The Constructions of Ndebele Identity in Skyz Metro FM: An Audience Reception Study

Abstract

Discourses on the negotiation and construction of ethnic identities in Zimbabwe have preoccupied scholars across disciplines, ranging from history, sociology, anthropology, and most recently media and communication studies. This study proceeds against the background that in Zimbabwe, literature on the relationship between identity formation and the media is little and far between, while available studies are limited to textual and discourse analysis. This inquiry takes a reception study approach to find out how audiences physically interact with radio content and negotiate different identity categories through qualitative in-depth interviews. This study extends this scope to the examination of how the advent of Skyz Metro FM has aided representation to extend discursive construction of identities. The study shows how a sense of belonging to Ndebele identity has been shaped by various changing power dynamics of internal and external factors in ways that allows one to understand how the production of national identity impact on the expression of belonging to Ndebele ethnic identity. The analysis is framed on the premise that like most collective identities, Ndebele identity has been flexible, fluid, negotiable, complex, shifting and contested but it centrally argues that Ndebele identity gels around key markers such as language. The relationship between broadcasting and ethnic nationalism found clear expression in Skyz Metro’s deliberate adoption of the slogan Esabantu (for the people) and maintains the station’s signature which is deployed throughout its programming.

Keywords

Skyz Metro FM Zimbabwe Ndebele identity identification and reception Ndebele ethnic identity

Introduction

After many years of armed conflict between the liberation forces and the colonial state, Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980 amid expectations of the beginning of a new era of racial equality and harmonious nation-building (Mlambo, 2013: 50). The 1980s scenes of the Gukurahundi genocide had a negative effect on the nationalist project in Zimbabwe by giving way to Shona ethno-nationalism and the birth of a distinct Ndebele history that is different from the triumphant Shona historical imaginations in which the Zimbabwean nation-state is anchored (Ndlovu, 2016; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2008). Several scholars (Mhlanga, 2013; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2008; Tshuma & Ndlovu, 2019: 3) noted cracks, fractures and ambiguities surrounding the imagination of a new Zimbabwean nation. As such, Zimbabwean national identity is perceived as an ‘unfinished business’ (Tshuma and Ndlovu, 2019: 3). This means that the history of a nation-in-the-making was reduced to a selective heroic tradition, instead of a tolerant and continuing and inclusive process of national belonging (Mlambo, 2013; Raftopoulos, 2004). Zimbabwe’s liberation war, the foundation of the country’s contemporary nationalism, was fought with the aim of eradicating exclusion based on racial identity (Mhlanga, 2013). From such a historical narrative, the ‘Ndebele experiences, histories, and heroes are subordinated to triumphant and hegemonic Shona history, if not completely ignored and this has shaped the current Matabeleland politics of alienation and resentment’ (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2008: 51) which in turn has made some of them to have problems in belonging to the broader Zimbabwean identity.

According to Yuval-Davis (2010: 266), belonging is comprised of specific political projects aimed at constructing belonging in particular ways to collectives and this includes an acceptance of an authoritative interpreter of what it is to be a ‘real’ man or to be a real Ndebele in this case. While the Gukurahundi genocide remains a suppressed memory, it has deepened a sense of alienation from both the state and nation among the people of Matabeleland (Santos, 2018: 3). Given this precarious scenario, Regmi (2003), however, proposes a participatory development model made possible by media institutions which recognise ethnic identities. This study investigates how audiences negotiate their sense of identity through their interaction with Skyz Metro FM radio programmes. Representation in the media is implicated in the distribution of social power (Mlotshwa, 2018). As a discursive arena, the ‘media are central to the construction of identities and belonging’ (Cottle, 2000: 2), and in democratic discourse this is linked to issues of ‘citizenship’ (Mlotshwa, 2018: 1). Citizenship is the identity – and the rights and responsibilities linked to it – because of belonging to the community of the nation (Mlotshwa, 2018). Through the media, the Zimbabwean state has institutionalised the process of ‘exclusion’ and ‘selective nationhood’, against the normative function of acting as platforms and spaces with liberative potential for free participation (Chiumbu, 2004; Mpofu and Salawu, 2018). For that reason, members of ethno-linguistic minorities are emotionally disenchanted and always feel marginalised and excluded in the public domain (Mpofu and Salawu, 2018).

This investigation views the construction of identities and issues of belonging by Skyz Metro FM audiences as a core consideration. Therefore, the study leans on Stuart Hall’s identity theorisation which entails that the definition of identity extends beyond just ‘being’ to include the process of becoming or belonging (Hall, 1996). Hall’s theory encompasses a significant variation of thoughts and ideas which must be recognised which buttresses the notion of belonging. In Zimbabwe, the formation of identity has come to constitute an arena for contestations (Ndhlovu, 2007: 138). The politics of belonging to ethnic identities has been mediated by some forms of marginalisation and privileges in terms of access to state resources in ways, which have witnessed ‘belonging to Ndebele identity being articulated as a political identity’ (Ndlovu, 2017: 20).

There is serious ethnic polarisation in Zimbabwe, and it has its roots in the pre-colonial and nationalist socio-political engineering processes, as well as in the postcolonial coercive nation-building project of the 1990s (Mamdani, 2001). There are several debates and discourses on the roots, nature and tenacity of ethnicity (Ndlovu, 2016) this study identifies and observes the current streams of the understandings of ethnicity – primordialism, and constructionism. The primordialism approach stresses the archaic and primordial bases of ethnic identities (Geertz, 1973). Scholars within this theorisation, such as Van den Berghe (1981) and Geertz (1973), contend that ethnic identities are determined by common primordial ties and cultural bonds. The primordialist categorisation can be viewed as ahistorical, as it presumes that ethnicity is stagnant and unchanging (Berman, 1998; Hutchinson and Smith, 1996). In contrast, this study situates ethnicity within the constructionist perspective where Ndebele ethnicity is socially constructed, fluid and evolving (Atkinson, 1999; Berman, 1998). It is more useful to locate ethnicity under the constructionist theory, which does not view ethnic consciousness as a fixed essence but rather as a phenomenon that can be redefined, renegotiated and reconstructed (Ndlovu, 2016). According to Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2008, 2009; Ndlovu, 2016), there are five different understandings of Ndebele identity which include a ‘clannish’ definition that views the Ndebele as people of Nguni ancestry, the linguistic understanding that defines Ndebele as people whose mother tongue is isiNdebele. Third, there is the regional-geographic interpretation that views the Ndebele as people residing in Matabeleland (Ndlovu, 2016; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2008). Fourth is the political version that defines Ndebele people as those who were victimised during the Gukurahundi atrocities, and finally, there is a historical-pluralistic perspective that views a Ndebele as any person whose ancestors were part of the conglomerate Ndebele kingdom (Ndlovu, 2016; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2009).

