Supported by the African Studies Centre and Oxford Centre for Global History, University of Oxford; Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana; Department of Communication and Media Studies, University of Johannesburg this conference interrogates the media landscape not only of the colonial period but also its legacies in the post-independence era and in contemporary broadcast media. Its geographical scope comprises papers on Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Australasia, USA, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands. The keynote lecture will be given by Prof Chandrika Kaul on radio in colonial India, and the conference will finish with a screening and discussion of short films about decolonisation in Francophone Africa.
Programme
10:00 11:30 Panel 4: Violence and Propaganda
Professor Youcef Hamitouche (Algiers), ‘French Propaganda in the Algerian Revolution of Independence’
Matthew Robinson (Belfast), ‘Examining British Television’s Coverage of British State Torture in Northern Ireland’
Dr Priya Mirza (Delhi), ‘Loud and Plane: the Indian Princely states, British colonialism and the use of loudspeakers in the twentieth century (1900-48)’
11:30-12:00 Tea/Coffee
12:00-13:30 Panel 5: Decolonisation and Indigeneity
Dr Linda Austin (Malmö), ‘Exploring Colonial and Post-colonial Expression through Faith-based Broadcasters in the Anglophone South Pacific islands’
Dr Siyabonga Njica (Cambridge), ‘“A first-class broadcaster with something to say”: Nontando Jabavu, the BBC, and the Cultural Politics of the British Empire, 1942-1960’
Dr Jonathan Odame (Ghana), ‘The Impact of Technological Modernization on Indigenous Cultural Expression: A Study of Contemporary African Cinema’
13:30-14:15 Lunch
14:15-15:45 Panel 6: Legacies and Traces
Ruka Hussain (Oxford), ‘Ethics of colonial memory in 21st-century Hollywood cinema: power and visuality in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)’
Golden Maunganidze (Johannesburg), ‘Cultural Dilemmas, Language and Participation through community radio stations in post-colonial Zimbabwe’
Jennifer Dickson (King’s College, London), ‘Manufacturing Disinformation: Russian Soft Power Efforts in Niger’
15:45-16:00 Tea/Coffee
16:00-18:00 Panel 7: The Birth of Nations: Colonial and Anti-colonial Film in Francophone Africa, 1957-61 (Film Showing and Discussion)
Including extracts from: Képi Bleu (French Army, Algeria, 1957) and Sakhiet-Sidi-Youssef (Pierre Clément, Tunisia, 1958)
Discussants: Dr Natalya Vince and Walid Benkhaled (Oxford)
Chair: Dr. Peter Brooke (Oxford)
Please visit the website for the programme and to register to join online via Microsoft Teams:
www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk/event/broadcasting-colonialism-sight-sound-and-media-technologies-in-the-colonial-world
