other African countries, they are discussed alongside radio, television, newspapers and magazines, which enjoy a fairly higher appeal and circulation in comparison.
BACKGROUND
The winds of change that cut through Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe in the nineties did not spare Zimbabwe. After attaining independence in 1980, Zimbabwe clearly desired to take a socialist policy path as evidenced by the centralization of the economy, politics, and the restrictive media environment, especially in broadcasting. For instance, the Broadcasting Act (1957) that was used by colonial governments to ensure state monopoly in broadcasting continued to be used after independence until 2001 when the Supreme Court struck it down.
Although the 1979 Lancaster House constitution clearly enshrined the freedom of expression and multi-party politics, the government had a solid plan of creating a defacto one party state and promoting its policies by maintaining a monolithic environment in the media. Any efforts to the contrary by the state were merely cosmetic so as to placate the donors and the international community. The confidence to embrace the socialist policies was obviously inspired by not only the global bipolar politics, but also by the country’s intimate relationship with the Socialist block during the struggle for independence. Countries like Cuba and China whose influence continues to deepen even today, were the linchpins of Zimbabwe’s independence.
Although the print media environment had always been deregulated and pluralistic even during the colonial period, both the public and private media still operated with great caution in the post-independence era as the media environment remained a minefield due to the restrictive laws acquired from the colonial period. These laws include the Criminal Defamation Act, Official Secrets Act, Public Order and Security Act (promulgated in 2002 to replace the Law and Order Maintenance Act).
Like its colonial predecessor, the new black government also used extra judicial and underhand strategies such as eliminating good editors by ‘promotion’, and also intimidating and torturing journalists. For example in 1985, veteran journalist Willi Musarurwa was dismissed from The Sunday Mail editorship for his unwavering commitment to truthful and courageous reporting.
It is a fact therefore that while the outside world was misled to think that Zimbabwe was democratizing her institutions, things were actually taking a different direction on the ground. The reconciliation with the white community made Prime Minister Robert Mugabe pose as a democrat and statesman to the world. However, unlike the South African reconciliation process that was underpinned by strong guarantees of human rights, the Zimbabwean process had an effect of strengthening a culture of state domination, ruthless governance and impunity (Carver, 2000,p3). Zimbabwe was therefore essentially a closed and authoritarian society during the first decade until the nineties when government succumbed to the pressure from the World Bank and the IMF to liberalize the economy and democratize politics.
The Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP) was introduced in 1991 and this culminated in a hesitant pursuit of free market economics in the country by the government. The beginning of the liberal economic policies led to the proliferation of private players in the economy including magazines that gave a platform to a number of growing voices of dissent in the country. The private press has remained the kingpin of the democratization process through the articulation of the alternative views from mainly the opposition, civic organizations and the masses.
The pressure from the private press has continued to mount on the government not only to open up and democratize, but also to stop the mismanagement of the economy and corruption. This pressure seems to have reached unbearable levels for government after the introduction of The Daily News in 1999. This private daily newspaper, together with other newspapers like The Zimbabwe Independent and The Financial Gazette, has almost submerged the state-controlled media in directing public opinion on issues such as the economic crisis in the country, the land question and the DRC war where government continues to be heavily involved.
Although the private media has managed to offer a tinge of optimism for self determination for the 12.8 million Zimbabweans, doom and gloom still plagues this nation. The challenges that lay ahead are far much bigger than those that the people have conquered in the past. The economy is in shambles with inflation at 112% (six times the SADC average), unemployment is above 50% and external debt is US$700 million. The government has failed to meet its obligations several times now. Above 60% of the people live below the poverty datum line and commercial agriculture that employed above 66% of the labor force, has collapsed. Many industries have folded due to foreign
currency shortage and lack of respect for private property. Social and health services have also collapsed and about 2000 people die every week from AIDS. The average life expectancy has fallen to a harrowing 37 years for the majority of poor Zimbabweans.
MASS MEDIA DURING THE PERIOD OF ZIMBABWE'S COLONIZATION
Print and Broadcast Media
The development of the print and broadcast media in Zimbabwe is intimately tied to colonialism, colonial interests and the black resistance to the colonial status quo. In the early years of colonization, whites entirely dominated the print media ensuring that newspapers put across their views and consolidated their economic and political gains. Three periods can be used in the analysis and these are, the Early years (1890-1926), the Federation years (1953-61), the Rhodesian Front years (1962-79).
1. The Early years (1890-1926)
Two companies are of critical importance in understanding the development of the print media during the colonial period in Zimbabwe. These are the Argus Printing and Publishing Company (APP) and the British South Africa Company (BSAC).
