Our Petrified Gardens: Constructions of Identity on South African TV

This online article, published in The Glocal Times, examines the role of television in contributing to the South African imagining-of-self, reasoning that this medium, with its wide reach and broad audience, has the potential to influence reality through the broadcasting of fiction. The article looks at four landmark television shows: The Villagers, which was the first TV drama to air in South Africa in 1976; Isidingo, the first TV drama after the end of Apartheid; and Soul City and Tsha Tsha, two entertainment-education (EE) dramas, which, according to the author, are two of the most popular dramas currently airing on South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) stations.

The author first compares The Villagers and Isidingo. The Villagers was set on a mine, and portrayed a static, unyielding social structure in South Africa with the unstated but obvious aim of preventing its audience from imagining an alternative to Apartheid. The characters were mostly white and when black characters appeared they were portrayed as unintelligent, needing guidance, and nameless. In contrast, the author explains that in Isidingo - also set on a mine, and intended to be a loose 'sequel' to the Villagers - there is a sense of open-endedness, a malleability that embodies the faculty of television to create and be created by its social reality. Isidingo tackles political and social issues head-on, and, according to the article, there is a vibrancy in it which hints at the possibility of social change. This very clearly reflects the climate during which the series was created, giving a sense of the idea that nothing is impossible in the "new South Africa."

According to the author, another shift has taken place in the face of the country's ongoing and worsening social problems. The present "state of emergency" is no longer about keeping political power in the hands of a white minority, but about empowering the poor in South African through the dissemination of information. Out of this new urgency, Soul City and Tsha Tsha were developed.

Both programmes are entertainment-education shows constructed with the aim of providing a far-reaching source of health education, particularly around HIV, to information-poor segments of the population. While the author admits that EE is not a straightforward solution to altering behaviour, what these shows successfully achieve is a re-articulation of the South African context, a re-imagining of the country on its own terms.

Soul City is the brainchild of two medical doctors, and was devised to transmit important health information to poor urban and rural audiences. A spin-off show for children, Soul Buddyz, was also created. Soul City touches on some of the major issues and problems of development projects, while using audience feedback to deliver its message and extend its reach to the more remote areas of Southern Africa. The series Tsha Tsha, developed along the same lines, was commissioned by the SABC as an emergency project to address the spread of HIV amongst South Africans. Produced by the Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE), the series tackles the effects of HIV, including shame, stigma, bereavement, and increasing poverty. According to the report, the series investigates the broader context and socio-cultural factors which make HIV such a difficult disease to control.

The author argues that while their didactic message is obvious, both programmes also re-tell the South African story from a different perspective. However, the author begs the question, are people actually listening? In her research for the article, the author found that while most black South Africans she spoke to liked and watched the series', white South Africans often had never heard of the shows, much less watched them. This indicates that the attitudes and prejudices which fed the apartheid ideology of separation are still deeply embedded in the minds of many South Africans.

Despite this, the author remarks that television has played a fundamental role in 'mapping' South African history, and it has an important role to play in the future. Televised drama is uniquely suited to challenge the misconceptions that things like HIV and poverty happen to people 'out there in the townships' and to people who are different. The author concludes that if the success of series like Soul City and Tsha Tsha and their representations of South African life can set a trend for future media interpretations of the country, South Africans can begin to alter their imaginings of what South Africa is, thereby changing the reality of what it will become.