Introduction
Kenyan soap operas are an integral part of popular Kenyan culture. These soaps reflect societal norms, values, and attitudes towards different social issues such as family, relationships, poverty, corruption, gender inequality, marriage, infidelity, jealousy, rivalry, family conflicts, and other social, political, and economic issues. Some of the most popular soap operas include Tausi, Machachari, Sue na Jonnie, Sultana, Mother-in-Law,1Mother-in-law is a soap opera that premiered on Citizen Television in 2008 and is still on air every Sunday evening. The soap revolves around a typical wealthy Kenyan family, the Mwambas. This family has a tough matriarch, Charity Mwamba, who decides to visit her son Jack in the city but she refuses to go back home. The storyline depicts her behavior towards her husband, sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren. There are conflicts and counter-conflicts as each of the family members attempts to live a normal life. Maria,2Maria was a popular Kenyan television drama series that premiered in October 2019. The last episode was aired in March 2021 after 374 episodes. The show follows the life of a young girl named Maria who is struggling to survive in the slums while dealing with the challenges of her past and present. Particularly, it focuses on Maria’s struggles to find her place in society after being abandoned by her parents.
Maria is a strong female lead character, played by Yasmin Said. Other members of the cast are Yasmin Said as Maria; Brian Ogana as Luwi, a wealthy and influential businessman who is romantically involved with Maria; Bridget Shighadi as Sofia, a beautiful and ambitious woman who is also romantically involved with Luwi; Victor Nyaata as William, a close friend of Maria who supports her through many of her struggles; and Tina Njambi acts as Vanessa, a young woman who is romantically involved with William.
To watch an episode of Maria, click this link: https://youtu.be/6CQHbpM1FcI
To watch the trailer for season two, click this link: https://youtu.be/o35BaXrpTEg and Selina.
Framing Gynocentrism in Kenyan Soaps
Of the popular soaps, Sultana, Mother-in-law, Selina, Maria, and Zora3Zora was a Kenyan television drama series that ran from 2021 to March 2022. The show follows the life of a young woman named Zora, who is determined to achieve her dreams despite facing numerous challenges. Other characters in the soap are Jackie Matubia as Nana, Zora’s best friend and confidant; Brenda Michelle as Madiba, a successful businesswoman who is romantically involved with a younger man; Kena Betancourt as Kwame, a young man who falls in love with Zora; and Peter Kamau as Suleiman, a wealthy businessman who is involved in a love triangle with Zora and Madiba. To note is that Mother-in-law, Maria, and Zora are soaps copyrighted by Citizen TV, a subsidiary of Royal Media Services. They can only be watched through Viusasa, an App on Google Play Store, which is a subscription service. To watch full episodes or an entire series of any of these soaps, you have to register on Viusasa and log in, then select the soap from among other shows and genres on the app. For example, this is a link to one of the episodes of Mother-in-law in series 13: https://viusasa.com/video/20356 are gynocentric, that they are dominated by or emphasize feminine interests. Gynocentrism is a way of interpreting information through the lens of female experiences, perspectives, and needs. It is in contrast with androcentrism whose interpretation of information prioritizes male perspectives and experiences. This perspective sharply contradicts the traditional androcentric approach which used male experiences and values as the default perspective. However, it is important to note that a gynocentric perspective is not necessarily the same as an anti-male perspective. Rather, it is an acknowledgment of the ways in which gender influences our experiences and perspectives.
These gynocentric soaps are named after women and portray social issues involving women, rather than men. The titles, themes, and plots of the soap operas are based on the construction of social issues framed in a feminist narrative. The use of the lens of gynocentrism (focusing exclusively on women in practice) and misandry (showing contempt for men) reflects a dichotomy in the deconstruction of gender-based violence in the country.
Women are the protagonists in these soap operas and are often portrayed as victims that encounter untold suffering, in the form of intimate partner violence, sexual harassment including rape, sexually transmitted diseases, the feminization of poverty, and various hardships, including huge sacrifices to take care of their families, etc.
Unfortunately, most of these women rarely get justice. Kenyan soap operas often portray perpetrators of violence as male psychopaths, addicts, or drunks who cannot be held culpable for the violence (blame the alcoholic drink or drugs) and are therefore not judicially liable like Victor who raped Lona in Maria when he was drunk.
