Representation of South African “Tribal” Culture in Soap Operas: a Content and Audience Analysis of the Series Generations: the Legacy

REPRESENTATION OF SOUTH AFRICAN “TRIBAL” CULTURE IN SOAP OPERAS: A CONTENT AND AUDIENCE ANALYSIS OF THE SERIES GENERATIONS: THE LEGACY

OLUWAYEMISI MARY ONYENANKEYA

AUGUST 2018

Representation of South African “tribal” culture in soap operas: A content and audience analysis of the series Generations: The Legacy By

OLUWAYEMISI MARY ONYENANKEYA STUDENT NUMBER: 200602737

Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication

Department of Communication Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa

SUPERVISOR: Prof. O.O. Osunkunle

JULY 2018

DECLARATION

I, Oluwayemisi Mary Onyenankeya, student number 200602737 hereby declare that that this thesis is the result of my own original work and has not previously been submitted to another university for the purpose of a degree. I declare that I am fully aware of the University of Fort Hare’s policy on plagiarism and I have taken every precaution to comply with the regulations. Where use has been made of the work of others, such work has been duly acknowledged in this text. Errors and omission are the responsibility of the Author and no other person is liable for the misadventures.

Signed ………………………… Date: 2018-08-28

I, Oluwayemisi Mary Onyenankeya, student number 200602737, hereby declare that I am fully aware of the University of Fort Hare’s policy on research ethics and I have taken every precaution to comply with the regulations. I have obtained an ethical clearance certificate from the University of Fort Hare’s Research Ethics Committee and my Ethical Clearance Number is: OSU281SONY01

Signed …………………………………… Date: 2018-08-28

i DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge God’s divine grace in my life and I remain extremely thankful to God Almighty for giving me the wisdom, strength and courage to overcome the obstacles encountered during the study. I dedicate this thesis to my husband, Dr Kevin Onyenankeya, my pillar of support and inspiration. This project would not have been possible without your input, time and support; I deeply appreciate you Nkem. And to my son, Chidiebere Onyenankeya, who was part of this journey until the cold hands of death cut short your beautiful soul, I will forever love you. To you my beautiful daughters, Chisom, Chigozie and Chika, I say thank you for cheering me up. I would like to thank the following people and institutions for their contributions to this study: My mentor and supervisor Prof Oluyinka Osunkunle for his unwavering mentorship, support, motivation and prayers.

The National Research Foundation for the grant which made this study possible. I would also like to express my gratitude to the following people: My mother, Florence Fatukasi, for her tender love and care; my twin brothers Kehinde and Taiwo Oladapo and their lovely wives for their unwavering support. I sincerely appreciate your prayers and assistance. My special appreciation to two great men with wonderful hearts, Mr Ibukun Ojo and Rtd. Captain Samson Oginni. Thank you for your never-ending encouragement and support. To the wonderful Onyenankeya family, Da Felly and her husband, Uncle Isiama; Uncle Inno and his wife, Bona; Okechi and his wife, Zainab; Ifeanyi and Chuks, I say thank you for your encouragement. For everyone who contributed towards the success of this thesis especially my brothers and sisters in Christ who space cannot permit me to mention their names here, I pray that God will bless and reward you all.

THANK YOU ALL

ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... ii

ABSTRACT ...... viii

CHAPTER ONE ...... 1

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

1.1 Background of the study ...... 1

1.2. Problem Statement ...... 8

1.3. Research Aim ...... 10

1.4. Research Questions ...... 10

1.5. Research Objectives ...... 11

1.7. Theoretical Foundation ...... 11

1.8 Research design ...... 14

1.9 Significance/value of study ...... 16

1.10 Delineation and Limitation of study ...... 16

1.11 Ethical Considerations ...... 17

1.12. Structure of the dissertation ...... 17

CHAPTER TWO ...... 20

LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 20

2.1. Introduction ...... 20

2.2 Conceptual framework ...... 20

2.3. The concept of Representation ...... 23

2.4 Media Representations ...... 25

2.4.1. Media as reflecting reality ...... 26 2.4.2. Intentional representation ...... 27 2.4.3. Media representation as constructing reality...... 27 2.4.4. Media representation as generating or normalising dominant ideologies...... 29 2.4.5. What is being represented: reality or fiction? ...... 31 2.4.6. How is it being represented: Stereotyping versus essentializing...... 34 iii

2.4.7. Who is responsible for the representation? ...... 37 2.5. Cultural representation ...... 39

2.6. Soap opera...... 42

2.6.1 Soap opera as narrative ...... 42 2.6.2 Soap opera: A historical overview ...... 44 2.6.3. Form and Structure of Soap Opera ...... 46 2.6.4. Narrative Structure ...... 46 2.6.5. Themes, plots and character types ...... 47 2.6. Soap opera in South Africa ...... 49

2.8. Critique of soap operas ...... 51

2.9. Situating the Audience Perception Theory ...... 53

2.10. Audience as perceivers ...... 54

2.11. The dialectics over passive and active audience ...... 55

2.12. The homogeneity and heterogeneity of audience perceptions: the nexus of demographics and socio-cultural factors ...... 58

2.13. Hall’s Encoding and Decoding Model ...... 58

i. Dominant or Hegemonic Encoding ...... 59 ii. Professional Coding ...... 59 iii. Negotiated Encoding ...... 60 iv. Oppositional Encoding ...... 60 2.14. Critique of audience perception theory ...... 61

2.15. Theory of media hegemony dominant ideology ...... 61

2.16. Representation of tribal South African culture in Soap operas ...... 63

2.17. Generation: The Legacy an overview ...... 64

CHAPTER THREE ...... 76

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...... 76

3.1. Introduction ...... 76

3.2. Study Area ...... 76

3.3. Research Design ...... 77

3.4. Population ...... 79 iv

3.5. Sampling procedure ...... 79

3.6. Data collection methods ...... 80

3.6.1. Content Analysis ...... 80 3.6.2. Survey ...... 81 3.7. Data collection procedure ...... 83

3.6. Data analysis ...... 84

3.7. Reliability and Validity of the study ...... 86

3.8. Limitations and Delimitations ...... 87

3.9. Ethical Consideration ...... 87

3.11. Chapter summary ...... 90

CHAPTER FOUR ...... 92

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS ...... 92

4.1. Introduction ...... 92

4.2. Presentation of data: SECTION A ...... 93

4.3. Content Analysis...... 93

4.3.1. Representation of tribal African language spoken in Generation ...... 94 4.3.2. Representation South African tribal institutions in Generation: The Legacy...... 96 4.3.3. Representation South African tribal values in Generation: The legacy...... 105 4.3.4. Representation of tribal South African social norms in Generation: The legacy ...... 108 4.3.5. Representation of ancestral beliefs in Generation: the Legacy ...... 112 4.4.1. SECTION B SURVEY ...... 116 4.4.2. Demographics of Respondents ...... 116 4.4.3. Frequency of watching television soapies ...... 118 4.4.4. Aspect of culture frequently represented in Generation: The Legacy ...... 119 4.4.5. Respondents’ perceptions about representation of South African tribal Culture in Generation: The Legacy ...... 121 4.4.7. Respondents’ perception of the characterization of South African tribal values and customs in Generation: The Legacy ...... 124 4.4.8. Respondents’ ranking of the representation of South African tribal Culture in Generation: The Legacy ...... 125 4.4.9. What factors are responsible for the way tribal African culture is represented in Generation: The Legacy? ...... 126

4.5. Ancillary research questions ...... 127

4.5.1. Is South African tribal culture portrayed negatively in Generation: The Legacy? ...... 128 4.5.2. Does South African tradition and values represented in Generation: The Legacy reflect the South African tribal culture? ...... 129 4.5.3. Are South African tribal languages favourably projected in Generation: The Legacy? .... 130 4.5.4. Does Generation: The Legacy makes mockery of South African traditional marriage institutions? ...... 130 4.5.5. Does Generation: The Legacy represents African traditions and values as old-fashioned? ...... 131 4.5.6. Is Generation: The Legacy a site for propagating dominant culture and ideals? ...... 132 4.5.7. Does exposure to Generation: The Legacy shape viewers’ thoughts and behaviour towards South African tribal culture? ...... 132 4.5.8. Does Generation: The Legacy perpetuates stereotypes about South African tribal culture? ...... 133 4.5.9. Does Generation: The Legacy represents tribal South African culture as inferior and backward? ...... 134 4.5.10. Does Generation: The Legacy promotes tribal South African culture as male-oriented? ...... 134 4.5.11. Multiple linear regression analysis ...... 135 CHAPTER FIVE ...... 137

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS ...... 137

5.1. Introduction ...... 137

5.2. Discussion of key findings ...... 137

5.3 Situating the findings with existing theories...... 151

Chapter Conclusion ...... 156

CHAPTER SIX: ...... 157

CONCLUSIONS AND REOMMENDATIONS ...... 157

6.1 Introduction ...... 157

6.2 Summary of chapters...... 158

6.3. Summary of Key Findings ...... 162

6.3.1 How South African tribal culture is characterised and represented in Generation: The Legacy...... 162 6.3.2 Aspects of South African tribal culture represented in Generations: The Legacy...... 164 6.3.3 Factors that influence the portrayal of tribal African culture in Generation: The legacy .. 165 vi

6.3.4 Audience perceptions and attitudes towards the representation of tribal South African culture in Generation: The Legacy ...... 165 6.3.5 Whether Generations: The Legacy creates and transmit hegemonic culture ...... 166 6.4. Summary of contributions of this study and implications ...... 167

6.5 Limitations of the study...... 169

6.6 Suggestions for further research ...... 170

6.7. Conclusions ...... 170

REFERENCES ...... 174

Appendices ...... 189

Appendix 1: Images of Generation: the Legacy ...... 189

Appendix 2 Screenshots in episode 237 ...... 191

Appendix 3 Screenshots in episode 217 ...... 197

Appendix 4 Screenshots in episode 79 ...... 199

Appendix 5 Screenshots in episode 251 ...... 200

Appendix 6 Screenshots in episode 252 ...... 201

Appendix 7 Screenshots in episode 78 ...... 202

Appendix 8 Screenshots Episode 188 ...... 204

Appendix 8 Screenshots in Episode 260 ...... 205

Appendix 9 Screenshots in Episode 252 ...... 207

Appendix 10 Screenshots Episode 79 ...... 215

Appendix 11 Screenshots Episode 79 ...... 216

Appendix 12 Screenshots in Episode 77 ...... 219

Appendix 13 Screenshots Episode 56 ...... 227

Appendix 14 Screenshots in Episode 251 ...... 231

Appendix 15 Screenshots Episode 118 ...... 234

Appendix 16 Screenshots in Episode 186 ...... 237

Appendix 17 Screenshots in Episode 188 ...... 241

Appendix 18 Screenshots Episode 59 ...... 243 vii

Appendix 19 Screenshots Episode 84 ...... 247

Appendix 20 Screenshots in Episode 40 ...... 251

Appendix 21 Screenshots in Episode 49 ...... 255

Appendix 22 – Questionnaire ...... 263

Appendix 23- Coding sheet for content Analysis ...... 268

Appendix 24 -Ethical clearance ...... 273

viii

ABSTRACT

Commercial media entertainment offerings in South Africa especially mainstream soap operas, are progressively infusing dominant social values and ideas which are alien to South African tribal societies. In most of the commodified television drama series, people who hold tight to traditional beliefs and values are often characterised as traditionalists, while those who have imbibed the western defined dicta and ideology of modernity are seen as progressives. This study therefore, sought to ascertain how South African tribal language, traditional institutions, values, social norms and ancestral beliefs are portrayed through the television drama, Generations: The Legacy and what the viewers think about those constructions and the implication for cultural identity. The mixed methods approach was employed involving the administration of questionnaire to 350 participants selected through random sampling and a content analysis of 20 episodes of Generations: The Legacy. The findings suggest that Generations: The Legacy tends to portray South African tribal culture negatively (p-value > 0.05). More than half of the respondents (52%) strongly believe such negative portrayals may erode the cultural identity of black South Africans, 68.6% were of the opinion that Generations: The Legacy gives preference to western culture as against South African tribal culture. The findings further showed that the African values and traditions represented in Generations: The Legacy do not significantly reflect the South African tribal tradition and values (p-value > 0.05). In the few occasions that African traditional values are represented Generations: The Legacy, they tend to be portrayed as old fashioned (p-value > 0.05), and inferior and backward (p- value > 0.05). In addition, the findings indicate that Generations: The Legacy is a vehicle for promoting dominant culture. Nearly, 59% of the respondents stated that watching Generations: The Legacy affect the way they view South African tribal culture, while 59.1% indicated that watching Generations: The Legacy has somehow affected their perception of their own cultural identity. In all, participants rated the representation of South African tribal culture as poor. The study concludes that while South African tribal culture is increasingly finding expression on mainstream soap opera, tribal South African values and beliefs are often depicted as old-fashioned, and inimical to modernisation, and individual’s freedom.

Keywords: cultural representation studies, television, soap opera, identity, imagined community, Generation The Legacy, South Africa .

viii

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

This research project investigates the representations of South African tribal culture in the soap opera, Generations: The Legacy, in order to understand how and what aspects of the African cultural traditions, values, and institutions are represented in the television serial and the implication for self and cultural identity of black South Africans. It does this by analysing the portrayal of culture elements such as language, values, traditional institutions, social norms and African ancestral beliefs. Additionally, the study sought to ascertain if any factors influence the representations of South African tribal culture and how audience members perceive the depictions of tribal cultural elements in the soap. Tribal culture in this study, refers to the social norms, values, traditions, ceremonies, belief systems and language of the four main indigenous ethnic groups of South Africa, namely Nguni, Sotho, Shangaan-Tsonga and Venda.

The potency of drama as a tool of acculturation is never in doubt. British colonialists and early missionaries employed dramatic performances effectively not only to indoctrinate Africans, but also to distract and distance them from “their political, economic, educational and cultural heritage” (Sirayi & Seda, 2015: 131). In South Africa, as in many other British colonised entities, the missionaries used performative acts “to propagate their beliefs. The missionaries utilised not only staged versions of biblical teaching but didactic plays which they located within a South African place’’ (Orkin, 1991: 7). For instance, early theatrical performances in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape South Africa which were promoted by missionaries, were intended ostensibly to address the issues of “repentance, character training, habits of industry, diligence ... and obedience” (Peterson, 1990: 230). But underpinning the Janus-faced civilising mission was the goal to further the interest of the colonialists and ultimately, foist the “European notions of racial and evolutionary superiority”. Sirayi and Seda (2015:132) argue that “the purpose of the colonising mission in seeking to obliterate African belief systems such as ancestor worship and traditional performance forms was itself never in doubt”. 1

Media theorists have long argued that the media is central to the construction of “a narrative of self-Identity” (Thompson, 1995: 210). According to Kellner (1995: 1) the ubiquitous media culture helps ‘’produce the fabric of everyday life . . . shaping political views and social behaviour, and providing the materials out of which people forge their very identities’’ (1995: 1). Kellner argues that the consumption of mediated symbolic materials is capable of producing a homogenised culture.

Radio, television, ﬁlm, and the other products of the culture industries provide the models of what it means to be male or female, successful or a failure, powerful or powerless. Media culture also provides the materials out of which many people construct their sense of class, of ethnicity and race, of nationality, of sexuality, of ‘us’ and ‘them’ (1995: 1).

Kellner’s thesis suggests that people learn from the media and as Wenger (1998: 215) posits, “learning transforms who we are and what we can do, it is an experience of identity”. However, some writers have challenged the seeming centrality of media consumption to identity formation and cultivation of global culture. Tomlinson (1991) argues that the ‘’media-centeredness’’ theorists seem to discountenance not only the “lived experience of culture” but also, fail to reckon with the fact that media messages interplay with other means of cultural experience. In other words, the media do not possess the overly power of dominance over representation of modern culture. The media, Tomlinson insists, do not determine but rather mediates cultural experiences. In his study which investigated media consumption and identity formation among ‘homeland viewers’, Strelitz (2002: 479) found that watching local programmes help the homeland viewers reinforce “their particular identities and help mediate how they experience the social space”. As has been argued (Bulter, 1990; Goffman, 1978) identity is never fixed but contingent on the social milieu. In fact, Hughes (2007) argues that identity is manifold, elastic and constantly being constructed and reconstructed. If this argument is valid, it is therefore, possible for the media especially soap opera, to provide symbolic materials to construct identities “whereby individuals insert themselves into contemporary techno-capitalist societies and which is producing a new form of global culture” (Kellner, 1995: 1).

The representations of tribal African culture in the media, drama in particular, enable us to investigate not only the audience perception of representation of South African tribal culture but also, the connection between media consumption and the construction of global culture and identity formation. Although almost any example of drama serial or segmental television narrative can be investigated with regards to cultural representations, this study focuses on the soap opera genre for two main reasons: Firstly, the soap opera genre has become an increasingly popular entertainment diet on many South African television stations (Matinga & Annegarn, 2013). Zegeye and Harris (Knoetze, 2015)) argue, that South Africa’s mass media is not only a critical platform for promoting the interests and unique cultures of its diverse people but also an avenue for vicarious social life. The fictional narratives of soap operas attempt to mirror the society. Soaps are not just regular feature on commercial television but have emerged to become an integral aspect of everyday life. In today’s society, soap has gained an unrestrained connection with the blood in our veins, most of the audience of soaps are so addicted that they look forward to the time the soap will be aired (Addison, 2004). Even though soap opera has a commercial orientation, it has nevertheless, emerged as ‘a popular art form’ rooted in culture and folk story that appeal “across time, cultures, and even classes” (Williams, 1992: 2).

The South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and other terrestrial and satellite stations, broadcast a potpourri of soap operas that attract millions of viewership particularly, young black people. Secondly, soap operas supposedly attempt to interpret the world even though oftentimes, these interpretations of the world are as seen through the narrow prism of “accepted ideology”, which as evinced from research, is influenced by a confluence of factors including the political and economic interests of hegemonic powers. Marx (2007: 113) argues that popular visual culture such as soaps, attempts to reflect the shifts in the political, economic and cultural paradigms while constructing meaning. Lockyear (2004: 31) posits that “the South African soap is part of the broader political and economic context of South Africa. The trends and economic realities of the environment will exert an influence on the cultural products produced. The needs for sponsorship, dependency on funding, competition for a viewer market and specific target groups, all exert an influence.” What this means is that soaps even as much as they aspire to reflect the multicultural nuances of the society, are hamstrung on one hand by market forces and on the other, by the ideals

3 of the dominant groups. In other words, “the permissiveness and power of hegemony in the media has allowed undesired contents which in advent showcase the negative image of the nation” (Omenugha, Uzuegbunam & Ndolo, 2016: 204).

The pertinent question is: how would South African tribal culture fare in soap operas which ostensibly, seek to reflect a heterogeneous multicultural and multilingual society where the levers of production and funding are controlled by hegemonic forces or dominant culture. Currently, Generations: The Legacy has an advertising partnership with some big corporations and companies in which products and services of advertisers are infused into the narrations. If the maxim of ‘he who pays the piper dictates the tune’ should apply, it presupposes that the producers may be constrained to produce narratives that pander or promote the interests of the sponsors. The task of reflecting the interest of everyone in a diverse society without delving into cultural prejudices can be challenging particularly in a country like South Africa with a peculiar historical and political antecedents. South Africa pride itself as a country of many colours and diverse culture which explains the sobriquet ‘rainbow nation’.

The African descendants including the KhoiKhoi and San people, the foremost indigenous people of South Africa, and the Bantu tribes comprising the Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Ndebele, Tswana, Pedi, Pondo, Swati, Tsonga and Venda each has a history, beliefs system, values, art, food, music, traditions and lifestyles unique to them. The emergence of colonisation which led to the settlement of many European and Indian migrants in South Africa along with western education, religion and intertribal marriages have given rise to cultural diversity and the attendant dilution of the host or original culture. Over the years the South African society has become increasingly and intricately interwoven following extensive political and economic changes that have orchestrated some noticeable cultural shifts. But the racial divide remains. The racially defined landscape adds to the dialectics of culture especially the issue of identity and belonging. Everatt (2012: 6–8) describes post-apartheid South Africa as a “landscape dotted with socio-cultural landmines, awkwardness, faux pas, and physical barriers compounding psychological ones”. This has brought about “destabilised identities” across all the ethnic groups (Knoetze, 2015: 1).

In spite of South Africa’s government efforts at promoting indigenous cultural heritage through film and the eleven language policy which, to some extent, has managed to

4 preserve and promote indigenous languages, there are fears that some aspects of indigenous or host culture may be swallowed by the so called “global culture” (Kellner, 1995:1). This means that the non-material aspects of the indigenous people’s culture face the danger of going extinct. It is important to note that culture consists of material and non-material aspects. Material culture is concrete and takes the form of artefacts and crafts. It refers to the visible tactile objects which man is able to manufacture for the purposes of human survival. Non-material culture on the other hand, is abstract and comprises the norms, mores, beliefs and knowledge of the people (Idang, 2014). It has a very pervasive influence on the lives of the people of a particular culture. Non- material culture finds expression in popular visual culture such as television dramas, soap opera particularly. Given that soap operas supposedly represent everyday people and conditions, it is therefore imperative to understand the role they play in constructing cultural paradigms.

Although the creator of Generation: The Legacy, Mfundi Vundla, argues that the soap opera “is about stimulating a conversation on the transfer of wealth, knowledge and culture”, the drama appears to accentuate tension between traditional African values and popular culture in which individuals are presented as conflicted in choosing one against the other. For instance, there appears a subtle but sustained attempt to interrogate long established patriarchal and heterosexual ethos of tribal society. Traditional values such as chastity is often characterised as old-fashioned, while hegemonic culture such as homosexuality and cross-dressing seems to be projected as the new normal. These new culture which is mostly prevalent in the urban cities are characterised as a universal practice. Hall (McQueen, 1998) holds that media representations of the urban world are often diverse and conflicting. They are also incomplete and sometimes, biased. Inconsistent representations or constructions of the world by the media create tensions given that these representations tend to pander to the world of the dominant groups or capitalists. Georgiou (2006: 9) argues that the tension generated by incomplete, sometimes biased representations of reality, paves way for the creation of alternative representations of the “other” imbued with the potential to challenge dominant ideologies and negotiate new identities (Irigaray, 2003). The linkage between narrative and identity formation has long been argued. As noted by Bullock and Trombley (2000: 559), “the conviction that narrative forms and sustains the identity of individuals, communities and traditions is common in

5 contemporary thought”. Ricoeur (Brown, 1997: 113) argues that narrative underpins the construction of human identity. In other words, identity emerges from narrative - “the very idea of human identity – perhaps… the very possibility of human identity is tied to the very notion of narrative and narrativity” (Brockmeier & Carbaugh, 2001: 15). Narration is capable of defining and ordering events and happenings which assists in identity constructions. This type of “construction of self and life worlds draws on a particular genre of language usage: narration” (Brockmeier & Carbaugh, 2001: 1).

