"Botswana’s government as one of the celebrated postcolonial democracies in Southern Africa continues to have the state owning and controlling the media – in particular, broadcast media. The history of government-owned and controlled media in Botswana can be understood through colonial lenses †... “ it stands out as a product of historical entanglements with the influence of apartheid South Africa’s role, and the invention of Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) hegemony. These were further mitigated by other factors that include the sections of Information and Broadcasting’s own internal politics and growth, and, within the geopolitical prism, the Cold War period. This article focuses on the history of radio in Botswana showing its multiple origins and the conflicting visions as to the role and nature of broadcasting in the colony and postcolony. We posit that the aims of modernization, nationalism, national identity and public versus government ownership all had their place in the establishment of radio in the country. Further, we argue that the powerful presence of a coercive and quite overbearing neighbour, South Africa with its South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), and a paternalist British voice alongside an anxious postcolonial government, all shaped the eventual identity of Radio Botswana." (Abstract) more

"Observing the emergence of public service broadcasting on the eve of colonialism in Botswana (early 60s to early 2000s), the central thesis of the article is that the roots of control of the media in contemporary Botswana can be traced to British anxieties about the possibility of a nationalist rev ... olution in the protectorate, following political trends of the anti-apartheid black nationalist movements in neighbouring South Africa. To understand the continuing deep-seated fear of letting go of state ownership of particularly Radio Botswana, the Botswana Daily News and Botswana Television (BTV) is to understand the fragility of Africa's postcolonial nation states, and thus its bureaucracies. Common belief has it that because Botswana is ethnically homogenous, it therefore experiences very little threat to its nation-building project, the truth is that stifling debate has been an important function of government control of the media. Even with the advent of social media platforms and their unprecedented influence in African politics (as in the Arab Spring), in Africa broadcasting will remain a vehicle for mobilising power and states seem intent on maintaining that control for the foreseeable future." (Abstract) more