CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.4. Introduction of soap operas to South Africa
In South Africa, soap operas were first introduced on radio in 1953. They were broadcast on Springbok Radio (one of the SABC’s channels) and their popularity with female audiences was repeatedly mentioned in the SABC annual reports (Teer- Tomaselli et al. 1989: 197). All soap operas aired on SABC’s radio and television
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channels were international (i.e. in English) or Afrikaans. It was only in 1994 that local and more linguistically diverse language programmes were aired. South Africa’s transformation agenda after 1994 meant that the broadcasting industry, which had been instrumental in perpetuating all kinds of stereotypes, including racial and gender stereotypes, had to be transformed to cater for all sectors of the population (Esipisu 2005).
2.4.1 Post-apartheid introduction of local Black soap operas
Prior to 1994, over 60 % of SABC programming comprised of overseas programmes and soap operas that had very little relevance to Black, Indian and Coloured South Africans.
The transformation after 1994 resulted in the production of Generations, South Africa’s first soap opera to be produced on SABC. Earlier soap opera productions such as Egoli (produced in 1992) were aired only on MNet, a paid channel. The difference between Egoli and Generations was that Egoli was produced in a mixture of Afrikaans and English, and Generations was produced in a mixture of Nguni languages, with English as well as Afrikaans, which made Generations the first soap opera to accommodate Nguni viewers. Afrikaans soap operas like 7de Laan later had English subtitles to cater for all viewers and to an extent formed a part of the lives of its viewers (Van Der Merwe 2012).
In former president Nelson Mandela’s State of the Nation address in May 1994, he emphasised that freedom cannot be achieved if women are not emancipated from all forms of oppression:
It is vitally important that all structures of government […] should fully understand […] freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression […] unless we see in visible and practical terms that the condition of women in our country has radically changed for the better, and that they have been empowered in all spheres of life as equals. (Mandela 1994)
This extract from Mandela’s speech serves as an example of the country’s commitment to gender equality. In light of this, this study uses Muvhango as a reference to examine
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the way in which television reflects such topical issues related to gender and masculinities, through the portrayal of men in soap opera, and how they treat women.
Producer Mfundi Vundla spoke of his objective in producing Generations:
Generations made its debut on public broadcaster SABC after apartheid ended in 1994, aiming to show Blacks in a positive light after years of television drama cast Africans as unsophisticated, superstitious idiots who visited witch doctors to solve problems. (Esipisu 2005)
While Generations still currently airs on SABC 1 each weekday at 8 pm, Muvhango presents a different perspective to what Vundla is saying here. It accepts that many traditional beliefs are entrenched in modern culture and cannot be described in the way that Vundla does. Generations is still recognised as one of the most popular South African soap operas, together with Muvhango. 2015 Statistics from TVSA show that Generations has over 5 million viewers while Muvhango is the second most popular soap opera with over 4 million viewers (TVSA 2015).
The history of South African television is an important frame for understanding the history of South African soap opera, and the constructions of masculinity presented in the way stories about Black people are told. During the apartheid regime, plot narratives on television dramas were controlled and regulated by the apartheid government. This meant that only certain stories could be told, and these could only be told in a way that the government approved of.
This resulted in local soap operas on television imitating international, Westernised soap operas, with Generations being an example of this. Many of the students interviewed in Tager’s study (2002) referred to Generations as a local version of The Bold and the Beautiful, in that Generations explored the same values and themes as The Bold and the Beautiful. However, while Generations reflected international ideas, it also represented the stories of Black people in a better light (Duma Ndlovu, pers. comm.
2013). Dr Ndlovu, the writer and producer of Muvhango, expressed the view that all programmes at the time imitated Western ideas, and that individual stories about Black people were not represented (pers. comm. 2013). One of his reasons for creating
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Muvhango was to represent the stories of typical Black people, which included issues surrounding polygamy, witchcraft, sangomas, business life and rural life.
2.4.2. The history of Muvhango
In 1997 when Muvhango first started, the story of how Black men lived at that time was expressed. The reality of how men would leave their homes in the rural areas and go to the city of Johannesburg to work as miners was depicted, and complex associated issues were raised around how men had wives at their rural homesteads while also having sexual relationships with other women in the city. In the first episode in 1997, Mashudu Mukwevho, a successful businessman and a chief in waiting, passes away while working in Johannesburg. Catherine, his learned city-lawyer girlfriend, wants to bury him, while at the same time his wife who lives at the rural homestead, Vho-Masindi, feels entitled to bury her husband. Today this is still a typical situation, where men see nothing amiss in having multiple partners, and many women have to contend with living under strict patriarchal conditions. From its first day on air, Muvhango has continued to tell stories that reflect the daily lived experiences of African people.
The following section presents theory related to television audiences. Such theory is crucial to this study, as this study focuses on a specific audience.