Tracing political communication history via the radio archive: the case of the ANC’s anti-apartheid Radio Freedom in South Africa

Media history, particularly broadcasting history, in the global south remains an important topic that has seen growing interest in the past ten years (Teer-Tomaselli, 2014; McCracken, 2014; Lekgoathi and Mukonde, 2024). This is particularly true in the case of South Africa, and much of the South African research has focused on how media institutions have played a role against the apartheid establishment of the country (Lekgoathi, 2010; Nixon, 2015; Tyali, 2020; Sanders, 2000). The themes around this research have also revolved around the areas of print media and photographic history and how they enabled the rest of the global community to view and make sense of the atrocities that were being committed by the apartheid government against the black communities in South Africa (Dlamini, 2014; Nixon, 2015). Furthermore, these themes have also focused on the broadcasting history, including television images and radio snippets broadcasting the apartheid atrocities. However, there is still a lack of research on much of the clandestine media (Downer, 1993; Kushner, 1974), particularly, clandestine radio.

Using a case study format, the focus of this article is on South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) broadcasting station (Tyali, 2020; Davis, 2011) and how 60 years from its initial establishment, we are able to use its audio and transcript archives as repositories of the political communication history of South Africa (Davis, 2011). Radio Freedom was a pioneering institution of political communication, anti-apartheid broadcasting messages and counter-propaganda. The radio station was created as a response to the clampdown on anti-apartheid activity in South Africa (cf. Lekgoathi, 2010). “[…]the ANC decided to establish its own radio to present the liberation movement’s counter-propaganda. Named Radio Freedom, this was the only pirate radio in Southern Africa to start operating and to have regular broadcasts within its target country” (Lekgoathi and Mukonde, 2024: 28). Further research literature (Davis, 2011) illustrates that leading up to the year 1963, mainstream political activity and activism against the apartheid state of South Africa had been suppressed. Thus, the political clampdown in South Africa during this era led to the emergence of various creative experiments on how to communicate the political conditions in South Africa at the time. One such creative project was the ANC’s Radio Freedom. In the section below, the focus is on the brief history and political communication role of Radio Freedom. Whilst broadcasting research is well established in South Africa (Hayman and Teer-Tomaselli, 1989), there is growing interest in the area of radio broadcasting history, with Lekgoathi and Mukonde (2024:25) arguing that “although radio played a crucial role as a means of communication between liberation movements in exile and their supporters back home, until recently historians paid no attention whatsoever to the medium”. This article therefore grapples with the growing on the history of radio and how, through Radio Freedom, we can make sense of political communication as read from the radio archive.

While much is known about the anti-apartheid clampdown in South Africa (Zunes, 1996), it is relatively unknown that 26 June 1963 was the birth of political broadcasting communication against the apartheid state (Davis, 2011; Tyali, 2020). Historical records indicate that the following statement was broadcast on the then recently established anti-apartheid broadcasting radio medium:

This was the first statement to be broadcast on the ANC’s Radio Freedom, and it signalled the official emergence of political broadcasting communication by the anti-apartheid movement. Walter Sisulu presented this political message on Radio Freedom (Davis, 2009, 2011), marking a significant change in the ANC’s battle of communicating political activities. Not only did the broadcast mark the start of the ANC being in control of its political broadcasting narrative, but the message also signalled a shift in media platform usage. The ANC no longer solely relied on print strategies but started using a range of media platforms for its political communication planning. The broadcast would also commence a three-decade-long use of broadcast media by the ANC to communicate with its exiled as well as its South African-based constituencies during the apartheid era (Tyali, 2020). The broadcasting and control of such electronic media messages by the ANC buttressed a prolonged period of the ANC being in charge of its narrative, thus making the airwaves a useful political communication tool against the government of apartheid South Africa (cf. Lekgoathi, 2009).