The APP was a media conglomerate that was based in South Africa. This company that was owned by Francis Joseph Dormer and Cecil John Rhodes, gradually expanded to operate in the whole of Southern Africa in line with colonial interests of Cecil John Rhodes. It is important to point that although Rhodes had assisted Dormer with approximately 3000 pounds to buy APP from another South African investor, Rhodes decided to use Dormer as a front while he hid behind him only as a shareholder in the company. Rhodes’ interests in APP were obviously of strategic importance in bolstering his political ambitions. The media company was key in controlling the hearts and minds of his white subjects and the blacks. In short, APP was important in the hegemonic project of Rhodes in his construction of the Rhodesian nation.
The BSAC, directly owned by Rhodes, was an agent of the colonial agricultural and mining interests not only in Zimbabwe but the whole of Southern Africa. The Pioneer Column, a group of mercenaries from South Africa advancing Rhodes’ Cape to Cario colonial dream, arrived in what is today known as Harare in September 1890. This culminated in the birth of the Rhodesian nation (present day Zimbabwe), named after Rhodes himself. The BSAC supported by the APP, soon acquired mining rights from the indigenous people in Zimbabwe and these economic interests happened simultaneously with the political interests of nation building. As the Rhodesian nation grew, information needs by white settlers who were cut off from South Africa and the entire world also grew. Soon after the arrival of the Pioneer Column, The Mashonaland Herald and Zambesian Times, later on known as The Rhodesian Herald was founded in 1891 to cater for the political administrative needs and business needs of the settler community. This paper was basically a regional newspaper whose circulation was limited to the white settler community in Mashonaland. It was organized and run on a self-proprietorship style. William Fairbridge, an APP agent, was the reporter, editor and manager for the paper. About 700 copies were produced a week and subscription rates ranged from a shilling to about 25 pounds (Gale W, 1962,p34). The content of the newspaper comprised official announcements, local news, and expressions of local opinion about the socio-political developments facing the settler community. Interestingly but not surprisingly, the paper shared the same mission statement with the BSAC of “Justice, Freedom and Commerce”. This shows how the development of the print media in Zimbabwe was so enmeshed in political and economic power structures. The Mashonaland Herald and Zambesian Times set out to fight for justice, freedom and business interests of the white settler minority. These rights excluded blacks and this became very clear especially in 1892 when The Rhodesian Herald replaced the paper. The editorial policy of The Rhodesian Herald was expressly stated as the advancement of the mining and agricultural interests of the white community and the colonial government; and the promotion of fellowship and unity amongst all classes and sections of the white community (Gale W, 1962,pp123-5).
Another paper worth mentioning was The Bulawayo Chronicle that was founded in 1894 to service the Matebeleland region as the settler community further expanded. As a sister paper of The Rhodesian Herald, there were no fundamental differences in terms of the editorial policy and agenda. At independence the two newspapers were bought by government and are now called The Chronicle and The Herald.
2. The Federation years (1953-61)
The Federation period was the time when Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), and Nyasalanda (Malawi) were amalgamated to form the Central African Federation (CAF) in order to centralize their administration. The Prime Minister for CAF was David Whitehead. Later, Sir Garfield Todd who was known to be too sympathetic with blacks took over.
This period is important for two things in the development of the media in Zimbabwe. It did not only mark the time of the emergence of the African press, but also saw the advent of broadcasting in the country. In 1926 however, the APP had set up the Rhodesian Printing and Publishing Company (RPP) that acted as their Rhodesian subsidiary. In addition to The Bulawayo Chronicle and The Rhodesian Herald, RPP had two more papers, The Sunday Mail and The Sunday News introduced in 1934 and 1935 respectively. Although papers were growing in number, ownership was exclusive to whites and these media said nothing on behalf of the 1 600 000 colonized blacks and never reported issues from their perspective. This led to the development of the African press.
a. The African press
The 1950s marked a period of the rise in Black Nationalism and agitation for emancipation not only in Zimbabwe but also across Africa. Some countries particularly in West Africa had attained their independence and the winds of autonomy and self- determination began to blow across the rest of Africa. Zimbabwe was not an exception.
The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Patriotic Front) (ZAPU PF) led by Joshua Nkomo, an epitome of the emerging black elite class who had benefited from the missionary education system, was in the vanguard of the struggle for black emancipation in Zimbabwe. ZAPU’s growth and ungovernable expansion saw its influence permeate almost all the urban centers, making it a party that commanded national authority.
