Faith Koli (left) is the producer of Pendo and Eve D'Souza is the
producer of Auntie Boss, both TV shows air on NTV. PHOTOS| COURTESY
Those who grew up in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s when KBC was the lone
television station came at a time when women were grossly
underrepresented in the media. The females made up less than a third of
the television characters. When they appeared, they were given the role
of the dumbed down house wife.
Especially now with the
digital migration giving more space to local content, we are seeing more
women owning the television production lines. Women are not just
starring on screen, but also creating the productions. This is
definitely something to be celebrated.
All
media is a messenger, it is said. It is also a reflection of who we
are. The question is, what are these TV shows saying about Kenyan women?
What storylines are women in production creating for other women? What
inspires these characters?
THE WORKING WOMAN
In
the past one or two decades, the woman on television was usually a
housewife. If she worked, she owned a small salon where she spent her
day gossiping and plotting revenge on her wayward husband.
Today, more female televison characters are working professionals.
Auntie Boss, a sitcom produced by Moonbeam Productions and which airs on NTV, looks at the Kenyan working woman in detail.
The
comedy drama follows the lives of domestic helps and their bosses, all
living in an upper middle class estate in Nairobi. The characters of the
women employing these house-helps depict an interesting phenomenon.
While the women seem to have figured out their professional lives, they
can’t keep the lid on at home.
Vanessa,
one of the characters, is a single mother. She is frivolous,
irresponsible and hardly ever home to take care of her son. At times,
the child seems like an inconvenience to her lifestyle. Other characters
seem to have no clue how their homes are running.
Clearly
the working women characters have missed the work-life balance. Does
this mean that a woman can’t have it all? Eve D’Souza says that this was
the question that she and her co-producer Lucy Mwangi had in mind to
explore when they were creating the show.
“During
our research, we realised that in their quest to achieve this balance,
women are faced with a whole load of challenges. Top on the list was
house-help drama and strain on marriages and relationships with their
children.”
Why focus on the women’s
limiting aspects? According to Eve, when you listen to women talk on
social media, these struggles are what they mostly talk about. The
characters, she says, are not just stereotypes but characters chosen
because most women can relate to them in a comical way.
“We
are not saying that a woman has to choose between the diaper and the
briefcase. We, however definitely agree as producers that the house-help
has slowly turned into the ‘Boss’ of most homes. The women who employ
them are usually under a lot of pressure to advance their own careers,
hence spend long hours away from home,” she says.
THE VICTIM?
On
our screens, the woman is usually the victim. She isn’t the one who
does things. She is the one who things happen to. Given that we are
living in a patriarchal society, may this be an unconscious bias by the
producers? After all, an audience is more likely to sympathise with a
female victim.
Pendo, a drama series
whose second season is currently airing on NTV, starts off with this
theme. It looks at the social battles of a woman in prison and her
re-integration back into the society. The show’s star, Maria who was
wrongfully incarcerated for murder, gets back home to find that the
world, including her family, has moved on without her.
Faith
Koli, the creator of Pendo, refuses to box the character or the Kenyan
woman as a victim. This show, she says, was inspired by the real stories
of women she met during a visit to Lang’ata Women’s Prison. Maria may
have been a victim of circumstances but she is a strong character who is
able to build a successful business from nothing, fight the stigma and
fight to get her children back.
“Pendo
doesn’t focus on the things that happened to her but on how she dusts
herself off and rebuilds her life. The truth is, every woman has a
figurative prison that they have been locked up in. It can be lack of
opportunities, career glass ceilings or past baggage. This show speaks
to them,” Faith argues.
The show’s
other star, Maria’s co-wife, is a modern day Cinderella who did not wait
for the fairy godmother to turn the pumpkin into a carriage. She sees a
chance of changing her fortunes by marrying a rich man and she grabs
it. She is the envy of all the house girls around her. Faith maintains
that the show’s intention isn’t to glorify these women or their choices.
“We
were interested in knowing what drives these women and this is why we
try and unpack Mwelu, Maria’s co-wife. There are women out there who opt
for means that the society does not approve of to change their fortunes
but they too deserve to be heard,” she says of the DIL production.
The super woman
Charity
Mwamba is one of the most fascinating female characters on Kenyan
television. Playing the lead role in Mother-in-law, a Citizen television
comedy-drama that looks into the antics of a meddling mother-in-law,
Charity’s character comes close to a realistic representation of various
aspects of the Kenyan woman.
While
she often goes overboard with her antics, her character is real. She is
imperfect and unglamorous. Charity is feisty and fiercely loyal and
protective of her family, making her a strong character. Can’t a female
character be strong and at the same time loving?
“She
can,” says Catherine Wamuyu, “but drama and mischief sells. There are
women who have amicable relationships with their mothers-in-law and
there are those who don’t. The latter make for a more entertaining
story.”
Charity’s gorgeous daughters-in-law are depicted as superwomen. They are beautiful, witty, fashionable and able business women.
They
often stand up to their mother-in-law and their husbands. They are able
to work outside the home, take care of their children and husbands and
deal with an impossible mother-in-law, all without ruining their
impeccable makeup or their expensive weaves.
How
is the regular woman watching from home supposed to feel about herself?
I ask Catherine Wamuyu who produces the show now in its eighth year.
“The Kenyan woman has already defined herself. She is too strong,” Catherine says.
She
adds, “Television is an intimate medium and you need to be photogenic
to be in it. I made the characters fashionable intentionally. I
emphasise the looks because I believe that this is who the Kenyan woman
is, or who she can be. The Kenyan woman is not frumpy and this is not
what she want to see on her screen.”
Her
female characters, she says, are strong but they are not superwomen.
They fail sometimes, make silly mistakes, rub their parents-in-law the
wrong way but they always get back on their feet. Catherine believes
that the Kenyan woman is strong. Stronger than most African women.
THE MESSAGE?
How
to Find a Husband, a drama comedy produced by Erika Anyadike is one of
the local shows exploring the many facets of the female romance
experience. The show, produced by Story Lab Production Company, follows
three women with different attitudes to life and love. They struggle
with love, career and friendships – issues that everyday women tussle
with. The show is a great representation of the everyday woman.
One
interesting observation that can’t be ignored is the fact that marriage
and eventual parenthood seem much more important to the society around
these women and the men they date. There is a lot of pressure from the
society for women to get hitched. When we see the woman caving in to
this pressure, does it mean that she hasn’t defined herself?
Erika,
the show’s producer, could not be reached for comment but Mother-in-law
producer Catherine Wamuyu maintains that the Kenyan woman has defined
herself. The local storylines, she says, are not only Kenyan stories but
universal ones. Most stories are truths told in fiction. The theatrics,
humour and peculiar characters are put in the story to keep the
entertainment aspect of it alive.
“I
know that we are modelling to both boys and girls. I have this at the
back of my mind when I am creating the characters. When I make female
characters strong, I try not to go overboard so that the boys do not
grow up thinking that men are weak,” she says.
It
is also true that we have come a long way from the days of Mzee Ojwang’
and Mama Kayai. Regarding whether the woman on television today is an
accurate portrayal of today’s Kenyan woman, the jury is still out.
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