According to Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2009: 152), the official ‘approach to ethnicity is that of silence and pretence. Ethnic issues are generally not subject of public debate. They are pushed under the carpet’. Celebrations of ethnicity are tabooed by the political elite as this is negating to the postcolonial elite’s construction of a unified national identity imagined along mystified forms of one people (Mpofu, 2014). This is mainly because Ndebele ethnicity cannot be divorced from the 1980s genocide which still contributes to ethnic tensions. Moyo (2009: 70) argues that such identity politics could be summed up as identity with an attitude of ‘us’ and ‘them’ denoting the counter-hegemonic Ndebele and the hegemonic Shona (Moyo, 2009: 70). In Zimbabwe, the changing patterns on conceptions of identity and identity formation are also linked to certain political happenings in the history of postcolonial Zimbabwe (Ndhlovu, 2007: 140). For example, the post-independence genocide in which over 20,000 most Ndebele-speaking Zimbabweans lost their lives in what became known as the Gukurahundi genocide (Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), 1997). ‘What remains however, is that these human rights violations had implications in society especially in increasing Ndebele particularism’ (Mpofu, 2014: 41). Besides, ‘the genocide induced fear and collective anxiety for different communities, individual survivors and Zimbabweans at large’ (Mpofu, 2014: 40). The inquiry arguably locates the crystallisation of Ndebele identity into an ethnic mode within this context of the politics of exclusion, discrimination and prejudice.

Identity construction and radio in Zimbabwe

According to Mare (2013), radio has received the tag of Africa’s medium because of its wider reach and its embeddedness in audience’s ordinary lives. The emergence of modern mass media on the African continent coincided with the spread of British and French colonialism, where radio broadcasting was used to establish colonial domination (Willems, 2014). In the then Rhodesia, radio broadcasts began in the 1930s and were initially run on a voluntary basis by Rhodesian postal employees, and this resulted in the establishment of the Southern Rhodesia Broadcasting Service (SRBS) in 1941 (Zaffiro, 2002). Given the increasing use of external shortwave broadcasts by the two liberation movements, Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) in the late 1960s and mid-1970s, the Rhodesian government could no longer afford to ignore radio as medium in the propaganda warfare (Willems, 2014). They were now forced to counter ZANU’s and ZAPU’s shortwave radio programmes broadcast from abroad (Willems, 2014; Zaffiro, 2002). Through a set of policy interventions, settler colonialism created separate publics for Africans and White settlers, where radio was seen as suitable to unite White settlers and create loyal citizens, and Africans on the other hand were imagined as vulnerable, pre-modern and not able to adequately understand the use and relevance of modern media (Willems, 2014: 6). In the postcolonial era, the post-independent state, audiences ‘were to be brought into national and international political consciousness, mobilised, modernised, and culturally uplifted’ and this was linked to a particular set of interventions in Zimbabwe’s media landscape, particularly the investment to increase reach in rural areas (Willems, 2014: 7).

For many years, the Zimbabwean government has been reluctant to democratise the airwaves with radio stations such as Radio Dialogue having been denied community radio broadcasting licences (Ndlovu, 2016). ZANU-PF’s stranglehold over the broadcasting environment through the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s (ZBC) monopoly, entrenched since independence (Ndlela, 2005), was only interrupted in 2012 when private radio stations including Zi FM Stereo and Star FM were granted licences, albeit heavily linked to the ruling ZANU-PF. It can be argued that the granting of radio licences to these new players was merely cosmetic. For instance, Zi FM Stereo, under the AB Communications group of companies, has an active ZANU-PF senior party member Supa Mandiwanzira as a major stakeholder, while Star FM is owned by the government-linked Zimpapers group.

Bulawayo’s first independent commercial radio station came in the form of Skyz Metro FM which was to foreground the interests of the previously marginalised people of Matabeleland whose voices have not been well captured on mainstream state-owned media (Mlotshwa, 2018). While the government has chosen to define Zimbabwean identity around the issues of land and the liberation struggle, the advent of Skyz Metro FM presents its audiences located in Bulawayo potential opportunity to freely debate on issues and develop counter-narratives outside ZANU-PF’s controlled channels of expression. Therefore, this research probes the construction of target audience in Skyz Metro FM in relation to ongoing discussions about Zimbabwean national identity. Central to the probe is the idea of the media as ideal spaces to interrogate the construction of ethnic groups as minorities and tease out the underlying social power dynamics at play within the discourse of Zimbabwean nationalism (Mlotshwa, 2018: 1).

Identity politics in Zimbabwe, Matabeleland politics, marginalisation

The representations of the pre-colonial Ndebele and Shona people have been a site of contestation; according to Ranger (1999), the dominant narrative of Matabeleland known to Zimbabweans has been the emphasis on the Ndebele as invaders, raiders and conquerors. The dominant myth that has been produced and reproduced across the colonial and postcolonial epochs is an image of the Ndebele people as cruel warriors who survived on raiding their neighbouring communities (Lindgren, 2002). On the other hand, Shona people were viewed as objects of emancipation from the clutches of Ndebele power by the colonisers (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2009; Ranger, 1999). However, there are scholars who are questioning this histography about Ndebele power, as they argue that these representations crystallise on assumptions, exaggerations and distortions that were propagated by missionaries and colonialists to justify and legitimate their colonial conquest of the Ndebele kingdom and the emancipation of the Shona people (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2009).

During the battle for independence, there were two liberation movements – Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) owing their loyalty to the nationalist party ZAPU, the loser in Zimbabwe’s first elections and another guerrilla army associated with the victorious ZANU PF was known as ZANLA (Alexander & McGregor, 2004: 82). ZIPRA guerrillas ‘were also seen as a political danger, and they were targeted in a vicious war of repression in the 1980s, along with ZAPU civilians and “the Ndebele” with whom they were associated, were hunted down, jailed, tortured, and killed’ (Alexander and Mcgregor, 2004: 81–82). Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2008: 43–44) further notes that since ZANU was ‘Shona dominated’, and ZAPU becoming ‘Ndebele dominated’, the history of the two parties has become a ‘tale of ethnic politics and tribalism, bringing more division than unity to the Ndebele and the Shona’. Zimbabwe’s postcolonial nation-building exercise from the onset suggested a severe fracture manifesting in violence and intimidation to intolerance and exclusionary tendencies (Moyo, 2013). This was exemplified by the ZANU PF party led by Robert Mugabe, which at independence in 1980 began a process of narrating and defining the Zimbabwean nation in narrow, partisan and selective ways (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2009). Given the Zimbabwean government’s tight grip on the media, especially broadcasting, the public media have largely been supportive of, and even complicit in, official silencing of genocide debates and memory, thus practically leaving out the Ndebele people with no means to voice their grievances (Mpofu, 2016; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013). This has resulted in an upsurge in instances of people from different ethnic affiliations such as the Karanga, the Manyika, the Zezuru and the Ndebele, trying to outwit each other in achieving certain political outcomes in the name of nation-building (Ndhlovu, 2007). Dube and Ncube (2019: 150) note that ‘critics of the Ndebele people tend to categorize them as a disgruntled group with a peculiar history and identity in a country where the Shona are the dominant ethnic group’. Mlambo (2013) notes the failure by the ruling party to forge common citizenship among diverse groups is, prompting an inquiry of who exactly is a Zimbabwean? (p. 51) while Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2009: 1) further poses an important question: ‘Do “Zimbabweans” exist?’. Ndlovu (2016: 52) identifies ‘Ndebele Particularism’ as one of the alternative imaginations countering the hegemonic Zimbabwean Nationalism.

The imagination of unity in Zimbabwe was undermined by the Gukurahundi atrocities that heightened the victims’ awareness of being Ndebele at the cost of being Zimbabwean (Mpofu, 2014, Ndlovu, 2016). The exclusionary approaches to postcolonial nation building carried out and legitimised through discourses of constructing imagined ethnic minorities who are then seen as irrelevant to national debate (Ndhlovu, 2007). The Gukurahundi genocide still haunts the national identity project more than three decades after independence with its net effect being the creation of a Pan-Ndebele particularism (Mpofu, 2014: 24). Violence suffered by the peoples of Matabeleland forged an inseparable alliance between Ndebele identity and politics, as being Ndebele became both a political and linguistic expression (Msindo, 2012, quoted in Mpofu, 2014: 24).

