Table Of ContentAnthropology, Africa, Media
Englund
Human rigHts
“an inspired choice of topic. the conceptual and
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african Airwaves
framework within which it is presented has iu
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been worked out with impressive clarity H
Mediating equality on the ChiChewa Radio
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and delicacy.” n
—Karin Barber, university of Birmingham s
HArri Englund
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Human Rights and African Airwaves focuses on Nkhani Zam’maboma, a n
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popular Chichewa news bulletin broadcast on malawi’s public radio. the program
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often takes authorities to task and questions much of the human rights rhetoric
that comes from international organizations. Highlighting obligation and mutual f
dependence, the program expresses, in popular idioms and local narrative forms, r
grievances and injustices that are closest to malawi’s impoverished public. Harri
i
Englund reveals broadcasters’ everyday struggles with state-sponsored biases and c
a listening public with strong views and a critical ear. this fresh look at african-
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language media shows how africans effectively confront inequality, exploitation,
n
and poverty.
A
Harri Englund is reader in social anthropology at the university of Cambridge.
His book Prisoners of Freedom: Human Rights and the African Poor (2006) is winner i
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of the amaury talbot Prize of the royal anthropological institute.
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Cover illustration: Photo by the author. a
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s
Bloomington & Indianapolis
iupress.indiana.edu
1-800-842-6796
INDIANA
Human Rights & African Airwaves MECH.indd 1 7/27/11 12:29 PM
Human Rights and
African Airwaves
Human Rights
and African
Airwaves
Mediating Equality on the Chichewa Radio
Harri Englund
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of Manufactured in the United States of America
Indiana University Press Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication
601 North Morton Street Data
Bloomington, Indiana 47404–3797 USA
Englund, Harri.
iupress.indiana.edu Human rights and African airwaves : medi-
ating equality on the Chichewa radio / Harri
Telephone orders 800- 842- 6796 Englund.
Fax orders 812- 855- 7931 p. cm.
Orders by e-m ail [email protected] Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 253- 35677- 2 (cloth : alk.
© 2011 by Harri Englund paper) — ISBN 978- 0- 253- 22347- 0 (pbk. :
alk. paper) 1. Radio broadcasting— Social
All rights reserved aspects—Malawi. 2. Radio broadcasting,
Chewa—Malawi. 3. Nkhani Zam’maboma
No part of this book may be reproduced (Radio program) 4. Public radio—Malawi. 5.
or utilized in any form or by any means, Human rights in mass media. 6. Malawi Broad-
electronic or mechanical, in clud ing casting Corporation. 7. Malawi—Social condi-
photocopying and recording, or by any tions. 8. Ethnology—Malawi. I. Title.
information storage and retrieval system, PN1991.3.M3E55 2011
without permission in writing from the 302.2344096897—dc22
publisher. The Association of Ameri can 2011013555
University Presses’ Resolution on Permis-
sions constitutes the only exception to this 1 2 3 4 5 16 15 14 13 12 11
prohibition.
> The paper used in this publication meets
the minimum requirements of the Ameri-
can National Standard for Information Sci-
ences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
For Mikael
Contents
Acknowledgments · ix
Introduction · 1
Part 1. Human Rights, African Alternatives
1 Rights and Wrongs on the Radio · 23
2 Obligations to Dogs
Between Liberal and Illiberal Analytics · 45
3 Against the Occult
Journalists and Scholars in Search of Alternatives · 66
Part 2. The Ethos of Equality
4 A Nameless Genre
Newsreading as Storytelling · 93
5 Inequality Is Old News
Editors as Authors · 125
6 Stories Become Persons
Producing Knowledge about Injustice · 150
Part 3. The Aesthetic of Claims
7 Cries and Whispers
Shaming without Naming · 175
viii / Contents
8 Christian Critics
An Illiberal Public? · 198
9 Beyond the Parity Principle · 219
Appendix 1. Presidential News · 229
Appendix 2. Graveyard Visit · 231
Appendix 3. Drunken Children · 233
Appendix 4. Giant Rat · 235
Appendix 5. Reclaiming Virginity · 237
Appendix 6. The Truth about Porridge · 239
Appendix 7. “Makiyolobasi Must Stop Bewitching at Night” · 243
Notes · 245
Bibliography · 267
Index · 289
Acknowledgments
Once again I have to register my debt to the many friends and acquaintances
in Dedza District and Chinsapo Township in Malaŵi who not only suggested
intriguing topics to research but also offered perspectives on them that helped
me revise my initial interpretations. Because I have not used the services of re-
search assistants for this book, I can do no more than thank my interlocutors
collectively, all too aware that writing academic books may not be the best way
to adjust this sort of debt.
I felt welcome at the Blantyre headquarters of the Malaŵi Broadcasting
Corporation during the tenure of two successive pairs of director generals and
deputy director generals. The employees I worked with may not want their names
to appear here for reasons that will be evident to the readers of this book. How-
ever, having rather reluctantly been interviewed by some of them on the radio
(twice in Chicheŵa and once in English), I believe I am not the only one in our
relationship who enjoys the powers that come with representing others. This
book bears witness to some of the ways in which they have exercised those pow-
ers under the constraining conditions of pub lic broadcasting in Malaŵi.
A number of academics were generous enough to read or listen to parts of
this book when it was a work in progress. Some offered their comments and
criticisms in seminars or during casual conversations, others in writing, but it
feels right to acknowledge them in equal measure: Georgina Born, Erica Born-
stein, Matei Candea, Blessings Chinsinga, James Ferguson, Ørnulf Gulbrand-
sen, Sian Lazar, John Lonsdale, Giacomo Macola, Liisa Malkki, Tomas Matza,
David Maxwell, Wapulumuka Mulwafu, Yael Navaro- Yashin, Isak Niehaus,
Francis Nyamnjoh, Derek Peterson, Anthony Simpson, Sharath Srinivasan,
Nikolai Ssorin- Chaikov, Marilyn Strathern, Megan Vaughan, Richard Werb-
