Starring Mandela and Cosby: Media and the End

216 Pages·2010·4.307 MB·English

by  Ron Krabill

Starring Mandela and Cosby

Starring Mandela and Cosby
Media and the End(s) of Apartheid
RON KRABILL
The University of Chicago Press.
Chicago and London
Ron Krabill is associate professor in the Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences Program at the Uni-
versity of Washington Bothell and a member of the graduate faculty in the Department of Com-
munication at the University of Washington Seattle.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2010 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2010
Printed in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 45188- 6 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 45189- 3 (paper)
ISBN- 10: 0- 226- 45188- 7 (cloth)
ISBN- 10: 0- 226- 45189- 5 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Krabill, Ron.
Starring Mandela and Cosby : media and the end(s) of apartheid / Ron Krabill.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-45188-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-45189-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-45188-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-45189-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Cosby show (Television program : 1984–1992)—Infl uence. 2. Television broadcasting—
Social aspects—South Africa—History—20th century. 3. Television and politics—South
Africa—History—20th century. 4. Television viewers—South Africa—Attitudes—History—
20th century. 5. Whites—South Africa—Attitudes—History—20th century. 6. Mass media
and race relations—South Africa—History—20th century. 7. Apartheid—South Africa. 8.
South Africa—Race relations—History—20th century. I. Title.
PN1992.3.S57K73 2010
302.2'3450968—dc22 2010005836
o The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American Na-
tional Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48- 1992.
for my parents and my children;
may we all learn from those who have gone before
and never lose hope;
a luta continua!
in memory of
Willard S. Krabill
April 25, 1926–January 6, 2009

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments / ix
List of Abbreviations / xiii
INTRODUCTION / Media, Democratization, and the
End(s) of Apartheid / 1
ONE / Structured Absences and Communicative Spaces / 17
TWO / In the Absence of Television / 35
THREE / “They Stayed ’til the Flag Streamed” / 53
FOUR / Surfi ng into Zulu / 65
FIVE / Living with the Huxtables in a State of Emergency / 87
SIX / I May Not Be a Freedom Fighter, but I Play One on TV / 119
CONCLUSION / Television and the Afterlife of Apartheid / 147
Postscript / 165
Notes / 167
Index / 189

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A project of this scope—conducted over many years on two continents
through multiple institutions with a variety of funding sources—accumu-
lates signifi cant debts of gratitude. The immense generosity of time and
spirit that is represented in these acknowledgments leaves me in awe; the
many individuals and groups named below have gone far above and be-
yond the call of obligation in both their intellectual and personal support
of this book. Without these many people, Starring Mandela and Cosby: Media
and the End(s) of Apartheid would not be before you now. Although it has
become a truism in acknowledgments such as these, it nonetheless remains
necessary to say: everyone named below has undoubtedly strengthened this
book, while none of them should be held responsible for its fl aws.
More than ten years ago I arrived on the doorstep of Jon Hyslop, whom
my professor at the New School for Social Research, Kate Crehan, had sug-
gested I contact. He generously invited me into his living room for an ex-
tended conversation regarding the scholarship of the anti- apartheid move-
ments and the areas that remained underresearched. It was Jon who fi rst
suggested to me that the role of television could benefi t from more atten-
tion in scholarship on the late-a partheid era, and the intellectual and theo-
retical trajectory of this book thus was set in motion; I am immensely grate-
ful to both Jon and Kate for catalyzing that moment. Several years later,
Keyan Tomaselli offered me a visiting lectureship at what was then called
the Graduate Programme in Cultural and Media Studies at the University
of Natal in Durban, South Africa. As my institutional home in 1999 and
2000, the Graduate Programme was a vibrant beehive of visiting schol-
ars, brilliant graduate students from across Africa and beyond, and pas-
sionately committed people exploring media and culture in South Africa
and throughout the continent in a global context. Both Keyan and Ruth