Over the years, the ruling party has mobilised and assumed commemorations, state funerals, national holidays and other cultural rituals to sustain Shona hegemony and memorialise itself into the narrative of the nation (Muchemwa, 2010; Ndlovu, 2016; Ndlovu-Gatsheni & Willems, 2010). According to Muchemwa (2010), ZANU PF use the national shrine, galas and other commemorative rituals such as Heroes’ Day and Unity Day as forms of ‘cultural nationalism’ which used as sites for nationalist reconstructions. Within this hegemonic nationalism, ZANU PF deploys the ideology of ‘Chimurenga’ to maintain its stranglehold during its rising unpopularity and to imagine the postcolonial nation (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2012: 7). The term ‘Chimurenga’ is derived from the name Murenga, a Shona spiritual medium who was an inspirational figure in the 1896–1897 resistance against colonial rule (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2012: 3, 2009: 51). However, the term has been re-appropriated within official circles to signify an armed struggle or a war of liberation against colonial rule (Martin et al., 1981; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2012). This hegemonic Zimbabwean Nationalism is not only pro-ZANU PF, but it is also ‘Shona-centred’, as it excludes other groups, such as the Ndebele people, in the imagination of the nation (Ndlovu-Gatsheni & Willems, 2010). The imagination of the nation is instead hinged on Shona myths, histories, memories, symbols and traditions which symbolise ‘Shona triumphalism’, which has obscured alternative imaginations, such as Ndebele myths and historical experiences (Mhlanga, 2013; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2009).

According to Mhlanga (2013), the Ndebele still continue to feel marginalised and to perceive of themselves as subjects in a divided state, and this has been aggravated by the state’s continued marginalisation of Matebeleland as a region not only in terms of development but also within its cultural phanerons whose intention is to engrave in the tablet of time the feeling and stature of inferiority. He further argues that continued marginalisation of the region of Matebeleland, as an ethnic issue, continues to present a grotesque figure of Zimbabwe as a nation-state trying to rise in the mire of blood because of the state’s sanctioned carnage (Mhlanga, 2013: 58). Given the situation shown above, it should be noted that media comprise some of the integral institutions in the discursive production of complex notions of national identity through ideologies carried through media content (Mpofu, 2014). Conversations on the Gukurahundi atrocities still permeate the counter-narratives in academia, the media and other discussion platforms particularly the digital public sphere (Mpofu, 2014). The media hence become an important site of identity construction discourse where ‘state representatives and those who publicly contend with them compete for the national imagination of citizens’ (Bruner, 2002: 1). While ZANU-PF has dominated the discursive space for hegemonic purposes using narrowly defined and authoritarian narratives of Zimbabweaness, Zimbabweans have opted for other platforms to resist the ZANU-PF formulations of national identity (Mpofu, 2015; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2011). As Ndlela argues, in a situation where a society’s communication structures are heavily tilted towards mainstream discourses, oppositional forces and reformists often resort to alternative media, hence creating an alternative public sphere (Ndlela, 2005).

The emergence of Skyz Metro FM

In line with the well-discussed public sphere, a space wherein all citizens can freely discuss politics independent of the influence of the state, foreign-based stations were established with the express intention to provide an alternative voice in Zimbabwe (Teer-Tomaselli & Tomaselli, 2001). According to the Zimbabwe all media products survey, as of 2012, there were six licensed radio stations in Zimbabwe: Power FM, National FM, Radio Zimbabwe, Spot FM, Zi FM and Star FM. Stations broadcasting in English enjoy 72% of the urban market share. Only National FM focuses on minority languages while Radio Zimbabwe caters for Ndebele and Shona speakers. The stations enjoy 6% and 22% of the urban market share, respectively. Although the situation is far from being ideal, the ethno-linguistic minorities represented on National FM can enjoy their right to identity and participate in national discourses (Maseko, 2013). Notwithstanding the fact that there is still a need for the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) to issue broadcasting licences to commercial and community players, to give a platform to voices which were habitually excluded, there has been recent efforts to licence new radio players such as Capitalk, Skyz Metro FM, Hevoi FM and Breeze FM, among others.

An alternative public sphere under this study is Skyz Metro FM, which broadcasts on frequency 100.3 and is Bulawayo’s first independent commercial radio station. Skyz Metro FM is owned by Fair Talk Communications, which also owns another commercial radio station – Breeze FM in Victoria Falls and its Chief Executive Officer is Mr Qhubani Moyo, a commissioner with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. BAZ granted the station a licence to operate in 2015 and it went on air in September 2016 providing music, culture, news and current affairs to listeners within a 60 km radius around Bulawayo. A typical Monday to Friday Skyz Metro FM programme schedule is lined up as follows: 5 a.m.–6 a.m. The Inspirator, from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Vuka Vuka breakfast show, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Singabantu banye is slotted followed by Rea Vaya Drive which runs up to 6 p.m., at 7 p.m. there is Sports news followed by the main news, at 7.30 p.m. to 10 p.m. there is Talk Radio with Ezasebusuku rounding up the programming. News headlines are scheduled at the top of each hour between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Contextually, the audience served by Skyz is within the city of Bulawayo, which is home to about a million people, whose spoken language is isiNdebele and is also home to the Kalanga, Tonga, Venda, Sotho and Xhosa ethnic groups (Msindo, 2007). Within a year of its existence, the Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey (ZAMPS) concluded that Skyz had less that 1% listenership. Such findings divided opinion with some dismissing the survey’s findings. In response, Skyz Metro FM CEO Mr Moyo was quoted in the media saying:

I am told ZAMPS’s survey results say Skyz Metro FM has 0% listenership in the country, if that is true what constitutes umuntu weZimbabwe (Zimbabwean citizen) when they do their surveys? Does that mean people of Matabeleland who listen to Skyz Metro FM in such large numbers don’t constitute people of Zimbabwe?

The station defines its mandate as serving the people of Bulawayo through its catch phrase ‘Esabantu’ (people’s station). As highlighted earlier, the identity terrain in the context of Matabeleland is complex; therefore, this study seeks to understand how the station conceptualises its ideal audience. According to Schneeberger (2011: 47), ‘the media tend to select certain discourses that they forward to represent the nation and therefore shape out what belonging entails which essentially is the construction of national identity’. The power ascribed to the media in this assertion summons criticism, given that previous studies on the discursive construction of national identity in Zimbabwe have not particularly focused on audiences and how they respond to the discourses selected by the media, this study seeks to unpack how Bulawayo people through Skyz Metro FM feel represented, as they negotiate their Ndebeleness as well as Zimbabweaness.

