Abstract:
After the ANC was banned in 1960 and was thus forced to move
underground, the organisation's leadership in exile realised that a propaganda
and communication organ had to be launched as matter of priority. This
realisation was founded on the belief that a propaganda mouthpiece played an
important role in any liberation movement's endeavours. The result of this
was the launching of a monthly journal called Sechaba (or "nation" in the
Sotho language) during January 1967. The journal was internationally
recognised as the ANC's official mouthpiece. The last issue of Sechaba was
published in December 1990.
From the start, Sechaba experienced practical problems. The most important
of these were that it was printed in the former German Democratic Republic
(far removed from the situation in South Africa) and that the ANC
constantly experienced financial difficulties.
It can be stated that in style, content and composition Sechaba exhibited all
the characteristics of traditional propaganda. Sechaba was thus a typical
propaganda journal.
It was originally envisaged that Sechaba would represent the international
voice of the ANC. In this regard, the journal played an important role in the
campaign to isolate South Africa. Political developments in South Africa
during the seventies forced the ANC to shift the focus of Sechaba to South Africa's domestic audience. This created new challenges but also further
problems for the ANC - especially since that meant that more copies of the
journal had to be smuggled into South Africa. This problem was solved
satisfactorily.
In South Africa Sechaba was used, amongst other things, to canvass support
for the ANC among the youth, students and women. This was done by
harping on themes such as black nationalism and black theology. The journal
was also used to propagate campaigns (one of which was the campaign to
popularise the Freedom Charter), to introduce to South Africans the strategy
and aims of the ANC and to analyse the system of apartheid and Afrikaners
in general.
In the ANC's, as well as Sechaba 's own estimation, the journal accomplished
the tasks that it was launched to address. No scientific methods are
available to test these statements. It can, however, be stated that there is
evidence to show that the ANC's claims are not totally groundless. The fact
that Sechaba was the best known source of propaganda among those of all
the liberation movements operating in South Africa is but one example of
this.
It may therefore be stated that the ANC used its official organ, Sechaba,
with reasonable success in its fight against white supremacy.
