A Polycentric Broadcasting Model: Radio and the Promotion of Portuguese Colonialism

ABSTRACT

The article demonstrates how Portugal lacked a true policy of imperial broadcasting which led it to become dependent on colonial stations for the dissemination of colonialism. The broadcasters established in the Portuguese Empire dedicated significant airtime to the dissemination of Portugal’s colonial mission but also promoted local identities with programming echoing the lifestyle of the colonial elites. Thus, the article argues that while the Portuguese authorities considered the cultural expressions and identities of the white residents in Africa as peripheral, these perceived themselves as part of a new devolved center. This ‘peripheral centre’ gained particular ‘visibility’ on the airwaves.

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia [Portuguese Foundation for Science Technology] and Portugal 2020. Grant number PTDC/COMCSS/ 29610/2017.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Other enthusiasts of imperial broadcasting were Jorge Botelho Moniz, founder of Rádio Clube Português, and Luís de Albuquerque Couto dos Santos, General Director of the Post, Telegraph and Telephone (CTT), on which Emissora Nacional was financially dependent in its early years (Ribeiro, 2005; Santos, 2020).

2. Henrique Galvão represented Portugal at the Paris Colonial Exhibition in 1931; he was director of the colonial fairs in Luanda and Lourenço Marques, in 1932; and director of the 1^st Portuguese Colonial Exhibition, held in 1934. He took office as President of the Administrative Board of Emissora Nacional in June 1935, two months before the radio station’s official inauguration (Mota, 2011).

3. Henrique Galvão, Letter sent to the Minister of Public Works and Communications, 3 February 1936, Archive Oliveira Salazar (AOS)/CO/OP-7) – Folder 12.

4. Ibidem.

5. In the 1950s Galvão would become one of the regime’s most notorious dissidents. In 1959 he joined other high-profile Portuguese opposition members in South America, including Humberto Delgado, who had run in the presidential election of 1958 against the Estado Novo’s candidate.

6. “Relatório dos Serviços Técnicos da Emissora Nacional de Radiodifusão sobre o problema da radiodifusão para o império português” [Report from the technical Service of Emissora Nacional concerning the issue of broadcasting to the Portuguese Empire], 23 June 1947 AOS/CO/PC-26 – Folder 1.

7. Some of the broadcasts available at the Rádio Moçambique Archive are very illustrative of the pride with which the lifestyle of colonial elites was described. On the specific case of Angola, see Moorman, 2009.

8. Initially the station adopted the name of its founding entity, Grémio dos Radiófilos de Moçambique.

9. Rádio Moçambique, Julho 1936, p. 7.

10. The success of LM Radio in South Africa meant that, after the station was discontinued in 1975, following the independence of Mozambique, the brand was reactivated in 2009, with the creation of the only English-language radio station operating in Mozambique, with relay transmitters in Maputo, Ponta do Ouro and also in Gauteng in South Africa (Interview with L. Loforte, 2 February 2020). This is clearly a nostalgic project, evoking the period when RCM commanded a considerable audience in South Africa. The station can also be listened to online (https://lmradio.co.za) and the website is a tribute to the former RCM. The initials LM no longer stand for Lourenço Marques, and are instead presented as an acronym for Lifetime Music.

11. Interview with M. O. Debula (former host of “Hora Nativa”), Interview by C. Valdigem and N. Ribeiro. 4 February 2020.

12. Cf. Several editions of RCM’s Jornal da Noite, Historical Archice of Mozambique and Archive of Radio Mozambique.

13. ‘Resumo Histórico – Estação Rádio Difusora do Lobito (Angola)’, AOS/CO/UL, folder 30B.

14. “Contas das Gerências 1941–1942-1943 – Parecer do Conselho Fiscal”, Archive Radio Mozambique.

15. The building is currently the headquarters of Rádio Moçambique, PLC.

16. Portaria 18357, Boletim Oficial de Angola.

17. After independence from France in 1960, Brazzaville became the capital of the new Republic of the Congo, with Radio Brazzaville functioning as one of the most important anti-colonial propaganda stations in the territories under Portuguese administration.

18. ‘História de Radiodifusão em S. Tomé e Príncipe’, Dezembro 1953, AOS/CO/UL- 61. In the beginning of the 1970s the station was incorporated into Emissora Nacional (Santos & Santos, 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nelson Ribeiro

Nelson Ribeiro is Head of Communication Studies and Member of the Board at the Research Center for Communication and Culture at the Catholic University of Portugal. He is the Principal Investigator of the project “Broadcasting in the Portuguese Empire: Nationalism, Colonialism & Identity”.