Archive | 2021
Les précurseurs de la presse écrite voltaïque (1947-1974)
Abstract
This article revisits the history of the press under (post)colonial Upper Volta to unearth the names of the first Voltaic journalists, their itinerary, their role in the animation of political life as well as the national or professional identities they shaped. The colonial period was dominated by the practice of mimeotyped, militant journalism, a matter for politicians and trade unionists who used it for ideological struggles and social demands. At the eve of independence a state journalism emerged and placed itself at the exclusive service of the dominant political order. At the end of the 1960s, Upper Volta timidly saw the emergence of a private press, which claimed to be independent and professional, even though the journalists, like the pioneers of the Voltaic press, received no professional training, learning on the job or through short-term internships in Europe.