The African National Congress's Radio Freedom and its audiences in apartheid South Africa, 19631991

Abstract

This article discusses the social history of Radio Freedom, the African National Congress's (ANC) clandestine radio station between 1963 and 1991. The article focuses on the audiences of Radio Freedom, how they listened to the station, which messages they appropriated from it, and the impact of these messages on political mobilization in the country. The article advances arguments about how radio broadcasting became a strategic priority for the ANC and its allies in the aftermath of the violent crushing and the turn to the armed struggle. Radio became one of the key tools used by the liberation movement to counter the apartheid state's propaganda messages and to articulate an alternative political perspective. Through Radio Freedom, the ANC could directly connect with its supporters inside the country and influence political mobilization particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. Despite the illegality of tuning into the station and the jamming techniques used by the state to block signal transmission, individuals from the younger, more politically active generation of black South Africans did find creative but discreet ways of tuning into Radio Freedom. This station was arguably one of the major sources of information on the ANC, shaping political education and understanding of the developments and influencing political activities inside the country.