Broadcasting Oral Traditions: The "Logic" of Narrative Variants--The Problem of "Message"

Abstract

In his article Language and the Media in Graham Mytton (1978) points out that: Radio is the supreme medium of communication in Zambia, and the only one reaching a majority of the population. The Zambia Broadcasting Services provides two groups of programs, the Home Service, in English and the seven national Zambian languages, and the General Service, which is mostly in English, with a bit of programming in Bemba, Nyanja, and, until 1980, Shona and Ndebele, the latter two languages being directed at listeners in Zimbabwe. The first station in Central Africa to broadcast programs directed almost exclusively towards African listeners, this Lusaka-based operation was from the beginning embroiled in the controversy over which Zambian languages should be used in programming. Each of the seven national Zambian languages actually represent larger linguistic groupings, often consisting of fifteen or even twenty distinct languages or dialects (depending on the way language is defined in a given context). Nearly each of these subgroups represent ethnic identities, with their own cultures and philosophies. The clamor for greater representation on the airwaves has historically come from such smaller groups who feel passed over, or neglected, by official news and cultural programming. The radio service, as well as government officials, counter such demands by stating the nationalistic and nationalizing goals of unifying, rather than fragmenting, the country's numerous ethnic groups. While ideally English would resolve these conflicts, being a supposedly neutral lingua franca, the fact is that surveys suggest that

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