The challenge of framing African culture as inimical and noncompliant to the dominant group’s definition of modernity could result in situation where people become not only indoctrinated (Gramsci, 1971) and pliable object of change (Melkote & Steeves, 2015: 3) but also susceptible to abandoning or ignoring their culture and embracing the model of modernization as prescribed and promoted by television drama serials such as Generations: The Legacy. Kellner (1995: 1) argues that “media culture helps shape the prevalent view of the world and deepest values: it deﬁnes what is considered good or bad, positive or negative, moral or evil. Media stories and images provide the symbols, myths, and resources which help constitute a common culture for the majority of individuals in many parts of the world today”. Individuals according to Fourie (2007: 242), can acquire a variety of cultural and social norms by viewing soaps. Given that soap texts are interpreted in a variety of ways, there is the potential for audience members “to process [from fictional narratives] conflicting issues relating to social values, norms and identities” (Knoetze, 2015: 293 my emphasis). It is also possible for the audiences to negotiate soap texts in a subversive manner and go ahead to construct their own texts (Dhaenens, 2012). Hebdige (1989) notes that commercial culture which is a potent hegemonic tool, frequently combines with reactionary forces or ‘machineries of resistance’ to produce alternative dominant patterns in mainstream products. For instance, soaps according to Dhaenens (2012: 443–444):

“May represent gay characters or gay-related themes that expose how the discursive practices of heteronormativity function, on the one hand, or transgress social and cultural assumptions about gender, sexuality and identity on the other, thereby functioning as queer and viable alternatives to the heteronormative way of living”.

Here, representations serve not only as reference points for interaction for local and global discourses on tribal culture in the media, but also form the basis for attitudes, and public opinion and even cultivation of alternative behaviours. Kellner (1995:1) argues that “media culture provides the materials to create identities whereby individuals insert themselves into contemporary techno-capitalist societies and which is producing a new form of global culture”. Hall (1992: 293) posits that a people’s identity is embedded in the story told about them. In other word, you can understand the culture of a particular people by simply analysing stories told about that culture. This suggests that the stories the media tell about South African tribal culture have the potential of shaping black South Africans perception of African tradition and culture and ultimately their cultural identity. Kearney (1996: 7) contends that “the identity of a group, culture, people, or nation, is not that of an immutable substance, not that of a fixed structure, but rather, that of a recounted story”. As Marx (2007: 16) aptly stated “narrative, whether told by oneself or others, or by oneself about others, plays a significant role in the creation of identity. So how a people and their culture are represented or framed in the story is critical”.

In this thesis, I argue that it is important therefore, to vigorously interrogate cultural representation in the media because it is often a vehicle for the construction of identity (Currie & Markovitz, 1993: 91), especially among young people. Dimitriadis (2009: 65) states that “young people today are using contemporary media to define themselves and to map their daily lives in ways that often confound adults”. Drama as a tool for cultural awareness of a country, cannot be overemphasized because culture plays a vital role in the psychological and physical development of an individual and the society at large (Omenugha, Uzuegbunam & Ndolo, 2016: 204). As has been argued by Kellner (1995: 1) the media particularly, “radio, television, film, and the other products of the culture industries provide the models of what it means to be male or female, successful or a failure, powerful or powerless. Media culture also provides the materials out of which many people construct their sense of class, of ethnicity and race, of nationality, of sexuality, of ‘us’ and ‘them’ (Kellner, 2011: 7).

Strinati (1995: 14) observes that commercial media has the capacity to promote and foist contemporary ideals and social creations as normal. Generation: The Legacy subtly represents controversial social issues such as same sex relationships, resistance to traditional culture and values as the new normal. Therefore, the 7 significance of Generation: The Legacy as the chosen case study lies in its position as one of the most popular and oldest soap operas and in the role it plays in media culture as a site for the construction of ideas and values, motivating social change and cultivating images, lifestyle practices and beliefs which may be diametrically opposed to indigenous value system and culture.

There exists a rich literature on the evolution of drama and theatre in South Africa (Coplan, 1985; Kavanagh, 1985; Orkin, 1991; Kruger, 1999; Graver, 1999; Sirayi, 2012). More recently, Sirayi (2012), examined “South African drama and theatre from pre-colonial times to the 1990s”. Sirayi and Seda (2015) focused on “intrusive hegemonies and localised identities in early South African drama and theatre: 1880 to 1930”. There is also a large body of research which focused on specific television drama in South Africa. Anderson (2003) examined ‘chronotopes and memory making in Isidingo’; Lockyear (2004) and Barnard (2006) investigated ‘multiculturalism’ in soaps; Marx (2007) explored narrative and soap opera in some selected South African soap operas’; Kruger (2010) looked at ‘aspiration, consumption and class in post- apartheid television drama’, while Tager (2010) carried out audience perception of Generation. Van der Merwe (2012) examined audience ‘reasons for watching 7de Laan’. Hannelie Knoetze (2015) also conducted a comparative study of South African (7de Laan’) and Flemish soap opera (Thuis) to ascertain how whiteness is constructed and positioned in the South African soap opera. However, there are no notable studies on cultural representation in South African soap operas. This study therefore, attempts to fill this gap in knowledge. Findings from this study will provide insight into the representation of South African tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy, identified the factors fuelling this characterisation and help unpack the audience perceptions and attitudes towards the representation of indigenous South African culture on the soap opera.

1.2. Problem Statement

Efforts to construct a South African imagined community are faced with “contradictions and tensions” (Knoetze, 2015: 274). This is because South African commercial media especially mainstream soap operas, are progressively infusing dominant social values and ideas which many view as alien to South African tribal societies. These soapies, 8 in an attempt to project a new reality of non-racist, sexist and united country, project representations of race, ethnicity and culture that tend to be based on a homogenization and construction of a non-dichotomous society. Representations of South African tribal culture on mainstream media in South Africa appear stereotypical. In most commodified television drama series, South African tribal institutions, spiritual beliefs and values which held society together over the years tend to be presented as archaic and odious or inimical to modernisation and individuals’ freedom. Often, tribal People who still hold tight to traditional beliefs and values tends to be characterised as traditionalists still living in the past, while those who have imbibed the western defined dicta and ideology of modernity are projected as progressives. I argue that framing reality in this way has the potential to affect the way that the audience, black audience particularly, come to perceive their shared history, ancestry, cultural identity and the values they hold in common. It has long been theorised that media could be a veritable avenue to construct and normalise common cultural values. Gramsci (1971), asserts that dominant ideologies can easily become normalised and popularised by their recurring circulation in the media. His views are consistent with Brinkerhoff (2013), who holds that the mass media including television dramas, have far reaching influence on cultural transmission especially popular culture, because they are key agencies that affect how individuals learn about the world and interact with one another.

Fourie (1984, 2007) and (Pitout, 1996), contend that soap opera texts have moralising and socialising effect on the audience. The tendency to characterise South African tribal culture as inferior and out of sync with dominant social value not only reinforces stereotypes about tribal cultural practices but also, has the potential to trigger repudiation of indigenous culture as these representations serve not only as reference points for interaction with those regarded as civilised in South African society, but also form the basis for attitudes, and public opinion. I hold the view that continuous framing and circulation of South African tribal culture as inhibitive and primitive in commercial media soap operas while projecting hegemonic notions as modern and progressive, could result to cultural hegemony and the conflict of identity. This is because “media culture provides the materials to create identities whereby individuals insert themselves into contemporary techno-capitalist societies and which is producing a

9 new form of global culture (Kellner, 1995:1). Although the South African government strives to define the social-cultural frames for the Public broadcaster, SABC through the prescription of guidelines, popular culture or ideologies propagated mainly by the dominant group remain pervasive in cultural products of the visual media including soap operas. This study therefore, sought to ascertain how South African tribal language, traditional institutions, values, social norms and ancestral beliefs are portrayed through the television drama, Generation: The Legacy and what the viewers think about those depictions. Stuart Hall (1986: 251) argues that:

“Because there are many different and conflicting ways in which meaning about the world can be constructed, it matters profoundly what and who gets represented… and how things, people, events and relationships are represented… How things are represented and the ‘machineries’ and regimes of representation in a culture do play a constitutive, and not merely a reflexive, after the event role”.

1.3. Research Aim

The aim of this project is to ascertain how South African tribal culture is represented in the popular soap opera, Generation: The Legacy and how the audience perceive these representations.

1.4. Research Questions

This study addresses the following research questions:

1. How is South African tribal culture represented in Generation: The Legacy? 2. What elements of South African tribal culture is characterised and portrayed in Generation: The Legacy? 3. What factors are responsible for the way tribal African culture is represented in Generation: The Legacy? 4. How do audience members perceive the portrayal of South African tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy?

5. To what extent does Generations: The Legacy, constructs and promotes hegemonic culture?

1.5. Research Objectives

1. To examine how South African tribal culture is characterised and represented in Generation: The Legacy 2. To identify what aspects of South African tribal culture are represented in Generation: The Legacy 3. To identify the factors that influence the portrayal of tribal African culture in Generation: The Legacy 4. To establish audience perceptions and attitudes towards the representation of tribal South African culture in Generation: The Legacy. 5. To establish whether Generation: The Legacy creates and transmits hegemonic culture.

1.7. Theoretical Foundation

Cultural representation in the media is situated within the broader discourse of Cultural and Media Studies. A number of theorists and authors have attempted to explain the work media representations do. There exist two main ways of understanding the work that media representation do: the reflectionist or mimetic approach and the constructivist approach. The reflectionist approach contends that media representations functions to mirror or reflect ‘reality’ which already exits. This theory assumes that the ‘true meaning’ reside in the object, person or idea or event and that representation through language or signs only reflects or imitate “the truth that is already there and fixed in the world” (Hall, 1997: 24). Put simply, the task of representation is basically mimetic - that is, to reflect pre-existing meanings of ‘the real’ (Orgad, 2014). The reflectionist notion however do not appear water tight as studies have shown that the media never really mirror reality (Orgad, 2014).

The constructionist approach is another way of understanding or explaining the ‘work’ media representations do. This approach acknowledges that “neither things in themselves nor the individual users of language (representation) can fix meaning in

11 language. Things don’t mean: we construct meaning, using representative system- concepts and signs” (Hall, 1997:25). The constructionist argues that any representation is fundamentally and inexorably, a construction - a selective and particular depiction of some elements of reality, which always generates some specific meanings and excludes others (Orgad, 2014).

Hall (1997: 3) writes that:

“We give things meaning by how we represent them- the words we use about them, the stories we tell about them, the images of them we produce, the emotions we associate with them, the ways we classify and conceptualise them, the value we place on them” (Hall, 1997: 3).

Another school of thought led by Gramsci (1971), holds that media representation does the work of generating or reinforcing cultural hegemony. In his theory of dominant ideology (1971), Gramsci interrogated the role of media in foisting hegemonic ideas on the society. Hegemony refers to those ‘dominant’ ideologies that are normalised and made popular by their recurring circulation in the media. In hegemonic society, culture representation in the media is influenced and determined by the dominant social grouping. This results in most people involuntarily and unconsciously making sense of what society ought to be and consequently living within this horizon of thought. Gramsci argues that capitalists indirectly force hegemonic ideas on the society through the shaping of the thought and behaviour of the community especially the youth towards their indigenous culture. However, Curran and Morley (2006) maintain that there exits avenues to resist or expurgate oneself from the strong influence of the dominant culture and that people can actually explore this avenue to propagate a cultural revolt.

“This hegemonic ascendancy can be broken through the creation of a ‘popular front’ of the mind: through different groups coming together in opposition, and developing a coherent alternative

understanding of society that connects to people’s social experiences and identities, and is expressed through different symbolic forms” (Curran & Morley, 2006 :132).

Gramsci’s theory underpins this study and provides interpretative framework in understanding the role played by commercial media as a site for generating cultural hegemony. Therefore, using Gramsci’s theory of hegemony allows us to interrogate how media representations is used to indoctrinate society by propagating dominant ideas and values or so called popular culture. Another theory that will be used for this study is the Audience theory, audience perception theory in particular. Audience theory generally, examines the influence the media exerts on audience behaviour and social skills. Some audience theorists hold that the media has the capacity to shape an audience perception of the world. It is argued that audience members consume media texts differently. An audience member can be active or passive.

There is however, a dichotomy in opinion among the audience theorists with regards to how the audience receives and responds to media texts or messages. The active audience theorists for instance, contend that audience members do not just receive media texts but actually interact with the messages in order to make sense of them. For instance, Klapper (1960) and Levy (1983) hold that audience engages with the text by being selective. For Bauer (1964), the audience is not only independent and obstinate but also impervious to influence. Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch (1974), argue that the audience actively chooses texts that gratify their specific needs. Stuart Hall (1973, 1980) one of the main exponents of reception theory, and famous for his Theory of encoding and decoding, argues that the audience do have some social control over the media content they consume as they can negotiate or even choose not to accept the coded message of the producer or give a contrary interpretation that is in tandem with their personal or social context. In other word, the audience does not simply passively accept any media message warts and all. There are some intervening variables such as beliefs, culture, family background, values, interests, education and experiences which influence the decoding or reading of media texts. The Bullet/Hypodermic Needle theory, one of the earliest passive audience theories, assumes that the audience is passive and powerless to the avalanche of messages

13 from an enormously powerful media. This theory conceives the audience as “sponges that absorb the media without interference”. In other words, “the Hypodermic Needle Theory is a linear communication theory which suggests that media messages are injected directly into the brains of a passive audience. The theory seems to suggest that we’re all the same and we all respond to media messages in the same way” (Lamb, 2013). Scholars such as Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, and Signorielli (1980, 1986) hold that the audience is not only passive but powerless to the flood of media messages they are exposed to. Blumler, Gurevitch and Katz (1985: 259) state that “the audience member is not an unconstructed master of his or her cultural faith". The Audience theories submit that media representations are not a closed process but open to different interpretations and that their meanings are not fixed. The audience can accept the intended meaning of the text or reject it or even create an opposite meaning of the text (Hall, 1973).

1.8 Research design

A research design or ‘strategy of inquiry’ (Denzin & Lincoln, 2012) is the roadmap that “provides specific direction for procedures in a research design” (Creswell 2013:12). The research design for this study is the mixed methods approach. Mixed methods is a research technique in which the investigator collects, analyses data, integrates the findings and draws inferences using both qualitative and quantitative approaches (Tashakkori & Creswell 2007: 3).The mixed methods research was chosen because of the complexity of the phenomena being investigated. Cultural representation on television drama is a concept which means many things to different people, therefore using a singular approach may not generate a broader perspective that will lead to a reliable conclusion. Bryman (2007) argues that combining qualitative and quantitative findings can enable us to forge an overall or negotiated account of the findings. The data collection methods that was used for this study is content analysis and questionnaire survey. Content analysis was used to analyse and interpret the contents of the selected episodes of Generation: The Legacy according to some mutually exclusive, exhaustive and reliable content categories (Wimmer & Dominick, 1987).

Content analysis has been described as the efficient way to investigate the content of the media. Wimmer and Dominick (2006: 150) argue that “many content analyses are 14 in the portrayal of a certain group, phenomenon, trait, or characteristic is assessed against a standard taken from real life”. Content analysis is therefore, considered appropriate for this study given that the core of the study is the content of a drama. The survey method on the other hand, assisted in understanding the subjective feelings of the public (Fowler, 2013) towards representation of South African tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy. Survey offers a measurable or numeric data that enables us describe the attitudes or views of a particular population by selecting and analysing a section of that population. Bless and Higson-Smith (2000: 84) describe population as the entire set of objects or people which is the focus of the research. The population of this study is all television drama series available in English and vernacular shown on SABC 1. One drama serial was selected from the public open air station. The probability method of simple random sampling was used to select both the survey and content analysis samples. Aiming at 95% confidence level and a 5% error tolerance, a sample of 350 was drawn from the Alice community, this comprises the university community (students and staffs) and Alice town with a population of 151,143 (2011, census statistics). The sample size for the content analysis is 20 episodes which was selected randomly from a total of 276 episodes of Generation: The Legacy between March 2016 and April 2018. Each episode lasts for 30 minutes. The data collection procedure involved watching the selected episodes of the drama and coding their content along specified content categories.

The coding sheet was used as the data collection instrument. Coding as defined by Wimmer and Dominick (1987) as the placing of unit of analysis into a content category. In this study, coding was done by establishing nominal values to represent each of the content categories and the sub variables under each of them. Standardised coding sheets was used to facilitate coding as well as allow the researcher to classify relevant data by placing the established nominal values for the sub-variables in predetermined columns for each content category. The coding was carried out by the researcher and four research assistants who were trained by the researcher. South African coders were selected for this research because they understand more of the cultural values and can easily identify an indigenous South African culture presented in the drama. The study adopted the parallel data analysis approach. Analysis of both data sets (the survey and content analysis) was carried out separately and the findings were

15 compared or consolidated at the interpretation stage. The survey data was analysed firstly using descriptive statistics and thereafter, ANOVA and regression analysis.

1.9 Significance/value of study

South African soap operas have been severally criticised for their thematic thrusts which are said to be reinforcing negative aspects of cultural heritage. The magnitude of the effect of representation of African culture on soap operas is still unknown. Studies provide different thoughts on the degree of influence of media representation on culture. Mainstream beliefs can easily become normalised and popularised by their recurring circulation and, the media mass media including television dramas, directly affects cultural transmission especially popular culture because they are key agencies that affect how individuals learn about the world and interact with one another. By providing useful information about how traditional culture is characterised in television drama as well as the perceptions of viewers to media representation of culture in television, this study has the potential to fill the void that exist regarding the effect of representation of African culture on soap operas. The study is significant, timely and related to an influential or critical population. The study will also help television content providers especially writers and producers, to know what the people feel and think about their products which could help them to tailor their presentations in ways that it will be in congruence with the feelings of the viewers. Generally, problems of media representation of people of African descent have not received much scholarly attention in South Africa. Therefore, it is very important that research be conducted to provide clarification on the problem.

1.10 Delineation and Limitation of study

The issue of negative representations of South African tribal culture pervades all the soap operas in South Africa. To determine how South African tribal culture is represented in soap operas would require at least a random sample from the target soap population. However because of time and financial constraints, the study is only restricted to one soap and the city of Alice only. This is an important limitation of the study as we cannot confidently state how soaps represent South African tribal culture. Therefore the conclusions of this study with regards to representation of South African tribal culture will be suggestive and not definitive.

1.11 Ethical Considerations

In this study deliberate and considerable efforts were made to incorporate recommended ethical principles in the planning, conducting and reporting of the results of the research. The researcher sought and obtained ethical clearance from the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC) before embarking on the study. The Ethical Clearance Number is: OSU281SONY01 and it is attached as Appendix 24. Participants were duly informed of the nature and objectives of study and what was expected of them. In line with the ethical guidance, participation was voluntary and names of respondents were kept anonymous. Participants’ identities were not revealed both in the analysis and discussion of the data. The issue of confidentiality was fully discussed with all the participants in this study. A confidentiality agreement form was signed by participants involved and they were ensured that information volunteered by them will be used strictly for the purpose of research. We ensured that participants were treated with respect and dignity. Participants were fully informed of the nature of study and were at liberty to freely decline or withdraw from the study if they so decide. Proper acknowledgement was given to authors for the use of their works. Most importantly, the researcher ensured that the outcome of the study is relevant both to the communication study and development of the society.

1.12. Structure of the dissertation

Chapter one provides the introduction and background to the study. It presents the contextual setting, highlighting the popularity of soaps across the cultural, racial and

17 demographic constituents of South Africa; it articulated the problem statement; motivation of the study; aim of the study; objectives of the study; significance of the study.

Chapter one also defined the key concepts and theoretical framework and provided an overview of the research design and scope of the study. The chapter ends with the definition of terms; and chapter summary. Chapter Two consists of the review of pertinent literature spanning text books, journal articles and documents accessed through the internet. The chapter defined South African tribal culture and reviewed literature on media representation, soap opera, and audience perception as well cultural representation in soap operas. The chapter ends with a review of the theoretical frameworks underpinning the study – the Gramsci’s media hegemony theory and Audience perception theory.

Chapter three discussed the research methodology. It comprises introduction; research method; description of the area of study; target population; sampling and data gathering instruments. The last section of chapter three is the conclusion. Chapter four explained the data presentation, analysis and interpretation procedures. Data was presented in graphs, charts and tables and also analysed under several headings according to the themes and categories outlined in the coding sheet. Chapter five contains the discussion of the findings presented in line with the objectives of the study, which are: objectives namely to examine how South African tribal culture are characterised and represented in Generation: The Legacy; to identify what aspects of South African tribal culture are represented in Generation: The Legacy; to identify the factors that influence the portrayal of tribal African culture in the soap opera; to establish audience perceptions about the representation of tribal South African culture in Generation: The Legacy; to ascertain whether Generation: The Legacy constructs and transmits hegemonic culture and if such representations trigger a shift in attitude to indigenous culture or self. The discussion of the quantitative findings was then juxtaposed with data from content analysis. Chapter six consists of the summary of the study; recommendations and conclusion. Recommendations towards a better similar study and suggestions for further research are provided. The bibliography and appendices are provided at the end of this study.

Taken together, Chapter one provides the contextual understanding of soap opera in South Africa. It highlighted the popularity of soaps across the cultural, racial and demographic constituents of South Africa. Literature suggests that soaps have become a powerful cultural product and a veritable avenue for contestation of ideas and increasingly being used as a platform for challenging dominant ideas and, sometimes, perpetuating stereotypes. The problem and objectives of the study were clearly defined. The chapter also provides the overall research design and research instruments used in achieving the research objectives. In this chapter the significance of the study, the conceptual underpinnings of the study as well as the practical contributions that the study will make were articulated. The chapter provided a foregrounding of the theoretical framework that underpins the study. The scope of the study was properly delineated along with the ethical considerations guiding the study. Finally, the structure of the study was unveiled specifying the components of each stage of the dissertation. The next Chapter unpacks the conceptual framework with a detailed review of the overarching and related literature.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Introduction

A literature review generally defines the theoretical direction for a new study. This study is a quantitative and qualitative exploration of the representation of South African tribal culture in television drama serial using Generation: The Legacy, one of the oldest and longest running soap operas on South Africa television, as a point of departure. The previous chapter provided the context and foreground of the study as well as the techniques for carrying out the research. It is important to investigate soap operas given their growing popularity and the fact that audience members are becoming increasingly engrossed to the point of addiction. The impact of soap operas on the audience continues to attract growing scholarly interests. Apart from investigating audience perception of soap operas there is need to examine the representations of cultural elements in soap operas. This chapter therefore defines South African tribal culture and focuses on reviewing the literature on media representation, soap opera, audience perception, and the factor that constitutes the problem of this study: cultural representation in soap operas. The chapter ends with a review of the theoretical frameworks underpinning the study – the Gramsci’s media hegemony theory and Audience perception theory. In this study, focus shall be on exploring the representations of South African tribal culture in Generations: The Legacy. The next section attempts to provide a conceptual framework for the study.

