2 I have written elsewhere about the problems of radio and television in Africa as resources for study in ‘African Radio and Television as Information Resources’ in Larby, Patricia M. (editor), New Directions in African Bibliography, London: Standing Conference on Library Materials on Africa, 1988, pp. 87–93.Google Scholar

3 For an excellent account of this period in African broadcasting, see Fraenkel, Peter, Wayaleshi, London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1959.Google Scholar

4 Mytton, Graham, Mass Communication in Africa, London: Edward Arnold, 1983, p. 19. The standard reference work on world broadcasting, listing broadcasting organisations, their transmitter facilities and other details is the annual World Radio TV Handbook, Amsterdam and New York: Billboard Books.Google Scholar

5 The BBC World Service has for several years published an annual estimate, country by country, of radio and television sets. World Radio and Television Receivers, London: BBC World Service Marketing.Google Scholar

6 Partner, Peter, Arab Voices: The BBC Arabic Service 1938–1988, London: BBC, 1988, p. 17. For the most comprehensive account of the origins and development of BBC's international radio broadcasts see Let Truth Be Told by former Managing Director of External Broadcasting, Gerard Mansell, London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1982.Google Scholar

7 , Partner, op. cit., p. 19.Google Scholar

8 World Radio TV Handbook, op. cit., passim.Google Scholar

9 I have two theories why Radio Cairo has never been a popular station anywhere outside Arabic speaking countries. Shortwave enthusiasts tell me that transmissions from Cairo are often unreliable and very variable in the frequencies used. That is likely to make repeat listening difficult. My other theory is that the broadcasts were probably not very interesting, consisting mainly of translated Egyptian government propaganda.Google Scholar

10 Dodd, Mark, ‘How Broadcasting in Somali from the BBC Began’, Anglo Somali Newsletter, October 1989, reprinted in 40 Years of the Somali Service: Halkani waa BBC London, BBC Somali Service, 1997.Google Scholar

11 This was the largest recorded audience ever found for Radio Moscow in any survey conducted for the BBC World Service in any part of the world! Radio Moscow, now the Voice of Russia, also closed all its other African language broadcasts and several of its Asian languages. Few of them rivalled the BBC, Deutsche Welle, VOA or Radio France International in audience size, at least in Africa. However they did perform rather better in South Asia than, for example, Deutsche Welle. But at a stroke, and with no apparent reference to audience reach or other performance criteria Radio Moscow/Voice of Russia lost most of its listeners, virtually overnight. The terminated languages, including Swahili, Hausa, Somali and several Indian languages - Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu among others - had formerly had significant audiences.Google Scholar

12 Nasor Malik was the longest serving BBC Swahili broadcaster. Of Zanzibari origin he was there at the beginnig and retired in 1987 after 30 years continuous service.Google Scholar

13 Hekaya za Kuburudisha, Nairobi: Longmans, 1968, passim.Google Scholar

14 Some African governments have at times viewed the BBC with hostility. Presidents Ghadafi of Libya, Moi of Kenya, Mugabe of Zimbabwe, several Nigerian heads of state and many deposed and departed leaders have complained about a source of information over which they had no control, but which they knew was listened to by many of their own subjects. But no serious attempts have ever been made to jam BBC broadcasts. Today relationships are much more relaxed as evidenced by the fact that the BBC and other international broadcasters are becoming available through local transmitters.Google Scholar

15 Surveys in East Africa were conducted mostly by Research International East Africa. In Tanzania, the early surveys were conducted by an ad hoc research team put together for the purpose. Surveys conducted for the BBC here and in other parts of Africa and the world, are designed to produce estimates of the BBC and other broadcasters' audiences among the general adult population. They are also designed t o monitor changes in audience behaviour and needs and also to measure general media access and use. Results are published internally but bona fide scholars can gain access to research reports. Some results have been published in various sources. See especially Mytton, Graham (editor) Global Audiences, London: John Libbey, 1993.Google Scholar

16 Surveys in Nigeria were conducted by RMS Research or Research International Nigeria.Google Scholar

17 In January 1998, the BBC World Service's Marketing Department, which has commissioned, carried out or purchased research in most parts of the world, calculated the BBC World Service's global weekly audience in any language to be 138 million adults. Of this total, 38 million are estimated to live in Africa. If we exclude the Arabic speaking north and include only sub-Saharan Africa, the estimate is 29 million, 21% of the global total.Google Scholar

18 Audiences in English in Tanzania and elsewhere in Swahili-speaking areas are much more significant today. The BBC now has estimated weekly audiences in Tanzania of about 300,000 for English and 3.3 million for Swahili, while the equivalent figures for Kenya are 1 million and 3.2 million respectively. There are very large overlaps between the audiences for each language.Google Scholar

19 Internal memorandum, 1.6.1961.Google Scholar