Browsing by Author "Mhlambi, Thokozani Ndumiso"

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    Early radio broadcasting in South Africa: culture, modernity & technology
    (2015) Mhlambi, Thokozani Ndumiso; Hamilton, Carolyn; Sandmeier, Rebekka
    This thesis tells the story of the events that led to a broadcasting culture in South Africa. It then proceeds to show how listeners were gradually brought into the radio community, notwithstanding all the prejudices of the time. Africans were the last ones to be considered for broadcasting, this was now in a time of crisis, during the Second World War. Through a look at the cultural landscape of the time, the thesis uncovers the making of radio in South Africa, and shows how this process of making was deeply contested, often with vexing contradictions in ideas about race, segregation and point of view. The thesis is useful to scholars of history, culture and, more importantly, of music, as it lays the necessary groundwork for in-depth explorations of music styles played and the African artists who grew out of broadcasting activities. In its appeal to a broader audience of literate and illiterate, it sparked the formation of a South African listening public. It also facilitated the presence and domestication of the radio-set within the African home. Radio could account for a whole world out there in the presence of one's home, therefore actively situating African listeners into a modern- global imaginary of listeners. By bringing news from faraway places nearer, radio was a new kind of colonial modern encounter as it sought to redefine the nature of the local. The thesis therefore understands broadcasting as part of those technological legacies through which, in line with V Y Mudimbe (1988: xi), "African worlds have been established as realities for knowledge." Technology therefore appears as a recurring theme throughout this thesis. The primary material was gathered using archival methods. In the absence of an audio archive of recordings of the early broadcasts, the thesis relies to a large extent on written resources and interviews.
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    The early years of black radio broadcasting in South Africa : a critical reflection on the making of Ukhozi FM
    (2008) Mhlambi, Thokozani Ndumiso
    The history of black radio in South Africa demonstrates the legacy of colonialism, but also exhibits the performance of novel identities in the 'modem' state. In this dissertation I look at the early years of black radio in South Africa circa 1940-1944, focussing primarily on the Zulu language service. The service was originally broadcasted on the Afrikaans and English radio stations in South Africa. It was 3 minutes in length at its inception in 1940 and was gradually extended to 30 minutes by September of 1942. Based on the collection of archival material and newspaper clippings I look at three colonial figures that were active in the early years of native radio, namely: Hugh Tracey, who was the initiator of broadcasts in Zulu, K. E. Masinga, who presented the first shows in the Zulu service, and The Zulu Radio Choir, who were mentioned as part of the first groups to be recorded for the Zulu radio service (Tracey 1948). All three of these stakeholders have played a foundational role in the establishment of the radio archive in South Africa. Using discourse analysis and Judith Butler's performativity theory (1988; 1990; 1999), I trace the discursive interactions of these stakeholders-an area where 'African tradition' meets 'colonial modernity' (Mudirnbe 1988). I then proceed to show how their performative acts reveal multi-layered processes of redefinition and negotiation. A recurring thread in the entire dissertation is a quest to represent Africa and its people's in new ways that challenge colonial legacies.