Other times the soaps “hide” victims until years later when they are “discovered.” Even a best friend cannot tell they are being violated like in the case of Ithaga Riene4This is the title of a television show in Gikuyu, the native language of Kikuyus of Central Kenya. The title loosely translates to another person’s ornament. It is derived from a proverb that says that the ornament of another person tires the wearer’s neck. (Another Person’s Ornament),5Itotia, J., and James W. C. Dougall, “The Voice of Africa: Kikuyu Proverbs,” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 1 (4), 1928. where Leah’s best friend cannot tell that Leah is being violated by Jomo, the governor. Also, victims of gender-based violence rarely report the violence to the authorities or anyone. Many times, they are discovered. Clark, Bachelet, and Albares (2022)6Clark, H., Bachelet M., & Albares, “Conflict, climate change and Covid-19: Three Cs that are triumvirate of SGBV,” Daily Nation, 2022, pg. 19. attribute silence to stigma, fear of retaliation, and weak or ineffective laws. My hypothesis from an ongoing study (Kung’u, 2023)7Kung’u, S., “Portrayal of gender-based violence in Selected Locally Produced Soap Operas in Kenya” (Unpublished PhD dissertation), University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya, 2023. is that female victims are reticent when it comes to reporting gender-based violations.
For example, in Mother-in-law, Betty did not disclose the rape until Alpha, her son, was a teenager. In Maria, Lona did not report the rape by Victor. It was discovered years later by the family when a DNA test was conducted. Victor was discovered to be Gloria’s father and Lona, the mother. However, Lona was bribed to keep silent by Victor’s lawyers when she was given money to sign documents regarding Gloria’s paternity. Many times, victims die, and the crime is concealed. For instance, in Zora, Kwame killed his wife, Alma, and threw her body on the road to portray the femicide as an accident.
What is more, the women portrayed are usually poor, uneducated, unskilled, and objects of heterosexual men’s desire and pleasure. Such women tend to see affluent men as a ticket out of poverty or suffering. They are represented in soap operas as young, beautiful, slender, and appealing. Women characters are also associated with, or portrayed by, passivity and docility, as well as submissiveness. In addition to this stereotype of women, Sultana, who is a main female character in Sultana, a soap currently airing in Kenya, is blind. In my ongoing study on the portrayal of gender-based violence in Kenyan soap operas, male participants in a Focused Group Discussion (FGD) victimized women claiming that they batter them because the women asked for it.
Men, on the other hand, are represented as the villains—perpetrators of violence that rape, batter, and kill women. Should the perpetrator be female, she pays or coerces a man to perpetrate the violence on her behalf, like in the case of Sandra who asks Bondi to rape Maria in the soap, Maria.
Men who are sexually violent towards women are not punished as rape is portrayed as unquestioned or the fault of the victim, like in Lindenstrasse, a German soap.8Mcquail, D., Golding P., & Bens D. (Eds)., “Communication theory and research: An ECJ anthology,” (London: Sage Publications Ltd., 2005). In Zora, Fera gets away with raping Alma. The portrayal of consequences of violence, whether physical injury or imprisonment, is minimal in Mother-in-law, Zora, Maria, and Makutano Junction.9Makutano Junction is a Kenyan television drama series that aired from 2007 to 2013. It is an English language soap with 15 seasons of 13 episodes each, except series 11 which has 12 episodes. The show focuses on the lives of different characters living in the fictional town of Makutano in Kenya and explores various social issues that affect their lives. The soap was produced by David Campbell of Mediae, a Kenyan media company, and funded by the Ford Foundation in collaboration with the UK Department for International Development. The show was unique in that it was designed to educate and promote development issues, as well as entertain viewers.
You can watch the entire series using the link below: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=entire+series+of+makutano+junction
Clips and episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=makutano+junction
Article on the show’s impact on Kenyan society: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2013/10/8/makutano-junction-the-kenyan-drama-changing-lives This situation is reflected in some communities like the Somali pastoralists where the penalty for rape is left to the clan to decide because it is considered a trivial crime. Sometimes, the penalty is paid by, or imposed on, the family of the perpetrator, not the victim.
There is a long history to this stereotypical portrayal. Television positively portrays the cultural view of masculinity as aggressive and femininity as passive10Ruiz, P., “Portraying power dynamics: Gender and violence on primetime television network,” (Electronic version), Gnovis, a Journal of communication, culture, 2013, retrieved December 01, 2016 from http://www.gnovisjournal.org/; Mueni, J. “A comparative study of representations of womanhood in local and foreign television soap operas in Kenya,” (Nairobi: As Author, 2014). and this notion is deeply ingrained in Kenyan society.11Kamau, A. W., “Gender Stereotyping in Kenya: A Review of the Literature,” European Scientific Journal 12, no. 22 (2016): 1-12.; Wambua, L. M., “Gender Stereotyping in Kenyan Advertising: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Tusker Lager and Tusker Malt Advertisements,” Journal of Language and Communication 7, no. 1 (2019): 16-32. Male authority is regarded as proper and normal in family, education, work, politics, and society at large.