Skyz Metro FM versus Khulumani FM: a tale of two Bulawayo Radios

Skyz Metro FM and Khulumani FM are both radio stations based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and have a local appeal as they broadcast in the city’s predominant language, Ndebele. Skyz Metro FM is a metro commercial radio station that began broadcasting in September 2016 on FM 100.3 MHz and broadcasts to an estimated audience of more than 1 million. Khulumani FM, on the other hand, was launched in March 2018 by the state broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Cooperation (ZBC) and broadcasts on FM 95.0 MHz. Both stations were established to provide more local content to the people of Bulawayo. The two stations are offering valuable contributions to Bulawayo’s radio landscape by providing diverse programming in Ndebele and other languages in the Matabeleland region such as Sotho, Kalanga, Chewa and Nambya, making them trusted platforms to vibrant engagement, and fostering a sense of belonging. Although the two stations are not community radio stations, they have community-driven programming which feature a good mix of local music (pop, hip-hop, R&B, house), talk shows, news from the Matabeleland region, documentaries, radio dramas and sports. For Skyz Metro, popular shows include ‘Singabantu Banye’ (morning show), ‘The Bridge’ (hip-hop and R&B), and ‘Solid Gold Sunday’ (retro music). Khulumani FM’s Popular shows include ‘Amasiko WamaNdebele’ (cultural show), ‘Umsindo Wami’ (religious programme) and ‘Ilizwe Lethu’ (community news). In terms of size, Skyz Metro has a bigger brand footprint and broadcasts to more than a million listeners while Khulumani FM is still developing its on-air personality and brand recognition, as it is a newer station.

Contestations of nationalism and national identity in Zimbabwe

For a study concerned with the discursive construction of ethnic identities in Zimbabwe within the context of Skyz Metro FM, it is imperative to discuss literature around identity and media studies. Problematical concepts such as identity (Anderson, 1991; Hall, 1997; Madianou, 2002; Mpofu, 2014) and identification are defined and explicated in this section. The study is also hinged on the concept of the nation which has elusive definitions and therefore needs to be clarified especially in its relation to identity. This section further reviews the main debates in the study of nationalism and ethnicity through juxtaposing the Western ideas to those of Africa. While there are different approaches to the concept of identity, the study settles for Hall’s (1996) position on identities as unfixed and unstable. The study also adopted the concept of the nation as an ‘imagined community’ (Anderson, 1991). It also highlights the importance of the media in identity construction because it is part of the institutional structures in national building (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2008). For this integral role that the media plays in nation building, there is always an expectation on how it represents a nation.

In Zimbabwe, the politics of belonging to ethnic identities has been mediated by some forms of marginalisation and privileges in terms of access to state resources in ways, which have witnessed belonging to Ndebele identity being articulated as a political identity (Ndlovu, 2017: 20). There is a deeply entrenched ethnic polarisation in Zimbabwe, and it has its roots in the pre-colonial and nationalist socio-political engineering processes, as well as in the postcolonial coercive nation-building project of the 1990s (Mamdani, 2001). According to Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2009: 152), the official ‘approach to ethnicity is that of silence and pretence. Ethnic issues are generally not subject of public debate. They are pushed under the carpet’. Celebrations of ethnicity are tabooed by the political elite as this is negating to the postcolonial elite’s construction of a unified national identity imagined along mystified forms of one people (Mpofu, 2014). This is mainly because Ndebele ethnicity cannot be divorced from the 1980s genocide which still contributes to ethnic tensions. Moyo (2009: 70) argues that such identity politics could be summed up as identity with an attitude of ‘us’ and ‘them’ denoting the counter-hegemonic Ndebele and the hegemonic Shona, even though the lived experience of the social agents could be totally different (Moyo, 2009: 70).

Methodology

This is a study on the construction of Ndebele ethnic identity as it manifests itself in the context of media consumption by active Skyz Metro FM audiences. Departing from a proposition that observes a relationship between making of national identity and ethnic identity in post-independent Zimbabwe, this research grapples with how identity as a social experience is constructed. The methodological approach I have adopted in this study is informed by the phenomenological or qualitative rather than quantitative approach. There were 25 interviews conducted with respondents that were purposively sampled from a WhatsApp group of active Skyz Metro listeners which is administered by the station. These were selected due to their active roles in the Skyz Metro radio programming such as call-ins and music requests. The group was founded at the station’s inception and now has 3500 active participants who contribute to the station’s interactive programming such as phone-ins, SMSes and WhatsApp lines. The station’s WhatsApp group administrator added the researcher into the group where they were introduced as such. Being on the group for 4 weeks enabled the researcher to crowd source the listeners available for interviewing. The interviewees were aged between 28 and 54 years.

Analysis

In this study, the interview data were collected into themes and analysed. The themes were used for the descriptive and interpretative dimensions of identity, identification and representation. These broad themes were

Importance of identity,

Process of identification,

Matters of representation,

Skyz Metro’s social significance.

Findings

Identity is a starting point for discussions about the importance of the identification and representation, not an independent variable which should be studied (Shaw, 2010). This study establishes that representation becomes important through identification which in the ability of marginalised audiences to identify with Skyz Metro radio programmes. In this study, it emerges that a Ndebele ethnic identity is an invented social construct which comes as a result of listening to the radio station. The radio station plays a vital role reinforcing a particular Ndebele ethnic identity image that is premised on being ‘esabantu’ as a defining trait of belonging to a Ndebele ethnic identity. This established that an increase in positive media representation of the Ndebele ethnic group is helpful in improving their self-esteem. In terms of Skyz Metro FM’s importance in Bulawayo, the researcher unearthed that it serves as a community radio, and most respondents define it as such.

Elucidating identity matters through ‘Esabantu’ mantra

When Skyz Metro FM went on air in 2016, its payoff line was ‘Esabantu-bantu’ which means for the ‘real people’, a motto which reflected the ethnic separatist designs of the Zimbabwean state. It was soon changed to ‘esabantu’ meaning for the people. This assumed that isiNdebele language broadcasting would bring the cultural recognition and representation of Ndebele-speaking listeners. For some people, the representation of certain identifiers such as language and ethnicity are very important, though not always (Shaw, 2010). Some respondents explicated the nuances and complications of representation, specifically in relation to their ethnic identities. An interview respondent captures the identity dynamics from his experience in relation to Skyz Metro FM:

I think the station identifies with Ndebele people, although they might not state it bluntly like that for commercial reasons. It is a well thought out slogan that seems to include everyone while in the actual case it is not. Because of the context and the language used, it carries a meaning that appeals more to people who identify themselves as Ndebele. The words ‘for the people’ and ‘esabantu’ and ‘zvevanhu’ carry totally different meanings that are culturally and contextually embedded. The words depend on the context and culture. When you say ‘esabantu’ in Ndebele, in Bulawayo, and considering that most media in Zimbabwe do not fully represent Ndebeles, the words ‘esabantu-bantu’ evokes a certain pride in belonging to that social group. Coming from a radio station that claims to support local content and voices, it rings an identity bell in our sub-conscience. The point is there are many signals and hints, nuances that are attached to that slogan and ‘we’ recognise them.

The conceptualisation of the term ‘esabantu’ is loaded with meaning as it implicates a kind of particularism related to the 1980s ethnic genocide which saw over 20,000 Ndebele-speaking civilians being killed, raped and tortured in an operation codenamed Gukurahundi (Ndlovu, 2017; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2009). An interviewee said,

Since independence the people of Matabeleland have only had Radio Mthwakazi, but it was short-lived to capture the voices of the people of Matabeleland. For the people in this region, Skyz Metro FM is important on the basis that we hear a language different from the oppressor’s, we hear a voice that the Fifth Brigade soldiers wanted to destroy. Esabantu means that Ndebele voice which survived, and I celebrate this station because it means that our voice is alive although it has not been heard on radio as often.

