Broadcasting and the creation of a black public opinion in the Portuguese empire: using radio to promote and counter cultural dominance

The article addresses how radio played a double role in the Portuguese Empire. First, it functioned as a tool of cultural domination by promoting the superiority of European languages and cultural practices while presenting African cultures as unworthy of being audible on the airwaves. Second, radio became central to the creation of a black public opinion that was instrumental to the emergence of a sense of nation among the indigenous populations in the territories ruled by Portugal in Africa. This was made possible specially through the listening to programmes produced by the liberation movements that were fighting the colonial regime on the military front but also via the airwaves. Some of these movements broadcast to the Portuguese colonies from neighbouring countries where they were granted access to broadcasting infrastructures. By analysing this dual role played by broadcasting in the context of Portuguese Africa, the article argues that the audio medium was used to foster pro and anti-colonial public opinion. Finally, it discusses how the first broadcasts in African languages, started by white radio producers, aimed foremost to increase their own revenue, as they addressed the black listener as a consumer, not a citizen.