2.2 Conceptual framework

A conceptual framework serves as a tool to structure a research investigation. It provides a narrative or graphic map that connects the problem and possible solutions to the research problem. It identifies and describes the factors that are going to be studied such as primary concepts, research questions, variables, data collection, analysis methods, and the relationship between them (Kumar & Antonenko, 2014; Miles & Huberman, 2013). Understanding the socio-economic and political interests that influence cultural products such as soap operas is of considerable import,

20 considering the significant role mass media representation play in society. The theories of media representation, media hegemony and audience perception provide an agentic conceptual framework within which to examine cultural representation in the media. Media representation has often been explained in terms of how something is represented in the media. Literature suggests that the way someone or something is represented is not necessarily reality. Often, representations can be subjective rather than objective. Media representations for instance are mostly constructed (Hall, 1997). The media reproduces reality by taking something, person or culture in its real form and converting it to whatever text that represents the real. In other words, the media is engaged in mediation. In most cases, the world that the media represents are often those of the rich and power. Gramsci (1971) argues that media representation function to foist hegemonic ideas on the population. Hegemony refers to those ‘dominant’ ideologies that are normalised and made popular by their recurring circulation in the media. In a hegemonic society, culture representation in the media is often influenced and determined by the dominant social grouping. This results in most people involuntarily and unconsciously, making sense of what society ought to be through the ideologies of the dominant group and consequently living within this horizon of thought. These capitalists’ ideas are expressed through media entertainment such as soap opera which allows to a certain extent, social regulation, where understandings of acceptable and unacceptable social behaviour are formed (Curran, 2012). It has been argued that entertainment can provide “cognitive maps of reality”, which facilitates social insights, which incidentally, have political and cultural implications (Curran, 2002: 238). Entertainment also communicates social values and identities, which assist in the formation of political opinions and allegiances. In addition, entertainment provides a platform for important discussions to take place on issues such as race, gender, sexuality and so on. More importantly, entertainment afford viewers the opportunity to resist or even revolt against so called dominant ideals. For instance, for marginal groups entertainment provides a platform to interrogate and sometimes rebel against hegemonic institutions and principles in society (Curran, 2002: 238). While entertainment has its benefits, too much of it could results in what Curran (2002: 238) describes as “mass passivity and elite control”.

Deriving from the review of empirical and theoretical literature and in line with Becker’s (2007) suggestion, the researcher constructed the conceptual framework that

21 addresses the research problem/objectives of this study. As illustrated in Figure 1.1, media representation through cultural mechanisms such as soap opera, performs the function of reflecting reality either intentionally or constructively (Hall, 1997). Media representation also serves as a mechanism for projecting dominant ideologies through the skewed projection of the ideas or moral codes of the dominant class, race and the way “the other” is represented (Gramsci, 1971). In the process of reflecting reality, media representation is caught up in two major roles – stereotyping and essentializing. Here, there is a proclivity to project the urban or modern against the rural or traditional.

stereotyping Relecting Reality Essentializing

Soap Opera- Generation :The Representation of Legacy class

projecting dominant Representation of race idealogies

Representing the urban Representation of "the (modern) vs the rural other" (Traditinal)

Figure 1.1: Conceptual framework: Source author, 2018

2.3. The concept of Representation

Concepts are formed for things we can perceive, see, or people or object we can feel or even obscure and abstract things that cannot be felt or touched. Like the concept of friendship, love, war, death, hate. We can also form concept for the things we have never seen and also about people and places. For example, concept of angels, God, Mermaids, devil, heaven and hell are made over the years and we have come to live with it (Hall 1997: 17). The process of representing a thought is complex and thereby engages all things both living and non-living. However, this does not undermine the basic point of meaning being constructed through relationship in the world that is, people, object, and events, real, or fictional. Conceptual system can operate as mental representation of things; it could be the case that the conceptual map which I carry around in my head is totally different from yours in which case you and I would interpret it in different ways. Similarly, thought or expression of an idea to the world is understood in diverse ways, we are able to build up and communicate a shared culture of meanings similarly because we share the same conceptual maps and we belong to the same culture. Shared conceptual maps are important in cultural representation but not enough to drive home the point. Language is also involved in the process of constructing meaning, the shared conceptual map must be translated into a common language, so that we can connect our concepts and ideas with certain written or spoken words (Hall, 2017).

The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (2018) defines representation “as the act of presenting somebody, something in a particular way; something that shows or describes something”. Representation is synonymous to portrayal. Representation in Cambridge dictionary (2018) is the way that someone or something is shown or described: it is a sign, picture model etc. of something. Language plays a central role in representation. Hall, (1997: 15) describes representation as using language to say something meaningful or to represent the world meaningfully, to other people, it is an essential part of a process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between members of a culture. Languages work through representation and they are also systems of representations. The different ways of producing and communicating meaning work through languages because they use some elements to represent our intentions or what we want to say, communicate a concept, idea or feeling. They are called languages because they use familiar codes and conventions that are commonly 23 understood. “Spoken languages uses sounds, written language uses words, musical language uses notes on a scale, the language of the body uses physical gesture, the fashion industry uses items of clothing, the language of facial expression uses ways of arranging one’s features, television uses electronically produced dots on a screen, traffic lights, use red, green and amber to say something” (Hall, 1997: 5).

Every medium has its own language or combination of languages that it uses to communicate meaning (Buckingham, 2003). For example, television uses audio (verbal) and visual (written) language as well as the languages of moving images and sound. It is important to use a particular kind of music or camera angles to signal a particular emotion, for example; a page of a newspaper or a sequence of shots in a film will be put together using certain kind of grammar. Some questions surfaced why interpreting language - Does language reflect only what the speaker, writer or painter wants to say or his/her personally intended meaning? Is meaning constructed in and through language? Language in this sense is much wider. For meaning to be produced the practice of interpretation is very important which is sustained by an active code and the receiver must be able to interpret or decode the meaning (Hall, 1997). It is important that the recipient of the meanings is familiar with the linguistic codes, speaks and understands the language. In other words, the person receiving the language must speak enough of the same language and be able to translate what was said. They must have a broad familiar ways of producing sounds to make what they would both understand. For instance, body language and facial expressions must be interpreted similarly in music. This presuppose that both speakers must have knowledge of how to translate their feelings and ideas into these various languages. It must be noted that all the mentioned elements are not clear meanings in themselves but they construct and transmit meaning. It is through culture and language (production and circulation of meanings) that meaning is constructed. The language embedded in each culture is tied up to its identity (Hall, 1997). Early South African dramatists employed the use of indigenous language not only to counter European cultural hegemony but also to propagate and give vent to the values and world views of indigenous people of Africa.

According to Sirayi and Seda (2015: 134) “one of the earliest forms of symbolic resistance against intrusive colonialist hegemonies in early South African drama is to be found in language use”. While the use of indigenous language helped the early 24 drama writers to take their act to a broader audience of indigenous people, it also provided the platform for the writers to remonstrate against the insidious acculturation of Africans. Sirayi and Seda (2015:134) argue that the protest against the imposition of colonial cultural ethos “was consummated not only at the linguistic level, but also through discursive practices which often deployed indigenous techniques emanating from traditional African theatre practices located in orality, such as song, dance and other forms of non-verbal Communication”. Language was the reason the foremost South African theatre group, Esau Mthethwa’s Lucky Stars plays resonated with audiences across the country in the late 1920s (Sirayi & Seda, 2015). The issue of representation comes to play when things which exist in material and natural form produce meaning that are constructed rather than found due to human and societal influence. The media uses a combination of spoken and written words, sounds and physical gestures to represent thoughts, people, objects and events whether real or imagined.

2.4 Media Representations

Media representations shape the way we see ourselves and others in a global age. Media representation refers to text in form of symbolic content; news, articles, advertisement, photographs, YouTube videos, blogs, Facebook pages, blog and many more which circulate in the media space to produce meaning. For instance, media representations of stories, images of disaster, war, conflict, migration and celebration on radio, television, newspapers, advertisements, social media and internet are essential in creating and “framing the experience of globalisation, the symbolic stretching of social relations across time and distance” (Orgad, 2014:). Media representations in a global world can create and contribute to the complexity of how we think and feel about the world, our place in it and our relation to others. However, media representations are becoming increasingly dependent on and often, determined by networking of different social contexts and regions on a global scale” (Orgad, 2014). In Hall’s (1997) opinion, three approaches can be adopted to explain the concept of representation in relation to culture: The reflective, the intentional and the constructionist approach.

2.4.1. Media as reflecting reality

The reflectionist holds that reality can be accessed through representation. The reflectionist approach contends that media representation functions to mirror or reflect the ‘reality’ which already exits. In other words, what representation does is to reflect the established meanings of “the real” (Orgad, 2014). Here, to reflect is like looking at oneself in the mirror and the mirror usually, tells you how you are and nothing more. This theory assumes that the ‘true meaning’ reside in the object, person, idea or event, and that, representation through language or signs only reflects or imitates “the truth that is already there and fixed in the world” (Hall, 1997: 24). Put simply, the task of representation is basically mimetic- that is, reproducing or copying existing meaning the society has already ascribed to a person, object or event. Many media professionals mostly those working in the news media, hold this reflectionist view about their work. Findings from Schlesinger (1987) indicates that majority of news media professionals consider their work as reflecting the truth about society. But as Orgad (2014) has argued the reflectionist notion do not appear water tight as studies have shown that the media never really mirror reality. A study by Media Diversity Institute (2008: 2) concludes that “mainstream media fail to reflect social diversity existing in the community they serve and target”. Another study submits that television fails to accurately reflect the world in which young people live” (Children Now, 2009). In a similar study, Sreberny (1999) noted that television was unable to reflect Britain’s multiracial society. Irked by the seemingly one-sided report of persons and events in South Africa, the country’s former president Jacob Zuma (2010) wrote an open letter to the media in which he argued that:

…the media owners and media practitioners cannot claim that this institution is totally snow white and without fault. They cannot claim that the media products we have on our country today, adequately reflect the lives and aspirations of all south Africans, especially the poor (Bloomberg, 2010)

In the twenty-first century media environment, representation of reality has become problematic because as Orgad (2014) points out, some of these representations are themselves a source of uncertainty, confusion and anxiety. For instance, the mimetic value of photography in representing reality has become problematic following the

26 emergence of digital camera and photo shopping software that can be used to manipulate or misrepresent reality.

2.4.2. Intentional representation

The second approach to understanding media representation is the intentional approach which is antithetical to the reflective representation. Here, Hall (1997) a leading proponent of this school of thought, argues that representations is a premeditated action where the person doing the representing, passes off his/her intended meaning as reality. The writer, author or speaker imposes his meanings or thought on the world through language. Messages are passed with the writers intended meaning reflecting in the shared words. In the Intentional model, the author appears to arrogate to himself the power to originate and define a meaning. The intentional approach gives the writer the permission to induce his intended rules, codes and conventions of language to be shared (Hall, 1997). The intentional representation can be found in many media contents and is akin to the agenda setting theory. For instance editorials in newspapers are intended to communicate a particular meaning underpinned by a particular political line or belief of the writer (Buckingham, 2003). Intentional representation often projects the viewpoint, belief of the one doing the representation and this is also influences the choice of language and images used to convey meaning. This approach is seen as imperfect in that no single individual can be a source of meanings in language. Language is not a private venture even if the idea of disseminating the words is original to the writer.

2.4.3. Media representation as constructing reality

The constructionist approach is another way of understanding what ‘work’ media representations do. The constructionist approach acknowledges that “neither things in themselves nor the individual users of language (representation) can fix meaning in language. Things don’t mean: we construct meaning, using representative system- concepts and signs” (Hall, 1997: 25). The constructionist argues that any representation is fundamentally and inexorably, a construction - a selective and particular depiction of some elements of reality, which always generates some specific meanings and excludes others (Orgad, 2014).

Hall (1997) maintains that representation is used by individuals largely to construct meaning:

“We give things meaning by how we represent them - the words we use about them, the stories we tell about them, the images of them we produce, the emotions we associate with them, the ways we classify and conceptualise them, the value we place on them” (Hall, 1997:3).

Media construction of meaning is often mechanical. The mass media constructs social reality by “framing images of reality in a predictable and patterned way” (McQuail, 1994:331). In other words, the media creates or re-presents a new reality such as the way drama is framed on television. Television drama framing refers to “the process by which a communication source constructs and defines a social or political issue for its audience” (Nelson, Clawson & Oxley, 1997: 221). This implies that the way South African tribal culture is framed by the soap operas affects the way the producers want the audiences to perceive the messages; it may direct the audiences on how to think about a particular cultural element. For instance, in the case of news story, Nelson et al. (1997:237) argue that not all sources can be quoted, not all angles can be explored nor all relevant facts cited. While this may be refereeing to news coverage the same condition applies to media representation of culture. It is practically impossible to incorporate all aspects of culture in an episode of drama, so the writers or producers of soap construct frames that will make it easier for them to make sense of some aspects of a perceived cultural reality. In other words, culture represented in soap could be a mere “verisimilitude”, that is, what the dominant culture projects as acceptable and proper (Gledhill, 2003).

The constructionists assume that signs are used to communicate meaningfully with other elements, signs are organised into languages of different kinds. There is no close relationship of reflection, imitation or one on one correspondence between language and the real world. The reflectionist hold that the world cannot be accurately reflected within the mirror of language. Meaning that language does not work like a mirror that reflects the real world, instead, meaning is produced within language through different representational symbols. The constructionist on the other hand, believes that concept is formed in the mind which functions as a “system of mental representation” which

28 classifies and organises the world into meaningful categories. The constructionist approach introduces the symbolic domain of life, where words and things function as signs and form part of our social life (Hall 1997: 28, 29). From the forgoing it is clear that media representations do have enormous power and far reaching consequences for our lives. However, as Orgad (2014) notes, it appears that society have come to take media representation for granted. In the light of the inability of media to properly reflect our world, the researcher argues that there is need to interrogate media representation because they play a central role in shaping cultural reality. Media representation not only project and promote “new products” and new delights, for examples advertisements, but themselves constitute commodities that are produced, disseminated and consumed in the market dominated media environment (Orgad, 2014). This is more so as research suggest that the media represents, rather than reflects, reality’ (Schwartz, 2004).

2.4.4. Media representation as generating or normalising dominant ideologies.

It has become trite argument that the media could be a veritable avenue to construct and normalise common cultural values. Gramsci (1971) posits that dominant ideologies can easily become normalised and popularised by their recurring circulation in the media. Framing an issue, a person, or an event in the public’s mind in a particular manner is elevated through repeated coverage (Du Plooy, 2009). For instance, movies help in structuring our perspective about a person or group and also contribute to the reinforcement of social stereotyping. As several studies indicate, perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs are cultivated via media exposure. The consistent portrayal of gender, race or culture in negative garbs in films, has the potential to make some individuals accept these fictitious representations as true. Repeated exposure to certain stereotypes may cause people especially people of impressionable age, such as youths, to believe that what they view in films are actually realistic (Ukata, 2010). Although there exists many radio and television stations which provide access to ordinary people and minority groups to express their views or participate in issues that affect them, mainstream media are often dominated by powerful groups who consciously or subtly attempt to foist their prescribed dicta on the society. The media often ignore minority or less powerful groups, or show them in a negative light. For

29 instance, the proportion of women or people from ethnic minorities who appear on television, for example, is generally much lower than the proportion in society. As has been established the meaning media representation projects often is the “truth” of events as constructed by those who controls the means of representation (Goman, 2011). In the apartheid era for instance, media representation in the visual media was micromanaged by the white minority government who determined what images to be selected, who to speak and who to be silenced (Andlves, 2007). Soaps tend to echo the voice of capital or the world of capitalists (Lockyear, 2004). Some scholars such as Gramsci (1971) hold the view that media basically generate and normalise hegemonic ideas. Media representation Gramsci insists, serves mainly to promote cultural hegemony by the dominant race as can be seen in the predominant control and portrayal of white in films/media. Also what is represented in the media with regards to race relationship is often the perspective of the race that controls the medium of representation. A preponderance of the channels of media representation - films, soap operas and the news media, are controlled by Caucasian hegemonic powers and they normally determine what language and images to use in interpreting and presenting the other race. Often the white race, their values and ideals are presented as superior and anything outside the Eurocentric standards is stereotyped as inferior. This may explain why films and soap operas even locally produced continue to perpetuate stereotypes. For instance, a Zulu man practising polygamy is shown as archaic because he is perceived as not conforming to the white moral code system of monogamy. In most western films non-white characters are not likely to be shown engaging in human /complex practices. Black people are more likely to be portrayed as criminals. It seems to me that the power of hegemony explains why “the other” is frequently represented as different, backward or inferior.

Hegemonic tendencies also explain why the townships or urban areas are portrayed as poor, dangerous and crime infested, meaning that a safe and secure lifestyle can only be experienced in the countryside. Although the South African government strives to define the social-cultural frames for the Public broadcaster, SABC through the prescription of guidelines, popular culture or ideologies propagated mainly by the dominant group, remain pervasive in cultural products of the visual media including soap operas. While it may be argued that both hegemonic and resistant views appear to converge in the commercialised form of South African soap opera, creating viewing

30 pleasure in the process, still the language, images and settings of contemporary soaps are becoming increasingly defined by dominant ideologies and commercial interests. Media representations remain a contentious issue. Gledhill (2003: 343) warns against the danger of overthinking media representation:

We need to take care in using the term representation, that we do not use it in a limiting way to refer only to the representation of discourses, figures and events in the social world, and neglect the purpose of fiction in producing the pleasures of drama, comedy, melodrama, as well as the pleasures of recognising situations we know from lived experience

At this juncture it is pertinent to ask the following questions; what is being represented in television drama? How is it being represented? Who is responsible for the representation? How can the representation be interpreted? The next section attempts to answer these questions in order to understand the representation of tribal culture in South African television drama series.

2.4.5. What is being represented: reality or fiction?

The question of what constitutes reality remains a subject of debate. Lamuedra and O’Donnell (2013: 63) describe realism as a contentious concept in the field of cultural analysis. This is because of the seemingly contextual nature of truth. Individuals approach reality from different contexts and therefore, everyone’s understanding of truth cannot be the same. Marx (2007: 24) argues that “the ‘real’ is in itself not attainable; there exists no authority on defining it”. Gledhill (2003) defines realism as “the term through which we judge whether a fiction constructs a world we recognise as like our own”. Conceptualising realism from this perspective is fraught with challenges given that what we recognise is a function of our memory. Imagination is central in memories and fictional stories. According to Brink (1999: 31) the “workings of the imagination are at the very least inspired by memory”. Soap opera as a work of fiction, attempts to represent things, people and events in the world we live. It is an avenue of vicarious experience of the real. The world depicted in soap opera is purely an imitation or reflection of the established meaning of the real (Orgad, 2014). The construction of a sort of parallel universe (van der Merwe, 2012: 51) which the viewer 31 can identify, and almost participate in. But this representation as we can deduce from the above, is built on residual knowledge – an understanding of events or reality as recollected by the storyteller. Marx (2007: 24) posits that “memory originates in reality but it is merely a subjective individual representation of reality, mediated by the individual’s preferences and interests. Because of the mediated nature of memory, imagination becomes involved, which contributes to the fictionality of stories told as the truth”. In other words, the version of the world represented in soaps is purely a mediated view of the world as perceived by the storyteller. Memory is not always a direct process, there are factors which intervene in the process of articulating memory and this, often, distort the recollection of events or activities. Brink (1999: 31) contends that the “impressions from the outside and impulses from the inside, converge in the mental machinations that produce a quite densely textured result… they undergo a distortion that render them unreliable”. Meaning that it is difficult to recollect reality directly and accurately. Individuals end up recollecting events that are consistent with their preferences and interests. The subjectivity inherent in memory reflects in the accounts of the social world as narrated by the storyteller. These accounts are often fictional.

Nevertheless, Buckingham (2003) posits that some media representations are more realistic than others. Soap opera’s seeming authenticity or semblance to the real world is as a result of the elasticity to time in soap opera world. By approximating it’s time to the real present ‘time’ soap conjures the feeling of the reality of everyday life of the viewer. The “simplicity of the use of ‘interruption’ as the major form of narrative delay, fabulously extending dramatic action, also works against the construction of coherent referential time” (Brunsdon, 1983: 78). Thus in soap opera, “revelations, confrontations, and reunions are constantly being interrupted and postponed by telephone calls, unexpected visitors, counter revelations, catastrophes, and switches from one plot to another” (Modleski, 1982:101). The researcher therefore wants to note that the technique of sequencing events in an orderly coherent timeline gives soaps life – an approximate contemporaneous to the real world. Some scholars perceive soap opera as realistic because of its “cultural proximity”, that is, the ability to incorporate cultural elements, characters and plots which the viewers are at home with (La Pastina & Straubhaar, 2005). Soap opera takes signs from the social and cultural world familiar to us, not only to represent it, but to produce a similar, though

32 fictional world. Lamuedra & O’Donnell (2013) posit that the realism in soap is achieved by its ability to integrate current social problems in the storylines. Fourie (2007), argues that texts like soap operas, use reality as a model, while they also function as model for reality. Soap operas “use devices which both distance the world of the soap from that of the viewer and make quite explicit connections with it” (Allen, 1983: 105). For instance, when you examine closely some of the familiar issues that soaps attempt to represent whether about car hijacking, lesbianism or rape, the narration does not always give an accurate picture or tell the whole truth. Also, the setting and characters’ actions are often unrealistic. So while soap operas draw themes from our social reality, the narrations in the main, are often “exaggerated, far-fetched, stretching things, over the top, overboard, extreme, even ridiculous or surreal” (Lamuedra & O’Donnell, 2013: 63).

Gledhill (2003) argues and I agree, that what is represented in soap opera is not reality but verisimilitude. According to Gledhill (2003: 360) “verisimilitude refers not to what may or may not actually be the case but rather to what the dominant culture believes to be the case, to what is generally accepted as credible, suitable, and proper”. The nexus of reality and verisimilitude is intricate and interwoven. Soap opera uses narration to represent real world issues even though the final meaning created is often embellished. There is nothing to suggest that the marriage between real and fiction in the narrative world would ever come to a divorce “for the demand for realism won’t go away, however problematic the notion” (Gledhill 2003: 360). The cultural elements being represented in television serials like soap operas, are oftentimes, not in their original form but a creation of what is considered fit and proper by the dominant culture in society. In other words, soap opera is a narrative as told by storyteller in a particular context. Soap opera narrative is therefore, “embedded in a lived context of interaction and communication, intention and imagination, ambiguity and vagueness, there is always, potentially, a next and different story to tell, as there occur different situations in which to tell it” (Brockmeier & Carbaugh, 2001: 7). This suggests that that soap opera has the potential to construct a fictional representation of South African tribal culture.