The radio station is therefore a significant cog in the reinforcement of a particular ethnic identity image that is premised on being ‘esabantu’ as a defining trait of belonging to a Ndebele ethnic identity. This case is related to the current embers in the politics of Ndebele particularism and the current drive for the restoration of an autonomous Ndebele nation separate from Zimbabwe (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2008: 30).

On the other hand, those that are dissociated from this slogan are closed off from the ethnic identity narrative. Findings show that the neglect of other ethnic minority languages in favour of using the dominant official national languages of Ndebele and English – which are also two of the main languages of the state broadcaster in Zimbabwe the third being Shona – Skyz Metro FM innocently reproduces the same domination and subordination of linguistic minorities. This is because ‘language in culturally diverse communities lies at the very centre of participatory radio, especially in relation to content creation and consumption’ (Moyo, 2011: 8). Insights from a listener illustrate how the station’s language can be to an extent exclusionary:

To say ‘esabantu’ means it’s a people-oriented radio station. It means it is Ndebele focused. I have never heard any other radio station specifically telling people who it is meant for, the trend is that people choose to listen based on what they think the station is all about. For a station to take a deliberate stance that it is for the people (esabantu) it implicates some agendas that they want to push, for example the promotion of Ndebele language and Matabeleland music which is mainly Ndebele although some of it is considered Kalanga oriented. What makes Skyz Metro FM different is that it sort of tells you who it is ideal audience is, based on that I chose to listen to it because I wanted to hear the Ndebele language and music. This means if you are not looking for these things, the likelihood of keeping up with the station is unlikely.

The identity-related complications have more than one side, for example, people who regard themselves as Shona or from other areas other than Matabeleland provinces but still listen to Skyz Metro for informational and entertainment purposes, do not necessarily identify with the station in terms of their identity. Another interviewee describes his Skyz Metro listening experience as exclusionary based on his roots. He said the fact that he comes from Midlands, he doesn’t think the station benefits him. His takeaways from the station are entertainment and news while the rest of the programming does not add value to him. The exclusion and inclusion among the audiences is reflective of the nature of politics in complex modern societies where fundamental differences of values and interests determine people’s affiliations. Zimbabwe is a typical example of such societies, and Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2008) argues that because of fundamental differences of interests and values in identity politics, the country is yet to become a nation (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2008). This study establishes that these fundamental differences of interests and values have cascaded into everyday social practices such as media consumption patterns which are divided along the lines of affiliation. A female interviewee said she feels part of the Bulawayo community by listening and contributing to the Skyz Metro FM programming and tuning to other stations considered to be ‘Shona specific’ would be tantamount to the ‘betrayal of the interests of the people of the city at large’. This confirms the role of the station in stimulating or building Ndebele ethnic consciousness.

As one of the few stations that broadcasts primarily in isiNdebele in the country, Skyz Metro FM gives many of its listeners a sense of cultural belonging. An interview respondent captures the identity dynamics from his experience in relation to Skyz Metro FM:

The people of Matabeleland region also feel that they have not been specifically included anywhere in the media and the coming in of Skyz Metro, as such, one interviewee concluded that:

In terms of representation, Insights from a listener illustrates how the station’s language can be to an extent exclusionary:

To say ‘esabantu’ means it’s a people-oriented radio station. It means it is Ndebele focused. I have never heard any other radio station specifically telling people who it is meant for, the trend is that people choose to listen based on what they think the station is all about. For a station to take a deliberate stance that it is for the people (esabantu) it implicates some agendas that they want to push, for example the promotion of Ndebele language and Matabeleland music which is mainly Ndebele although some of it is considered Kalanga oriented. What makes Skyz Metro FM different is that it sort of tells you who it is ideal audience is, based on that I chose to listen to it because I wanted to hear the Ndebele language and music. This means if you are not looking for these things, the likelihood of keeping up with the station is unlikely.

Beyond that, this study establishes that the station plays a key role not only in terms of preserving languages but also in deepening democracy by enabling the marginalised subaltern people on the side-lines of the power matrix, to participate in political discourse, particularly through talk shows and other forms of cultural programming. Some respondents explicated the nuances and complications of representation, specifically in relation to their ethnic identities.

Identifying with and/or identifying as

Skyz Metro FM considers itself as a commercial radio station, what makes it unique to all other local money-making radio entities is its emphasis on the local language it operates from – isiNdebele. The language dominates the broadcasts, as it has a stake of 80%. From a marketing point of view, it can make sense in terms of tapping into a gap left by many broadcasters who predominantly use English and Shona for most of their programming. An interview participant notes that on the part of many Ndebele-speaking people it was quite pleasing that their language, which had previously remained second fiddle to Shona in many mainstream media outlets, got a real chance to flourish. She said,

This station came at a time when most Ndebele speaking people were getting worried that their language is going to be extinct. So far it has played a role in promoting in the development and promotion of IsiNdebele. Personally, I think through interacting with the station, my vocabulary is improving by the day, and I know it could be true for other Ndebele speaking people like mysef . . .

However, before this moment, many Ndebele people had identified themselves with ZBC Radio Zimbabwe, formerly Radio 2, in part because of some very limited Ndebele language programming on that station. Prior to Skyz Metro FM going on air in 2016, having granted a licence a year before, the Ndebele listeners, according to several of my interviewees, had had a very limited amount of programming in their language on Radio Zimbabwe. Furthermore, the radio station has provided its community with some cultural space for the articulation of discourses of democracy, a space where they are able to raise their voices, in their own language, on issues that are important in their daily lives. For example, one listener said she is an avid follower of a programme called Azibuye emasisweni which generally touches on the well-being of the Ndebele customs and tradition. During an interview session, she noted that

This programme is more than just about our ways of life, it gets to question why certain things are happening in this city and in the country. Through this programme people can introspect what is wrong in society.

This study establishes that a Ndebele ethnic identity is constructed around Skyz Metro FM, affirming claims made above that ethnicity or identity can be formed through symbolic resources available to individuals (Thompson, 1990). This study shows that the term ‘Esabantu’ is a nodal point through which Ndebele identity is discursively constructed following Laclau and Mouffe (1985) assertion that nodal points are signs from which other signs derive their meaning. While previous studies have pointed to a pattern where a Ndebele ethnic identity is discursively constructed and negotiated around factors such as common descent, language, social experience and heritage or culture (Mhlanga, 2013; Moyo, 2011; Mpofu, 2014; Ndlovu, 2016), among other factors, the study establishes that this identity also emerges from discursive processes. It emerges that a sense of Ndebele ethnic identity is subject to discursive struggle, and in this case, it is constructed around affiliation (or lack thereof) to Skyz Metro FM. For instance, several interviewees say music engendered a great deal of identification with Skyz Metro than other media. One respondent, for example, said that he identified very strongly with the music he listens to, as it evoked emotions and fantasies of being Ndebele. He said,

This is a station where I hear music that speaks to me in terms of the social conditions that I find myself in by virtue of being in Bulawayo. More often I hear songs about Bulawayo’s socio-economic challenges, an obvious example is Lovemore Majaivana’s song titles Lelilize Alilamali. Up and coming hip-hop musicians in the city rap about how difficult it is for them to be in the limelight as opposed to their Shona counterparts across the Shangani River. Evidence is also there from the fact that most of their music shows are not well-subscribed, this is because everyone in the city is struggling, the industries are closed, and the city is dead while the establishment is doing nothing about it.

