Reconfiguring diaspora: Africa on the rise and the radio voices of Lewis Nkosi and Bloke Modisane

Abstract

The article focuses on radio as cultural mediator and maker. It discusses a particular moment in the early 1960s when Africa seemed to those closely involved in its cultural and political affairs to be ‘on the rise’. It focuses on the role of Lewis Nkosi, and partly, too, that of Bloke Modisane, in the ‘Africa Abroad’ radio programme run from the London‐based Transcription Centre in the early 1960s. It argues that the programmes reveal a moment of diasporic and transnational connection when the histories of Africa and African Americans appeared particularly tightly entwined. As the civil rights movement struggled towards success and Africa began to gain political independence, it was Africa that seemed ascendant. The linkage of ideas and influences and the shifts of discourse that radio could show have not been sufficiently acknowledged. The performative flow of ideas and culture that marked the ‘Africa Abroad’ programmes was in itself both creative and resistant, and Nkosi and Modisane were a part of its making.