2.4.6. How is it being represented: Stereotyping versus essentializing.

As noted in the preceding section what is represented in the media is often what is considered fit and proper by the dominant group. Their views of the world are sometimes embedded in stereotyping and essentializing. Dennis (Pieter, 2001: 303), contends that ‘stereotypes’ not only straddles the boundary between cognitions, mental pictures of the world about us, but also affect our attitudes, our feelings and evaluations of persons, issues, and situations in the world around us. Television drama content is replete with stereotypes. Chalabaev (2013) describes stereotypes as a potent and most prevalent structures used for social orientation. Stereotypes represent the opinions of members of a certain group about the other groups. It is the attribution of identical features to each member of a certain group without taking the existing differences among the members into consideration (Spencer, 2004). They are often based on tradition and are resistant to change. Even if certain arguments allow refuting a stereotype, people would rather treat it as an exception that proves the rule, than change the way of thinking (Pervez & Qasim, 2014). Stereotypes are mainly acquired during socialisation. It can also be attained by personal observations or learnt from significant others, such as family, friends, teachers, and of course, the media (Spencer, 2004). Although stereotypes can both have a positive and negative undertone, the latter is much more common. For instance, representation of gender in soap operas follows stereotypical patterns. Mbagwu (2011) posits that “men, as represented on adult television, do not deviate much from the traditional patriarchal notion of men and masculinity. Katz (Altman, 2015: 16) points out that “the masculinity represented on television is a white, middle-class heterosexual masculinity”. The images of women on television reflect stereotypes about femininity. For instance, over the years, female gender has been mostly represented or stereotyped as housewives or (as a mother), homemaker or sexual object (Royo-Vela, Aldas-Manzano, Küster, & Vila, 2008). They are generally, characterised as weak and dependant, while the male gender are shown as strong, hardworking and independent. Ni (undated) argues that “gender roles’ stereotyping in the media always reflects the condition of people’s values and believes in a particular time period. Stereotypes are often the result of a single story which every so often, is incomplete. Author and gender activists,

Chimamanda Adichie, argues in one of her TED talks in 20091, that “when you show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become”. The danger of single stories lies in its tendency to generalise and bring the subject or object of the story to disrepute. Adichie states that, “the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete".

Representations in visual media such as films and drama are intricately enmeshed in cultural tradition and social texts of the society from where they emanate. The construction of female images in soap operas for example, tends to follow historical and patriarchal constructions of women. Onyenankeya, Onyenankeya and Osunkunle. (2017: 300) hold that the thematic thrusts and plots of soap operas are “underpinned by socio-cultural dynamics which appear putatively in congruence with everyday experience of most Africans.” Onyenankeya et al (2017: 300) argue that “the practice of profiling or categorising women and predicting their behaviour based on gender appears to be accentuated by some elements of sexism which flows from the patriarchal orientation of the society”. Stereotypes shape how we perceive social groups, race and class. Researchers find that non-white characters are more likely to be shown as criminals or villains; and that women are less likely to be shown in powerful roles. Stereotype represents incomplete, subjective evaluations of persons or issues or, false image of the reality. It leaves out the details and is prone to over- generalisation of meaning. For instance, “whites are racists”/”black South Africans are alcoholics” are familiar examples of stereotypes. Due to inherent sweeping generalisations present in stereotypes, meaning assigned to persons or groups are not only limited but highly parochial. Stereotypes, whether racists or sexist stereotypes, limit meaning assigned to groups and also shapes how that group is perceived. Although soap opera attempts to challenge stereotypes by introducing diverse images, they end up creating a crisis of identity. This is because, through the inadequate and sometimes, jaundiced media narratives, the audience can “process conflicting issues relating to social values, norms and identities” (Knoetze, 2015: 293).

1 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The danger of a single story TEDTalks 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg

Media texts especially cultural representations are also deep in essentialism. Essentialism is the view that individuals and things have 'natural' attributes that are in- built and fixed. These fixed characteristic or particular attributes limit the possibilities of change and thus of social reorganization”. Essentialism stems from concept of ‘orientalism’, a term used “to describe generally the activity by which a hegemonic discourse represents the ‘other’” (Bullock & Trombley, 2000: 617). The ‘other’, in this thesis refers to how hegemonic discourses characterise African tradition and culture vis-à-vis popular culture or dominant ideology. Essentialists generally categorise people or objects into groups. By classifying people or things into groups from the narrow prism of biology or behaviour, essentialists appear to discountenance the variations in identities, contexts, and cultures. For instance, although there is no biological evidence or scientific validity, many strongly believe that men are better in mathematics and science than women. Imagining women in this light suggests there is a limit to variations and possibilities of change—it is not possible for a subject to act in a manner contrary to her essence. Her essence underlies all the apparent variations differentiating women from each other. Underpinning this kind of gender essentialism is the belief that those characteristics which often define the women's essence, are shared in common by all women at all times (Grosz, 1995). This thinking implies a sort of uniformity in orientation or what the Irigaray’s group of feminists, refer to as, “philosophy’s orientation around oneness, unity or identity – one truth, one method, one reality, one logic…” (Green, 2002: 2). Linda Smith writes that "Pedagogically, essentialism was attacked because of its assumption that, because of this essence, it was necessary to be a woman and to experience life as a woman before one could analyse or understand women's oppression" (2011: 76).

Essentialists argue that the ‘essence’ of a being is what drives him or her. Cartwright (1968) posits that every single entity or person has a set of characteristics that are essential to its identity and function. This “essence”, as George Lakoff put it, "... makes the thing what it is, and without which it would be not that kind of thing" (Janicki, 2003: 2742). But this innate essence has been found not to be an absolute truth. In a statement in 1998, The American Anthropological Association stated that:

At the end of the 20th century, we now understand that human cultural behavior is learned, conditioned into infants beginning at birth, and always subject to modification. No human is born with a 36

built-in culture or language. Our temperaments, dispositions, and personalities, regardless of genetic propensities, are developed within sets of meanings and values that we call "culture." Studies of infant and early childhood learning and behavior attest to the reality of our cultures in forming who we are. It is a basic tenet of anthropological knowledge that all normal human beings have the capacity to learn any cultural behavior.

Cultural essentialism manifests through the practice of categorising groups of people within a culture, or from other cultures, according to essential qualities”.Cultural products like soap opera tend to indulge in unbridled essentialism about race, identity and culture. As can be evinced from literature, essentializing differences in terms of gender, class, race and culture emanate from stereotypes.

2.4.7. Who is responsible for the representation?

As highlighted earlier, Mass media represents social reality by constructing images of the real world in pattern that is often predictable (McQuail, 1994: 331). The media construct reality using frames of references. Nelson et al (1997: 221) describes framing as “the process by which a communication source constructs and defines a social or political issue for its audience”. Goffman (Fourie 2008) posits that frames provide the media the means to “create the new context within which the audiences may locate, perceive, identify and label whatever is going on in the world, in other words, to make sense of events”.

By providing, repeating, and thereby reinforcing words and visual images that reference some ideas but not others, frames work to make some ideas more salient in the text, others less so and others entirely invisible through repetition, placement, and reinforcing association with each other, the words and images that comprise the frame render one basic interpretation more readily discernible, comprehensible, and memorable than others (Grbesa, 2010: 23)

Although the media is not a person, there is someone behind everything that plays on our minds through the media. The frames that are used to represent reality in the media are determined by individuals and institutions. When it comes to what is included and excluded in the media the power of ownership and hegemony come into play. Ordinary citizens have little or no role in determining media representations especially in the commodified media space. Dagron and Tufte (2006: xxxiv) argue that there is “an increasingly commercialised, privatised and mediated public sphere at national levels, driven by market logic and focused on rating …It is hard for ordinary citizens to access media as a result”. Privately controlled mediated public sphere does not only circumscribe access but also determines the representation or images of the various constituencies of society. Although images are derived from the society, the images we see in films or soap operas are produced by those who control the means of production. They decide what to include or to exclude - who should speak and who should be silenced in the production of images (Entman, 1993). These gatekeepers project a particular world view which often, is the moral or political view that is congruent with their beliefs and political persuasions. For instance, the writers of a narrative or those who fund the production of the narrative may decide to focus on the aspect they think may appeal to viewers or what from their own perspective reflects reality.

Essentially, a narrative emerges from the “process of internalization and personalization” (Brink, 1999: 38). In other words, the events or actions created in a narrative are often the outcome of what the narrator has internalised overtime. The narrator often imagines or constructs a version of the event or actions that he consider “exceptional. Bruner (2001: 29), describes “exceptionality” as the specific or unique aspects of event that makes it a central focus, or “why tell” it utility in a narrative. This means that narrative can be selective - focusing on telling or retelling those aspects of reality that the narrator considers outstanding or compelling. Marx (2007: 15) insists that “every individual narrator constructs a personal narrative subjectively by using that which is exceptional, and in doing so [knowingly or not] the narrator constructs identity”. Out of a seemingly infinite reality, the narrator makes a choice of what to include in a narrative (Brink, 1999). The viewer’s perception or interpretation of reality is therefore restricted to only the frames represented in the media, which often are

38 partial and stereotypical. This has implication in the representation of African tradition and values in the media and soap opera in particular.

2.5. Cultural representation

In the preceding section we discovered how the media attempts to represent reality. Media representations are often derived from residual knowledge. These representations can be fictional or subjective reproduction of the real world mediated by the preferences and interests of the person doing the representation. This results in media representations being blown out of proportion or sometimes, at odd with reality (Lamuedra & O’Donnell, 2013: 63). As a work of fiction, soap opera attempts to represent things, people and events in the world we live. Gillespie (1996: 62) considers soap as a cultural product which helps in sustaining shared values and strengthening social cohesion. Soaps reflect not only the socio-political and economic situations of the country, often anchored on the ideology of the rich and powerful, but also its “cultural context” (Lockyear, 2004: 26). In his cultural effects theory, Hall (1997) argues that the media has a heavy influence on the society. This influence is built gradually over a period of time. In other words, audience members may not be influenced directly by a media text but over time the media will begin to shape their views and how they make meaning about their world. The cultural effects model suggests that media tends to support the values and norms of the dominant and most powerful group in society. The corollary is that media content is influenced by the ideology of the dominant group. Lockyear (2004) holds that the cultural products such as soaps reflects ‘cultural voice' of capitalists. Media texts reflect its cultural environment from where it is produced. The cultural effect theory suggests that the degree to which media influences the audience members and how they react to media texts will be determined by the audience members’ cultural background and lived experiences. For instance, black people who are associated with violence and crime, will sooner or later form a stereotype from others. This theory is applicable to contemporary society because there exists stereotypes for people of all races which have been popularised and circulated overtime by the media. For example, media framing and reporting of grants for single parents and the unemployed suggest that they are lazy or parasitic. If for instance, soap opera continually portray black people as always seeking recourse to Sangomas (seers), over time this will form stereotypes of black people, eliminating

39 other sides of their everyday lives. This has grave implications for the survival of indigenous values and norms of tribal Africans. The term tribal African culture refers to languages, belief systems, institutions, social norms, taboos and values of South African ethnic nationalities including the KhoiKhoi and San people, as well as the Bantu tribes comprising the Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Ndebele, Tswana, Pedi, Pondo, Swati, Tsonga and Venda. These cultural heritages have been observed for ages and handed down from generation to generation. These traditions find expressions in greetings, dressing and principles and have positively affected the tribal societies. These positive values ought to be promoted in order to foster a more progressive and dynamic society (Idang, 2015). Sustaining tribal African culture is critical given that culture plays a vital role in the physical and mental development of an individual in any society (Asogwa, Onoja & Ojih, 2015). For Hall et al. (1978) culture is not something to simply appreciate or study, but a "critical site of social action and intervention, where power relations are both established and potentially unsettled". There is however, no universal way of doing this because culture can be represented and interpreted in diverse ways. Virtually all aspects of culture - traditions, beliefs, art, morals, law, language, custom, dress style, values and know-hows can be negatively or positively represented depending on who is responsible for the representation. Hall (1997) notes that it is the participants in a culture that give meaning to people, objects, and events. It is quite likely that two people from the same culture will interpret the world differently. Often interpretations of cultural practices are based on shared meaning. As there are diverse meanings to any aspect of a culture so are there different ways of interpreting or representing meaning. It is common for people of one culture to misrepresent other people’s culture and in most cases, these representations are founded on stereotypes. Culture unites people along common lines and simplifies communications. However, when different cultures share the same geographic niche there may be problems, the culture of the host country stands the risk of being infiltrated and diluted by “foreign values and traditions”. As more people learn and adopt other people’s culture there is tendency for one to feel superior to other and this can adversely affect representations. Cultural representation is not something that has been in existence from the creation of the world, it is something that comes into play with time, modernisation and globalisation. It is learned from family, school, religious teachings, media and the government of a country. As Mead (Asogwa et al., 2015: 98) notes “the

40 functioning of every human body is not only moulded by the culture within which the individual has been reared but also by the way he was born into society with a definite culture he has been fed and disciplined, fondled and put to sleep, punished and rewarded”. Media has become increasingly a potent mode of transmitting culture. However, the ownership and use of media technology are uneven. For example, it is a common phenomenon that developed nations like United Kingdom, USA and Canada rely heavily on electronic technology over oral or face-to-face communication. Goman (2011) notes that global communication is influenced by cultural differences and the medium used to communicate may have cultural attachment. Cultural values, norms and lived experiences are embedded in media texts (Hall 1980). It is also important to note that control over media technology by the well-resourced western countries give them commanding height in determining cultural representation. This has resulted in cultural domination of the societies that are less endowed technologically. McQuail (1994) argues that cultural production tend to carter for the wealthy and powerful in society against the marginal groups. African cultures generally have negative representations in the media. It has been argued that media representation gives a different picture to the real meaning of tribal African culture, even though this may not be the actual intention of the media. Representation produces a lasting impression in the minds of its audience, at the same time it is a process which directly or indirectly affects social relations. According to the Cultural effect theory, the cultural background of audience members determine the degree to which media text may affect them and how they react to the media text. Hall (1980) insists that the dynamics of cultural representations not only shape our collective perceptions but also reproduce forms of “symbolic power”. The notion that cultural products like soap reflects reality remains unresolved. Some scholars such as Marx (2007: 24) argues that it is difficult to attain reality in media representations as there is contestations as to what constitute the “the ‘real’ itself. Gledhill (2003) holds that even the reality the media represents in cultural products like soaps, is only relative truth, a version of the world as articulated and approved by the dominant group in society. These dominant groups who own the means of representation often determine the frames of reference and choose what to include or to exclude. Often media representations are partial, stereotypical and replete with essentialism. These tendencies also play out in the representations of culture in the

41 media and poses a great challenge for other cultures practised by the less powerful, less visible or marginalised groups. As Brinkerhoff (2013) rightly observed, the mass media including television dramas, have far reaching influence on cultural transmission especially popular culture because they are key agencies that affect how individuals learn about the world and interact with one another. The way a tribal African culture is represented in soaps, is key to how it is perceived, accepted or precluded by black South Africans themselves or the other cultures. The problem of this research is: How is South African tribal culture represented in the television soap opera, Generation: The Legacy? To unpack this, it is important that we understand the phenomenon known as soap opera, its antecedents, form and structure and its increasing entertainment value. The next section examines soap opera as a form of narrative, although the focus of this thesis is not on narrative per se, we attempt to provide a definition of narratives and its inherent qualities to properly situate our understanding of soap opera as part of the narrative genre. The section also examines the origin of soap opera and its characteristics.

2.6. Soap opera.

2.6.1 Soap opera as narrative

Soap opera is generally regarded as narrative in structure due largely to its unbroken storyline. Ricoeur (Buss, 1997: 87) classifies narratives into two major types: fictional and empirical narratives. Fictional narratives encompass imaginative creations such as romances, dramas, novels, and other stories emanating from the “archive of imaginations” (Marx 2007: 24). Here, imagination is “understood in terms of its temporal complexity as the depository of oral and written traditions” (Buss, 1997: 88). Empirical narratives cover historical documents, autobiographies and biographies originating from archival materials. Narrative permeates the society. Pellauer (1997: xix) describes narrative as “a universal aspect of human condition”. Generally, narrative involves telling a story or connecting actions, events past or present, in a meaningful structure (Klein, 2001: 164). In other words, narrative “designates and systematizes” the themes the narrator explores and these themes, often “are culturally determined” (Klein 2001: 163). While some theorists have attempted to conceptualise narrative from philological perspective, Jens Brockmeier (2001: 248) argue for a broader understanding of narrative outside the context of linguistics to “a more general 42 sense” where narrative can be seen “as the ability ‘to tell a story’ [and] the medium can be language as well as imagery, sound, spatial construction, or a combination thereof”.

Narratives are not just constructed for the fun of it, the narrators usually have a purpose they intend their stories to achieve. In general, narratives are representation of the world as created by the narrator. This may explain why narrative is regarded as mere tokenism of the other. “That narratives have a life and/or function beyond their simple essence or creation has led to the further discussion of narratives as tokens of the discourse of the dominated” (Klein, 2001: 163). It has been argued that narratives assist in identity formation. Brown (1997: 111), argues that narrative provides the “mode of discourse through which human action is interpreted as a meaningful agency”. Embedded in this definition is the centrality of narrative in identity formation. The process of defining and arranging events or actions in a particular way helps in creating what Ricoeur describes as “narrative identity”. Ricoeur (Brown, 1997: 113) insists narrative is key in identity construction. Ricoeur argument is consistent with those of other scholars such as Brockmeier and Carbaugh (2001: 1) who argue that the “construction of self and life worlds draws on a particular genre of language usage: narration …the very idea of human identity –perhaps… the very possibility of human identity is tied to the very notion of narrative and narrativity”. The significance of narrative in identity formulation is captured in Ricoeur’s definition of narrative:

Narrative is that form of discourse that represents human action in relation to given problematic situations. To follow a story is to recognise the sequence of events and actions as displaying a particular direction, in which the intentional human response to a situation ‘brings the story to a conclusion’… (Brown, 1997: 113).

From the above definitions, there is no gainsaying the fact that narratives such as soaps have the potential to influence identity construction. Soap opera, is therefore a narration of human action and events in a particular order using a “combination of the visual image and the linguistic” (Marx 2007: 11).

2.6.2 Soap opera: A historical overview

Soap opera is an American pastime that has become a global phenomenon. Over the years soap opera has become one of the most ubiquitous television programmes enjoyed across the world by a considerable proportion of television viewers. Some authors such as Pingree and Cantor (2000) attribute the popularity of soap operas to its focus on the everyday concerns of ordinary people. Hobson (2003: 34) describes soap opera as:

A radio or television drama in series form, which has core set of characters and locations. The drama creates the illusion that life continues in the fictional world even when viewers are not watching. The narrative progresses in a linear form through peaks and troughs of action and emotion. It is a continuous form with recurring catastasis as its dominant narrative structure. It is based on fictional realism and explores and celebrates the domestic, personal and every day in all its guises. It works because the audience has intimate familiarity with the characters and their lives. Through its characters the soap opera must connect with the experience of its audience, and its content must be stories of the ordinary.

Several accounts trace the origin of the soap opera to the United States of America following the emergence of radio as a popular medium of communication in the 1930s. One of radio programmes that soon become a popular advertising vehicle for big brand names was radio drama or serials, sometimes referred to as "washboard weepers” (Allen, 1985: 8). The term "soap opera" was invented by the American press to describe the serialised radio dramas which has gained unprecedented popularity. By the 1940s soap operas accounted for the largest commercial sponsorship attracting many USA manufacturing concerns such as Procter and Gamble, Colgate, Palmolive and Peets which leveraged the mass appeal of the genre to expand markets and customer bases. Hence, the “soap” in soap opera alludes to the sponsorship of radio drama by the big soap powder manufacturing concerns. It is not clear how the “opera, the most elite of all narrative art forms” came into the mix, but the combination of the two words produced “a vehicle for selling the most humble of commodities” (Allen, 1985: 9). Although American soap operas continued to enjoy global pre-eminence, the

44 popularity of soap operas quickly spread to other nations (Hilmes, 2007) including Britain, Australia and eventually to developing countries including South Africa where it also became potent advertising tool for reaching out to large audiences (Hobson, 2003). In Latin America, radio drama emerged in Cuba where radio stations adopted a trend made popular by a cigarette manufacturer, to nurture their own genre of radio serials. Some accounts state that radio drama began in the 1800s when Gilds, a local cigarette manufacturer recruited its educated staff to read selected novels in instalments to fellow workers on a daily basis. Soon this innovation gain popularity outside the cigarette factories and by the 1920s radio novellas had become major offerings of radio stations (Matelksi, 2010). With this, the radio novella was born, and the first radio novella was broadcast in Havana, Cuba, in 1948, followed by the first telenovela in 1952 (Matelksi, 2010: 186). Initially, the primary target audience of soap operas were females, housewives particularly. Expectedly, early soap operas were scheduled mainly during the day time when advertisers reckon most housewives will be at home. Even now females still constitute the predominant audience of soaps.

Some scholars hold that soaps are designed for women who tend to be fascinated by romance and domestic issues (Ang, 2007). Even now, romance remains the major thematic thrust of many soap operas. Gledhill (2003) describes soap opera as “female”. Hobson (2003) argues that women find a kind of catharsis in soap. They use soaps as a way of talking indirectly about their own attitudes and behaviour. Marx (2007:55) suggests that “soap operas are one visual, narrative art uniquely adapted to the psychology of women in the home”. Modleski (1982: 98) posits that the “open- ended, slow paced, multi-climaxed structure of soap opera is in tune with patterns of female sexuality”. It is no surprise that the themes of early radio serials dwelt on subjects like love, coping with problematic marriage, child care, and other issues that border on fidelity and divorce (Hobson, 2003). The first successful soap opera “Betty and Bob” produced by Anne Ashenhurst and husband, Frank Hummert, was a love story (Hobson, 2003). But many soap opera producers interviewed separately by Lemay and Nixon (Ahmed, 2012) insist the primary intention of soap is to convey the “lesson of life” to viewers.

Radio drama experienced a transition in the 1950s and 1960s to reflect a more cosmopolitan appeal. The new improved version included more working-class characters but also deemphasised the fixation with the “kitchen sink” themes, which 45 focused on domestic issues (Hobson, 2003). By the 1960s soap opera had migrated to television where it emerged as a major staple. In 1978, the first episode of Dallas, an American soap sensation, was aired on BBC attracting a viewership of about 24 million (Ang, 2007). In Latin America, soap opera or telenovela which evolved from the radio novella also became popular attraction. The fictional narratives were adapted to screen plays reflecting local environment and cultural nuances (Castelló, 2010: 211). Not surprisingly the first telenovela was aired in Cuba in 1952 (Matelksi, 2010:186). Traditional soap opera still focus on relationships, family, personal matters, home, talk, community with shot/music emphasising emotional reactions. In light of this, Hobson (2003) notes that soap opera is the production of a cultural form which has to fulfil all the requirements and needs of the broadcaster and the audience. The next section further unpacks the phenomenon of soap opera focusing on the multifaceted features of the genre.