The rise of black politics was followed by the concomitant rise in black journalism and Black press through which politicians articulated their views and mobilized people for the struggle for emancipation. This marked the period of the rise of the so- called ‘African press’, a press that filled the gap to cater for the hitherto marginalized black people. These included inter alia, The Bantu Mirror, The African Daily News, The African Parade and later on, Moto. The ‘African’ press was not truly African in every aspect. Although black journalists like former minister Nathan Shamuyarira and the late prominent Willie Musarurwa worked for these newspapers, these newspapers were owned and controlled by white liberals who only wanted some cosmetic changes to the status quo. Liberals only wanted some constitutional reforms and not a complete obliteration of the colonial system. Some theorists believe that the ‘African’ press was based on an economic rationale, with advertising as a key motive in order to promote white business in the black market.
The Bantu Mirror (1932) was owned by the Paver Brothers, Cedric and Betram. The two came from South Africa and had bought the paper from a missionary, Reverend Hardfield of the Church of Christ. The newspaper was clearly inconsequential as it avoided politics, concentrating on fairy tales and entertainment that sought to inoculate the black elite from any type of political engagement.
In 1943, the Paver Brothers who also owned Independent Film Media started a new company called African Newspapers. The company had several newspaper titles in its stable including The African Daily News (1956), a paper that grew to espouse black interests until the government banned it in August 1964. This paper had started as The African Weekly in 1944. Other newspapers that were owned by the African Newspapers comprised The Recorder targeting teachers, and The Harvester targeting farmers. In the 1960s the Canadian based Thompson Publishing Group bought The African Daily News and The African Parade magazine. This led to a more critical editorial stance by these media as the buyers were thought of as more liberal than the Paver brothers who came from a more ruthless apartheid system in South Africa.
The Moto newspaper was started in the 1950s and was owned by the Roman Catholic church. It also stood for Black Nationalist interests and poured vitriolic attacks on the injustice perpetrated by the colonial government on blacks. Its editor Father Michael Traber, was deported in 1970 and the magazine got banned four years later.
b. Broadcasting
Radio broadcasting started in 1958 when the Federal Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) based in Salisbury (Harare) was formed. Television broadcasting followed in 1960 making Southern Rhodesia to be the second country after Nigeria to have television broadcasting (Saunders, 1999,p 4). Although broadcasting can be traced back to the 1930s when three adventurous Post office engineers took advantage of an underutilized transmitter meant for aviation signals, formal and organized broadcasting really began during the Federation period.
i. The Organization and Programming policy
Like every other institution during the colonial period, broadcasting in Southern Rhodesia was organized on racial lines. The color bar that was very evident in churches and schools at the time, also had a glaring presence in the media. The FBC was divided into the English Service based in Salisbury and the African Service based in Lusaka in Northern Rhodesia. However, this service later moved to Harare where it broadcast mainly in Shona and Ndebele languages. The English Service broadcast in English and its programming comprised mainly news from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the South African Press Agency (SAPA).
The African Service broadcast in a number of African languages found in the three Federal countries. These were Shona, Ndebele, Lozi, Chewa and Nyanja. Programming for the blacks comprised heavily censored news, drama, music and traditional songs. An interesting point is raised about this station. Although the station was not referred to as the African Service at the time, it is believed that this service started sometime in 1941 so as to mobilize blacks to support Britain in the Second World War. This is where the influence of the global dynamics in the development of broadcasting in Zimbabwe can be seen.
ii. The Employment and Training policy
Employment and training opportunities were also largely restricted to the white minority. While employment opportunities were very low for blacks, training programs were even fewer and were not designed to produce high-level skills for top jobs. For example in 1959 the FBC had 159 whites compared to a paltry 39 blacks, most of them messengers, translators and clerks (Zaffiro J, 1981, p57).
3. The Rhodesian Front (1962-79)
When the Rhodesian Front (RF) headed by Ian Douglas Smith came into power in 1962, it changed a number of things in broadcasting. The dissolution of the Federal government resulted in the formation of national broadcasters by individual countries that had previously formed the Federation. First, the FBC in Salibury was changed to the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) in January 1964. Secondly, community radio stations were introduced, and thirdly, a vibrant Ministry of Information (MOI) was introduced to pursue the media policies of the new government. The new government was made up of radicals who believed that the Federal government had moderate policies in dealing with black resistance to the status quo. As a result, when the RF got into power their biggest assignment was to see that they used the media, police and the courts to contain Black Nationalism and resistance.