It is important to indicate that Radio Freedom is the oldest politically aligned and anti-apartheid broadcasting media institution to be dedicated to political communication against segregated South Africa. The radio station initially conducted its broadcasting activities within the country. While based in South Africa, the radio station operated from the Lilliesleaf Farm near Johannesburg. The broadcasting base of Radio Freedom would soon be discovered by the apartheid authorities and thus marked the need to move the broadcasting location. For safety reasons, the station was moved to exile, and it was later forced to broadcast from several African countries (Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, Ethiopia and Madagascar) that were hosting the then exiled ANC. Broadly speaking, broadcasts by Radio Freedom generally could be classified as “clandestine broadcasting” (Downer, 1993), a method globally used by underground political parties to fight for independence. Within the context and urgent need for the existence of such a political communication platform in South Africa, Radio Freedom became necessary when the ANC’s political activity and the anti-apartheid struggle in the country were officially banned by the apartheid government in 1960. The historical need for the existence of this broadcaster is put into context by Riddle (1994:17), who indicates that “the ANC’s Radio Freedom is only part of the story of clandestine radio in this country. South Africa has a long, largely untold, experience of illegal political broadcasting”.

Riddle of course argues that “the country can lay claim to no fewer than five ‘freedom radios’, all of which have transmitted illegally, mostly against the government of the day” (Riddle, 1994:17). The seeds of such “radio freedom(s)” can be traced to as far back as the 1940s – 1942 to be exact. These varying forms of “radio freedom” were initially assumed to have been staffed by English-speaking employees of the then South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). When it comes to the ANC’s Radio Freedom, another academic, Davis (2011:225), indicates that “the story of Radio Freedom begins with the turn to the armed struggle undertaken by the Congress Alliance in 1961”. And, after this decision of the Congress, sometime in the beginning of June 1963, the now struggle veterans, Ahmed Kathrada and Walter Sisulu, recorded and broadcast a message that indicated that the ANC would operate its activities “underground” as it had become illegal to conduct political activities under the then apartheid system of the country.

Thus, the broadcasting content of Radio Freedom “was addressed to three audiences: one at home in South Africa, one abroad comprising foreign patrons, and one in exile among those in the training camps” (Davis, 2011:236). In this way, the ANC had unfettered control of its image among its primary stakeholders.

For most political formations, history demonstrates that “actors across the ideological spectrum engaged in transnational ‘Radio Wars’ in their efforts to both undermine and prop up particular regimes” (Bronfman, 2019). In most instances, these transnational broadcasts were conducted through clandestine radio broadcasts. Globally, the subject of clandestine broadcasting has a rich history. Soley (1983:234) notes that “the attributes that define clandestine stations are illegal operation and a political/revolutionary message”. Notable keywords such as “illegal operation” and “political or revolutionary message” are important in this definition as they give this definition a distinct identity from those broadcasts that may be illegal but do not carry political or revolution messages. Within the African context, “such broadcasting has historically been associated with the liberation movements in exile, which broadcast from supporting countries to urge their compatriots at home to join the struggle against colonial rule” (Windrich, 2000:206). This was the case for the ANC’s Radio Freedom.

Within the context and urgent need for the existence of such a political communication platform in South Africa, Radio Freedom became necessary when the ANC’s political activity and the anti-apartheid struggle in the country were officially banned by the apartheid government in 1960. Thus, the establishment of Radio Freedom, its classification as an illegal broadcasting institution, situating the radio station in the long tradition of clandestine broadcasting (Downer, 1993).

The concept of political communication is receiving growing interest in South Africa (Tyali, 2017; Karam and Mutsvairo, 2022). While there is growing scholarship and discourses on the discipline, little is known about the history of political communication in the country. Relying on archival data, this article aimed to trace the history of political communication in South Africa. Thus, the research underpinning this article relied on archival data and material the ANC donated to educational institutions in post-apartheid South Africa, namely, the National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre (NAHECS) at the University of Fort Hare in present-day Alice Town, Eastern Cape province. The NAHECS archive material we have considered to date consists of Radio Freedom scripts, and historical letters to the radio station (mostly authored by South Africans during the apartheid period). It also includes documents that were authored by the ANC’s Department of Information and Publicity (DIP) arguing how to improve the use of Radio Freedom as part of the ANC political communication machinery. Twenty-seven documents were consulted for the purpose of this article, including 12 internal correspondence documents on the role of Radio Freedom (letters, strategy documents and reports), seven radio broadcasts (radio scripts) and five external correspondence documents (listener engagements).

