Goran Hyden, Michael Leslie and Folu Ogundimu, eds. Media and Democracy in Africa. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2002. 260 pp. $39.95 cloth. $24.95 paper. www.transactionpub.com www.amazon.com
Media and Democracy in Africa is based upon a collection of papers from an international conference of American and African scholars and journalists held at the University of Florida in 1997. According to the editors, Goran Hyden, Michael Leslie and Folu Ogundimu, the book intends to provide an updated assessment of the role that the media play in the process of democratization in Africa. Do the media foster or sustain democracy in African countries and, if so, how important is their role in comparison with that of similar forces in society? In reply, the editors do credit the media with providing a platform for the promotion of civil and political rights, thereby contributing to civic consciousness. However, even taking into account the "many instances of heroism", when the media challenged the authorities and made the public aware of the values of democracy (as did The Chronicle in Zimbabwe, The Post in Zambia and The Guardian in Nigeria), they still have a long way to go before they can serve as "the impartial dispensers of information that allow them to play the vital role of the fourth estate in governance" (pp. 48-49).
Of the nine papers included in this collection, three (by the editors) are of a more general or theoretical nature while the remaining six consist of case studies or specific aspects of the subject. Among the former is an historical survey of the role of the media in Africa from the "first wave of democracy" (i.e., the challenge to colonialism), through the "repressive reversal" (the post-independence dictatorships) to the "second wave of democratization" (beginning in the 1990s). During the first wave, African nationalist newspapers and clandestine radio stations often waged propaganda wars against the media of the colonial governments or white settler regimes. However, after independence, most of the new African governments monopolized broadcasting and censored the media, just as their colonial predecessors had. By the 1990s, the second wave of democratization was dissolving the one-party state (as it did in Europe) and opening up the media to independent or private competitors. Although in some cases these reforms were merely cosmetic, meant to appease international donors linking their aid to "good governance," a proliferation of new publications and broadcasting stations appeared throughout the continent. Since then, commercial viability rather than government repression has often determined the longevity of independently owned media, although state control of the media still prevails in most African countries.
The more specialized papers deal with an array of subjects, including media legislation (Chris Ogbondah), broadcasting (Paul van der Veur), the internet (Michael Leslie), media ownership in South Africa (Keyan Tomaselli), "alternative small media" (Debra Spitulnik) and U.S. reporting on Africa (Beverly Hawk). The book gives most attention to South Africa, followed by Zambia, which feature prominently in four of the papers--on ownership, the internet, alternative media and American reporting, the latter containing an imaginative comparison of U.S. media coverage of the Rwanda genocide and the South African election of 1994 (not "1995," as the editors claim, p. 22). On the whole, these subjects will interest readers concerned about the media in Africa, even if their relevance to "democratization" is not always evident.
In the first of these papers, on media laws, Ogbondah describes the tendency of political leaders to ignore legal and constitutional rules, a widespread practice surviving from the era of one-party dictatorships. He quite rightly compares Robert Mugabe's "emergency legislation" to silence the opposition in Zimbabwe with similar laws enacted by Rhodesian governments to crush African nationalism. He is quite wrong, however, to lump Zimbabwe in with countries with a "Marxist-Leninist economic system" which replaced socialism with "a free market and privatization in the media sector" (pp. 57, 60). In fact, the Mugabe government (despite calling each other "comrade") inherited an economy largely dominated by private (i.e., white) enterprise. The country has always had an independent press. However, having survived censorship in Rhodesia, the press has suffered even worse repression in Zimbabwe since the government began cracking down on dissent in 2000.
As van der Veur explains in the paper on broadcasting, radio has been the most effective means of communication in Africa since colonial governments introduced it during the second world war. It was particularly important as a means of disseminating information and education for an African audience which was largely illiterate and did not have ready access to newspapers or other print media. Since the introduction of relatively low priced, battery-operated receivers in the post war era, Africans have been able to listen to the voices of rebel clandestine radio, government broadcasting, community radio, commercial stations and international broadcasters such as the BBC. How effective these voices have been, as a source of information, education and entertainment (the BBC criteria), remains a matter of controversy, as do their democratic credentials. But van der Veur relies far too much on the U.S. State Department's report on human rights (citing the 1999 issue 11 times) and the conservative monitor Freedom House (demolished by Ogundimu as superficial and unreliable) for his evidence of "democratization." He also fails to update developments since 1998, such as the demise of UNITA's clandestine radio station (VORGAN) in Angola.
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Perhaps the most effective media in terms of democratization in Africa will turn out to be those least vulnerable to government control, such as the internet and the "alternative small media" that Spitulnik considers in relation to Zambia. However, as Leslie warns in his paper, the internet is still the wave of the future for a continent lacking the basic infrastructure essential for widespread access. And there is always the "cloud of censorship" that could be wielded by a determined government.
Elaine Windrich is a research scholar in African Studies at Stanford University. She has written several books on southern Africa, including The Cold War Guerrilla: Jonas Savimbi, the U.S. Media and the Angolan War, published by Greenwood Publishers in 1992.
