It all started with Esaura on GTV (I stand to be corrected though) Acapulco Bay, Esmeralda, La Usurpadora, Juana La Virgen buzzed on TV3. Bold and Beautiful and Camila showed on Metro TV.
GTV showed Sunset Beach, Passions and Mis 3 Hermanas. Storm Over Paradise and Paloma (forgotten the title) aired on Viasat One and Red Butterfly (forgotten real title) was also on TV Africa. The least said about Marie Cruz and What Life Took Away From Me; the better.
Recounting these and the scores of other past and current soap operas, one thing is clear; the infiltration of a culture alien to ours sifted in gradually and now is here to stay, that is without doubt.
Menacingly brute, however, is the insatiable appetite to have more after each series runs out. In all of this, usually viewers can predict rightfully what would play out at the very end of the film; victory for love and death to the wicked.
“The reason why the Mexican soaps are popular is because the stories they tell are the same stories of humanity everywhere: stories of jilted and unrequited love, jealousy, greed, backbiting and other follies and foibles of life.”
The above apt quote is from ace writer Mr. Gyan Apenteng in his piece titled: “Ghanaian Lives and Mexican Soap Operas,” I will be quoting him twice more through this write up.
I would not bore myself much less you (cherished reader) with the slightest detail of any of these soap operas above mentioned; just that I wish to share with you as always, the general issues surrounding the surreptitious manner in which we were visited with what my communications teacher in journalism school called; “cultural dominance.”
Of course we may not be drinking tequilas or building hacienda style ranches and attending raucous parties as the Mexicans and Filipinos do in their movies. Again, we may not be spotting the cow boy caps and wearing the long dresses most maids wear in these telenovelas; yet we are still influenced for all it is worth.
Two quick points; Acapulco Bay was the first time I got to know about voiceovers because we watched the actor’s lips saying something different from what we heard. They spoke their language yet we heard English. Only to be told that the voices behind characters like Dominga, Esmeralda, Rosalinda, Hoziramando, Rudolpho, Carlota and Rafaela were all being read by fellow Ghanaians.
So what? I can hear you ask. I also ask; was it that we were more comfortable with making other peoples material fit into our system and culture by going the extra mile and by so doing leaving behind what we had of our own?
I don’t know about you but “Thursday Theater,” if developed would have served us better that what we have had over the years of an influx of south American soaps that import values our society does not accept.
Point two; the final predictability of these films notwithstanding, we were so sickly glued and that crave has only but heightened since these films found their way into our media space.
Mr. Gyan Apenteng again: “Today with more than 300 radio stations and more than a dozen TV stations, we are being fed a thin gruel of third-rate foreign leftovers,” simply put; most of these films were likely shot in the early 90s.
Diversification has taken place, TV3 has also done a lot of Hindi movies (what we used to call Aa-jaa-naa) and recently I have observed the influx of some Far Eastern movies have come through - Chinese and Japanese taste.
The moral component of some of these films is a real cause for concern. More often than not, these films portray promiscuity as normal. Cases in point; Juana La Virgen, Mis 3 Hermanas, Camila.
In all of these films most illicit relationships ended up in marriage.
Kissing, hugging, caressing, making out, blatant love scenes are just a few of the morally derelict views that are to be expected. I hear even with this the TV stations cut out the more vivid portions.
Growing up, I watched Mc Jordan Amartey, Grace Nortey, Victor Lutterodt, David Dontoh, Grace Omaboe, ‘Station Master,’ and other ‘morally upright’ (for want of a better word) actors who treated us to decent stories.
What do we see today; breast, backs, buttocks cooked in a sleazy, sexy and sassy atmosphere. And what do we get; that they are just acting and that none of those are real. If you ask me; a needless pun and play on people’s emotions in the name of acting.
These are ideals imported into our settings and here we are still grappling with instilling an iota of decency into kids, whose morals are dipping to negative levels thanks to Social Media. As for most young people and the moral debate; worse than bulls in china shops.
Call me overly sanctimonious and all, but for all it is worth, I see those days of old as “my days of jahiliyyah [Ignorance]), today, I proudly proclaim being fully quarantined and vaccinated from a disease that most people are afflicted with.
I would flee gleefully from these soap operas on any day because in my view, they served us more ill (especially morally) than good.
Mr. Gyan Apenteng on broadcasting back in the day wrote thus: “the difference between then and now is that people in broadcasting looked to other values apart from profit: professional standards, ethics, satisfaction and pride mattered as much as money …”
What’s more, thanks to social media, we can hardly regulate influx and influence of these actors who we hated and or have loved forever however mischievous and or upright they were.
Television – indeed a one eyed monster if you ask me, but the mobile phone is it’s younger but more powerfully lethal brother. Social media – social menace; it all depends on YOU!
