Africanising community radio broadcasting: the case of Vukani Community Radio (VCR) in South Africa
Date
2017
Authors
Tyali, Siyasanga Mhlangabezi
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Abstract
Decolonisation and Africanisation of spaces emerging from administrative and settler
colonialism have been suggested as forms of challenging colonial legacies that are still
largely present in the Global South and particularly within the African continent. Mainly, this
has also been the case in recent South African discourses that have called for the
decolonisation and ‘transformation’ of key areas in the country to build a decolonised
African country of the future. This thesis, therefore, deals with the subject of the community
radio broadcasting sector that is operating during South Africa’s ‘postcolonial’ era, and the
steps undertaken by this sector in Africanising itself. Starting from the conviction that the
media has a historical role in shaping and communicating cultures as well as identities of the
colonised and ‘formerly’ colonised, the thesis posits that the community radio sector is one
of the vital arenas that can be used to understand the continuities and discontinuities of
colonial cultures in media institutions. Thus, to comprehend and establish the state of
Africanisation within the community radio sector of the country, the study investigated and
analysed the case of Vukani Community Radio (VCR); a community radio station that is
easily one of the oldest community orientated broadcasters in South Africa. Furthermore, to
challenge the idea of colonised and neo-colonised media spaces, this thesis was grounded
on an understanding of the complexities of Africanisation as a decolonising project in a
media institution that is operating in the post-settler-colonial administration of this country.
Adopting a case study approach, this study attempted to understand the urgency of a
broadcast media platform in asserting the cultures and identities of ‘previously’ colonised
Africans on the medium's airwaves. To make sense of the conceptual challenges
surrounding the study, the thesis has drawn on decolonial discourses, including the theory
of Afrocentricity, the coloniality of power, coloniality of knowledge, the coloniality of being
and the decolonial turn. The adoption of these theories by the study, therefore, also
demonstrates a conscious delinking of this study from the traditional theories of media and
cultural studies that have habitually underpinned the South African canon. Moreover, this
study has adopted the use of critical decolonised methodologies approach in the pursuit of
answers about the extent of Africanisation of the media institution. The decolonised
approach of the adopted method lay in revealing the colonial excesses that have
underpinned research methodologies as well as an ‘auto-critique’ of these excesses in the
context of this study. The data analysed to arrive at the findings of this study included
several macro and micro policy documents, a content analysis of three (3) categories of
community radio programmes [Talk Radio, African Cultural Lifestyle & News Programming]
that totalled 270 hours of community radio content. The study also relied on several semi
structured interviews with various internal and external stakeholders that make up the
station's key constituencies. In the analysis of evidence that would uncover the extent of the
Africanisation of the community radio station, the findings of the thesis revealed several yet
overlapping thematic areas that suggest pathways towards the Africanisation of the media
institution. These, among others, included the use of this media institution as an African
public sphere, its embracing of the philosophy of Ubuntu, its role in the decolonisation of
African memory and its approaches towards ethnicity and Africanity within the broadcasting
area. These themes emanating from the analysed data of the study also illustrate how this
media institution is operating as a pocket of resistance against colonial, neo-colonial and
imperialistic media cultures. In addition to these thematic areas, the findings of this study
also demonstrate that when only media policy documents are adopted, this can lead to
ambiguities in the pursuit of Africanisation as decolonisation. The study however also
demonstrates that the urgency of the community radio station in catering for the
surrounding constituency can potentially demonstrate an eventual Africanisation of the
airwaves. Finally, this study concludes that the Africanisation of the airwaves is
demonstrable at Vukani Community Radio (VCR) but its permanent enforcement is
dependent on the vigilance of the stations constituencies and how they define and enforce
the role of their media institution.
Description
A thesis submitted to University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Johannesburg, 2017
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Citation
Tyali, Siyasanga Mhlangabezi (2017) Africanising community radio broadcasting: the case of Vukani Community Radio (VCR) in South Africa, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <https://hdl.handle.net/10539/24600>