Re-reading the Propaganda and Counter-Propaganda History of South Africa: On the African National Congress’ (ANC) Anti-Apartheid Radio Freedom

ABSTRACT

Radio Freedom, the African National Congress’ (ANC’s) “exiled” broadcasting platform, is arguably the oldest politically aligned and anti-apartheid-created broadcasting media institution to be solely dedicated to propaganda that challenged the racially oppressive policies of South Africa. Launched as a counter-response to the void that was left by the banning of anti-apartheid political activity in South Africa, Radio Freedom initially conducted its broadcasting activities in South Africa. It was later forced to broadcast from several African countries that were hosting the then exiled ANC. The focus of this article is on understanding how the ANC’s Department of Information and Publicity (DIP) in general, and Radio Freedom in particular, assisted this political organisation in maintaining a “virtual” presence in South Africa using propaganda and counter-propaganda strategies. Using a qualitative research approach in understanding the strategies and planning of the ANC’s cross border propaganda machinery, the article suggests that the ANC developed an objective of controlling and maintaining its image through political propaganda. Relying on the growing interest in media history scholarship, this article argues and concludes that Radio Freedom is one of the key media institutions that can be used to understand the history of media and its response to apartheid South Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• ANC
• apartheid
• media
• propaganda
• Radio Freedom

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The rest of the maiden speech by Walter Sisulu on clandestine Radio Freedom can be accessed at: The famous trials website - https://famous-trials.com/nelsonmandela/698-exhibits

2 Z. Pallo Jordan, Joel Netshitenzhe and Thabo Mbeki are some of ANC people who worked for Radio Freedom and DIP.

3 The Amandla publication was also produced by the ANC’s DIP section.

4 In this interview, Z. Pallo Jordan reflected on the history and his role in the ANC’s DIP and more particularly on the history of Radio Freedom that was used as a propaganda and counter-propaganda platform: see The Reading List https://readinglist.click/sub/z-pallo-jordan-says-the-assassination-of-ruth-first-was-no-mistake/ (Accessed: 09/03/2020).

5 Further information about the centre, which houses these liberation archives, can be accessed: see Nahecs Website http://www.ufh.ac.za/faculties/social-sciences/centres/nahecs/collections (Accessed 09/03/2020).

6 Unfortunately, some of the correspondence lacks complete dates. This one, for example, did not contain the year of correspondence.