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In this article, we canvass some of the ideas around Hein Willemse's focus on hidden histories, conscious oppositionality, and literature that falls outside the canon, which began to coalesce following contemporary calls for decolonial approaches in the (South) African academy. While the decolonial turn has focused attention on shared histories within Global South contexts, it is through Willemse's postcolonial teachings that we first came to understand the importance and meaning of reclaiming the lost African ontological space. This article is, therefore, located in postcolonial and decolonial scholarship in the sense that it is not driven by a particular method but rather by questions that emerged from larger social contexts. We draw on Willemse's visionary understanding of the importance of hidden histories and what it might mean to listen with postcolonial and/or decolonial ears. This, amongst other things, requires an acute awareness of history, heritage, and legacies both in society and in the academy. We incorporate a random selection of his work to unpack how his disruptive intervention serves to reformulate the idea of Afrikaans and Afrikaans literature in ways that are more inclusive of those silenced by the apartheid project, including Africa and the Global South at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for a reconstruction of communication rights theories from an African episteme and experience. It reviews the impact of key national, continental and international legal instruments as they pertain to communication rights in Africa, with a specific focus on South Africa and Zimbabwe. Using an Afrokological heuristic tool, it critically evaluates how the key legal instruments underpinning the right to communicate are developed and encountered in lived experience in decolonising Southern African contexts. We argue that an Afrokological orientation built on epistemological interconnectedness and conviviality may lead to insights otherwise not accessible. It can help awaken a new relational accountability that promotes respectful representation, reciprocity, and rights in communication policy processes in line with the lived experiences of those it is meant to benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democracy requires open public service broadcasting (PSB) institutions that constantly interact with active informed citizens. This article posits that a more proactive network of civil society across Southern Africa can produce an impact on PSB institutions in these countries enhancing reform and accountability to the public. We enter this topic by identifying pathways towards increased cooperation among public service broadcasters, civil society coalitions and other stakeholders in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The main focus is on the interaction between broadcasters, policy-makers and civil society groups, namely SOS: Support Public Broadcasting in South Africa and the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe, two leading media activist organizations in Southern Africa. The engagement by such networks can deepen public interest and reconnect PSB institutions and PSB staff to the PSB mandate and mission. Civil society coalitions working collaboratively with PSB will engender a context within which a collaboratively defined PSB mission, institutional structure and programme outcomes are constantly foregrounded in the operations and performance of the broadcasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]