While Mhlanga (2013) noted that social expression of ethnic belonging has been criminalised as something against the ‘gains of the liberation struggle’, sections of people who identify as belonging to the Ndebele ethnic group are unapologetic of identifying as such. For example, one respondent notes that being Ndebele acts as a qualification of being accepted as a listener of Skyz Metro FM. He said,

People are no longer afraid of coming out as Ndebele and exhibiting their pride that they belong in that group. Ndebele speakers can now proudly assert and speak with pride even in public spaces such as on air.

In this study it emerges that a Ndebele ethnic identity is an invented social construct or an imagined group identity (Anderson, 1983). This is constructed around affiliation to Skyz Metro FM as pointed out by one listener who says the slogan, ‘esabantu’ to him is an expression of appreciation for his inputs, listenership and most importantly it reflects that it is a station for the Ndebele people. He believes that without them – the people, the listeners of Skyz Metro FM wouldn’t be what it is. Respondents in the study noted that for the first time, musicians from Bulawayo and Matabeleland region are given due recognition while on the other hand music from mainly Harare and other provinces outside the region is not given any airplay. During the Vukavuka Breakfast show, a presenter denied a listener a Jah Praiser song saying this station cannot be found playing Shona songs, thus rendering the Skyz Metro FM project for a selected Ndebele in-group, excluding other sections of society. Some outside broadcast programmes such as the station’s anniversary branded as ‘Umcimbi Wabantu’ (the people’s party) conjures the idea of Ndebele nationalism.

According to Moyo (2011), people in Bulawayo and the greater Matabeleland region continue to see themselves as marginalised and discriminated against. He cites internal colonisation, a process by which the local elite and local resources are appropriated to serve the dominant regions in Zimbabwe, as a major problem that undermines the development of the region. This has resulted in the radical politics of secession and self-determination, a politics which perceives the problem of Matabeleland as largely being ethnic discrimination. From the findings, Skyz Metro FM carries the hopes of the community by being a channel through which people can vent current and historical problems while claiming freedom of expression without undue restriction from the government. Another respondent said,

Discussions about the systematic marginalisation of Matabeleland are starting to pop up, debates about what went wrong in the past are starting to pop up in the daily conversations. People are beginning to confront truths about why we have a few schools in the region than anywhere else in the country, more painful issues will emerge when the station is bigger, I would like to believe . . .

According to Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2008: 51), the Ndebele people have come to realise that ‘states are used as vehicles to suppress unwanted communities’ and hence their drive for their own state that will cater for their own national interests. During the interviews, the respondents said the programming of Skyz Metro resonated well to their interests to an extent that they identified with the station. One of the listeners described her listening experience as a way of life. The respondent noted that

The respondents said the station’s music selection spoke directly to their social conditions and lived experiences such as enduring the economic hardships that they also attributed to perceived marginalisation of Matabeleland region. A respondent said,

This is a station where I hear music that speaks to me in terms of the social conditions that I find myself in by virtue of being in Bulawayo. More often I hear songs about Bulawayo’s socio-economic challenges, an obvious example is Lovemore Majaivana’s song titles Lelilize Alilamali (This country is in poverty). Up and coming hip-hop musicians in the city rap about how difficult it is for them to be in the limelight as opposed to their Shona counterparts across the Shangani River. Evidence is also there from the fact that most of their music shows are not well-subscribed, this is because everyone in the city is struggling, the industries are closed, and the city is dead while the establishment is doing nothing about it.

The enthusiasm in which Skyz Metro is pursued as a station that identifies with the people makes an interesting reading in that it makes a cultural oriented investment that is significant in many ways.

Skyz Metro’s social significance

Skyz Metro’s community participatory framework extends beyond the broadcasting to other physical spaces in the community. For instance, the radio station independently organises live broadcast events in the community halls, where the station then invites participants for meet and greet shows or topic-based discussions. Skyz Metro FM’s Umcimbi Wabantu (a party for the people), an anniversary celebration, is also another space where the station’s listeners meet in song and dance yearly while the Skyz Metro Music Awards (SKYMAS) is a melting pot where excelling Bulawayo artists are celebrated annually. These activities in essence celebrate the culture and traditions of the Bulawayo community and the Matabeleland region and are used by the station as an opportunity to harvest cultural content produced by the community in the form of poetry, song and storytelling. These social events interweave Skyz Metro FM into the community’s political and cultural fabric, thus creating a potential for a counter-hegemonic culture of bottom-up discourses in a country where public communication has traditionally been largely top-down and authoritarian. For instance, it is the audiences who get to nominate best musicians in the city for the SKYMAS through a poll that is run by the station during its live broadcast programming. The extension of the sites of production of content from the organisation to the community reflects the station’s larger endeavours to entrench itself in the community.

The audiences’ narratives on the essence of such external spaces centred on embracing the Ndebeleness as a cultural identity in ways ranging from performing local ‘Ndebele’ music which does not only bolster their belonging to Ndebele identity but most importantly they are enabled a space to transmit and to encourage people to take pride in their Ndebele-ness. The respondents revealed that they retained considerable attachment to Ndebele cultural heritage as some of the reasons for attending such events as Umcimbi Wabantu, while the younger generation said they did not deny their Ndebele cultural identity but believed such events cater for diverse cultural backgrounds with most of them celebrating the exposure to South African artists who regularly feature in the shows. The organisers of the Umcimbi Wabantu event say it is a rallying point to weight the station’s social significance while people who attend are those who perceive themselves to be bearers of Ndebele identity. A listener Vusumuzi Mlotshwa of Emakhandeni suburb in Bulawayo said,

Skyz Metro FM is a community centred radio station focusing on Bulawayo matters. It is a family station with the interests of the people at heart 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Their programmes are driven by the listeners’ educational and informational needs.

Alternative media can function as translocal institutions, attending to and representing the interests of communities of interest – not as territorially bound entities, but ‘as people sharing a common condition or problem’ (Moyo, 2011: 5). Since there is a gap in Bulawayo and in Zimbabwe in general, Skyz Metro FM fills the void as an alternative. While the radio station operates as a commercial radio and is licensed as such, it is set up strategically to enable wider social participation in the creation, production and dissemination of content like the operations of a community radio.

The participants noted that the station was very useful in addressing social issues such as poverty and social exclusion at regional level. The listeners said that the station was helpful in empowering marginalised groups as well as actuating democratic processes. A listener noted that

The slogan, ‘Esabantu’ to me is an expression of appreciation for my inputs, listenership and most importantly it reflects that it is a people’s centered station and without us – the people – the listeners of all walks of life Skyz Metro FM wouldn’t be Skyz Metro FM.

Another respondent told the researcher that

I learn a lot each day and I’ve since managed to expand my knowledge of isiNdebele vocabulary since I started listening to the station. The other thing that has grabbed my attention is the music programme with playlists strictly dedicated to locally based artists. That programme has indeed helped me know of a lot of our local artists that are so much underrated and not that much recognised elsewhere.

A listener said,

Although there are evident structural configurations that set Skyz Metro FM apart from community radio, it is important to note that apart from the basic reason of standing as another option to the mainstream, it serves the community through offering counter-hegemonic discourses to power.

