Africana Periodical Literature 
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| Title: | Not 'Iwe Irohin' but 'Umshumayeli': a revisit of the historiography of the early African language press |
| Author: | Salawu, Abiodun |
| Year: | 2015 |
| Periodical: | African Identities (ISSN 1472-5851) |
| Volume: | 13 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 157-170 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Africa |
| Subjects: | newspapers African languages Yoruba language Xhosa language media history |
| External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/14725843.2014.1002383 |
| Abstract: | 'Iwe Irohin Yoruba Fun Awon Ara Egba ati Yoruba', founded in 1859, is generally known in Nigerian media studies as not just the first newspaper (in any language) in Nigeria but also the first African language newspaper. Meanwhile, the claim of 'Iwe Irohin' being the first African language newspaper has been refuted with the discovery of the fact that there was one isiXhosa newspaper, 'Umshumayeli Wendaba', which started in 1837. This paper thus argues that 'Umshumayeli' rather than Iwe Irohin was the first African language newspaper. Apart from 'Umshumayeli', there were two other Xhosa language newspapers that predated 'Iwe Irohin'. They were 'Ikwezi' (1844) and 'Isitunywa sennyanga' (1850). This paper concludes with a call for the need to reconstruct African media/press history so that facts are straightened out and disseminated for the knowledge of all. A reason the paper adduced for the hidden history of South African media, and particularly its local language press, is that Media History is not widely and specially taught in the nation's media schools. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |
