|
Melissa Wall Assistant Professor California State University - Northridge |
Visions of the African Press in Colonial Kenya: What the Nationalists Imagined. International Communication Association, San Diego, To be presented May 2003. Nearly fifty African-run newspapers were established between the years 1921 and 1952 in colonial Kenya. The history of the Kenyan press should include an account of these publications provided by the nationalist journalists who produced them. What vision did these Africans hold for the press? This paper finds that far from seeing their publications as only political propaganda, nationalists saw the press playing more complex roles. They believed it could provide a forum for voices which were usually ignored by the settler-oriented mainstream press. They thought it would encourage self-reliance among a people whose self-worth was denied by the colonial institutions and people who governed them. They envisioned it creating a sense of community, and the nationalists believed the press could raise political consciousness by giving voice to the complaints about and criticisms of the colonial government. Ultimately, they believed that the press should provide a nonviolent means of resistance to the colonial government.
|