what was the role of the press during colonialism?

Question

The early press in africa was guided more by ideological and hegemonic needs than a genuine need to inform educate and entertain. Discuss

Answer 1

The colonial times in Africa 1885 - 1994 (from the Berlin conference 'scramble for colonies' until the liberation of South Africa from Apartheid) was when the press developed as a mass medium for information. The news papers and printing houses were not in any way a priority for the colonisers in sub-saharan Africa apart from South Africa since it was much more heavily settled by Europeans than other parts of sub-saharan Africa. In North Africa, the Arab press was suppressed by mostly French (also Italian in Libya and British in Egypt) colonialism, and widely echoed the interests of the colonisers.

The only interesting deviation before the independence movements were missionaries and religious societies where sometimes native Africans themselves were allowed to participate in the press. Also some African expatriates started news papers and pamphlets abroad (in colonial centres of London, Paris... ) to talk about their issues.

At independence, the new African independent leaders took over the rule over the press. Leaders like Kwame Nkrumah started news papers like the Daily Graphic to educate and inform the people, it still exists! But many other rulers kept the news papers and printed press very limited to their interests, still most parts of Africa limit press freedoms, journalists are harassed, jailed and banned from publishing. So much of African publishing takes place outside of Africa, the famous authors of Ama Darko and Wole Soyinka would not exist without the Western press houses publishing them, it's sad but true, or they would exist, but distribution would have been a problem.

I think the Internet is a great medium for the revival of the African press, look at the blogs of Africans, publications like allafrica.com, or pambazuka,org, ghanaweb.com, panos.org and others. These sites are either hosted in the Republic of South Africa, or abroad for reasons of control of press (and Internet) or just for bandwidth (poor internet infrastructure in many parts of Africa limit the use of websites). The future is very bright, but political freedoms need to take place before press freedoms come.

Answer 2

I agree with you. I dont think this really requires discussing. Not here, anyway.

Answer 3

WTF