i. Community radio stations
The community radio stations that were introduced consisted of Radio Jacaranda (1964) based in Salisbury, Radio Manica (1969) based in Mutare, Radio Matopos (1970) and Radio Mthwakazi (1970s), both based in Bulawayo. These radio stations broadcast in black people’s local languages so as to foster ethnic divisions and regionalism and hence stall nationalists’ efforts of decolonization. The radio stations were also meant to counter communist propaganda from liberation movements that were broadcasting from outside the country in Mozambique and Tanzania. Again when Smith declared the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Britain, Rhodesia faced international isolation and black people could access hostile news about the country mainly from short-wave transmission. The community radio stations came as a sure way of cocooning blacks from this and other forms of negative external influence.
ii. The Ministry of Information (MOI)
When the RF came to power, they discovered that previous governments had done very little in terms of formulating an information policy framework within which the media could operate. As a result, the new government formed the MOI whose prime obligation was controlling the media through laws, policies and other strategies. The advent of the MOI saw the press being put under serious surveillance and things became worse, especially for the ‘African’ press that was offering a platform to the voices of dissent from nationalist movements. The RF was unequivocal about the need to control the media and they defended themselves by claiming that Western Christian civilization, national unity and national security were under threat from the media due to excessive freedom granted to them. According to Ivor Benson, a staunch RF supporter who worked for the MOI, the press could be free, but only to the extent that it did not pose a threat to Rhodesian values and interests.
To ensure that the media were controlled, the RF employed people who were loyal to its radical policies into key positions in the state-controlled media and the MOI itself. For example, Pieter van der Byl, a right wing extremist from South Africa, was appointed to run the MOI while Harvey Ward, a RF ‘praise poet’ was given the directorship of the RBC.
Although the RBC was funded through license fees, advertising and government grants, the RF openly manipulated it to be its propaganda machine. In 1965 when the RF declared the UDI, the MOI tightened its grip on the media by further spreading its shackles and tentacles into the private press. The RPP was clamped down on the pretext of being an opposition press and not being patriotic. The RPP newspapers used to give coverage to the liberal white political parties like the Center Party (CP). On 11 November 1965, the day when UDI was declared, the MOI moved censors directly into the RPP newsrooms to censor news. The passing into law of the Emergency Powers and Censorship of Publications Act gave the RF censors untrammeled rights to read and approve all copy in the newsrooms before publication.
The ministry also banned several newspapers and magazines such as The Central African Examiner, The Zimbabwe Times, and The African Daily News. Underhand strategies such as intercepting mail, tapping phone calls, torture, detention, refusal of work permits to foreign journalists, and deportation were used by the MOI so as to gag and muzzle the media. During the period of 1965-80 about 100 foreign correspondents were deported from Rhodesia by the ministry that accused them of a negative and hostile coverage of Rhodesia.
Telecommunications
Telecommunications in Zimbabwe also developed as a response to colonial administrative needs and the general exploitation of mineral wealth by the BSAC. In fact, there was a striking similarity between the development of the railway network and the telephone grid in that both connected mines, farms and other areas with the best climate were the white minority resided. For example, as early as 1892 the telegraph line had already weaved the gold-rich Matebeleland with the coffee-rich Eastern Highlands and the tobacco-rich Harare.
The Africa Transnational Telegraph Company formed in the 1890s was tasked to develop telecommunications infrastructure so that the dispersed white population could communicate in space and time without any problems. This obviously went a long way in not only creating a sense of nationhood but also in facilitating the administrative needs of the colonial government. Like radio and television, telecommunications also created the much-needed link with the metropolitan, thus ensuring the white community of a constant touch with Western civilization. The telephone was indeed a standing guarantee from the ‘dark’ continent that the settlers treated with both anxiety and excitement.
During the 1950s when the nationalist movements began to fight for the rights of the oppressed black majority, government introduced the Posts and Telegraphs Act (1954) that made telecommunications a state monopoly. This, along with other laws that dealt with the mainstream media, ensured that information was tightly managed. The Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs was made the only authority with the right to install and run telecommunications gadgets and networks in Rhodesia. However, the law was amended to allow the private sector to buttress government efforts as it was failing to cope with the demand. Government failed to cope because in the 1950s the demand for telephones burgeoned mainly because of immigrants who had been scattered by the Second World War coming to settle in the colonies. Most of the immigrants had settled in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland where telephone lines were very few compared to Southern Rhodesia. For example, there were 103 000 telephone users in Zimbabwe at the time compared to only 33 500 and 8 500 in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland respectively (Federal Government Press Statement: Telephone Users in the Federation, Sept 4, 1961).
In 1968 the RF passed the Posts and Telecommunications Act turning telecommunications into a complete monopoly. This was the situation in Zimbabwe until January 1998 when Strive Masiyiwa, an Econet Chief Executive, challenged the constitutionality of the monopoly arguing that monopoly infringed on the Freedom of expression.