After gaining permission from the NAHECS management, I worked with archivist from NAHECS to uncover the Radio Freedom documents and separate them from the rest of the archival documents that were donated to the University of Fort Hare and housed at NAHECS for safe keeping. Once these were retrieved, I read through the archive and sorted the subject matters according to themes. For this article, the interest on the theme of political communication and Radio Freedom. Below, I provide further discussion on the theme as read from the archives of Radio Freedom.

In the discussion below, the focus is on the archive of Radio Freedom and political communication. The section tries to make sense of the role that was played by the radio station in the political communication activities of the ANC. Considering the analysis of the radio archive, audience reception of the role of Radio Freedom’s political communication messages, and its strategies and planning for reaching these audiences, can be understood through the responses of what constituted the ANC’s listening public. Lekgoathi (2010) argues that Radio Freedom was an instrumental platform in the attainment of information against the struggle of the apartheid state. He also demonstrates that the listenership of Radio Freedom had an impact on the struggle against apartheid. Thus, for the purpose of this article, the data from the archives indicate that by the early 1980s, listeners in South Africa could access Radio Freedom via at least four state radio services on the continent, namely, Radio Madagascar, Radio Lusaka, Radio Luanda and Radio Tanzania. However “[…] tuning into Radio Freedom from South Africa was considered subversive and thus occurred within the realm of illegality” (Lekgoathi, 2010:145).

Furthermore, through the archived data on audience responses to the political communication messages of Radio Freedom, it can be concluded that the station was continuously supplied with information on developments in apartheid South Africa. A close analysis of the archived material (radio scripts) reveals that the broadcasts of Radio Freedom were continuously up to date on the then current affairs developing during apartheid South Africa. For instance, the scripts, which illustrate the broadcasting of Radio Freedom programming, show that constant reference was being made to the current events in the then apartheid South Africa. Among others, these broadcasts include the following current affairs issues:

• a women’s day programme on 6 March 1980 that alluded to the Crossroads struggle and how the apartheid regime of South Africa was oppressing women in particular;

• a 17 April 1978 broadcast on unemployment in South Africa that spoke to the then proposed Bantu Laws Amendment Bill that would re-settle “idle” and “lazy” black workers to the Bantustans;

• the then relations between apartheid Pretoria and Tel Aviv; and

• the unjustified sentencing of Solomon Mahlangu.

Further analysis of how the ANC broadcast these current events through its political communication platform, Radio Freedom, suggests that there was constant contact and feedback between the then exiled ANC and its South African-based constituency. For instance, some archived correspondence (data) to the ANC’s Radio Freedom gave the following information (we quote the message as it appears in the archived Radio Freedom correspondence):

This and some other archived documents reveal exchanges between the exiled ANC and its South African constituency. Most of the analysed exchanges were crafted and sent anonymously. This simply reveals how people were careful not to reveal their identities in discussions about Radio Freedom. We also need to remember that the apartheid government regularly intercepted what it deemed suspicious correspondence. And after all, it was illegal to send political messages to the radio station.

For this article, what is most interesting about the Radio Freedom archive is that it indicates that, contrary to the desires of the apartheid government, there was a constant exchange between the ANC and its South African-based constituency. This exchange was not unidirectional; the archival data illustrates that there was in fact “interactive” communication between the ANC and its South African-based constituency. Additional data, which illustrate the correspondence between the ANC and its country-based constituency, suggest that there were friendly and familiar relations with the broadcasters of Radio Freedom.

The archived data on Radio Freedom suggests that the ANC meticulously planned and strategised its presence in South Africa to counter various forms of propaganda that were created by the apartheid government of the country. Furthermore, the archival data have allowed us to conclude that the ANC relied on the media to achieve its objectives of political communication during apartheid South Africa.