Radio in Africa—Publics, Cultures, Communities

This collection of essays on radio in Africa comes from several different conferences on different aspects of the topic. Two of the editors are academics: Liz Gunner (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, U. of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, SA) and Dina Ligaga (media studies, U. of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, SA). The third, Dumisani Moyo, is research and publications manager at the Open Society Initiative for South Africa. The book is organized in three parts. Part one looks at radio, popular democracy, and new publics: talk radio in Ghana, female Muslim radio preachers in Mali, FM radio in Kenya, and clandestine radio in the Zimbabwe crisis. Part two looks at the everyday cultures of radio in Africa (often South Africa). Part three looks at voices of change in radio and community: Congolese Radio Okapi, 567MW in Cape Town, ANC radio under apartheid, radio and religion, radio in Angola, broadcasting language policy in Uganda, and radio in zones of conflict. The book looks successfully at a wide range of radio uses, including public service announcements, politics, drama, music, and the setting and disputing of social norms. Some contributors are African academics, some are Western academics specializing in African studies, some are radio professionals in Africa. Taken as a whole, the book speaks of radio as the public voice of African communities, and an audible marker of dreams, plans, danger, continuity, and change in swiftly-evolving situations. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)