This is a pre-publication of the following article: Tomaselli, K.G., Mboti, N., and Ronning, H. 2013. South–North perspectives : the development of cultural and media studies in Southern Africa. Media, Culture and Society 35(1) pp. 36-43. DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0163443712464556.This intervention examines conceptual trajectories arising out of a 22 year North-South research collaboration. It traces the genesis of that trajectory of (Southern) African cultural and media studies that emerged from a context of struggle and liberation via an interdisciplinary network involving departments in universities in Zimbabwe, South Africa (and Kenya) linked to University of Oslo, 1980-2012. The study concludes by elaborating a new imaginary within cultural and media studies (CMS) that incorporates: i) social justice; ii) social action and popular participation; and iii) a reassessment of some assumptions of the European Enlightenment in multicultural African societies