2.6.3. Form and Structure of Soap Opera

Soap operas have evolved and acquired some basic features over the years. While radio soap opera relies on sound and dialogue to unpack its storylines, the television genre incorporates visual image and dialogue to tell the story. One characteristic that defines soap opera is its seriality. Globally, soaps operas are commonly packaged in 30-minute episodes, but there are soaps that extend to 45 minutes or more. Conventionally, soap opera as a television genre, is broadcast five days a week in most countries (Cantor & Pingree, 1983) but it is not unusual to find some that are shown once or twice a week (Gledhill, 2003). In the early days of soap opera it was shown on daytime but in recent times, it has become a night-time television serial. Every slot of soap opera provides for an intermittent 45 to 60 seconds interludes usually for commercial breaks. Over the years radio and television have been the main channels of broadcast for soap opera but in recent years, people are increasingly accessing recorded episodes or watching live episodes through the internet. The episodes sampled for this study were accessed on YouTube through the internet.

2.6.4. Narrative Structure

One characteristic that distinguishes soap from other narrative is its structure. Soap operas can be categorised into two basic narrative types: "open" and “closed” soap operas (Pingree & Cantor, 2000). In the open narrative format, the storyline has no 46 end point (Pingree & Cantor, 2000). The story continues across episodes to become “multiple interweaving storylines; we probably don’t remember or never saw the beginning; no end in sight” (Gledhill, 2003: 352). Open soap opera gives the illusion that the action continues to take place whether we watch or not (Brown, 1987). The seeming never-ending sequential nature of soap makes it open to twists and turns –. Allen (1983: 49) refers to the convoluted structure of soap as “narrative seriality” which is achieved by deliberately breaking and prolonging events or actions between parts be it “conversation, gossip, dissection of personal and moral issues, and at crisis points, rows” (Gledhill, 2003: 370). The open structure is characterise by what Curti (1998: 72) describes as “horizontal repetitive pace of the plot”. The sudden segmentation of the actions in the narrative creates suspense and compel viewers to want to find out how the other events will unfold. In the “closed” soap opera, the narrative ultimately comes to an end no matter how elaborate the plot (Pingree & Cantor, 2000). In all, soap operas differ from episodic drama series in that the latter contains one complete story that is resolved eventually, while the former is characterised by different evolving stories encompassing sundry characters.

2.6.5. Themes, plots and character types

The themes of soap operas are usually derived from everyday life issues. The theme influences to a large extent, the form, plot, setting and narrative pattern of the genre. From the first successful soap opera to contemporary soaps, affairs of the heart and domestic issues have always emerged the overarching themes of television drama serials. Essentially, the subject matters of soap operas revolve around “romances, families and attendant rituals such as births, engagements, marriages, divorces and deaths” (Brunsdon, 1983) and kinship (Allen 1989). Other themes frequently showcased in soap operas include “the evil woman, the great sacrifice, the winning back of an estranged lover/spouse, marrying her for money, respectability, the unwed mother, deceptions about the paternity of children, career vs. housewife, the alcoholic woman.’’ (Modleski, 1982: 68). Soap operas attempt to represent the “ups and downs of family or community life and personal relationships” (Gledhill, 2003: 352). These themes or narratives contain plots which explore the “fallings out between family and community members; jealousies, infidelities, dirty dealings, hidden secrets and their exposure, social problems, for instance illegitimacy, abortion, sometimes work

47 problems, for example redundancy” (Gledhill, 2003: 352). Many soap operas follow a standard or global format, even so, there exist some distinct subtypes which Liebes and Livingstone (1998) identified as the dynastic, dyadic and community soap. The dynastic model is underpinned by patriarchal ideology and the “unshakeable class structure in which the glamorous, larger than life dynasty” (Liebes & Livingstone, 1998: 153) is engaged in contestation for supremacy. Conventionally, the plot of dynastic soap operas centres on “one powerful family, with some satellite outsiders – connected by romance, marriage or rivalry – on its periphery (Liebes & Livingstone, 1998: 153). Examples of dynastic soap operas are Dallas and Dynasty, two of Americas long running prime time television drama serials. In South Africa, Egoli and Generation: The Legacy are suitable examples of a dynastic soap opera.

The second subtype of soap opera genre is the dyadic model which explores kinship in postmodern world. Unlike in the dynastic model where patriarchy sets the rules of relationship, the characters in dyadic soap opera appear to have unfettered power and freedom to live life the way they choose. Thus “in the spirit of postmodern lifestyle, everything goes and characters may go to prison only to return to the soap opera untainted”, incestuous love occurs and sex or romance overrules professional relationships (Liebes & Livingstone, 1998: 170). This subtype of soap opera focus mainly on unravelling the stories of a group of “young, densely interconnected, mostly unigenerational, interchanging couples, with past, present and future romantic ties, continually absorbed in the process of reinventing kinship relations” (Liebes & Livingstone, 1998: 153). Dyadic soap operas have continued to gain popularity and expert predicts more of dyadic soaps will be created in the future (Liebes & Livingstone 1998). A typical example of dyadic soap opera in South Africa is Uzalo.

Lastly is the community soap opera, which explores the everyday lives of working class people in a community or neighbourhood. This subtype focuses on the struggles for survival, contestations for resources by ordinary people. Community soap opera creates the impression that social divisions or emotive situations can be resolved collectively through open public interaction (Liebes & Livingstone, 1998). The community soap opera contains a “number of equal, separate, middle- and working- class, multigenerational families (including single-parent ones), and single characters, mostly not romantically connected, all living within one geographical neighbourhood

48 and belonging to one community” (Liebes & Livingstone, 1998: 153). Even though community soap opera contains a heavy dose of deprivations and vices of urban life - “pedestrian hardships of sickness, unemployment and teenage drug habits”, it also offer some comical scenes (Liebes & Livingstone, 1998: 153). Community soap opera attempts to reflect an idealised society and is more likely to promote a more equitable sexual role. As Lamuedra and O’Donnell (2013: 70) observed, community soap operas are more likely to “problematise, for example, gender issues in a conscious attempt to transmit social messages.” Unlike episodic sitcoms, soap opera involves many characters cutting across social and sometimes racial strata. Contrary to Gledhill (2003) views that soap operas contains many female roles, including older women, widows and divorcees, several soap operas do have gender parity. In any case, the roles of characters are oftentimes, a function of the thematic focus of the soap opera. There appears some merit in the argument that representations in soap operas tend to perpetuate gender disparity and stereotypes. A successful professional woman is always characterised as a ‘bitch’ while a female who dares to challenge overbearing social constrictions is shown as nonconformist or disobedient (Milton, 1996). But it must be noted that it is in the nature of soap operas for characters to acquire some positive or negative values overtime. For instance, a character that plays the role of a rogue in previous storylines can turn a new leaf and become a responsible gentleman in subsequent episodes. This transmutation is possible because of the prolonged existence of characters. The open- ended nature of soap operas allows script writers to develop, mould and remould a character to suit the twists in the narrative. Although stereotypical representations are common features in soap operas, there are other characterisation which challenges established beliefs and hegemonic ideas. Besides, very few characters of soap operas retain their original roles overtime. This therefore negates the narrative that soap operas only present stereotypes.

2.6. Soap opera in South Africa

Television was only established in South Africa in 1976 and when it was “eventually introduced it was immediately employed by the government as a powerful ideological and hegemonic tool. From the outset the channels were clearly segregated” (Marx 2007: 85). During the apartheid period in particular, television in South Africa was an

49 exclusive preserve of the privileged minority white population, not only was access restricted, the content of the visual media was overly regulated. Television programmes including soap operas were used not only to perpetuate stereotypes about black people and their culture but also to promote the ethos of apartheid – which revolves around white superiority and racial divide. The near total control of the visual media by the white minority government (Andlves, 2007) meant that only the ‘dominant group’s point of view’ or frames of reference approved by those who control the medium of representation got shown on television. But with the advent of democracy, the media space has been democratised and liberalised paving way for all South Africans no matter their race and class, to access and participate in the production of an array of television programmes including soap operas. As part of efforts to heal the wounds of apartheid and forge a united nation, the government initiated some deliberate communication policies which saw the media becoming an agent of change. Under the new media landscape, soap operas has become not just a “barometer” and “vehicle of change and consistency” (Tager 2010: 100), but also a veritable instrument of “mediating the neoliberal nation” (Andlves, 2007) and providing some form of soothing balm for the pangs arising from transiting from the apartheid system (Barnard, 2006). When in 1993 Generations made its maiden appearance on the public broadcaster SABC 1, many in the black population were experiencing for the first time, a television programme with themes and frame of references they could identify with. In 1997, Muvhango was introduced on SABC2 followed by Isidingo in 1998 which emerged as the leading show on SABC3. In 2000, 7de Laan was premiered on SABC2. These soap operas were designed “as a means to redress the damage and injustices inflicted by apartheid and its legacies, suggesting a new way forward for post-apartheid South African society” (Tager, 2001: 108). These imagined communities were conceived as platforms for racial integration and social creation, badly needed after many years of segregation and mutual distrust. In essence, South African soap operas were conceived as vehicles for propagating “societal ideals signifying the hope of renewed solidarity, harmony, and social cohesion in post-apartheid South Africa” (Tager, 2010: 103). It was thought that having black, white and coloured South Africans working together as producers and actors will somehow engender a sense of unity and intimacy (Andersson, 2003).

Today’s South African soap opera is “both a product of post-apartheid South Africa and as a mechanism which maintains, and promotes changes in, its viewers’ preferences, beliefs and patterns of everyday life social behaviour” (Tager 2010: 100). However, even though South African soaps are increasingly focusing on contemporary social and political issues facing the South African society, they have become sites for the creation and transmission of hegemonic or so called popular culture. In the bid to foster national cohesion and conform to popular culture simultaneously, soap operas often tend to project an imaginary world (Andersson, 2003), where the tribal South African culture and value system are constantly being interrogated and often maligned. Kruger (2010: 48) posits that most of the “narratives acknowledge audience identification with the glamorous lives of characters living well in Johannesburg, and with the commodities that signify their status, but show these characters in conflict with their claims to promote the public good and with the majority excluded from black economic empowerment”. The tendency of soaps to project popular culture and apparent false identities, has the potential of emasculating tribal African culture and creating identity conflicts among viewers, young viewers particularly. Spence (1995: 188) argues that watching “soaps is experiencing a fantasy which we believe to be true enough to warrant drawing moral conclusions, forming opinions, and comparing what we know from the real world”. The verisimilitude embedded in soap opera gives audiences “the impression that they could live and breathe and operate outside their fictional form and could be transferred to other situations and still retain their credibility” (Hobson, 2003: xiii). I argue in this thesis that the way South African tribal culture is framed or represented on soap operas has the potential to trigger rejection of the host culture and paving way for the acceptance of the culture projected on television. As noted by Andersson (2004) nothing stops South African audiences from appropriating and applying the fictional texts represented in soap “as their own” realities.

2.8. Critique of soap operas

Some scholars (Marx, 2007; Hilmes, 2007; Ritzer, 1993 & Modleski, 1982) have variously challenged the tendency of soap operas to pander to patriarchal ideologies which often stereotype women and other cultural norms different from European moral values. For instance, in the early days of radio the British public broadcasting giant, BBC was reluctant to embrace soap opera programme because of its seeming sexist

51 bias. The BBC “resolutely held out against the program form most notoriously associated with ‘vulgar’, commercial feminised American radio culture: soap operas” (Hilmes, 2006: 5). Soap opera is often perceived as low culture largely because of its mass appeal and connection to “the gross and the feminine” (Marx, 2007: 60). According to Modleski (1982: 86) “if television is considered by some to be a vast wasteland, soap operas are thought to be the least nourishing spot in the desert”. Cultural experts such as Ritzer (1993) also criticise soap opera for encouraging cultural hegemony and homogenisation. He argues that the unfettered distribution of American soap operas would lead to cultural imperialism or the notion of “McDonaldization” (Ritzer, 1993), and “Cocacolonization” given that the American producers with their massive capital muscle and sophisticated production know-how, were well positioned to emasculate local and national television production entities. But as observed by Ang (2007) while American soap opera albeit still a very popular and prominent fixture in most developing countries, it has since lost its hegemonic hold, as many countries have indigenised the soap opera genre. Appadurai (1996: 31- 32) holds that the emergence of globalisation has necessitated a shift in flexible cultural flow “in which the United States is only one node of a complex transnational construction of imaginary landscapes”. Ang (2007: 23) posits that the American popular television programmes had “became both more powerful and less hegemonic, both more influential and less popular”. Soap operas have progressively expanded over the years (Liebes & Livingstone, 1998). While a greater proportion of the global soap operas still follow the American pattern, the narratives, themes, settings and rendition to some extent, now attempt to reflect the culture, attitude and identities of the local environment (Ang, 2007). Whether it be telenovelas of Latin America, Soap operas in Nigeria or South Africa, there is a deliberate effort to create a local niche or differentiation whilst remaining global in outlook. As Hilmes (2006) correctly observed, today’s soaps are essentially, globalised formats with nationalised expressions. In other word, while indigenised soap operas attempt to reflect heterogeneous view of the world it is conscious of its homogenous identity. Adapted local soap operas may take the form and structure as the model but they differ in many respects. One major issue which continues to attract scholarly interest concerns the question of what is represented in soap opera. While some scholars hold that soap opera is a fictional construction of reality others insist what is shown on soaps reflects what happens in

52 the society. The next section looks at how media representation is interpreted in the context of audience perception theory.

2.9. Situating the Audience Perception Theory

Interpretation is a function of perception. Perception is the use of the mind or the physical senses to comprehend or become aware of a person's surroundings. It is an intuitive insight, the understanding of something and a way of regarding things. Perception is intrinsically linked to attitude in that the way we perceive something or someone will determine our attitude (feeling or thinking) about that something or someone. The process of perception has been conceptualised from two main perspectives: Bottom-Up Theory (Gibson, 1966) and Top down Processing Theory (Gregory, 1970). Gibson suggests that perception is a natural process and does not require learning or interpretation. He argues that humans possess an innate mechanism which enables them to make sense of and respond directly to information from their environment. This natural instinct was what helped our progenitors to survive from dangerous environment and predators. In his paper “A Theory of Direct Visual Perception” Gibson (1972), holds that the human visual system is already wired to analyse raw information whether small or complex albeit in a unidirectional way. In other words, for Gibson “sensation is perception: what you see is what you get”. Gibson’s theory conceives perception as a direct phenomenon which requires no hypotheses. He insists there is sufficient knowledge available in the environment for people to interpret any given phenomenon. The anchoring of the bottom-up theory on the environment may explain why it is regarded as the “Ecological Theory”. The seeming obsession with the nature side of perception is seen as a weakness of the Bottom up theory. However, critics of the Bottom-up theory like Gregory (1970), argues that perception is constructed. According to Gregory, information emanating from our environment are often massive and unclear and thus human beings would have to apply some reasoning in order to process and make sense of the these plethora of information. Gregory, holds that for humans to make inferences about incoming stimuli they would have to rely on previous experiences or top-down processing. In other words, perception is not direct, but has to be processed based on stored information. Gregory’s theory is seen as a balanced and more acceptable explanation for the process of perception in that although it acknowledges that perception starts with the

53 natural (what we see with our eyes), it however requires and a cognitive process which relies on exiting information to understand what we perceive.

Psychologist Jerome Bruner (Alan & Gary, 2011) identifies three steps involved in the process of perception. He argues that:

1. When individuals come across unfamiliar object, they are amenable to a diverse information clues and want to know more about the object.

2. Then, these individuals would attempt to gather additional information about the object. Progressively, they will come by some cues which they are already accustomed to which will enable them to classify the object.

3. At the third and final stage, these individual continue to explore more clues to endorse the classification of the object. At this stage individuals become selective as the informational clues are less open. Here, individuals consciously disregard and sometimes, alter clues that disrupt their early opinions. Finally they are able to form a reliable opinion about the object.

Perception is influenced by some factors. Alan and Gary (2011) identified three key constituents of perception: The Perceiver; The Target and The Situation. The Perceiver refers to the individual who comes across something or information stimulus and ultimately understands or forms an opinion about it. An individual’s perception of a phenomenon depends on three factors: experience, motivational and emotional state (Alan & Gary, 2011). In other words, a perceiver may perceive or respond to an object or target differently depending on his or her emotional and motivational state. The second, component of perception is the target or person who we need to form opinion about. Often, information about the target may be vague or insufficient or none existence, and this necessitates the “need for interpretation and addition”. Lastly, is the situation which could lead to an individual altering or seeking additional information in order to arrive at his or her perception of reality? In some situations the perceiver may resort to a "perceptual defence" and ends up to "see what he wants to see".

2.10. Audience as perceivers

The function of interpretation is performed by the audience. The audience or public forms opinions that reflect the coverage they see, hear and read about in the media 54

(Danesh, 2007). The audience refers to a group of people or individual that view political news, drama, soap operas, sitcoms and any programme on radio or television. In other words, the audience is the body of people prepared to grant the performer space and time in which to mount such a display, by suspending or bending the normal patterns of communicative turn-taking. The audience can be a collective, representing the complex collection of opinion of many different people and the sum of all their views or as a single opinion held by an individual about a socio-economic or political topic, or a certain television programme. Webster and Phalen (Webster, 1998) state that the audience is most often conceptualised as “a large loosely connected mass on the receiving end of the media.” Television has made possible the imagining of an atomised, dispersed but mass audience tuning in simultaneously to the same programme. Webster, (1998) argues that audiences whether as individuals or as collectives have powers. It is the prerogative of the audience to adjudge media representations as true, or false. The process of interpreting media representation is known as audience perception. Audience perception denotes the aggregate of individual attitudes to media representation of something or someone in an environment. There are as many audiences as there are programmes. In recent time, due largely to the ubiquity of popular culture, there has emerged audience that are immersed in television especially soap operas.

2.11. The dialectics over passive and active audience

Mass communication theorists are spilt between two opposing views with regards to the role or response of the audience to media messages. On one end of the divide is the active audience theorists who hold that the audience consist of distinctive individuals - who are not only rational and discerning, but also "impervious to influence" (Bauer 1960 in Abiocca, 2015: 51). The active audience model suggests that audiences interact with media texts in order to construct meaning. The active audience proponents especially those of Klapper’s (1960) theories of selective attention, perception and retention, argue that the audience is discriminatory in the selection of media content or programme (Heeter, D'Allessio, Greenberg, & McVoy, 1983) and carefully choses the content or programme they are exposed to (Levy, 1983: 110). Other theorists especially from the Uses and Gratification model of media effects led

55 by Katz (1959) focus not only on what the media do to people but on what the audience do with the media. This school of thought, insists the audience is not only rationale but actively seek out media and mass communication contents or texts which serve or satisfy their specific needs (Dervin, 1980; Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974; Levy, 1983; Palmgreen, 1984; Palmgreen & Rayburn, 1985). In other words, the audience is always looking out for media content or programme that is useful to them or gratifies particular interest (Blumler, 1979: 13). The use of media could be for the purpose of Diversion, Personal Relationships, Personal identity or Surveillance. This suggests the audience choose media content intentionally. Blumler (1979: 14) defines Intentionality as "media consumption...directed by prior motivation". Meaning, the audience normally apply themselves mentally in processing incoming information. This incoming media information is structured in a schematic manner (Garramone, 1983; Fiske & Kinder, 1980; Planalp & Hewes, 1979; Swanson, 1979), according to the audience members’ interest, disposition, and intellectual capacity processing structure (McGuire, 1974; Wenner, 1985). Scholars such as Levy (1983) posit that audience members are actively “involved”, experience "affective arousal" and undertake a level of cognitive organization and information structuring. In other words, the audience are not just mere passive receivers of soap operas as some scholars hold, but do engage with the texts (Fiske, 1987) and have the capacity to read and take positions (Ang, 2007). In homes, schools and workplaces the events in previous night’s episode of a local soap is always a topic of regular discussion. Social psychologist Raymond Bauer (Abiocca, 2016: 51) perceives the audience as independent, “obstinate” and impervious to influence. Bauer (1964) theorises that there exist a transactional communication between the audience and the media. The audience actively selects what messages to pay attention to. The important others in audience members environment, his/her cultural beliefs lived experiences, knowledge and personal interests influence the way he/she decodes or makes sense of media texts or messages. For instance, the Zimmerman-Bauer study found that the audience also participates in the communication by influencing the message. The deliberate use of the media, “implies a certain defensiveness on the part of the audience” (Abiocca, 2016: 51).

On the other end of the dichotomy, is the passive audience exponents who see the audience as pawns who passively receive texts. This model expanded from the

Hypodermic Needle Model also known as Magic Bullet Theory, conceptualises media texts as a bullet from a “media gun” aimed directly at a passive audience head which he cannot escape direct to audience head. This theory assumes that media message hit the audiences straight from the media and they accept it hook, line and sinker and, are instantly influenced by it (Anon, n.d.; Berger, 1995, Lamb, 2013). The audience is characterised as “conformist, gullible, anomic, vulnerable, victims” (Abiocca, 2016: 51). Following the success of the Nazis’ propaganda, some Marxists popularly known as the Frankfurt School (Adorno & Horkheimer), concluded that the mass media was sinister and insidious. They maintained that mass media wielded enormous power over the beliefs and actions of the audience. The audience they argued were helplessly immersed in the deceitful and mass entertainment driven by capitalism. Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, (1980) were the major contributors to the passive audience model. In their article “Living with television: The dynamics of the cultivation process”, Gebner et al. (1986: 23) stated that television has become a platform for cultivating and influencing the ideas and behaviour of the audience members:

People are born into a symbolic environment with television as its mainstream. ...Television viewing is both a shaper and stable part of certain lifestyles and outlooks. It links the individual to a larger if synthetic world, a world of television's own making. ...The content shapes and promotes...dominates their sources of information, continued exposure to its messages is likely to reiterate, confirm, and nourish (i.e., cultivate) their values and perspectives. (Gebner et al, 1986: 23.)

This assertion presumes that media texts have the same effect on the audience or that that the audience perceives media messages in a similar pattern. But as would be seen in the subsequent section, audience members are not homogenous and their perceptions of media messages are not uniform.

2.12. The homogeneity and heterogeneity of audience perceptions: the nexus of demographics and socio-cultural factors

Audience theorists hold that there is no uniformity of perception. Although audience can be categorised in terms of location (national, regional) or race (black or white) or by linguistic or religious persuasions, the audience is not all the same. Why some audience may accept media representations as true others may consider them as false (Buckingham, 2004). In other words, representations are amenable and realities emerging from our perceptions are thus not static. Jauss (1982) argues that the meaning of text often is located outside the “text”. It is the audience members drawing from their prior knowledge and cultural milieu that must produce the desired meaning. Just as there are many ways of convening meaning so are there different ways that the audience experience or receive media representations. Rubin (Cooper & Tang, 2009) holds that, “an individual is likely to be, at varying degrees, passive and active at different points; at times actively choosing the medium and at other times choosing the medium because it is accessible or a habit.” This suggests that the audience response to media message vary according to circumstances. The interpretation of media representations may depend on the socialisation of the audience members and their identification with the media representation. Tulloch (1990: 210) describes audiences as “subcultures” given that they are socially constructed. Ethnographic explorations of audiences suggest that interpretation is situated in specific, structured social contexts (Tomlinson, 1999). The next section examines the encoding and decoding model in the context of audience reception of media message.

