Radio as a Recruiting Medium in Zimbabwe's Liberation Struggle. (22nd August 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ndlovu, Everette
• Is Part Of: Westminster papers in communication and culture. Volume 12:Number 2(2017)
• Page Start: 52
• Page End: 58
• Publication Date: 2017-08-22
• Subjects: Zimbabwe -- Rhodesia -- radio -- liberation struggle -- Voice of the Revolution Radio -- colonialism; Mass media and culture -- Periodicals; Communication in politics -- Periodicals; 302.23
• DOI: 10.16997/wpcc.225
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1744-6716

Abstract

Revolutionaries have long embraced the potential of radio as a tool for ideation and emancipation. As Ndlovu (2014 ) indicates radio has the power to win the hearts and minds of the people, even establish a mandate to govern them. Radio can transcend geographical and political boundaries, making it a vital tool with which to penetrate restricted environments and reach out even to illiterate people, through a language they understand, in order to propagate ideologies that are pivotal in establishing a desired political order. This commentary brings together a few of the key witnesses to this process in pre-liberation Zimbabwe when radio broadcasted from outside the tightly controlled colonial system that was Rhodesia was able to engage the populace in an unsanctioned dialogue that was ultimately to lead to the successful overthrow of the status quo.