Film industry
In 1939 Britain formed the Colonial Film Unit (CFU) that became an appendage of its Ministry of Information. The primary function of the CFU was to tell Britain’s side of the story in the Second World War and also solicit support from its scattered colonies across the African continent.
The realization of the power of the film medium in education and propaganda culminated in the formation of the Central African Film Unit (CAFU) in 1948, located in Southern Rhodesia. The CAFU was tasked with, among other things, the production of agricultural and developmental films for the three countries that formed the Federation. It was also supposed to make films that promoted tourism, immigration, and the Federal concept that was fiercely resisted by Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland at the time.
Three employees namely, Alan Izod (Producer), Stephen Peet (Director) and Denys Brown (Scriptwriter) manned the Unit. Later on two African men, David Hlazo and Samuel Tutani were added as interpreters to African actors. The five gentlemen were very hardworking, producing 94 films in just 5 years of CAFU’s inception (Hungwe, 1991, p231).
In its formative years, CAFU got its funding from the British government through the Colonial Development Welfare (CDW). After 1956 however, the Federal government and other succeeding governments funded the organization on their own.
The most popular agricultural and developmental films were, The New School, The Two Farmers, Marimo Finds A New Life and Mangwende and The Trees. While The New School promoted Western education for Africans, the other three focused on developing peasant agriculture in Southern Rhodesia. However, racism still haunted the film industry as Africans were discouraged from growing cash crops such as tobacco and cotton as this made the whites feel insecure.
When the RF got into power, the MOI took over the responsibility of the film industry and film changed from its educational and developmental orientation to reflect the radical racist policies of Smith’s government. Film was now used to caricature and lampoon Africans, projecting them as stupid, lazy and uncivilized. A film called Tiki is a living testimony to this stereotypical portrayal of the blacks.
MASS MEDIA DURING THE PERIOD OF ZIMBABWE'S COLONIZATION
Print and Broadcast Media
The development of the print and broadcast media in Zimbabwe is intimately tied to colonialism, colonial interests and the black resistance to the colonial status quo. In the early years of colonization, whites entirely dominated the print media ensuring that newspapers put across their views and consolidated their economic and political gains. Three periods can be used in the analysis and these are, the Early years (1890-1926), the Federation years (1953-61), the Rhodesian Front years (1962-79).
1. The Early years (1890-1926)
Two companies are of critical importance in understanding the development of the print media during the colonial period in Zimbabwe. These are the Argus Printing and Publishing Company (APP) and the British South Africa Company (BSAC).
The APP was a media conglomerate that was based in South Africa. This company that was owned by Francis Joseph Dormer and Cecil John Rhodes, gradually expanded to operate in the whole of Southern Africa in line with colonial interests of Cecil John Rhodes. It is important to point that although Rhodes had assisted Dormer with approximately 3000 pounds to buy APP from another South African investor, Rhodes decided to use Dormer as a front while he hid behind him only as a shareholder in the company. Rhodes’ interests in APP were obviously of strategic importance in bolstering his political ambitions. The media company was key in controlling the hearts and minds of his white subjects and the blacks. In short, APP was important in the hegemonic project of Rhodes in his construction of the Rhodesian nation.
The BSAC, directly owned by Rhodes, was an agent of the colonial agricultural and mining interests not only in Zimbabwe but the whole of Southern Africa. The Pioneer Column, a group of mercenaries from South Africa advancing Rhodes’ Cape to Cario colonial dream, arrived in what is today known as Harare in September 1890. This culminated in the birth of the Rhodesian nation (present day Zimbabwe), named after Rhodes himself. The BSAC supported by the APP, soon acquired mining rights from the indigenous people in Zimbabwe and these economic interests happened simultaneously with the political interests of nation building. As the Rhodesian nation grew, information needs by white settlers who were cut off from South Africa and the entire world also grew. Soon after the arrival of the Pioneer Column, The Mashonaland Herald and Zambesian Times, later on known as The Rhodesian Herald was founded in 1891 to cater for the political administrative needs and business needs of the settler community. This paper was basically a regional newspaper whose circulation was limited to the white settler community in Mashonaland. It was organized and run on a self-proprietorship style. William Fairbridge, an APP agent, was the reporter, editor and manager for the paper. About 700 copies were produced a week and subscription rates ranged from a shilling to about 25 pounds (Gale W, 1962,p34). The content of the newspaper comprised official announcements, local news, and expressions of local opinion about the socio-political developments facing the settler community. Interestingly but not surprisingly, the paper shared the same mission statement with the BSAC of “Justice, Freedom and Commerce”. This shows how the development of the print media in Zimbabwe was so enmeshed in political and economic power structures. The Mashonaland Herald and Zambesian Times set out to fight for justice, freedom and business interests of the white settler minority. These rights excluded blacks and this became very clear especially in 1892 when The Rhodesian Herald replaced the paper. The editorial policy of The Rhodesian Herald was expressly stated as the advancement of the mining and agricultural interests of the white community and the colonial government; and the promotion of fellowship and unity amongst all classes and sections of the white community (Gale W, 1962,pp123-5).