Thanks for taking time to read my thoughts, won’t be a bad idea to hear your views. Thanks
May 14, 2015 = Rajab 25, 1436H
GTV showed Sunset Beach, Passions and Mis 3 Hermanas. Storm Over Paradise and Paloma (forgotten the title) aired on Viasat One and Red Butterfly (forgotten real title) was also on TV Africa. The least said about Marie Cruz and What Life Took Away From Me; the better.
Recounting these and the scores of other past and current soap operas, one thing is clear; the infiltration of a culture alien to ours sifted in gradually and now is here to stay, that is without doubt.
Menacingly brute, however, is the insatiable appetite to have more after each series runs out. In all of this, usually viewers can predict rightfully what would play out at the very end of the film; victory for love and death to the wicked.
The above apt quote is from ace writer Mr. Gyan Apenteng in his piece titled: “Ghanaian Lives and Mexican Soap Operas,” I will be quoting him twice more through this write up.
I would not bore myself much less you (cherished reader) with the slightest detail of any of these soap operas above mentioned; just that I wish to share with you as always, the general issues surrounding the surreptitious manner in which we were visited with what my communications teacher in journalism school called; “cultural dominance.”
Of course we may not be drinking tequilas or building hacienda style ranches and attending raucous parties as the Mexicans and Filipinos do in their movies. Again, we may not be spotting the cow boy caps and wearing the long dresses most maids wear in these telenovelas; yet we are still influenced for all it is worth.
Two quick points; Acapulco Bay was the first time I got to know about voiceovers because we watched the actor’s lips saying something different from what we heard. They spoke their language yet we heard English. Only to be told that the voices behind characters like Dominga, Esmeralda, Rosalinda, Hoziramando, Rudolpho, Carlota and Rafaela were all being read by fellow Ghanaians.
So what? I can hear you ask. I also ask; was it that we were more comfortable with making other peoples material fit into our system and culture by going the extra mile and by so doing leaving behind what we had of our own?
I don’t know about you but “Thursday Theater,” if developed would have served us better that what we have had over the years of an influx of south American soaps that import values our society does not accept.
Point two; the final predictability of these films notwithstanding, we were so sickly glued and that crave has only but heightened since these films found their way into our media space.
Mr. Gyan Apenteng again: “Today with more than 300 radio stations and more than a dozen TV stations, we are being fed a thin gruel of third-rate foreign leftovers,” simply put; most of these films were likely shot in the early 90s.
Diversification has taken place, TV3 has also done a lot of Hindi movies (what we used to call Aa-jaa-naa) and recently I have observed the influx of some Far Eastern movies have come through - Chinese and Japanese taste.
The moral component of some of these films is a real cause for concern. More often than not, these films portray promiscuity as normal. Cases in point; Juana La Virgen, Mis 3 Hermanas, Camila.
In all of these films most illicit relationships ended up in marriage.
Kissing, hugging, caressing, making out, blatant love scenes are just a few of the morally derelict views that are to be expected. I hear even with this the TV stations cut out the more vivid portions.
Growing up, I watched Mc Jordan Amartey, Grace Nortey, Victor Lutterodt, David Dontoh, Grace Omaboe, ‘Station Master,’ and other ‘morally upright’ (for want of a better word) actors who treated us to decent stories.
What do we see today; breast, backs, buttocks cooked in a sleazy, sexy and sassy atmosphere. And what do we get; that they are just acting and that none of those are real. If you ask me; a needless pun and play on people’s emotions in the name of acting.
These are ideals imported into our settings and here we are still grappling with instilling an iota of decency into kids, whose morals are dipping to negative levels thanks to Social Media. As for most young people and the moral debate; worse than bulls in china shops.
Call me overly sanctimonious and all, but for all it is worth, I see those days of old as “my days of jahiliyyah [Ignorance]), today, I proudly proclaim being fully quarantined and vaccinated from a disease that most people are afflicted with.
I would flee gleefully from these soap operas on any day because in my view, they served us more ill (especially morally) than good.
Mr. Gyan Apenteng on broadcasting back in the day wrote thus: “the difference between then and now is that people in broadcasting looked to other values apart from profit: professional standards, ethics, satisfaction and pride mattered as much as money …”
What’s more, thanks to social media, we can hardly regulate influx and influence of these actors who we hated and or have loved forever however mischievous and or upright they were.
Television – indeed a one eyed monster if you ask me, but the mobile phone is it’s younger but more powerfully lethal brother. Social media – social menace; it all depends on YOU!
Thanks for taking time to read my thoughts, won’t be a bad idea to hear your views. Thanks
May 14, 2015 = Rajab 25, 1436H
