Enduring legacy of SA’s early black press

Sisanda Nkoala

Black Wednesday, a dark day in South African media history, saw the closure of several publications that served as a voice for the marginalised.

In one of its most severe crackdowns on media freedom and anti-apartheid activism, on October 19, 1977, the apartheid regime banned two major newspapers, The World and Weekend World, which were prominent voices against apartheid.

Several journalists, including Percy Qoboza, the editor of The World, were detained without trial. The government also introduced stricter censorship laws, further limiting freedom of expression and the press. The day was dubbed Black Wednesday to reflect the blacking out of media freedom in South African society.

Yet, the day also serves as a potent reminder of the enduring legacy of the Early South African Black Press as a foundation for the media freedom we enjoy today, a legacy that reminds us of the ongoing need to safeguard media freedom and fight for a more just and equitable society.

The Early South African Black Press texts are a category of newspapers and magazines published between 1836 and 1960 aimed at black, coloured and Indian South Africans. These texts were categorised retrospectively by scholars, including Les Switzer, who have sought to understand how these periodicals endeavoured to interpret subordinated black (meaning African, coloured and Asian) communities to themselves and the outside world.

Scholars trace the origins of the Early South African Black Press to the early 19th century when black converts wrote and edited the texts, but white missionaries ultimately controlled the publications.

Between the 1880s and 1930s, many black-owned and black-controlled publications, operating independently of the white missionaries, emerged. The first of these, published in November 1884, was Imvo Zabantsundu.

While largely independent, these publications often struggled to survive due to political economic imperatives, such as the means of publication. Reflecting on this, Switzer notes: “African journalists were deprived of opportunities to accumulate capital legally, and they had little access to printing equipment, paper, buildings, skilled tradesmen and distribution networks”.

The Early South African Black Press has long been a topic of interest for scholars in fields such as history, media studies and linguistics, whose analyses have provided insights into how issues of language, power, ideology and media intersect in contexts where marginalised communities attempt to use media ecosystems to articulate and advance their interests.

These include the bibliographic work by Les and Donna Switzer, who identified over 700 publications that fall into the genre of the Early South Africa Black Press, to scholarship such as that undertaken by AC Jordan and Tim Couzens on the role of these texts as literary works.

The Early South African Black Press’ approach of employing a form of journalism known as deliberative journalistic discourse enabled them not just to report the news, but to actively engage readers in discussions about their lives, their struggles, and their aspirations at a time when their voices were largely ignored at best or silenced at worst.

Deliberative journalistic discourse is not simply about reporting the news but about engaging readers in a discussion about the issues that affect their lives.

It is about providing a platform for marginalised voices to be heard and for consensus to be built around what is in the best interest of the community.

This approach to journalism differs from traditional news discourse, which is often focused on objectivity and neutrality.

In a world where marginalised communities still struggle to be heard, journalists have a responsibility to report the news and to actively engage communities in discussions about the issues that affect their lives. By doing so, they can help to build consensus, foster empowerment, and create a more just and equitable society, echoing the spirit of those who fought for media freedom on Black Wednesday and throughout South Africa’s history.

* Nkoala is an Associate Professor at UWC.

Cape Times