Another paper worth mentioning was The Bulawayo Chronicle that was founded in 1894 to service the Matebeleland region as the settler community further expanded. As a sister paper of The Rhodesian Herald, there were no fundamental differences in terms of the editorial policy and agenda. At independence the two newspapers were bought by government and are now called The Chronicle and The Herald.
2. The Federation years (1953-61)
The Federation period was the time when Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), and Nyasalanda (Malawi) were amalgamated to form the Central African Federation (CAF) in order to centralize their administration. The Prime Minister for CAF was David Whitehead. Later, Sir Garfield Todd who was known to be too sympathetic with blacks took over.
This period is important for two things in the development of the media in Zimbabwe. It did not only mark the time of the emergence of the African press, but also saw the advent of broadcasting in the country. In 1926 however, the APP had set up the Rhodesian Printing and Publishing Company (RPP) that acted as their Rhodesian subsidiary. In addition to The Bulawayo Chronicle and The Rhodesian Herald, RPP had two more papers, The Sunday Mail and The Sunday News introduced in 1934 and 1935 respectively. Although papers were growing in number, ownership was exclusive to whites and these media said nothing on behalf of the 1 600 000 colonized blacks and never reported issues from their perspective. This led to the development of the African press.
a. The African press
The 1950s marked a period of the rise in Black Nationalism and agitation for emancipation not only in Zimbabwe but also across Africa. Some countries particularly in West Africa had attained their independence and the winds of autonomy and self- determination began to blow across the rest of Africa. Zimbabwe was not an exception.
The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Patriotic Front) (ZAPU PF) led by Joshua Nkomo, an epitome of the emerging black elite class who had benefited from the missionary education system, was in the vanguard of the struggle for black emancipation in Zimbabwe. ZAPU’s growth and ungovernable expansion saw its influence permeate almost all the urban centers, making it a party that commanded national authority.
The rise of black politics was followed by the concomitant rise in black journalism and Black press through which politicians articulated their views and mobilized people for the struggle for emancipation. This marked the period of the rise of the so- called ‘African press’, a press that filled the gap to cater for the hitherto marginalized black people. These included inter alia, The Bantu Mirror, The African Daily News, The African Parade and later on, Moto. The ‘African’ press was not truly African in every aspect. Although black journalists like former minister Nathan Shamuyarira and the late prominent Willie Musarurwa worked for these newspapers, these newspapers were owned and controlled by white liberals who only wanted some cosmetic changes to the status quo. Liberals only wanted some constitutional reforms and not a complete obliteration of the colonial system. Some theorists believe that the ‘African’ press was based on an economic rationale, with advertising as a key motive in order to promote white business in the black market.
The Bantu Mirror (1932) was owned by the Paver Brothers, Cedric and Betram. The two came from South Africa and had bought the paper from a missionary, Reverend Hardfield of the Church of Christ. The newspaper was clearly inconsequential as it avoided politics, concentrating on fairy tales and entertainment that sought to inoculate the black elite from any type of political engagement.
In 1943, the Paver Brothers who also owned Independent Film Media started a new company called African Newspapers. The company had several newspaper titles in its stable including The African Daily News (1956), a paper that grew to espouse black interests until the government banned it in August 1964. This paper had started as The African Weekly in 1944. Other newspapers that were owned by the African Newspapers comprised The Recorder targeting teachers, and The Harvester targeting farmers. In the 1960s the Canadian based Thompson Publishing Group bought The African Daily News and The African Parade magazine. This led to a more critical editorial stance by these media as the buyers were thought of as more liberal than the Paver brothers who came from a more ruthless apartheid system in South Africa.