2.13. Hall’s Encoding and Decoding Model

Stuart Hall was one of the earliest and foremost proponents of the reception theory. The theory assumes that there are demographic and socio-cultural factors that affect the consumption and reception of media representations such as age, gender, class and ethnicity. This theory is based on Hall’s (1973) encoding and/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience. Hall argues that “the ‘object’ of production practices and structures in television is the production of a message: that is, a sign- vehicle or rather sign-vehicles of a specific kind organized, like any other form of communication or language, through the operation of codes, within the syntagmatic 58 chains of a discourse" (Hall, 1973: 16). These messages or texts are largely generated by the producer (who encodes) and received by the audience (who decodes) the texts to create meaning. Often the audience may decode or read meanings different from what the producer or encoder intended to convey to the audience. In some occasions the audience members may decode the appropriate or intended meaning. In some instances, the audience may decode or read meanings different from what the producers or encoder intended to convey or reject the message completely. Essentially, media tests are POLYSEMIC, meaning they are open to various interpretations or meanings. Hall holds that (i) meaning is not simply fixed or determined by the sender; (ii) the message is never transparent; and (iii) the audience is not a passive recipient of meaning (Procter, 2004: 59–61). According to Hall, "a message must be perceived as meaningful discourse and be meaningfully de-coded before it has an effect, a use, or satisfies a need". Hall articulated four dimensions of message decoding: dominant, professional, negotiated and oppositional encoding modes. i. Dominant or Hegemonic Encoding

Here, the producer or encoder aims to control the reading of the message by the audience by positioning or steering them to read the text from his/her established codes, that is, the producer’s preferred or suggested meaning. "When the viewer takes the connoted meaning full and straight and decodes the message in terms of the reference-code in which it has been coded, it operates inside the dominant code" (Hall, 1973: 16). An example is watching the representation of Sangoma ritual in a soap and agreeing with it. However, dominant ideological messages can be resisted or reinterpreted by audience members. This is in agreement with a study by Morley (1980) that shows that audience members from outside the target audience may reject the preferred reading, receiving their own alternative message. But even strong proponents of the active audience model, accept that the audience do not always have control of media content (Blumler et al. 1985; Levy & Windahl, 1984). ii. Professional Coding

Professional encoding operates in tandem with the dominant code. "It serves to reproduce the dominant definitions precisely by bracketing the hegemonic quality, and operating with professional codings which relate to such questions as visual quality, 59 news and presentational values, televisual quality, ‘professionalism’ etc." (Hall, 1973:16). In the professional coding model, producers often encode messages that fit a prescribed pattern. What get chosen to be encoded must first conform to previously agreed standards and anything considered unfit by this professional gatekeepers are left out. What comes out is a message or narrative as approved by the professionals. iii. Negotiated Encoding

This method of encoding "acknowledges the legitimacy of the hegemonic definitions to make the grand significations, while, at a more restricted, situational level, it makes its own ground-rules, it operates with ‘exceptions’ to the rule" (Hall, 1973: 17). According to Morley (1980), audiences also engage in Negotiated reading where even though they acknowledge the code, the encoder or producer expects them to recognise and decode, they still go ahead to read the texts in line with their “own values and opinions”. For instance, if in an episode of Generation: The Legacy, the preferred meaning suggests that consulting sangomas is primitive. You may agree or disagree or you may think that sangomas are still relevant but you will only consult them every now and again. You may not be interested at all. The audience is thus at liberty to produce his or her own meaning of the text based on his or her individual cultural background and life experiences. iv. Oppositional Encoding

The oppositional coding process also known as the globally contrary code, refers to the situation where the audience decodes a complete opposite of the intended message. Hall notes that "it is possible for a viewer perfectly to understand both the literal and connotative inflection given to an event, but to determine to decode the message in a globally contrary way." For example, watching the representation of sangoma ritual in a soap and completely rejecting it and actively opposing it. However, "before this message can have an ‘effect’ (however defined), or satisfy a ‘need’ or be put to a ‘use’, it must first be perceived as a meaningful discourse and meaningfully de-coded" (Hall 1973:18). Nevertheless, an audience member’s reading of a text either from the hegemonic, negotiated or oppositional stance, is an individual process influenced by his/her cultural background.

2.14. Critique of audience perception theory

The active audience concept generally suggests that individuals are somehow immune to the effects of the media they are exposed to. It assumes that the audience are methodical in their use of the media. According to the Uses and Gratification Model, audiences use media texts for different reasons and in diverse manner. However, as Abiocca (2016: 52) notes what constitutes activity is often muddled, “each facet purports to define an intangible and relative process called "activity." He argues that:

The concept of active audience defined as cognitive independence, personal freedom, and imperviousness to influence appears strangely to be both bloated and seemingly anaemic and thin. By attempting to cover everything the audience member does, it ends up specifying little and excluding nothing. Every twitch, every thought, every choice-both mindful and mindless-is recorded as evidence of "activity (Abiocca, 2016: 75).

The seeming independence and absolute control over incoming media messages which the active audience theorists impute on the audience, appear overstretched and far-fetched. They are as Abiocca (2016) aptly noted, “overextended and often trivial”. It is no surprise that some of the earlier proponents of the active audience position (Blumler et al. 1985) have admitted its inadequacy and acknowledge that the audience do not always have control over media content: “the audience member is not an unconstructed master of his or her cultural faith" (Blumler et al. 1985: 259). Levy and Windahl (1984), contend that the so called “active audience" may be "more affected" by the media. Clearly, “the thesis is dialectically transformed into its antithesis. Bauer's (1964) ‘imperviousness to influence’ evaporates (Abiocca, 2016: 75).

2.15. Theory of media hegemony dominant ideology

Media representation has often been theorised along binary perspectives: the reflectionist or mimetic approach and the constructivist approach. Gramsci’s theory of dominant ideology (1971) embedded in the media imperialism theory provides an interpretative framework in understanding media representation outside these traditional approaches. Media hegemony theory provides interpretative framework for explaining and understanding the role played by commercial media as a site for 61 generating cultural hegemony. Hegemony has been defined as leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others. In Gramsci theory, Hegemony refers to the socio-cultural production of "consent" and "coercion". In this study, the term hegemony refers to those ‘dominant’ ideologies that are made popular and normalised by their recurring circulation in the media. These cultural representations are often the ideas of those who own the means of representation. In South Africa the ownership and distribution of media products are controlled by a minority group who are overwhelmingly white. Empirical evidence show correlation between commercial interests and normalised stereotypes in South African soap operas (Lockyear, 2004). It has been argued that the lifestyle patterns, discourse and commodities associated with soap operas result in the breakdown of local cultural practices and diverse traditions. However, critical takes on soap operas see them as synonymous with Americanisation, so that exposure to and regular viewing of soaps are believed to contribute to the breakdown of indigenous cultural practices, replacing these with homogeneous model of affluent lifestyle (Miller, 1995). Gramsci holds that the rich and powerful use their hold over the structures of production to advance the dominant ideas in society. Over time the community begins to pattern their thoughts and actions toward the ideology of the capitalists and this drift towards popular culture affects how people especially the youth, make sense of the society and how they respond to indigenous culture.

Soap opera often draws its storyline from the everyday lives of urban dwellers and as Mbembe (2004, 394) has argued, contemporary South African urban cities have become “public theatres of late capitalism.” Hall (McQueen, 1998) argues that Media representations of the urban world are often diverse and conflicting. Inconsistent representations or constructions of the world by the media create tensions given the fact that these representations pander to the world of the dominant groups or capitalists. Georgiou (2006) argues that the tension generated by incomplete sometimes, biased representations of reality, paves way for the creation of alternative representations or the “other” imbued with potential to challenge dominant ideologies and negotiate new identities (Irigaray, 2003). However, it is not clear whether this new realities actually challenge hegemonic ideas or perpetuate hegemonic stereotypes. Hebdige (1989) submits that the conflicts between commercial culture and “machineries of resistance”, often results to the creation of alternate ideologies.

Television audiences are “socially constructed viewers’ who represent ‘the meaning systems and modes of expression’ articulated ‘by groups … in the course of their collective attempt to come to terms with the contradictions in their shared social situation” (Tulloch, 1990: 210).

While I agree with Andersson (2004: 10) that “Soapies mirror SA’s soul”, but what needs to be interrogated is whose reality does soapies mirror? Given that soap operas are products of commercial media which are driven by commercial interests, is it likely that representations in soapies actually mirror the soul of South Africa. Is it not possible, given the need to satisfy commercial interests, that the representations in the media will reflect the real or superficial world of the owners of the means of production? As has been established, owners of means of representation have the power to determine, what or who gets reflected and how things or events are represented. In attempt to project a new reality of non-racist, sexist and united country, soap operas representation of race and ethnicity tend to be based on a homogenization and construction of a non-dichotomous society. I argue that the framing of reality in this way has the potential to affect cultural identity in the way that the audience, black audience particularly, perceives their shared history and ancestry and the values they hold in common. Gramsci’s theory of hegemony allows us to interrogate how media representations are used to indoctrinate society by propagating dominant ideas and values or so called popular culture.

2.16. Representation of tribal South African culture in Soap operas

Mainstream soap operas in South African commercial media are increasingly infusing values and ideas which are alien to most tribal South African society. In the commodified television drama, Generations: The Legacy, tribal African traditional institutions, spiritual beliefs and values which once held the society together over the years are often presented as archaic and odious. People who hold or profess hold traditional beliefs and values are characterised as traditionalists, while those who have imbibed the western defined dicta and ideology of modernity are perceived as progressives. I argue in this study that continuous framing and circulation of African culture as inhibitive and primitive in commercial media soap operas while projecting hegemonic notions as modern and progressive, could result to cultural hegemony. It 63 has been established that the media could be a veritable avenue to construct and normalise common cultural values. As captured by Gramsci (1971), dominant ideologies can easily become normalised and popularised by their recurring circulation in the media. This study therefore seeks to ascertain how tribal institutions, values and social norms are portrayed through the television drama, Generation: The Legacy.

2.17. Generation: The Legacy an overview

Generation: The Legacy, a ground-breaking locally produced soap opera first appeared on SABC1 in 1994. It began as a weekly serial but owing to popular demand it was reschedule to appear every weekday at 20h00. It was South Africa’s longest running soapie, featuring on interrupted on SABC1 from 1994 to late 2014 when it was rested temporarily due to dispute with actors (Mail & Guardian, 8 August 2014). Throughout its first run, the original Generations was the most watched primetime soapie on South African television, attracting a viewership of over seven millions. The South African Audience Research Foundation indicated that viewership of the soap was around 10 million a night preceding the announcement of the sack of 16 actors. After the three months hiatus that lasted from September to November 2014, the show was back on air in December 1 2014. It was repackaged and renamed Generations: The legacy and has since regained its position as the most watched opera on television. Generations: The Legacy is multilingual with subtitles. Characters often co- switch from English to any African language and vice versa. As at 13 December 2016 the show has aired about 518 episodes.

The Plot

Generation: The Legacy is set on the backdrop of the advertising industry characterised by cut-throat competition. It tells the riveting story of two ambitious couple with antithetical background - Tau Mogale (played by the consummate actor, Rapulana Seiphemo), and Karabo Moroka (played by celebrated model and thespian, Connie Ferguson). The influential couple is determined to dominate the competitive media business by leveraging on the legacy of business mogul and visionary, Paul Moroka, (Karabo’s father) who built the first African-owned media enterprise. But Tau wanted to carve a niche for himself and was secretly nursing and scheming to bring his own legacy to fruition. In the process to establish his own legacy, he deploys guile 64 and subterfuge which he acquired from his underworld days. Lurking at the other end was Tau’s sister Tshidi (Letoya Makhene), the quintessential femme fatale and her brutal gangster husband, Gaddaffi (Vuyo Dabula) – Tau’s arch enemy, who are determined to derail the Paul Moroka’s legacy and ultimately, Tau’s mission. Each episode of Generations: The Legacy, follows the lives of this intriguing couple and their equally crafty competitors as they plot to upstage the other to get a step ahead and consolidate their respective empires. The rivalry, treachery and blackmail that ensued spun a series of narratives laced with suspense, intrigue and tension. Thrown into the fray are siblings and associates of the opposing couples such as Mazwi Moroka (Musa Ngema) and Simphiwe (Asanda Foji) who play the roles of secondary protagonists. As would be expected in a battle of supremacy, each party throws virtue out of the windows and began to indulge in evil deeds and compromising sometimes, criminal activities. In the midst of the war over wealth creation and dominance, romantic relationships blossom and alliances are formed and broken. Interspersed are storylines which attempt to interrogate other social issues especially African traditional culture and belief systems.

In the main, Generations: The legacy, attempts to reflect the everyday life of city dwellers - their dreams, aspirations and how they make sense of the world around them. The drama exposes the sordid underbelly of the business world - corruption, blackmail, and sabotage - a world where virtue and evil are in constant struggle for supremacy. The creator and producer of the show, Mfundi Vundla, says:

“Generations: The Legacy, is about stimulating a conversation on the transfer of wealth, knowledge and culture. Successive generations in African society have produced men and women of great intelligence, vision and the drive for excellence. For a variety of reasons -some no doubt related to our painful past, our development as a people has been stymied. Generations: The Legacy in its own way will address this issue -not in a didactic manner but in interesting narratives. Now is the time to establish family legacies that move our country forward” (SABC1, 2014).

However, contrary to Vundla’s claim, the soap seems to heighten conflict between traditional African culture and popular culture as it creates an atmosphere where

65 individuals appear conflicted about choosing one against the other. For instance, in one of the episodes, Karabo, Tau’s wife decided to get married to two men, an apparent move to express her independence from the patriarchal tradition that allows only men to do so. Underneath some of the plots are insidious nuggets and frontal discourses that suggest some aspects of African tradition and culture are at variance with the modern society. The challenge of framing African culture as inimical to hegemonic definition of modernity could result in situation in which people become indoctrinated (Gramsci, 1971) and pliable object of change (Melkote and Steeves, 2015:3) which could lead to them abandoning or ignoring their culture embracing the model of modernization as prescribed and promoted by television drama serials such as Generation: The Legacy.

Setting

Generation: The Legacy is set in Johannesburg, which has become the preferred location for most of the soapies (Marx, 2007). The characterisation in Generation: The Legacy is consistent with the general pattern of soap opera which revolves around the use of a diverse cast cutting across the social and economic strata of society with many female roles, including older women, widows and divorcees (Gledhill, 2003: 352).

The greater part of the narratives in Generation: The Legacy follow the traditional format of soap which focus on “experiencing and discussing personal and domestic crises” (Modleski, 1982: 68). Like other soaps, the narratives in Generation: The Legacy are weaved around close-knit families, their problems and how they go about solving them (Brown, 1987: 4). The setting and characterisation of Generation: The Legacy generally conform to the description of soap opera by Modleski (1982: 85-86):

…soap operas are set in small towns and involve two or three families intimately connected to one another. Families are often composed of several generations, and the proliferation of generations is accelerated by the propensity of soap opera characters to mature at an incredibly rapid rate… Sometimes on a soap opera one of the families will be fairly well to do, and another somewhat lower on the social scale though still, as a rule, identifiably middleclass.

Generation: The Legacy narratives revolve around the following main families:

The Morokas

This is the typical privileged family. Their progenitor, Paul Moroka, had left them a sprawling business dynasty. Paul Moroka’s overseas trained daughter, Karabo Moroka, who has emerged as a smooth avant-garde technocrat, has been trusted to take the business empire to the next level with her husband, Tau Mogale, a former criminal who by dint of hard work rehabilitated himself to become a respected executive. But there is a twist in the tale. Tau wants to create a legacy for himself outside the Moroka’s empire and this led him to occasionally return to his sordid past and even joining forces with his former partner in crime, Gadaffi Kumkani Phakade, now a king of a gangster paradise. The highlight of their relationship was when Gadaffi helped Tau to waste an irritant, who tried to blackmail him. Tau eventually fell apart with the Morokas following the decision of Karabo to marry a second husband. He moved out of the Moroka’s house and fell in love with Zitha, the daughter of his wife’s late second husband. Overwhelmed by turn of event especially the loss of his position in the Moroka’s business, Tau relapses into his old self. His sister Tshidi and mother, Gogo Zondiwe, frequently intervenes in his new life and this always leaves behind unsavoury memories. Karabo loses her husband, Zola in a bizarre circumstance and turns to the dark side, she is ready to do anything to find who killed her husband.

There is the two Moroka’s grandsons, Mazwi and Samanga Moroka. The siblings who are joint heir to the Moroka’s empire are always at loggerheads. They were both involved in the running of the advertising behemoth, Ezweni but Samanga was later to be side-lined, forcing him to start his own business, and at some point, he went into politics. Mazwi is married to Sphe (Jack Mabaso’s step daughter). The marriage was engineered By Jack Mabaso ostensibly to bring about the Moroka-Cele alliance. The marriage is fraught with a lot of challenges because of how it was contracted. It later crashed leading Sphe to start sleeping with Kumkani Phakade, whom Mazwi derisively describes as “a thug”. Mazwi on his part was stringing other ladies. His troubled marriage and association with the unscrupulous in-law cum business partner, Jack Mabaso, eventually turned him to a wreck. In one episode he lamented “Well, on to other news as if my life couldn’t get any crappier. You know is not enough that my wife is sleeping with Kumkani Phakade a thug. Now am forcing people out of their homes,

67 separating them from their ancestors”. Smanga on his part has had troubled relationships. By a morbid twist of fate, it was he that raked his brother’s first marriage leading to her eventual suicide. He was later to impregnate Mazwi’s wife, Sphe. The rest is the daily contestation and petty squabbles that characterise an average rich family.

The Phakade’s

Kumkani Phakade is a gangster- he pushes drugs, at some point, traffics diamond. Through his illicit dealings he has amassed enough wealth to cause maximum mischief. To launder his ill-gotten money he acquires an advertising agency, called Hashtag which he runs together with his wife Tshidi, a lady who loves the good things of life and ready to gratify her pleasures even it means using her sexual prowess. Gadaffi is not only brutal and unforgiving but a patient and devious reprobate. He stole Tau’s son, Amo, as a revenge for snubbing him. He kidnaps, kills and intimidates as the occasion warrants. No one stands in the way of this formidable opponent. He lives at Siqalo, a high end area of Johannesburg, where he occupies the top floor of a high rise building which he owns. It is from this massive edifice that he plots his evil moves. He makes a deal with the Morokas to bring Jack Mabaso down. He occasionally infringes the law but manages to cover his tracks. He has a collection of villains who are at his beck and call. But Gadaffi is also human, he falls in love and feel hurt too as we see in his affairs with his estranged wife, Tshidi and his crush, Sphe. He is constantly plotting to attack or avenge any offence no matter how slight.

The Mabasos

Jack Mabaso is an unscrupulous business mogul with a notorious past. He is perilously corrupt, pathologically manipulative and brutally deadly. Jack covets power and to satisfy his vaunting ambitions, he frequently engages in dirty, underhand dealings. He is ready to kill, maim and blackmail even his own blood relatives to get his way. Many business associates and accomplishes have been dispatched to their early graves directly by this man or his hitmen either to cover his criminal tracks or to pave way for his never ending whims. He runs a construction company and when his chief engineer, Zola Radebe got to know his true colour, he was quickly wasted. He acquires Vantage Point, through dubious means. When he is not making himself a nuisance at home or office he is plotting to take over or cripple other people’s

68 businesses. Jack, as he is popularly called is married to Naledi, a nurse who developed some mental sickness and was taken to a home. On her return, Naledi often tries to talk Jack out of his evil ways, but like a leopard, he sticks to his old skins. Jack is a terror both within and without. His son, Fana, an upright lawyer loathes his father’s evil ways and constantly questions his ethics and humanity. But even he will later succumb to the dodgy ways of the business world. His daughter, Namhla, who he had with Lucy Diale, hates his guts and detests his ways. But she too at some point, fell into the manipulative traps of his father. Jack once had an affair with Tshidi, Gadhafi’s wife but the relationship was not driven by love. For Jack it was Janus-faced relationship to seduce and manipulate Tshidi to achieve his evil desires. Jack has no empathy not even for his daughter who she has to force into a loveless marriage and subsequently, an arranged pregnancy just to ensure the plot of forming the Cele- Moroka alliance is not truncated. He once crossed the part of a dubious Russian business man and got shot and had to lay off for some time. He later employs the service of an ex-military to bring the Russian down. Jack escapades are the flavour of Generations: The Legacy

The Diales

Lucy Diale is an ex jailbird – a township hustler who after her release from jail began to traffic drugs for Kumkani Phakade. She graduated to recruiting others for the business and later became a drug dealer herself. She makes good money from her business which he runs with her brother, Cosmo. The soft spoken Cosmo, whose gentlemanly appearance belies his dodgy life, is a free hireling with a good heart. He is the lynchpin of the thugs in Alex, a sprawling township in the outskirt of Johannesburg. Cosmo makes things happen, he is the one who carries out deadly assignments for Kumkani Phakade, Tau Mogale and Jack Mabaso. To clean up her illicit money, Lucy opens a tavern in downtown Alex. Business begins to boom and the pub was extended to have a push area for city big boys. She was later to establish a fast-food joint, S’khaftin managed by his brother Cosmo. In spite of his criminal ways, Cosmo has a soft heart. He loathes injustice and hates to see others suffer. He once dabbled into music but his fame fizzled out just as it started. Lucy lives with her aged grandmother, Gog’Flo, who is a devout Christian. Gog’Flo, is a traditionalists and insists things must be done properly. She objects vehemently when Lucy asks her boyfriend Mrekza to move into the family home. She and Lucy are always arguing over 69 what is right and wrong. There is Getty, the sister of Lucy. She is the good girl, educated and holding a job as a graphic artist in Hashtag. Before the change of fortune in Lucy’s life, she was the breadwinner of the family. But she has problems managing her income and accumulates lots of debts. Getty is unstable and unlucky with relationships and sometimes can’t hold back her emotions. She loses her job and runs into a bad patch. Then she had a call to be a Sangoma. Initially, she rebuffed the idea but after a string of unpleasant events she eventually got initiated to the chagrin of her grandmother, Gog’Flo. The Diales live with a teenage girl, Lesedi who frequently get involved in knotty episodes. She was once kidnapped by some sex traffickers but eventually rescued. She is fond of and at home, with her step sister, Namhla the technology geek daughter of Lucy.

