Making pharmaceutical consumers in South Africa : painkiller adverts in African-Language newspapers during the 20th Century

Abstract: This thesis analyses the making of African pharmaceutical consumers, during the twentieth century, during which changes and continuities in the kind of messages were promoted in newspaper adverts. Pharmaceutical adverts contained various kinds of messages. They conveyed to readers a sense of the illnesses, ailments, discomforts, and pains - in other words, the range of problematic conditions - that a given product aimed to cure. They also conveyed the kinds of cures or treatments that were on offer, promising to address those conditions. They conveyed these messages through both images and text, in various styles, formats and languages. These languages were African languages and they were IsiXhosa, IsiZulu and SeSotho. This thesis tracks the appeals to new needs and illnesses as well as new remedies, in a context of rapid political, social and economic change. In this thesis there is a content analysis of medicinal and painkiller advertisements in three African language newspapers, which are Imvo Zabantsundu, ILanga Lase Natal and Umteteli Wa Bantu. These adverts show change overtime. They provide a pictorial history and an analysis of pharmaceutical products amongst African consumers. Medicinal and Painkiller adverts changed the habits of consumption and wellness of African people across the twentieth century. Through the medium of newspapers, those advertised products reached literate consumers. The data of these medicinal and painkiller adverts focused on themes of race, culture, gender, religion, class and lifestyle and other trends. Growth in pharmaceutical advertising stemmed from the different influences that were political, economic, and social.M.A. (History