Renegotiating Tradition on Radio Zimbabwe

The article focuses on the renegotiation of the Shona past within public service broadcasting as epitomized by Chakafukidza Dzimba Matenga, a popular prime-time talk programme offered by the national languages channel, Radio Zimbabwe. The analysis shows how Shona traditional communicative structures and figures of traditional authority are reconfigured in the context of adult talk-radio intended for male and female listeners located in both traditional (rural) and non-traditional (urban) spaces. The article draws on the theory of the ‘invention of tradition’ by Hobsbawm and Ranger to explore the role of broadcasting in processes of continuity and change in Zimbabwe. The article examines the ‘no sense of place’ that results from the anticipation of the reception of the adult talk in the programme in the context of the ‘shifting social geographies’ that Meyrowitz perceives to be increasingly evident in the way the mass media are experienced in many contemporary societies.