Representation matters

The study found out that positive media representation is helpful in improving the self-esteem of the underrepresented groups. The respondents interviewed in the study established that the Skyz Metro broadcasts depicted their everyday life and they continued to absorb the messages packaged in their local isiNdebele language. The respondents also noted that the station evoked a sense of oneness and created a community where Ndebele people are able to express themselves like never before. The respondents noted that the station was at the forefront in representing them. One of the respondents noted that

Another respondent added that

Some of the issues that are highlighted by the Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) which include unfair employment practices by some Bulawayo based corporates usually make it on air. For example, the Pick and Pay employment saga where all Ndebele-speaking employees were retrenched in favour of imported labour from Harare was discussed on this station, it started a serious conversation that led to the management to rectify their stance. Another scandal was the Rainbow Hotel renovation issue where the raw materials were outsourced from other places instead of Bulawayo, Skyz picked it up following a protest by MRP supporters, that incident also go the city talking. In a way this is a contribution that the station makes indirectly through picking up stories that have relevance . . .

A participant noted that the broadcasts were also resulting in important conversations that relate to the distribution of resources and marginalisation. He said,

Another respondent said,

To say the station is esabantu it means the station is conscious of the people, it means the station is people conscious and takes into consideration of the interests of every person, without necessarily segregating people based on language, ethnicity, and geographic location whatsoever. It means that the station belongs to everyone who makes the choice to listen to it anytime they want.

Often media representation has been addressed in terms of good versus bad, or non-existent, representations of identities. Nadal et al. (2021) describe media representation as unquestionably good and important and argue that positive representation can lead to social benefits. Despite the massive proliferation of newer information and communication technologies (ICTs), radio remains significant in transforming people’s lives (Mare, 2013). It has often been referred to as the voice of the people as it is the most dominant, cheapest and most direct media through which the majority of Africans, including Zimbabweans, have access to information and are also able to express their views (Dube, 2015: 171). The appropriation of language to projects of identity formation is an international phenomenon that is well documented in the literature and scholars such as Anderson (1991) has given detailed accounts of how languages have come to be used as identity markers in the context of modern nation state formation. Considering the foregoing discussion, most respondents interviewed underlined the fact that since they are able to hear their voices in their local language, they feel important. Maseko (2013: 152) concluded that the use of African languages in the media significantly contributes to efforts aimed at saving ‘ailing’ and marginalised languages. One respondent said,

The audienceship constructed around the radio station is considered to signal a significant impact on the people it seeks to serve. When asked how useful the radio station’s content and the role of the programming, most respondents said Skyz Metro FM news were now part of their daily lives. A listener noted that

What stands out in the data collected for the case under study is the glaring representation of an ‘in-group’ and outsiders. This dichotomisation of people as insiders and outsiders evidently speaks to the active construction of belonging to the Mthwakazi nation. Hall (1996) points out that culture is a complex concept that can be understood as different groups of people with different ways of life; therefore, the function of cultural difference is to distinguish and preserve group identity. The obvious question emanating from the creation of such an ‘in-group’ is on the makings that mark one an Mthwakazian and what excludes one from the group. However, there are exclusionary tones in the ‘esabantu slogan’ such a statement. It also speaks to the exclusionary formulation of identities as conceptualised by Hall (1996) who argues that

Throughout their careers, identities can function as points of identification and attachment only because of their capacity to exclude, to leave out, to render ‘outside’, abjected . . . The unity, the internal homogeneity, which the term identity treats as foundational is not a natural, but a constructed form of closure, every identity naming as its necessary, even if silenced and unspoken other, that which it ‘lacks’. (p. 5)

As Hall (1996) argues, in pointing out the identifiers of an in-group, there is an unconscious or conscious act of ‘othering’ those without the said identifiers. In this case, those who do not have to identify as ‘abantu’ (people) are excluded from being members of the Matabeleland ‘nation’. The argument modelled by Hall also highlights the constructed nature of identities as he argues that the internal homogeneity is not a natural closure.

Christians et al. (2009: 158) emphasise that within the civic republican paradigm, the media is expected to play a facilitative role in amplifying discussions and deliberative processes. When a language is not recognised for a certain function in which space is accorded to other languages within the same linguistic ecology, it is marginalised (Ndhlovu, 2007). The inception of Skyz Metro is celebrated by its audience as emancipatory. For example, one listener said in an interview: ‘ngomsakazo lo, lathi sesingabantu’, meaning ‘through this medium “we” are now respectable people too’. The ‘we’ in this case is the Ndebele people who have been absent from the mainstream narratives and to an extent this is also a kind of mobilisation of ethnic consciousness by the Ndebele-speaking listeners of Skyz Metro FM.

This shows the power of the media in the recognition of a certain people. Moreover, it shows that the marginalisation of the Ndebele has in part been a consequence of lack of official recognition of their language which has not been largely heard on mainstream media since independence. The respondents say before Skyz Metro came into the scene, they were in a situation in which they were individually or collectively discriminated against or oppressed based on the language(s) they speak. A listener told the researcher that

This study also established that Skyz Metro was welcomed by the isiNdebele-speaking ethnic group as a site to express their ethnic and cultural identity after the group had lost its pride and hegemony to years of ZBC monopoly which was dominated by Shona-centric narratives (Tshuma and Ndlovu, 2019). The identity of people is represented by language or other systems that function like language and this includes various forms of communication that generate meaning such mass media (Hall, 1997). In line with Castells’ (2004) conceptualisation of resistance identity, the study also establishes that the legitimation of Shona is challenged by oppositional forces that identify with the marginalised and disadvantaged groups (Castells, 2004). In the context of this study, there are oppositional forces contesting Shona, with Ndebele people using Skyz Metro FM as a project of resistance against Shona dominance. In this sense, Skyz Metro FM is viewed by the Ndebele people as a site to express their ethnic and cultural identity and regain pride and hegemony which they lost to Shona intrusion. The celebration of Skyz Metro FM by its listeners should also be viewed from the broader limits imposed by Zimbabwe’s media history, which has been consistently characterised as a ‘media-phobic state’ for its lack of genuine committed to media freedom (Moyo, 2011). While the liberalisation of the airwaves indicated a willingness on the part of government to open up the radio sector, broadcasting licences were granted to entities linked to the ruling ZANU-PF, example Star FM owned by Zimpapers Group which is heavily linked to government as well as Zi FM Stereo which is run by Mr Supa Mandiwanzira, a top official within ZANU-PF, this trend can be viewed as ‘reluctant liberalisation’ (Moyo, 2011).

It can be argued that Skyz Metro FM is flourishing in Bulawayo because it meets the listener’s desire for broadcasting in their own language, using the speakers/presenters of the same language. Language operates as a representation system, enabling human beings to create and share meaning, which is itself a product of culture (Hall, 1997). According to Hall (1997), language can embody cultural differences because it signifies practice, and it is a symbolic practice that expresses the idea of belonging. Through programming such as ‘Imvuselelo yolimi lamasiko esiNdebele’ (The resurrection of the Ndebele language and Culture), it can be noted that the station has an ambition to serve as a medium for ethnic mobilisation as well for the reinvention of Ndebele traditions, culture and identity. The programme came about because of an advocacy consortium formed by Ndebele novelists, writers, poets, historians and culturists specifically to save the language. The consortium – Imvuselelo yolimi lamasiko esiNdebele – was spearheaded by Dr Samukele Hadebe as well as Pathisa Nyathi and other enthnopreneurs. These were in the forefront of preserving the Ndebele language in face of Shona imperialism through radio shows hosted by Skyz Metro FM on a weekly basis. From the selection of the music playlists, one can further conclude that Skyz Metro FM presenters evoke a Ndebele ethnic consciousness. The respondents note the fact that the station features the places that are familiar to most Ndebele-speaking listeners, and this is critical in reinforcing their sense of cultural belonging.