Men who are polygamous and promiscuous are not questioned. An example is G. Mali (Mabel and Usha’s husband) in Mali. G. Mali has an affair with Bella, one of his managers, yet he is polygamous. Moreover, male violence is depicted as an abnormality and not as an everyday incidence in women’s lives. Male rapists, for example, are portrayed as drunks thereby reducing the social culpability for their violence.12Gathoni, N., “Media representations of gender-based violence in Kenya,” Nairobi Law Monthly, 2018, retrieved from https://nairobilawmonthly.com/media-representations-gender-based-violence-kenya/ Social norms also link masculinity to superiority, dominance, and authority and femininity to meekness, passivity, and vulnerability.
But why argue that the lens used by Kenyan soaps to interpret gender-based violence are gynocentric when male characters are portrayed more prominently than women in these soaps, or when men take lead roles in these soaps? Because the majority of the issues portrayed in the narrative focus on the situation of women—for example, misogyny, objectification, and victimization—while men are portrayed as having bliss.
Narratives in Kenyan soaps perpetuate the myth of the wealthy, handsome, and educated man. They are characterized as professionals, rich, or business owners and have women beholden to them. In Tausi, the lead role was a rich and strict Muslim man. The man was a tall and well-built man with a likable character in tandem with local stereotypes.13Njogu, K. (Ed.), “Culture, entertainment, and health promotion in Africa,” (Nairobi: Twaweza Communications Ltd., 2005)
Men can also be polygamous and have affairs. In a study by the author in 2022,14Kung’u, S. “Portrayal of gender-based violence in Selected Locally Produced Soap Operas in Kenya” (Unpublished PhD dissertation), University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya, 2023. participants in Focus Group Discussions particularly observed that male characters in both Makutano Junction and Mother-in-law have very few problems, while women battle all issues including disease, poverty, and violence. This view is misandrist (focused on the evils and inadequacies of men), because, in reality, men also have their own problems. They are not as tall, wealthy, handsome, and educated as fictional narratives portray them to be. Men also get violated; some are poor, and sura personal (not striking).
The myth of the tall, dark, handsome, and wealthy male should be demystified and replaced by ordinary images of men in society because Kenyan soaps do not portray these cases where the male gender is concerned. Portraying men in misandristic light (with strong prejudice or loathing) leads to gender-based discrimination as it reinforces negative stereotypes about men and invites the audience to be prejudiced.
Again, there is no portrayal of violence on the boy-child, yet the reality is that boys (and men) are violated. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2014) revealed that 45 percent of women and 44 percent of men aged 15-49 have encountered bodily violence since they were 15.15Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. “Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2014,” retrieved from https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/fr308/fr308.pdf Of the 222 cases of GBV reported in 2018 in Nairobi County alone, 134 were women, 47 girls, 11 men, and 30 boys.16Muhindi, S., “357 Gender violence cases reported so far this month,” The Star, 2018, accessed online on January 25, 2018 from https://www.thestar.co.ke/news/2018/01/25/357 Additionally, the 2019 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicates that 39 percent of women aged 15-49 years have experienced physical violence at some point in their lives, while 14 percent have experienced sexual violence. The report recognizes that men in Kenya also experience physical violence, with 15 percent of men aged 15-49 reporting that they have experienced physical violence at some point in their lives. Of course, the majority of the violations are on females. However, though fewer, cases of male violations need to also be portrayed. Participants in my study claimed that, in reality, GBV centers are designed for female victims and are run by women, while male victims are relegated to only a single help desk.
Conclusion
Kenyan soaps have embraced gynocentrism in an effort to reverse gender inequalities and demystify masculine superiority, and this is commendable. Charity Mwamba of Mother-in-law symbolizes this deconstruction. However, many local soaps still perpetuate the myth of the helpless and weak female through their characters. They should rather aspire to empowered and strong women characters to steer audience attitudes from harmful stereotypes of male dominance and authority. They should also seek to promote gender equality by portraying equal partnerships between men and women. Moreover, whichever perspective is adopted, other pertinent issues germane to GBV like the short and long-term consequences of GBV should be prioritized if audience attitudes and opinions regarding GBV need positive readjustment. Lastly, producers of these soaps can collaborate with GBV experts to ensure that Kenyan soaps keep gnawing and nibbling from antisocially ossified opinions and calcified attitudes germane to GBV by utilizing prosocial constructions.