Cast of Generation: The Legacy

Renewed series

Actor Role

Asanda Foji Simphiwe Ngobese-Moroka

Joe Mafela Tebogo Moroka

JT Medupi Jonathan Motene

Kabelo Moalusi Siya Radebe

Lebohang Mthunzi Angela Mogale-Radebe

Mutodi Nesheshe Zola Radebe

Thulisile Phongolo Namhla Diale

Nkululeko Tshirumbula Vuyo Radebe

Denise Zimba Mary Gumede

Thando Thabethe Nolwazi Buzo

Main cast

Actor Role

Mnqobi Duma Bafana "Fana" Mabaso

Andisiwe Dweba Gertrude "Getty" Diale

Vusi Kunene Jack Mabaso

Kopa Makgae Moreri "Mrekza" Makhafola

Letoya Makhene Matshidiso "Tshidi" Mogale

Chiedza Mhende Wandile Radebe

Brenda Mhlongo Nandi Mabaso

Zoe Mthiyane Zitha Langa

Pearl Monama Sipheshle "Sphe" Cele-Moroka

Moopi Mothibeli Smangaliso "Smanga" Moroka

Luyanda Mzazi Lesedi Diale

Musa Ngema Mazwi Moroka

Ivy Nkutha Florence "Gog'Flo" Diale

Ronnie Nyakale Thembinkosi "Cosmo" Diale

Manaka Ranaka Lucy Diale

Rapulana Seiphemo Mziwoxolo "Tau" Mogale

Recurring cast

Actor Role

Schelaine Bennett Zoe Phillips

Terence Bridgett Michael Phillips

Joshua Dukwah Jason

Nicole Fortuin Pamela "Pam" Phillips

Abigail Kubeka Zondiwe Mogale

Noluva Ntapu Patricia

Donovan Pietersen Brandon Phillips

Unknown Actor Yster

Source: Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia (updated July 1, 2018)

It is important to interrogate cultural representation in the media because it is often a vehicle for the construction of identity (Currie and Markovitz, 1993: 91), especially among young people. According to Dimitriadis (2009: 65) “young people today are using contemporary media to define themselves and to map their daily lives in ways that often confound adults”. As noted by Strinati (1995: 14), commercial media has the capacity of promoting and foisting contemporary ideals and social creations as normal. Therefore, the significance of Generation: The Legacy as the chosen case study lies in the role it plays in media culture as a site for the construction of ideas and values which are diametrically opposed to indigenous values. The implication of this is that media representation has the potential to project and normalise cultural values of hegemonic forces through its recurring circulation in the media. But as can be seen the question of what constitutes reality remains a contentious issue (Lamuedra & O’Donnell, 2013). For instance, while some scholars argue that what is shown in soap opera represents reality apparently because of its

“cultural proximity” (La Pastina & Straubhaar, 2005), others such as Fourie (2007), contends that media representations contains some elements of truth and fiction. Soap operas in the main, are often “exaggerated, far-fetched, stretching things, over the top, overboard, extreme, even ridiculous or surreal” (Lamuedra & O’Donnell, 2013: 63). It could be inferred from the literature review that although soap opera attempts to reflect everyday life social behaviour, what it reflects or represents “may or may not actually be the case but rather to what the dominant culture believes to be the case, to what is generally accepted as credible, suitable, proper” (Gledhill, 2003:).

Final Thoughts The primary objective of this chapter was to provide a better understanding of cultural representation in soap opera. The various perspectives to media representation were discussed. Using Hall’s (1997) approach it was established that media representations basically attempt to do two things: Firstly, reflect reality or pre-existing meanings of ‘the real’” (Orgad, 2014). Secondly, Media representations are constructions of reality. In other words, media including soap opera constructs social reality or give things meaning by “framing images of reality in a predictable and patterned way” (McQuail, 1994: 331). As evinced from literature media representation serves as veritable tool to normalise and popularise dominant ideologies (Gramsci 1971). The literature review suggests that media representations presents verisimilitude that is, “what may or may not actually be the case but rather to what the dominant culture believes to be the case, to what is generally accepted as credible, suitable, proper” (Gledhill, 2003: 360). What emerged from the literature is that what is represented is determined by someone mainly the one who owns the means of representation. On how the audience interpret or perceive media texts we examined the two main perspective of perception: Gibson’s Bottom-Up Theory which suggests that perception is an inherent process which does not require learning. Gibson holds that humans have sufficient information in their environment to form an opinion about a new stimulus. On the other hand, Gregory in his Top down Processing Theory, argued that humans construct their perception by relying on previous experience. In other words, perception is not a direct natural process, but has to be processed based on stored information. Gregory’s theory offers a plausible explanation for the process of explanation in that it incorporates the natural cognitive processes involved in making

73 sense of a phenomenon. The literature review also explored the tensions among theorists over how the audience engage with media texts. In one end of the dialectics, are theorists who strongly hold that audience members are not just passive consumers of media text but actually engage with media messages. The active audience theorists contend that audience members in their interaction with media texts are selective (Klapper, 1960; Levy, 1983), independent and often obstinate impervious to influence (Bauer, 1964), and uses media texts to gratify specific needs (Katz et al 1974). Stuart Hall (1973, 1980) argues that the audience does not simply passively accept any media message warts and all. The audience, Hall insists, have the capacity and latitude to agree or disagree with media texts or even construct a contrary meaning that is completely opposite to what the media producers or encoders might have intended. On the other hand, the passive audience theorists, perceive the audience as a powerless victims to plethora texts from a seemingly insidious and sinister media. Gebner et al. (1989) cultivation theory highlights not only the influence of the media over the audience but also the helplessness of the audience in the face of a barrage of persuasive media offerings. While there are empirical evidences to support the activeness of the audience with regards to media consumption, I agree with Abiocca (2016: 51) “that the active audience position is overextended and often trivial”. Interestingly, some of the proponents of the active audience theory, have come to the realisation that the audience member is not after all, “an unconstructed master of his or her cultural faith" (Blumler et al. 1985: 259). The so called “active audience" may in fact be "more affected" by the media (Levy & Windahl, 1984). Essentially, the Audience theories submit that media representations are not a closed process but open to different interpretations and that their meanings are not fixed. The audience can accept the intended meaning of the text or reject it or even create an opposite meaning of the text (Hall, 1973). This chapter also focused on soap opera discussing its evolution and characteristics. From its early days when it was confined to America and later Europe, soap opera has become a global phenomenon occupying primetime on television across the globe. Although soap opera is now a universal television product which has been adapted to suit local context in many countries, the genre retains some features such as format, theme, narrative pattern which set it apart from other segmented television programmes. The chapter also discussed how audience perceives soaps. As highlighted in the review the audience are not just mere passive

74 receivers of soap operas. They play roles. The chapter discussed Gramsci’s theory of hegemony and it was highlighted that soap operas function not only as entertainment vehicles but also a potent site for generating and normalising so called modern culture, which often is the culture of the dominant group in society. The next chapter will focus on research methodology used in the study

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1. Introduction

This chapter describes the research methods used to realise the objectives of the study. It begins by outlining the adopted research design, sampling techniques, methods of data collection and data analysis, ethical considerations and limitations of the study. This study made use of content analysis and survey methods. Wimmer and Dominick (2006:150), consider content analysis an efficient way to investigate the content of the media. They argue that “many content analyses are in the portrayal of a certain group, phenomenon, trait, or characteristic is assessed against a standard taken from real life”. Content analysis is therefore, considered appropriate for this study given that the core of the study is the content of a drama. The survey method on the other hand, enable us understand the subjective feelings of the public (Floyed & Fowler 2013) towards representation of South African tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy. Survey offers a measurable or numeric data that enables us describe the attitudes, or views of a particular population by selecting and analysing a section of that population.

3.2. Study Area

Schindler and Cooper (2003: 186) describe the study area as the physical geographical place where research is done. This study was conducted in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Eastern Cape Province is the third most populous in the country with a population of 7 million people. According to the 2016 census there are I.8 million households in the Province. Eastern Cape ranks lowest in all major indicators of economic and social developments (HSRC, 2012). Participants for the survey were drawn from Alice in Raymond Mhlaba Municipality. The Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality was established in 2016 following the amalgamation of Nkonkobe Local Municipality and Nxuba Local Municipality. It comprises mainly small towns including Adelaide, Alice, Bedford, Fort Beaufort, Hogsback, Middledrift, and Seymour. Alice is host to the oldest black university in South Africa and has a

76 population of 151,143 according to the 2011 census (Stats SA, 2011). The study population consists of 15143 and 7000 students of the university of Fort Hare who resides in Alice and watch Generation: The Legacy regularly. The field research work took place in the Alice community over a seven-week period from June 2017 and March 2018. Figure 1.2 below is the map illustrating the study area or location.

Figure 2: Map of study Area. Source: Goggle Map

3.3. Research Design

A research design or ‘strategy of inquiry’ (Denzin & Lincoln, 2012) is the roadmap that “provides specific direction for procedures in a research design” (Creswell 2013: 12). A research design is a chief aspect in the research process. Therefore, a research design contains the overall plan of the investigation used for collecting data, linking the data to the research questions and ultimately reaching conclusions (Burton, 2000; Yin, 2003:19; Jones & Lyons, 2004; Kothari, 2004; Creswell, 2014). The research

77 design adopted for this study is the mixed methods design. There are several terms that are used by different scholars in referring to this research design and these include; “multi-methods”, “triangulation” and “qualitative and qualitative methods” (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003). This study adopted the term “mixed methods”. Creswell (2014: 4) defines a mixed methods research design as “an approach to enquiry involving collecting of both qualitative and quantitative data, integrating the two forms of data, and using distinct designs that may involve philosophical assumptions and theoretical frameworks”. The Mixed methods research is a research in which the investigator collects and analyses data, integrates the findings and draws inferences using both qualitative and quantitative approaches (Tashakkori and Creswell 2007:3). Mixed-methods design is regarded as a key element in improving social sciences research and is becoming increasingly recognised as the third major research approach since it incorporates several methods of gathering data (Gorard, 2004; Johnson, Onwuegbuzie & Turner, 2007). The mixed methods research was chosen because of the complexity of the phenomena studied. Cultural representation on television drama is a concept which means many things to different people, therefore using a singular approach will not generate a broader perspective that lead to a reliable conclusion.

Literature shows that a mixed methods design provides a deeper understanding of a research problem, enhances description, validates and explicates findings from another approach, engenders greater confidence in conclusions, and provides richer/more meaningful/more useful answers to research questions (Gorard 2004; Onwuegbuzie & Turner, 2007; Cresswell, 2014). According to Bryman (2007) combining qualitative and quantitative findings can enable us to forge an overall or negotiated account of the findings. The combination of qualitative, and quantitative methods ensure that conclusions were drawn not based on subjective content analysis but also drawing from audience. Therefore, a mixed methods design is the most appropriate design for this study. Consequently, this study used both content categories and questionnaires to gather data. The questionnaires have both open ended and close ended questions. The coding sheets for the content analysis were used to gather qualitative data. It is significant for this study to use these methods as they both help to answer the objectives of the study.

3.4. Population

A study population is defined as “all items in any field of inquiry,” (Kothari, 2004: 55). Bless and Higson-Smith (2000: 84) describe population as the entire set of objects or people which is the focus of the research. Population includes “the entire collection of all the observations of interest (this could be people, objects or events) to the researcher” (Burns & Burns 2008: 182). According to Churchill and Brown (2007: 351), all the individuals or objects that meet certain selected requirements for being part of a certain group, constitute the survey population. The accessible population or units of analysis for the content analysis aspect of this study is all television drama serial, available in English and vernacular shown on SABC and other open air and satellite stations in South Africa. One drama serial will be selected from the public open air station. The target population for the survey comprises the entire residents of Alice which was 15 143 in 2011 (Stats SA, 2011). Welman & Kruger (2005: 126) describe target population as “the population to which the researcher ideally would like to generalize his or her own results”. The study population therefore comprised of 15 143 viewers of Generation: The Legacy on SABC1.

3.5. Sampling procedure

Sampling refers to the procedure of choosing a percentage from the total number of elements in the “target population for the purpose of being able to draw general conclusions about the total target population” (Parasuraman, Grewal & Krishnan 2007: 332). Sampling gives the researcher the latitude to extract a representative information from a large population by examining a small portion of the population. Kothari (2004: 57) describes sampling procedure as “the technique to be used in selecting the items for the sample.” Sampling according to Latham (2007) “is the act, process, or technique of selecting a suitable sample, or a representative part of a population for the purpose of determining parameters or characteristics of the whole population”. Sampling allows “generalizations to people and events that have not been observed” (Babbie & Mouton, 2001: 19). There are two major types of sampling: non-probability and probability sampling methods (Kumar, 2005). The non-probability sampling method is defined as sampling procedure which does not afford any basis for estimating the probability that each item in the population has of being included in the

79 sample (Kothari, 2004: 59). In Probability sampling however, a research sample is randomly selected. This method emphasises impartiality in the selection of sample. In other words, Probability sampling provides a system that ensures “every element in the population has an equal chance of being selected” (Ary et al., 2009: 150). Similarly, the chance of being selected is not dependent upon the choice of another element in the sample, meaning that “the selection or rejection of one element does not affect the inclusion or exclusion of another” (Kumar 2005: 169). There are four methods/techniques which fall under probability sampling which are; simple random sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling and the systematic sampling. The probability method of simple random sampling will be used to select both the survey and content analysis samples. Aiming at 95% confidence level and a 5% error tolerance, the researcher used Raosoft, an online software to calculate and draw a sample of 350 from the Alice community (Population: 151,143) comprising the university community (students and staffs).

3.6. Data collection methods

This study investigates representations of South African tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy using content analysis and questionnaire survey. Content analysis was used to analyse and interpret the contents of the selected episodes of Generation: The Legacy according to some mutually exclusive, exhaustive and reliable content categories adopted from Wimmer and Dominick (1987), while the questionnaire survey was used to gather information from the sample population.

3.6.1. Content Analysis

Content analysis provides an unobtrusive means of collecting data as it does not allow the researcher to intrude on the object of study. Babbie and Mouton (2012: 375) describe unobtrusive measures as “data gathered by means that do not involve the direct acquisition of information from research subjects. In order to achieve this objective, 20 episodes of Generation: The Legacy aired between March 2016 and April 2018 were content analysed. The episodes were randomly selected from a list of 264 episodes. The unit of analysis was every speaking or named character of each episode. The 20 episodes were downloaded from YouTube and watched over a 30 day period and coded along specified content categories. To be successful in any 80 content analysis, all content categories should be mutually exclusive, exhaustive and reliable (Wimmer & Dominick, 2013). Deriving from literature review, five major content categories were established for this study: language, values, social norms, ancestral beliefs, and traditional institutions. “Every speaking (i.e., utters one or more words discernibly on screen) or named character” (Smith et al., 2015) was evaluated along the identified categories. Standardised coding sheets were used to facilitate coding as well as allow the researchers to classify relevant data by placing the established nominal values for the sub-variables in predetermined columns for each content category. The coding was done by the researchers and four other assistants who understood the language and culture embedded in the films.

3.6.2. Survey

The aim of the survey was to ascertain how the audience perceives the representation of South African tribal culture in the soap opera, Generation: The Legacy. A survey aims primarily at understanding the personal feelings of the public (Floyed, 2013). Surveys are effective tools of eliciting information that is amenable to coding quantification and analysis in order to arrive at a conclusion. Survey is therefore appropriate for this study as it provides measurable or numeric data that enables us to describe the perceptions and attitudes and views of the population of this study to the subject of concern. In the light of the objective of this study which is to describe the characteristics of the study population, the cross-sectional design was adopted. A weakness of cross-sectional study is that it is merely “predictive, correlational design” (Shaughnessy, Zechmeister & Jeanne 2011) as it is only able to describe a population feature once without providing the reasons for such “population features”. Specifically, the survey method was used to determine respondents’ current perception and attitudes to representation of South African tribal culture on Generation: The Legacy. Essentially, the technique was used to provide insights into the attitudes of our sampled population, establish relationships and variances in attitudes among different populations and also to examine for variations in attitudes over time. The method also helped to identify factors influencing representations of South African tribal culture in soap opera. With this technique the researcher was able to provide numeric description of respondents’ views and to measure relationship among two or more

81 variables or set of scores (Creswell, 2012) and arrive at generalisation (Fowler 2008). There are four main types of surveys, namely, “personal interviews, telephone surveys, mail surveys and self-administered surveys” (Cant, Gerber, Nel & Kotze 2005: 94). In this study the questionnaire survey was used as the principal tool for collecting data from respondents. Cant et al. (2005: 147) describe questionnaire as “a set of questions used to gather data from respondents” This data can be collected through a form which respondents are asked to complete (Kumar 2005:129). This study made use of self-administered questionnaires which refer to “research questionnaires personally delivered to the respondent by the interviewer but completed by a respondent with no interviewer involvement” (Chigamba & Fatoki, 2011: 69).

Self-administered questionnaires technique is considered appropriate for “describing the characteristics of a large population, guaranteeing anonymity and privacy of the respondents, ensuring higher response rate than other data collection techniques and relatively less expensive” (Cooper & Schindler 2003: 369). The questionnaires contained a mix of open-ended and closed-ended questions. Open-ended questions are questions in which the respondents have the autonomy of expressing their own opinions in answering a question (Cooper & Schindler 2006: 351). Open ended questions allows a researcher “to ask a question without any prompting with regards to the range of answers expected and they enable the respondents to fully express their views freely and to give detailed and precise information” (Welman et al. 2005: 174). Open-ended question is considered particularly effective when a researcher expect respondents to describe their “attitudes and opinions in their own words” (Du Plooy, 2009: 158). Closed-ended question on the other hand, supply respondents with “a range of answers to choose from, either verbally or from a show card” (Welman, Kruger, & Mitchell, 2005: 175). The response could also be mutually exclusive. Some scholars hold that closed-ended questions lead to better understanding of the “meaning of the questions” and allow respondents to choose answers within a unified structure and thus “responses can consequently be compared with one another” (De Vos, Strydom, Founche, & Delport, 2005: 175). The strength of closed-ended questions lies in its flexibility in measuring dichotomous variables and providing answers which can easily be pre-coded. ” Kazi and Khalid

(2012: 515) describe pre--coded questions “as those in which numbers are assigned to a given answer”. Questionnaires are not only efficient in gathering information on the perceptions of the subject of study but also cost effective in gathering huge data (Denscombe, 2003: 159). But some scholars such as Pule (2009: 46) has identified the weakness of questionnaire for restricting participation to only a literate segment of the population with potential for “high degree of self- selection; leading to a comparatively low response/ return rate”. The questionnaire for this study was designed by the researcher using previously validated questionnaire. Thereafter, a pilot study was conducted in which 40 questionnaires representing 10% of the study population were distributed to a small representative group in Alice campus of the University of Fort Hare which is an integral part of the survey area.

3.7. Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure involved watching the selected episodes of the drama and coding their content along specified content categories. The coding sheet was used as the data collection instrument. Coding as defined by Wimmer and Dominick (1987), is the placing of unit of analysis into a content category. In this study, coding was done by establishing nominal values to represent each of the content categories and the sub variables under each of them. Standardised coding sheets was used to facilitate coding as well as allow the researcher to classify relevant data by placing the established nominal values for the sub-variables in predetermined columns for each content category. The coding was carried out by the researcher and four South African research assistants trained by the researcher. South African coders were selected for this research because they have better understanding of the cultural values and can easily identify aspects of indigenous South African culture presented in the drama. The researcher with the help of four research assistants distributed 384 self- administered questionnaires to Alice residents who watch Generation: The Legacy. In some instances, the research assistants and the researcher had to assist the respondents to complete the questionnaire by asking the questions and recording the responses since some of them were old and could not write. In some instances, there was a need to explain the questions in vernacular (Xhosa) so that the respondents could understand the questions since the study was carried out in a rural setting. In

83 some cases, the questionnaires were handed directly to the respondents, they were given time to read the instructions and to complete the questionnaires by themselves at that time or when it was convenient for them. The researcher and the assistants then followed up the respondents to collect the questionnaires on another day.

3.6. Data analysis

Computer based data analysis remains a popular route for most researchers in analysing qualitative data, however traditional manual data preparation remains relevant. Data analysis is defined as the “computation of certain indices or measures along with searching for patterns of relationship that exist among the data groups” (Kothari, 2004: 122). The Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS version 23.0) was used in the analysis with assistance from a doctoral student in the department of Statistics, University of Fort Hare. A parallel data analysis approach was adopted for this study. Analyses of both data sets (content and survey analysis) were carried out separately and the findings were subsequently compared and consolidated at interpretation stage. The content analysis data was first analysed using the content categories this was followed by the analysis of the survey data mostly through descriptive statistics.

Descriptive statistics are generally utilised to arrange, describe and sum up quantitative data extracted from respondents (Armstrong & Kotler 2006: 103). Boone and Boone (2012) recommends the use of descriptive statistics such as mean to measure central tendency and standard deviation for measuring the variability of responses on the survey instrument such as Likert scale. Descriptive statistics include frequencies, tables and percentages, were computed from the variables. In this research the various forms of descriptive statistics including measures of central tendency, variance were used to summarise and compare variables such as respondents’ demographics, perceptions and viewership patterns. Descriptive statistics assisted in unravelling respondents’ opinion for each measurement construct with regards to perception of the representations of South African tribal culture on Generation: The Legacy and the impact of exposure to the soap opera on audience attitude to indigenous culture or identity. Inferential statistics, Chi-square as well multi

84 linear regression analysis were used to explain variance within groups and relationships among variables. The researcher also performed normality tests, reliability and validity tests. Most statistical tests follows a normal distribution. Therefore, before beginning advanced statistical analysis such as regression analysis it was considered necessary to perform normality tests. Normality tests were performed through measuring skewness and kurtosis. Normality of data can be assessed in two ways graphically or numerically (Park, 2008 cited in Lee, 2008). In this study normality of data was assessed numerically and presented in the form of a table. Lee (2008: 63) argues that; “Skewness characterizes the degree of asymmetry of a distribution around its mean. Kurtosis characterises the relative peakedness or flatness of a distribution compare to the normal distribution. As a rule of thumb, if the skewness is within range of +/-2 and kurtosis is within range of +/-3, the data is assumed to be normal”. The data for this study was assumed to be fit for further statistical analysis because the study constructs are normally distributed as they were within the recommended ranges (+/-2 skewness and +/-3 kurtosis). According to Al- Sheheri (2012), to ensure that research instruments used for the study such as questionnaires, have internal consistency and stability, there is need to evaluate their reliability and validity. Therefore, the measurement scales used for assessing the study objectives namely episodes of Generation: The Legacy broadcast in SABC1, respondents’ perception of representation of South African tribal culture, and audience perceptions on the effect of watching Generation: The Legacy on the indigenous culture were tested for reliability. To measure the reliability of study constructs, I study adopted four-point-Likert scale as a rule of thumb (Hair, Bush & Ortinau, 2007). The Cronbach alpha for the study constructs ranged between 0.553 (high-moderate reliability) to 0.980 (excellent reliability), and which is above the recommended value of >0.50, (Hair et al., 2007; Nadi et al., 2012). Therefore, the study constructs were considered reliable and indicate proper internal construct-reliability. This study adopted simple and multiple regression analysis to test relationships between variables and attain the research objectives.