The Moto newspaper was started in the 1950s and was owned by the Roman Catholic church. It also stood for Black Nationalist interests and poured vitriolic attacks on the injustice perpetrated by the colonial government on blacks. Its editor Father Michael Traber, was deported in 1970 and the magazine got banned four years later.
b. Broadcasting
Radio broadcasting started in 1958 when the Federal Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) based in Salisbury (Harare) was formed. Television broadcasting followed in 1960 making Southern Rhodesia to be the second country after Nigeria to have television broadcasting (Saunders, 1999,p 4). Although broadcasting can be traced back to the 1930s when three adventurous Post office engineers took advantage of an underutilized transmitter meant for aviation signals, formal and organized broadcasting really began during the Federation period.
i. The Organization and Programming policy
Like every other institution during the colonial period, broadcasting in Southern Rhodesia was organized on racial lines. The color bar that was very evident in churches and schools at the time, also had a glaring presence in the media. The FBC was divided into the English Service based in Salisbury and the African Service based in Lusaka in Northern Rhodesia. However, this service later moved to Harare where it broadcast mainly in Shona and Ndebele languages. The English Service broadcast in English and its programming comprised mainly news from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the South African Press Agency (SAPA).
The African Service broadcast in a number of African languages found in the three Federal countries. These were Shona, Ndebele, Lozi, Chewa and Nyanja. Programming for the blacks comprised heavily censored news, drama, music and traditional songs. An interesting point is raised about this station. Although the station was not referred to as the African Service at the time, it is believed that this service started sometime in 1941 so as to mobilize blacks to support Britain in the Second World War. This is where the influence of the global dynamics in the development of broadcasting in Zimbabwe can be seen.
ii. The Employment and Training policy
Employment and training opportunities were also largely restricted to the white minority. While employment opportunities were very low for blacks, training programs were even fewer and were not designed to produce high-level skills for top jobs. For example in 1959 the FBC had 159 whites compared to a paltry 39 blacks, most of them messengers, translators and clerks (Zaffiro J, 1981, p57).
3. The Rhodesian Front (1962-79)
When the Rhodesian Front (RF) headed by Ian Douglas Smith came into power in 1962, it changed a number of things in broadcasting. The dissolution of the Federal government resulted in the formation of national broadcasters by individual countries that had previously formed the Federation. First, the FBC in Salibury was changed to the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) in January 1964. Secondly, community radio stations were introduced, and thirdly, a vibrant Ministry of Information (MOI) was introduced to pursue the media policies of the new government. The new government was made up of radicals who believed that the Federal government had moderate policies in dealing with black resistance to the status quo. As a result, when the RF got into power their biggest assignment was to see that they used the media, police and the courts to contain Black Nationalism and resistance.
i. Community radio stations
The community radio stations that were introduced consisted of Radio Jacaranda (1964) based in Salisbury, Radio Manica (1969) based in Mutare, Radio Matopos (1970) and Radio Mthwakazi (1970s), both based in Bulawayo. These radio stations broadcast in black people’s local languages so as to foster ethnic divisions and regionalism and hence stall nationalists’ efforts of decolonization. The radio stations were also meant to counter communist propaganda from liberation movements that were broadcasting from outside the country in Mozambique and Tanzania. Again when Smith declared the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Britain, Rhodesia faced international isolation and black people could access hostile news about the country mainly from short-wave transmission. The community radio stations came as a sure way of cocooning blacks from this and other forms of negative external influence.
ii. The Ministry of Information (MOI)
When the RF came to power, they discovered that previous governments had done very little in terms of formulating an information policy framework within which the media could operate. As a result, the new government formed the MOI whose prime obligation was controlling the media through laws, policies and other strategies. The advent of the MOI saw the press being put under serious surveillance and things became worse, especially for the ‘African’ press that was offering a platform to the voices of dissent from nationalist movements. The RF was unequivocal about the need to control the media and they defended themselves by claiming that Western Christian civilization, national unity and national security were under threat from the media due to excessive freedom granted to them. According to Ivor Benson, a staunch RF supporter who worked for the MOI, the press could be free, but only to the extent that it did not pose a threat to Rhodesian values and interests.
To ensure that the media were controlled, the RF employed people who were loyal to its radical policies into key positions in the state-controlled media and the MOI itself. For example, Pieter van der Byl, a right wing extremist from South Africa, was appointed to run the MOI while Harvey Ward, a RF ‘praise poet’ was given the directorship of the RBC.
Although the RBC was funded through license fees, advertising and government grants, the RF openly manipulated it to be its propaganda machine. In 1965 when the RF declared the UDI, the MOI tightened its grip on the media by further spreading its shackles and tentacles into the private press. The RPP was clamped down on the pretext of being an opposition press and not being patriotic. The RPP newspapers used to give coverage to the liberal white political parties like the Center Party (CP). On 11 November 1965, the day when UDI was declared, the MOI moved censors directly into the RPP newsrooms to censor news. The passing into law of the Emergency Powers and Censorship of Publications Act gave the RF censors untrammeled rights to read and approve all copy in the newsrooms before publication.