However, power relations in terms of language, gender, race, class and even age are perpetually part of any communication process, including even those media systems that are epistemologically and normatively constructed as inclusive and participatory (Moyo, 2011). In Skyz Metro FM, cultural power relations have clearly determined resource mobilisation in respect of which languages are representative of the community and which ones are relegated to the periphery. In relation to this, Moyo (2011) argues that cultural power creates subtle forms of social hierarchies that influence the selection of voices that set the cultural agenda in radio. As such, while the Ndebele in-group enjoys direct influence on Skyz Metro’s content-production, other linguistic groups have been excluded, and this exclusion may spread to the involuntary consequences of political and economic marginalisation of out-groups. The excluded communities in Skyz Metro are most likely talked for and about, and they cannot directly influence the agenda of the station. This shows that poor representation mechanisms in participatory radio result in structural flaws that may, themselves, be based on an equally flawed ‘imagination of the community’ that is constructed around dominant interests. To this end, it should be noted that language constructs a certain identity for people and gives meaning to cultural belonging or maintaining a group identity (Hall, 1997).

Discussion

The study found that positive media representation is helpful in improving the self-esteem of underrepresented groups. Skyz Metro FM, a commercial radio station in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, was found to play a vital role in reinforcing a particular Ndebele ethnic identity image that is premised on being ‘esabantu’ as a defining trait of belonging to a Ndebele ethnic identity (Ndlovu, 2016). In post-independence Zimbabwe, Matabeleland has generally regarded itself as marginalised politically and economically following a nation-building exercise that undermined the well-being of the region (Moyo, 2011). As such, the study established that representation becomes important through identification, which is the ability of marginalised audiences to identify with Skyz Metro radio programmes. The study also found that the neglect of other ethnic minority languages in favour of using the dominant official national languages of Ndebele and English, which are also two of the main languages of the state broadcaster in Zimbabwe, Skyz Metro FM innocently reproduces the same domination and subordination of linguistic minorities. Scholars argue that the historical selectiveness has evoked a distinct ‘Ndebele particularism’ (Ndlovu, 2016: 3) where belonging is imagined in terms of radical politics self-determination (Moyo, 2011).

Drawing from the thesis of alternative media through which people can vent current and historical problems (Moyo, 2011), as well as narrating their own discourses, this study investigated how audiences negotiate their sense of Ndebele identity through their interaction with Skyz Metro FM radio programmes. The study therefore concludes that Skyz Metro FM plays a key role not only in terms of preserving languages but also in deepening democracy by enabling the marginalised subaltern people on the side-lines of the power matrix to participate in political discourse, particularly through talk shows and other forms of cultural programming. The study also found that Skyz Metro FM carries the hopes of the community by being a channel through which people can vent current and historical problems while claiming freedom of expression without undue restriction from the government.

This study sought to explore the relationship between identity formation and the media, particularly focusing on the role of Skyz Metro FM in shaping the Ndebele ethnic identity in Zimbabwe. The research found that the representation of Ndebele identity by Skyz Metro FM is influenced by various power dynamics and historical factors, impacting the expression of belonging to the Ndebele ethnic identity (Mhlanga, 2013). The radio station’s deliberate adoption of the slogan ‘esabantu’ (for the people) and its use of the Ndebele language contribute to the discursive construction of Ndebele identity. The study also highlights the impact of historical events, such as the Gukurahundi genocide, on the Ndebele community’s sense of belonging and alienation within the broader Zimbabwean national identity (CCJP, 1997; Mhlanga, 2013; Ndlovu, 2016; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2008).

The findings of the study are in line with the broader scholarly discourse on the construction of ethnic identities and the role of the media in this process. The study anchors on Hall’s (1996) ideation that identities are constructs that are by nature unstable and not fixed and largely dependent on circumstances and contexts. The emphasis on the fluid, negotiable and contested nature of Ndebele identity aligns with the constructionist perspective, which views ethnicity as socially constructed and evolving (Hall, 1996). The research also sheds light on the marginalised status of Ndebele identity within the Zimbabwean national narrative, as well as the impact of historical events and political dynamics on the politics of belonging and exclusion (Ndlovu, 2016). The study’s focus on the relationship between radio and identity construction is significant, given the pervasive influence of radio as a medium in Africa (Sibanda and Nkomo, 2023). The findings underscore the central role of radio in shaping collective identities and the politics of belonging, particularly in the context of postcolonial nation-building and the contestation of hegemonic national narratives (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2008).

The discussion section presented here synthesises the key findings of the study and situates them within the broader scholarly literature on identity, media and nation-building. It provides a nuanced analysis of the implications of the research findings and their relevance for understanding the complexities of Ndebele identity construction and representation in the media, particularly in the context of Zimbabwe’s postcolonial history and the politics of exclusion and belonging.

Conclusion

This study establishes that a Ndebele ethnic identity is constructed around Skyz Metro FM, with the term ‘Esabantu’ being a nodal point through which Ndebele identity is discursively constructed. In this study, it emerges that a Ndebele ethnic identity is an invented social construct, or an imagined group identity (Anderson, 1983) constructed around affiliation to Skyz Metro FM. On the other hand, those that are dissociated from this slogan are barred from the Ndebele ethnic identity description. Findings show that the neglect of other ethnic minority languages in favour of Ndebele and English – which are also two of the main languages of the state broadcaster in Zimbabwe the third being Shona – Skyz Metro FM innocently reproduces the same domination and subordination of linguistic minorities. Furthermore, this research concluded that Skyz Metro FM plays a critical role in counterbalancing the hegemony of the Shona and English language and giving voice to the people – particularly subordinated Ndebele ethnic group in Bulawayo and its surroundings – who would otherwise be rendered voiceless and inaudible in current political debates. This underscores the need for the Zimbabwean policy makers to ensure that the media enables the expression of ethnic identity, instead there are still efforts instead to repress it. Zimbabwe is one of many other postcolonial societies that continue to grapple with the complex formation of nationhood. It was picked from the study that Skyz Metro FM is perceived as informative, educative and entertaining. The programmes proved important to the respondents giving the radio station a competitive edge as it identifies with its audience. Some extreme cases from respondents were that of confusing the radio station with other pirate radio stations that have a certain resonance to Bulawayo issues such as Radio VOP and Radio Dialogue. The study’s insights can inform media policy and practice, as well as contribute to ongoing scholarly debates on identity, representation and the media in postcolonial societies. By highlighting the ways in which radio programming can both reflect and shape collective identities, the research underscores the importance of critically examining media content and its implications for social cohesion, cultural diversity and inclusive nation-building. In conclusion, the research contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between media representation, historical narratives and the construction of ethnic identities, with specific reference to the case of Skyz Metro FM and the Ndebele community in Zimbabwe. The study’s findings have implications for broader discussions on citizenship, belonging and the politics of exclusion within the Zimbabwean national context, and they underscore the need for more inclusive and representative media practices to foster a more pluralistic and democratic public sphere.

Footnotes

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Makhosi Nkanyiso Sibanda

Author biography

Makhosi Nkanyiso Sibanda is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His research interests are in broadcast media, media policy, community radio, radio & podcasting and media sustainability.

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