We are very happy to announce a new open-access project publication by the Project’s PI and three team members:
Harisch, Immanuel R., Goran Musić, Teckson Njovu, und Joy Phiri. „Who Is to Blame for the Burning Buses? Negotiating Media Control and Yugoslav-Backed Development in Zambia’s Postcolonial Press“. Stichproben. Vienna Journal of African Studies 25, Nr. 49 (2025): 25–50. https://doi.org/10.25365/PHAIDRA.737_02.
This article examines the Zambian press during the Cold War, focusing on Zambia’s
cooperation with Socialist Yugoslavia and its impact on national media and
development discourse. Drawing on Zambian newspapers and archival documents
from Zambia, Yugoslavia and Britain, the article is structured in two interwoven
sections. The first section investigates Zambia’s postcolonial media sector under United
National Independence Party (UNIP) rule, highlighting efforts to control the press
alongside joint media development initiatives with Yugoslavia to lessen dependency on
Western media outlets. The second section presents a case study of press coverage of a
series of fires in Yugoslav-made buses, revealing a remarkable diversity of voices across
state-owned and private newspapers in UNIP’s one-party state. Both parts are closely
entangled, illustrating how state-directed media policies and international partnerships
were negotiated and contested by various actors in the public sphere. By treating the
press as an active arena of Cold War East–South engagement rather than a passive
record, the article offers an original contribution to Cold War East–South studies and
enriches our understanding of media in postcolonial Africa.
