“Listened To” Rather Than “Heard”: The BBC and the Development of British Broadcasting in Africa

Between the 1930s and the 1960s experts from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the British Colonial Office came together to develop broadcasting services and build infrastructure in East and West Africa. This paper will interrogate that history through the experience of the African listener. Under the rubric of colonial development, radio had the ability to spread the English language and British traditions of expression across a vast space cheaply. The medium was a crucial part of the message and reflected Britain’s specific vision of modernity. However, during the late colonial empire it was the sounds of silence, distortion, fading, and noise that characterized the signal between Britain and Africa. The first section of the paper will follow the successive attempts of British broadcasters, engineers, and administrators to improve radio reception in Africa as well as the effects this had on local expectations. Next, the discussion will examine program offerings and their impact on African listening habits. When the BBC initiated its overseas service, it focused on reaching the individual listener in his home. British broadcasters were dismayed to learn of the public listening behavior of African audiences and sought to reform the habits through their programming. The conclusion of the paper will look at the “African Writers’ Club” series to evaluate the impact of British broadcasting on African listeners. Featuring British and African voices, the program was designed in the 1960s to take advantage of Africans’ new abilities to “listen to” radio, rather than just to “hear” it. The distinction had lasting effects that demonstrate the significance of British broadcasting and sound to the larger cultural legacy of the British Empire in Africa.