1996 Volume 10 No. 1 The Relevance of Paulo Freire's Contributions to Education and Development in Present Day Africa by Juma E. Nyirenda Locating Freire in Africa Today: Problems and Possibilities by Pradip N. Thomas Cultural Strategies in a Changing Development: Reassessing Paulo Freire in the Information Age by Keyan G. Tomasseli and Mike Aldridge African Council for Communication Education Copyright © 1996 (ACCE) Nairobi, Kenya ISSN 0258-4913 Africa Media Review provides a forum for the study of communication theory, practice and policy in African countries. It is published three times a year by the ACCE Institute for Communication Development and Research, P. O. Box 47495, Nairobi, Kenya. Telephone: 227043/216135/215270/334244 ext.28068 Telex: 25148 ACCE KE. Correspondence and Advertising Authors should send contributions to the Managing Editor, ACCE Institute for Communication Development and Research, P. O. Box 47495, Nairobi, Kenya. Books for review, book review articles and all other matters regarding AMR should be sent to the same address. Annual Subscription Rate Africa US$45:00 Outside Africa US$60:00 These rates include packaging and postage. Single copies are US$ 15:00 within Africa and US$ 20:00 outside Africa. Cheques and money orders should be made payable to African Council for Communication Education and sent to the above address. Special arrange- ments will be entered into where applicable for subscribers in Africa through their nearest ACCE national co-ordinator. ACCE institutional and individual members receive AMR as part of membership privileges. Managing Editor Editorial Assistants Circulation Dr. Charles Okigbo, African Council for Communication Education, Nairobi, Kenya. Charles Ongadi Nyambuga, Christine Kyayonka, African Council for Commu- nication Education, Nairobi, Kenya. Lydia Gachungi, African Council for Communication Education, Nairobi, Kenya. ACCE President Dr. Francis Wete, University of Yaounde, Cameroon. Table of Contents 1 The Relevance of Paulo Freire's Contributions to Education and Development in Present Day Africa by Juma E. Nyirenda 21 Locating Freire in Africa Today: Problems and Possibilities by Pradip N. Thomas 31 Contextualising Freire in African Sustainable Development by Charles Okigbo 54 Cultural Strategies in a Changing Development: Reassessing Paulo Freire in the Information Age by Keyan G. Tomasseli and Mike Aldridge 73 Participatory Communication (Research) from a Freirian Perspective by Jan Servaes 92 Alternative Media and Political Change in Africa: Analyti- cal Schemes for Assessing Significance and Potential by Temba S. B. Masilela Comments on this Issue This issue on Paulo Freire is a special issue of the AfricaMediaReview. All the units here were presented at the 1994 9th Biennial Pre- Conference which was dedicated to Paulo Freire, (except Charles Okigbo's). The Pre-Conference was sponsored by the World Associa- tion for Christian Communication, London. Paulo Freire is a Brazilian thinker and philosopher who has influenced many education specialists. The articles reflect a critical analysis of different aspects of Paulo Freire's philosophies. Juma Nyirenda's article on "The Relevance of Paulo Freire's Contri- butions to Education and Development in the Present Day Africa", identifies and examines Freire's educational ideas which offer an important contribution to understanding educational practices and discusses their relevance to education and development in contempo- rary Africa. Temba Masilela attempts a re-assessment of the legacy of Paulo Freire as a basis for an analytical framework based on development and political communication in his paper titled "Alternative Media and Political Change in Africa: Analytical Schemes for Assessing Signifi- cance and Potential." Charles Okigbo, in his article, "Contextualizing Freire in African Sustainable Development", underscores the importance of Paulo Freire's ideas on content and strategies of education in an African context. Participatory pedagogy as advocated for by Paulo Freire based on group dialogue, and not mass media, can aptly apply to any form of human communication, Jan Servaes points out in his chapter "Partici- patory Communication (Research) from a Freirian Perspective." Pradip Thomas in the article "Locating Freire in Africa Today: Problems and Possibilities", brings out Freire's main themes of liberation, freedom, conscientization and practical action as contem- porary concerns in African development. Keyan Tomasseli and Mike Aldridge argue that Paulo Freire's sociology derives its character from the cultural and societal norms of his environment. They further point out that modernization theories, post structuralism and depending theory all reflect cultural patterns and references which can be located in specific times and places. Charles Nyambuga