TECHNOLOGY: African Culture Gets a Media Boost

By James Hall Reprint | | Print |

James Hall

MBABANE, Swaziland, Jun 3 2002 (IPS) - How is a small African nation that believes its colourful indigenous culture is its foremost economic asset to get this message across to an unaware world?

In the case of the tiny, Wales-size kingdom of Swaziland, where less than one million people live under the region’s last hereditary monarch, high-tech media is the answer.

Through a combination of satellite television and new Internet web pages, the country is marketing itself as Africa’s final refuge of traditional life. There is some truth to the message that makes it more than a public relations ploy.

“If you have a unique product that people want, you build on that strength,” says Quawe Mamba, director of Channel S (for Swaziland).

Channel S, an independent station set up a year-old, uses the satellite feed of South African-based company Multichoice to beam its signal into most of the nations of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Plagued by personnel problems, often stymied by a lack of financing, and criticised for amateurish programmes that can be poorly produced and technically inferior, Channel S does offer Swazi viewers the only television alternative to the government-owned Swazi TV.

Though Channel S’ use of satellite technology means it did not have to seek government approval for a broadcast license, the venture nonetheless has government support.

Government officials appeared at the station launch, and praised the new station as a way to publicise Swazi culture. The very first programme was taped at the launch party, as Nkhosi Dlamini, a fashion reporter, trained her camera on the Swazi attire and African-influenced outfits worn by some of the more stylish guests.

For most of his adult life, station director Mamba has been the “electronic praise singer” for 34 year-old King Mswati. He is in charge of a mobile television studio permanently parked at Lozitha Palace to record royal events, and he accompanies the king on overseas trips to record a video log later replayed for Swazi viewers on the government channel. There is little doubt among media analysts that King Mswati has approved Mamba’s independent television venture.

“Swazis love to watch themselves on TV,” says Swazi TV newsreader Victor Gamede. “Our most popular shows are ‘From the Palace’ and ‘Swazi View.’ These show all the national pageants, cultural events and just daily traditional life.”

Footage from these shows makes its way to Channel S, and out to a regional viewer-ship of Southern Africans who are enchanted by Swaziland’s traditional pageants, according to the station’s marketing survey.

What is seen is live coverage of the Umhlanga reed dance, where tens of thousands of bare-breasted Swazi maidens return to the royal village at Ludzidzini from a trip to collect umhlanga reeds in tribute to the Queen Mother. The girls then dance in an arena until sunset while performing ethnic songs.

The display of young Swazi femininity has always been a tourist draw. But since the first regional live airing of the event on Channel S, the tourism ministry reports enquiries about the reed dance for this year have increased four-fold.

“Before, all people saw of the reed dance were postcard views,” says tour operator Gladys Simelane. “The television coverage which is now available outside the country shows the true scope of the event, how immense and awesome it is.”

Channel S also broadcasts the Incwala kingship pageant in December-January. The so-called “rite of the first fruits” is a national prayer session to petition the ancestral spirits to bring good rains and prosperity. King Mswati leads thousands of warriors in an immense cattle kraal at Ludzidzini royal village to perform the rite.

“No other African country has retained its harvest festival so faithfully,” says former health minister Dr. Samuel Hynd. “Spectators, royal family members and the warriors all wear their finest traditional outfits, and there is little in Africa quite like it anymore.”

Swazis, in fact, consider these Hollywood-like scenes vital for the preservation of their nation. But visitors find the Incwala pageant inspiring. Foreign envoys urge government to publicise the event, while being mindful to keep a sacred festival from turning into a circus. Channel S’ first regional broadcast of the most recent Incwala also generated enquiries for the tourism ministry.

The Internet web site of Swaziland’s government is incomplete and outdated, and no ministry seems interested in updating its information. But a plethora of cultural web sites are being introduced, from the local Internet servers Real Image and Africa On-Line’s Swaziland web pages, to the new Swaziland Tourism Authority’s page.

“Every major hotel and tourist attraction has a web page,” says Darron Raw, president of Swazi Trails and Raw Africa, the latter, which introduced adventure tourism to the country. Raw is an avid photographer, and his pictures of traditional Swazi life decorate many of the web sites.

“In fact, traditional life is normal Swazi life,” says Anita Pitman Raw, Darron’s wife. She notes that Swazis live in chieftaincies, and follow traditional customs that have now survived into the 21st century.

Swazi tour operator Nxolisi Mduli has based his own business showing visitors from Europe, North America and Asia around the kingdom on local culture. “People want to see how Africans live in a traditional setting. Because I am a rural Swazi, I can bring people to the places they can never experience inside a tour bus or by watching a dance troupe perform beside a hotel pool.”

His own web site is one of several that are publicising Swaziland’s key attraction, its own cultural self. The result has been to reinforce Swazis’ pride in the culture they strove to preserve during the colonial era.