Listed below are books about specific African newspapers as well as the role of newspapers in African history.
Note that these sources can provide useful background information for anyone consulting these newspapers; it is important to know and understand the ownership and therefore bias of a newspaper, particularly in the African context.
Histories of African Newspapers
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The Guardian
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In this fascinating history of the Guardian, South Africa's famous anti-apartheid newspaper, James Zug tells the story of a political publication that not only reported events but also helped to shape them. Between 1937 and 1963, the Guardian was the sole voice of dissent in the South African media, and Zug shows us how it played an essential rolein the struggle to end apartheid. Combining a scholar's attention to facts with a journalist's sense of the dramatic, Zug recreates a tumultuous and dangerous era. The newspaper's telephones were tapped, articles were censored, and staff members were jailed and deported. The apartheid regime banned the paper three times, charged it with high treason, and could only silence it completely, in 1963, by placing the entire staff under house arrest. As Zug explains, the Guardian persisted through the harassment and torment because the paper's staff knew the significance of their work: "We not only record the struggle for freedom, we are actively participating in it." When wages were kept low, when workers went on strikes, and when fascism reared its head in South Africa, the Guardian spoke up. At its height, the paper sold more than 50,000 copies a week nationally, with four bureaus across the country. As Nelson Mandela, head of the African National Congress (ANC), led the movement to end apartheid, he issued messages through the paper. Perhaps the newspaper's most significant accomplishment, Zug writes, was uniting the ANC and the South African Communist Party. The Guardian translated Marxism into an African idiom for the ANC, bringing together the two factions that propelled the liberation struggle into a mass movement. This highly readable work is more than a perceptive look at an influential paper. It is a testament to the power of the printed word in ending injustice and changing the course of history.
ISBN: 0870138103Publication Date: 2007-10-18 -
The Power to Name
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* Finalist for the African Studies Association's 2014 Melville J. Herskovits Award for best book in African Studies Between the 1880s and the 1940s, the region known as British West Africa became a dynamic zone of literary creativity and textual experimentation. African-owned newspapers offered local writers numerous opportunities to contribute material for publication, and editors repeatedly defined the press as a vehicle to host public debates rather than simply as an organ to disseminate news or editorial ideology. Literate locals responded with great zeal, and in increasing numbers as the twentieth century progressed, they sent in letters, articles, fiction, and poetry for publication in English- and African-language newspapers. The Power to Name offers a rich cultural history of this phenomenon, examining the wide array of anonymous and pseudonymous writing practices to be found in African-owned newspapers between the 1880s and the 1940s, and the rise of celebrity journalism in the period of anticolonial nationalism. Stephanie Newell has produced an account of colonial West Africa that skillfully shows the ways in which colonized subjects used pseudonyms and anonymity to alter and play with colonial power and constructions of African identity.
ISBN: 9780821420324Publication Date: 2013-09-24 -
The Cape Times
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This informal history of the Cape Times, the oldest daily newspaper in South Africa and a much-loved Cape Town institution, is the story of a vigorous tradition of independent journalism.
ISBN: 0864864043Publication Date: 1999-01-01 -
The People's Paper
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This much-awaited volume uncovers the long-lost pages of the major African multi-lingual newspaper, Abantu-Batho. Founded in 1912 by African National Congress (ANC) convener Pixley Seme, with assistance from the Swazi Queen, the paper published until 1931, and this work shows how it attracted the cream of African politicians; journalists; and poets Mqhayi, Nontsisi, and Grendon. Comprising both essays on and texts from the paper, this book explores the complex movements and individuals that emerged as the essays contribute rich, new material to provide clearer insights into South African politics and intellectual life. The People’s Paper unveils a judicious selection of never-before-published columns, spanning every year of its life and drawn from repositories on three continents. Distinguished historians and literary scholars together with exciting young scholars plumb the lives and ideas of editors, writers, readers and allied movements. Sharing the considerable interest in the ANC centenary, this unique book will have a strong appeal and secure audience among all interested in history, politics, culture, literature, gender, biography, and journalism studies, from academics and students to a general public interested in knowing about this unique newspaper, its people, and the stories that once captivated South Africans.
ISBN: 9781868145713Publication Date: 2013-11-01 -
Drum; the newspaper that won the heart of Africa.
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Publication Date: 1957
Newspapers in African History
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A newspaper history of South Africa ; 2nd ed.. by Subjects: South African newspapers -- History; Journaux afrikaans -- Histoire; South Africa -- History; Afrique du Sud -- Histoire; South Africa; History Publisher: Cape Town : D. Nelson Format: 160 pages : illustrations ; 34 cm. Creation Date: 1985
ISBN: 9781868060085Publication Date: 1985 -
Rural Journalism in Africa
ISBN: 9231017527Publication Date: 1980-01-01 -
The Black Press in South Africa and Lesotho
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ISBN: 0816181748Publication Date: 1979-06-01 -
Reaction and protest in the West African press : a collection of newspaper articles on five nineteenth century African leaders
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Subjects: Public opinion -- Africa, West -- Kings and rulers Public opinion -- Public opinion; Africa, West -- History -- To 1884 -- Sources; Africa, West -- History -- 1884-1960 -- Sources; Africa, West -- Kings and rulers -- Public opinion; Africa, West; To 1960; Leaders West Africa, 1885-1924. Extracts from newspapers; History; Sources
Related Titles: Series: African social research documents ; v. 10.
Publisher: Leiden : Afrika-Studiecentrum ; Cambridge England : African Studies Centre
ISBN: 9070110229Publication Date: 1978
Head, African Studies Library
Beth Restrick
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Subjects: African Studies