Segregation on the airwaves: from a monolingual to a multilingual broadcasting model in Angola and Mozambique

The chapter presents a history of broadcasting in the Portuguese African colonies between the early 1930s and late 1960s, demonstrating the shortcomings of the state broadcaster and the central role played in Mozambique and Angola by private radio clubs established by white elites. Broadcasting policy to and in the Portuguese territories is placed in the context of the nationalistic dictatorship. The chapter demonstrates how the winds of decolonization led the Lisbon government to introduce changes in its colonial policy that, although they did not alter its main characteristics, had a profound impact on the role attributed to radio broadcasting. Finally, the chapter discusses how programs in African languages were first aired by stations in Angola and Mozambique and how they were used as tools of psychological warfare by the Portuguese regime when its propaganda was challenged by broadcasts produced by independence movements that reached the Portuguese colonies from abroad.