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Gateway to Africa: The History of Television Service in Late Colonial Nigeria

Gateway to Africa: The History of Television Service in Late Colonial Nigeria Abstract The constitutional changes that took place in Nigeria in the decade before independence granted significant authority to the colonial state's three regions. The 1954 constitution gave both the federal and regional governments the authority to legislate on broadcasting issues. In 1959, Western Region leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, established the Western Nigeria Television Service (WNTV), a service considered the ‘Gateway to Africa’. This article historicizes the processes and politics of the founding of this station, revealing metropolitan efforts to control the television service's direction in order for it to remain aligned with British cultural and imperial interests. It also shows the BBC's attempts to stall the successful launch of a service that it considered a competitor. The study argues that the broadcasting service's creation was an act of dissent against British colonial rule and its cultural imperialism and sheds light on how the Western Region's political elites embraced emerging public communication technologies to undermine colonialism. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Africa Bibliography Cambridge University Press

Gateway to Africa: The History of Television Service in Late Colonial Nigeria

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Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2021
ISSN
0266-6731
eISSN
1757-1642
DOI
10.1017/S0266673121000039
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract The constitutional changes that took place in Nigeria in the decade before independence granted significant authority to the colonial state's three regions. The 1954 constitution gave both the federal and regional governments the authority to legislate on broadcasting issues. In 1959, Western Region leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, established the Western Nigeria Television Service (WNTV), a service considered the ‘Gateway to Africa’. This article historicizes the processes and politics of the founding of this station, revealing metropolitan efforts to control the television service's direction in order for it to remain aligned with British cultural and imperial interests. It also shows the BBC's attempts to stall the successful launch of a service that it considered a competitor. The study argues that the broadcasting service's creation was an act of dissent against British colonial rule and its cultural imperialism and sheds light on how the Western Region's political elites embraced emerging public communication technologies to undermine colonialism.

Journal

Africa Bibliography – Cambridge University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2021

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