The ministry also banned several newspapers and magazines such as The Central African Examiner, The Zimbabwe Times, and The African Daily News. Underhand strategies such as intercepting mail, tapping phone calls, torture, detention, refusal of work permits to foreign journalists, and deportation were used by the MOI so as to gag and muzzle the media. During the period of 1965-80 about 100 foreign correspondents were deported from Rhodesia by the ministry that accused them of a negative and hostile coverage of Rhodesia.
Telecommunications
Telecommunications in Zimbabwe also developed as a response to colonial administrative needs and the general exploitation of mineral wealth by the BSAC. In fact, there was a striking similarity between the development of the railway network and the telephone grid in that both connected mines, farms and other areas with the best climate were the white minority resided. For example, as early as 1892 the telegraph line had already weaved the gold-rich Matebeleland with the coffee-rich Eastern Highlands and the tobacco-rich Harare.
The Africa Transnational Telegraph Company formed in the 1890s was tasked to develop telecommunications infrastructure so that the dispersed white population could communicate in space and time without any problems. This obviously went a long way in not only creating a sense of nationhood but also in facilitating the administrative needs of the colonial government. Like radio and television, telecommunications also created the much-needed link with the metropolitan, thus ensuring the white community of a constant touch with Western civilization. The telephone was indeed a standing guarantee from the ‘dark’ continent that the settlers treated with both anxiety and excitement.
During the 1950s when the nationalist movements began to fight for the rights of the oppressed black majority, government introduced the Posts and Telegraphs Act (1954) that made telecommunications a state monopoly. This, along with other laws that dealt with the mainstream media, ensured that information was tightly managed. The Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs was made the only authority with the right to install and run telecommunications gadgets and networks in Rhodesia. However, the law was amended to allow the private sector to buttress government efforts as it was failing to cope with the demand. Government failed to cope because in the 1950s the demand for telephones burgeoned mainly because of immigrants who had been scattered by the Second World War coming to settle in the colonies. Most of the immigrants had settled in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland where telephone lines were very few compared to Southern Rhodesia. For example, there were 103 000 telephone users in Zimbabwe at the time compared to only 33 500 and 8 500 in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland respectively (Federal Government Press Statement: Telephone Users in the Federation, Sept 4, 1961).
In 1968 the RF passed the Posts and Telecommunications Act turning telecommunications into a complete monopoly. This was the situation in Zimbabwe until January 1998 when Strive Masiyiwa, an Econet Chief Executive, challenged the constitutionality of the monopoly arguing that monopoly infringed on the Freedom of expression.
Film industry
In 1939 Britain formed the Colonial Film Unit (CFU) that became an appendage of its Ministry of Information. The primary function of the CFU was to tell Britain’s side of the story in the Second World War and also solicit support from its scattered colonies across the African continent.
The realization of the power of the film medium in education and propaganda culminated in the formation of the Central African Film Unit (CAFU) in 1948, located in Southern Rhodesia. The CAFU was tasked with, among other things, the production of agricultural and developmental films for the three countries that formed the Federation. It was also supposed to make films that promoted tourism, immigration, and the Federal concept that was fiercely resisted by Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland at the time.
Three employees namely, Alan Izod (Producer), Stephen Peet (Director) and Denys Brown (Scriptwriter) manned the Unit. Later on two African men, David Hlazo and Samuel Tutani were added as interpreters to African actors. The five gentlemen were very hardworking, producing 94 films in just 5 years of CAFU’s inception (Hungwe, 1991, p231).
In its formative years, CAFU got its funding from the British government through the Colonial Development Welfare (CDW). After 1956 however, the Federal government and other succeeding governments funded the organization on their own.
The most popular agricultural and developmental films were, The New School, The Two Farmers, Marimo Finds A New Life and Mangwende and The Trees. While The New School promoted Western education for Africans, the other three focused on developing peasant agriculture in Southern Rhodesia. However, racism still haunted the film industry as Africans were discouraged from growing cash crops such as tobacco and cotton as this made the whites feel insecure.
When the RF got into power, the MOI took over the responsibility of the film industry and film changed from its educational and developmental orientation to reflect the radical racist policies of Smith’s government. Film was now used to caricature and lampoon Africans, projecting them as stupid, lazy and uncivilized. A film called Tiki is a living testimony to this stereotypical portrayal of the blacks.
Media plays an important role in the advancement of a region
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