Table 1: Reliability Test for scale item consistency

Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

All Sections .791 32

Section B .855 9

Section C .705 24

3.7. Reliability and Validity of the study

The concept of reliability and validity is crucial in that it helps to answer the question: “How can an inquirer persuade his or her audiences that the research findings of an inquiry are worth paying attention to?” (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The reliability and validity of a research project speaks to the quality and authenticity of its findings. Both reliability and validity help to explain not only the strength of the data but also to evaluate the quality of quantitative research. Kazi and Khalid (2012: 514) describe validity as the “degree to which an assessment measures what it is supposed to measure”. In other word, “Validity refers to whether an instrument actually measures what it is supposed to measure, given the context in which it is applied (Thomas, Nelson & Silverman, 2011: 193; Babbie & Mouton, 2001: 17). Reliability on the other hand, focuses on the replicability of research findings, that is, whether another study can obtain similar results using the same methods or conditions (Ritchie & Lewis, 2010: 270). In qualitative research on the other hand, quality of research is determined using principles such as neutrality, credibility, dependability and applicability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). To provide “conceptual clarity” a statistician and two experts were engaged to assess and validate the research instrument. The questionnaire was then pretested in a pilot study “to identify and eliminate potential problems” (Zikmund & Babin, 2010). The pilot study necessitated a broad review of the research instrument. This procedure ensured internal validity of the study. In this study external validity was achieved by the selection of a representative sample of units of analysis from the target population. Reliability was also enhanced by construction of consistent and effective measuring instruments.

3.8. Limitations and Delimitations

This study is not an analysis of the form, plot, setting or narrative structure of Generation: The Legacy, nor does it address the thematic thrusts of the soap, but mainly focuses on ascertaining the representations of south African tribal culture in the soap and the factors that promote these representations. Additionally, the study assessed how the audience perceives South African tribal representations on the soap opera. The issue of negative representations of South African tribal culture pervades all the soap operas in South Africa. To determine how South African tribal culture is represented in soap operas would require at least, a random sample from the target soap population. However because of time and financial constraints, the study was conducted in one town, Alice, within the Raymond Mhlaba Municipality Eastern Cape Province, and restricted to only one soap. This is an important limitation of the study as we cannot confidently state how soaps represent South African tribal culture. Therefore the conclusions of this study with regards to representation South African tribal culture will be suggestive and not definitive.

3.9. Ethical Consideration

Ethics generally deals with the principles of right or wrong behaviour (Fieser, 2004 & Dowden, 2011 cited in Gallagher, 2005). According to Fourie (2009: 35) “ethics deals with giving credit where credit is due”. Ethics also deals with ethical treatment of research participants. Every researcher is obliged to protect the human rights of participants during research. In other words, it is the responsibility of the researcher to ensure that participants are accorded dignity (Patton & Cochrane, 2002; Burns & Grove, 2003). In this study, deliberate and considerable efforts were made to incorporate recommended ethical principles in the planning, conducting and reporting of the results of the research. The researcher sought and obtained clearance from the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC) before embarking on the study. Ethics generally emphasises consent, confidentiality and objectivity. Informed Consent. Participants were duly informed of the nature and objectives of study and what was expected of them (Babbie, 2010). Thereafter, participants signed an informed consent form to show that they understood what has been explained before they engaged in

87 the research. In line with the ethical guidance, participation was on a voluntary basis and names of respondents were kept anonymous.

Confidentiality Confidentiality involves ensuring that information extracted from participants either written or spoken, is not used outside the purpose for which it was generated or revealed in such a way that it will cause harm to the participants (De Vos, Strydom, Fouche & Delport, 2005). The issue of confidentiality was discussed with all participants of this study. A confidentiality agreement was signed by participants involved and they were assured that their identities will not be revealed during the collection and analysis of data. Participants were informed of the nature of study and were allowed to freely decline or withdraw from the study if they so decide. Participants were not misled about the study and were treated with respect and dignity and they had the freedom of choice to volunteer to participate or decline. It is also important to note that proper acknowledgement was given to authors for the use of their recorded works. The researcher ensured that the study is relevant both to the field of communication studies and development of the society. Appropriate research design that is consistent with the research objectives were used which helped to ensure the integrity of data collected. The researcher also refrained from making inferences not supported by the data. The “trustworthiness” of the research report was reinforced by outlining exact procedures, including how participants were selected, research methodology applied and the significance of choosing the said methodology as well as the step-by-step process followed in collecting, analysing and interpreting data.

3.10. Research questions linked to research method. Research Question Research Justification Sources Method 1. How is South Questionnaire This method will enable us to 350 African tribal culture survey obtain and quantify the residents represented in representations of South of Alice Generation: The African tribal culture in community Legacy? Generation the legacy

Content This instrument will tell us how selected Analysis elements of South African episodes tribal culture are being represented in Generation: The Legacy the spoken and body language of the performers

2. What elements of Questionnaire This method will enable us 350 South African tribal survey probe and ascertain the factors residents culture is influencing the representations of Alice characterised and of South African tribal culture community portrayed in in Generation: The legacy Generation: The Legacy? Content This method will help us to analysis provide evidence on the way selected and manner culture elements episodes such as language, music ceremonies etc are represented in Generation: The Legacy

3. What factors are Questionnaire This method will enable us 350 responsible for the survey probe and ascertain the factors residents way tribal African influencing the representations of Alice culture is represented of South African tribal culture community in Generation: The in Generation: The Legacy Legacy?

4. How do audience Questionnaire This method will help us tap 350 members perceive survey into the subjective feelings of residents the portrayal of viewers of Generation the of Alice traditional South legacy to understand what they community African culture in think about the representation Generation The of traditional culture in the Legacy? drama. To further investigate the perception and attitude of residents on representations of South African tribal culture on Generation: The legacy.

5. To what extent Questionnaire It will provide data to probe 350 does Generation: The survey whether Generation: The residents Legacy construct and legacy is a site for the of Alice promote hegemonic construction and promotion of community culture? dominant culture.

Source: Author, 2017

3.11. Chapter summary

This chapter outlined the study’s research focus and provided a detailed explanation of the methodology applied to realise the aim and objectives of the study. The chapter provided justification for the chosen research design (mixed methods) and went on to discuss the population of the study, sampling procedure, data collection and data

90 analysis instruments. It further described the actual research processes including the statistical methods used in the study. The chapter also discussed the limitations of the study and the ethical considerations that underpinned the research. The next Chapter focus on the data presentation and analysis

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

4.1. Introduction

The aim of this study was to ascertain how South African tribal culture is represented in the popular soap opera, Generation: The Legacy and how the audience perceive these representations. Generation: The Legacy, was created and produced by Mfundi Vundla and made its public debut on SABC1 in 1994. It has been on air ever since except the interval between 30 September 2014 to 30 November 2014, when it was rested due to disputes over wages involving some of its actors. It re-emerged in December 2014 with a new name Generation: The legacy and brand new cast including some of South Africa‘s well known screen figures. The drama tells the riveting story of a very ambitious, uncompromising consummate business woman, Karabo Moroka (Connie Ferguson) and her conniving and equally ambitious husband, Tau Mogale (Rapulana Seiphemo). This influential couple is determined to dominate the cut-throat media business by leveraging on the legacy of late business mogul and visionary, Paul Moroka, (Karabo’s father) who built the first African-owned media enterprise. Unknown to Karabo, her husband, Tau is secretly nursing and scheming to establish a legacy of his own. In the midst of this drama is the conflict between tribal culture and popular culture. Critics argue that the representation of South African tribal institutions, values social norms and ancestral beliefs on the popular soap opera tilt towards the negative. Some critics have gone ahead to argue that the soap is constructing or reimagining a society which scoffs at traditional values and beliefs of the indigenous people of South Africa. Using the data collection instruments of content analysis and survey, the researcher content analysed 20 episodes of Generation: The Legacy aired between March 2016 and April 2018 according to specified content categories and thereafter, surveyed 384 respondents in order to ascertain audience attitude and perceptions about the show particularly, the representation of tribal African culture. Out of the 384 questionnaires 350 were returned representing 91% response rate.

Responses were measured using existing scale such as the Likert Scale (Du Plooy, 2009). The data was analysed using the parallel data analysis approach where data sets from content analysis and survey were analysed separately. Five major content categories were established for this study. The unit of analysis was every speaking or named character of each episode. The survey data was analysed using descriptive statistics (Boone & Boone, 2012). This enabled the researcher to summarise and compare variables such as respondents’ demographics, perceptions and viewership patterns. Inferential statistics, Chi-square and multiple regression analyses were used to explain variance within groups and relationships among variables (See Section B). This chapter therefore, provides results of the data analysis and the key findings collected while analysing Generation: The Legacy in accordance with the research questions and objectives. First, we present the data analysis of the Content Analysis in Section A, and followed by the Survey in Section B

4.2. Presentation of data: SECTION A

4.3. Content Analysis.

This study analysed the representation of South African tribal culture in the popular soap opera, Generation: The Legacy along specified content categories. In order to achieve this objective, 20 episodes of Generation: The Legacy aired between March 2016 and April 2018 were content analysed. The episodes were randomly selected from a list of 264 episodes found on YouTube. The selected 20 episodes were then downloaded from YouTube and watched over a 60 day period and coded along specified content categories. Five major content categories were established for this study: language, traditional institution, values, social norms, and ancestral beliefs. The unit of analysis was every speaking or named character in each episode. Every speaking (i.e., utters one or more words discernibly on screen) or named character” (Smith et al., 2015) was evaluated along the identified categories. Standardised coding sheets were used to facilitate coding as well as allow the researcher to classify relevant data by placing the established nominal values for the sub-variables in predetermined columns for each content category.

Every spoken word that refers to a sub-variable being analysed was coded as 5 while 0 was recorded when such was not present. The values for each item (sub-variable) were calculated and the frequency in percentage provided a measure of the representation of such variable for each episode. The coding was done by the researcher and four other assistants who understood the language and culture embedded in the films.

4.3.1. Representation of tribal African language spoken in Generation

Tribal language was defined in this study as any of the 9 indigenous languages spoken in South Africa, namely Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. For each episode I analysed the indigenous language spoken by each character to ascertain the rate of usage. Every speaking (i.e., utters one or more words discernibly on screen) is coded as five points. The mean provide the measure of representation. Higher numbers of points reflected a positive usage of a particular language. As shown in table 2, the most frequent indigenous language spoken in Generations: The Legacy in descending order, are isiZulu (30%), Sotho (26%) isiXhosa (11%) and SeTswana (6%). The characters frequently switch between English and another language and vice versa, often within same sentence. There are English subtitles when the characters switch to any of the African languages. The ‘code switching’ is in keeping with the theme of Generation: The Legacy which is basically to reflect everyday life of the people living in Johannesburg and the surrounding townships.

Table 2: Representation of tribal African language in Generation: The Legacy by frequency of usage

Episodes siXhosa

isiZulu i Tswana Venda Sotho Northern Sotho Ndebele SiSwati Tsonga 56 25 0 15 0 20 0 0 0 0

66 10 5 10 20 0 0 0 0

77 15 10 15 0 40 0 0 0 0

78 10 5 20 0 40 0 0 0 0

79 15 10 10 0 50 0 0 0 0

86 20 10 10 0 35 0 0 0 0

118 25 10 5 0 20 0 0 0 0

237 30 5 0 0 30 0 0 0 0

188 50 5 5 0 30 0 0 0 0

213 50 15 5 0 20 0 0 0 0

251 45 25 0 0 20 0 0 0 0

252 35 15 10 0 25 0 0 0 0

260 45 25 0 0 10 0 0 0 0

40 50 10 0 0 20 0 0 0 0

43 30 10 5 0 15 0 0 0 0

49 35 10 0 0 30 0 0 0 0

84 45 15 5 0 30 0 0 0 0

101 35 10 0 0 20 0 0 0 0

102 25 15 5 0 10 0 0 0 0

59 35 10 0 0 30 0 0 0 0

Total 600 220 120 0 515 0 0 0 0

Mean 30 11 6 0 26 0 0 0 0

4.3.2. Representation South African tribal institutions in Generation: The Legacy.

In this study, traditional institutions refer to institution of Marriage, Monarchy or Chieftaincy, and Family. Representation of Marriage was measured using two items: Repression (i.e. verbal/nonverbal utterances and acts that communicate repression to another character), Patriarchal (any overt references or acts that portray the marriage institution as pandering to patriarchy or utterances that suggest that marital rites and practices or the marriage institution itself is male-controlled. Representation of Monarchy was measured with two words that traditional rulers are frequently framed: Exploitative (i.e. verbal/nonverbal utterances and acts that communicate exploitation to another character) and Domineering (whether the character incites or entice another character to take action or object heavy-handed decisions). We found that Generations: The Legacy, generally projects the traditional marriage institution as patriarchal in which the female gender often is subservient to men. Table 3 below presents how tribal institutions are represented by characters in the sampled episodes. About 11.5% of the characters across the sampled episodes uttered words that suggest traditional marriage institution was repressive. Their utterances seems to suggest that traditional marriage codes are oppressive. The characters are mainly the upwardly mobile working class wives and young educated singles. 7% of the characters spoke words that suggest that traditional marriage institution and its mores are underpinned by patriarchal ideology and women are often at the receiving end. For instance, in Episode 237 (2016), when it was discovered that Mazwi the presumed heir of the Moroka’s family was impotent, the elders of the family quickly devised a way to get his younger brother impregnate Mazwi’s wife (Sphe). This is supposedly a traditional way of ensuring continuity of the royal blood and keeping the secrets of the family within the family. “The old way that is tried and tested is the best” (episode 237, 2016) Cele (Sphe’s uncle) insisted. But this will be at the expense of Sphe’s dignity and emotional wellbeing.

Sphe to the elders “I think we’d be comfortable, if the child is conceived though IVF. I can’t sleep with my husband’s brother, it feels wrong”

Cele to Sphe-“Don’t be ashamed my Child, you are not doing anything wrong”

Cele – ‘’This modern method (IVF) is too risky, Doctors are also human they make mistakes, what if they impregnate you with the wrong seed? Or someone at the clinic speak about it and spreads the gossips? The old way that is tried and tested is the best.

The narratives suggest that the female gender is always at the receiving end of tradition as Uncle Cele and the elders insisted on having it their way in spite of Sphe’s protestations. Here, the elders represents the traditionalists, while Sphe stands for the new school. Again, in episode 213 (2017) when Sphe tried to walk out of her troubled marriage she was prevailed so as not to bring shame to the family. In an engaging dialogue with her brother Fana and Uncle Bab’Cele, we see at play, the patriarchal underpinnings of tribal culture and its circumscribing effect on women rights.

Fana- ‘’what do you mean? About the alliance between the families’’

Sphe- ‘’what they stand to lose, if I jeopardise the alliance’’ and how I would publicly embarrass them, you’d swear am the first person to get divorced. Marriages fail all the time”

Bab’cele- “She owes the family much”

Sphe to the elders- “I have to do what is right for my child that means getting out of this marriage. Mothers are supposed to put their children first, I don’t want Rorisang to grow up in dysfunctional family. So the divorce is going through, my mind is made up”

Bab’ Molefe- “We Morokas don’t divorce, it is not our ways”

Bab’Cele- “We Cele also believe in family, we work through our problems”

Cele- “Families pull together in times of c crises, when will you realise this is not about you’’ (Episode 213, 2017)

Here again, the woman is characterised as living for the family, her primary intention being to protect the interest of the family even if she has to suffer loss of personal freedom and some indignities to bring it to pass. Unfortunately, she cannot even get

97 support from her own family. For instance, Sphe’s father, Jack Mabaso, even though he is aware of the trauma the daughter was going through in her marriage insist she must stay in the marriage albeit to help him achieve his evil intentions. In episode 260(2017), we see Jack making a seemingly win-win overture to her daughter over her marital crisis, but this seemingly fatherly intervention is only but a ploy to use his daughter to actualise his business plan. The riveting narrative below exposes the Janus-faced tendencies of heteronormative society.

Jack to Sphe- ‘’my child, if you want to be empowered stay in the marriage’’

Sphe- ‘’ you didn’t understand me after all’’

Jack- ‘’ I did, I know what is best for Rorisang’’.

Sphe- ‘’of course’’

Jack- ‘’ she is the heir’’

Sphe- ‘’Rorisang is a girl’’

Jack- ‘’the world is Changing, and the Morokas have already empowered their own women’’

Sphe- ‘’Aunt Karabo?’’

Jack – ‘’yes, I will fight for Rorisang to become an heir, she will be the next Karabo Moroka and I will fight for you in the Cele clan’’ I want you to start up a trust fund for the Cele women, I’ll make sure is adequately funded.

Sphe- ‘’ but you will only do this if I stay in the marriage’’ (my emphasis)

In another episode (252, 2017), Sphe laments to her lover, Kumkani, how traditional marriage could be so repressive especially when you are married to a big traditional family:

Sphe to Gadaffi- “If I knew what I was getting myself into when I was married into the Morokas”

Gadaffi- “It’s not easy to associate with that family”

Sphe- “You can say that again. You have to sacrifice your individuality for the sake of their needs, they really suck it out of you.”

Gadaffi- “that’s what happens with big clans. It’s all about their name, reputation, their money.”

Sphe- “You don’t know how many times great uncle Molefe has told me that. Only he sugar coat it as family loyalty”

Still on the representation of marriage, we see in episode 86(2016), a narrative which paints a picture of how women, married women particularly, who attempts to resist tradition are forced to comply, even in matters as delicate as the rites of passage for a dead relative. As tradition demands, a wife is expected to mourn her dead husband in his home sitting on “the mattress”. So when Karabo’s husband (Zola) died, she was expected to go to her husband house to mourn him and see to the arrangement of his burial but Karabo will have none of that. Even when her uncle (Teboho) insisted she must do the “right thing” (observing the mourning rituals for her husband from his house) Karabo remained adamant: The narrative below is telling:

Uncle Teboho- Karabo – “What are you doing here, you should be at Zola’s place? Who will arrange for your husband’s burial?’’

Karabo-‘’ I will do it from here’’ (her house, my emphasis)

Uncle Teboho –“that’s not how we do things’’

Uncle Teboho- ‘’we have to do things the right way”’. ‘’Karabo should sit on a mattress at Zola’s house’’

Smanga- “’Zola’s family didn’t pay Lobola, they can’t expect that’’

Uncle Teboho- “if you have to bury your husband with dignity, it has to be done from his house” (Episode 86, 2016)

The plea of Karabo’s nephew (Smanga) that she be left alone in her moment of grief served to highlight the helplessness of the woman. The statement, ‘’Aunt Karabo needs to be with her family right now’’, suggests that her aunt was being put under emotional duress because of the oppressive demand of traditional marriage institution. In this scene, Uncle Teboho who is insisting that Karabo follows tradition is portrayed

99 as old-fashioned while, Karabo and her nephew, Smanga are characterised as progressives.

With regards to the institution of chieftaincy, 6% of the characters uttered or communicated words that characterise chiefs or traditional leaders as domineering and always seeking to impose decisions or have their way at all times. The comments are mainly found among characters from the villages or townships were the chiefs have jurisdiction over. In episode 49 (2018), Mazwi, a successful business tycoon and heir apparent of the famous Moroka family and his partners are bent on expanding their business and decided to site their new enterprise on a land already occupied by the Rustenburg community. After series of negotiations, he was able to get the chief of the community on his side but the community members were not prepared to vacate their ancestral land. Then the chief and Mazwi began a carrot and stick move to win the people over.

The Chief to Mazwi – “we have to get Community representatives on our side”.

(A knock on the door… Lesego the community representative walks in)

Chief – “This is Lesego, son of Reetseng. Thanks for coming.”

Mazwi- “I heard you are a very good leader, someone who cares about the community. This development will stimulate economic growth in this area, so we want good leaders like you on board to make it a success. In return, you will be closely involved in the development. You see this way you can make sure some people’s interest are protected and as a family man make some good money to take care of your family.”

Lesego- “Do you want to buy me? Money might be everything to the cities but not here. Here, Land is everything.”

Mazwi- “we are offering you an opportunity to see how you can maximise the use of this land.”

Lesego- “By forcing us to move our homes? Sir, we won’t leave without a fight.”

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Mazwi- “Sir, the Land belong to the Chief he has the final say.

Lesego- and we won’t leave without a fight. We have rights.”

Mazwi- “Not under customary law.”

Lesogo- “The constitution…

Mazwi- “Sir, The constitution is vague on this issue. The court will side with us.”

Lesego- “There is a lot of unused land, why not use that?”

Mazwi- “We need land that’s good for development.”

Lesego- “We won’t let you throw us into a wasteland.

Chief- “You can choose where you want to go and as a compensation. I’ll give you a bigger farm.”

Lesego- Can everyone choose, get more land? Or just me? I mean, if I win them over to you. I won’t betray my people for my own gain.”

Chief- I am the Chief.

Lesego- “And I respect you but I won’t betray my principles because you are misled by city people.”

In the above exchange, the Chieftaincy was characterised as overbearing and working in cahoots with the ‘city people’ to impose a deal on the community. In spite of Lesogo’s protestation, the Chief insisted the community must accept the deal, declaring “I am the chief”. In other words, he has the final say and he said so unequivocally in episode 40 (2018):

Chief-Enough! “Good people. The decision has already been made. The land is owned by traditional council, we are only telling you this because we respect you. At the end of the day we’ll do what is best for everyone.”

This domineering tendency of the chieftaincy was explored in other episodes. About 4.5% of the characters uttered words that portrayed chiefs or institution of chieftaincy as exploitative. Family emerged as the aspect of tribal institution frequently represented in Generation: The Legacy. About 18% of the characters felt family, from

101 the prism of African tradition, is controlling and (15%) felt family could be intrusive. The comments bother mainly on the tendency of family members wanting to dictate how people should live their lives and the huge demand the society expects from young people. The young characters felt older parents, read as traditionalists, and often attempt to micromanage the affairs of their wards including their love lives which they consider intrusive and controlling. For instance, in episode 186 (2017), Mpho a teenage miscreant on the mend, has just fallen in love with the Diale’s girl, Lesedi, but his foster aunt, Tshidi and the mother, Gogo’Zondiwe, do not think it is a good idea. So they begin to cajole Mpho in order to dissuade him from the relationship with Lesedi:

Gogo’Zondiwe to Tshidi- “Did you talk to Mpho about the Diale girl?”

Mpho- “I’m out! Have a good day Gogo. You too, Mam’Tshidi.”

Tshidi – “Let me put on my shoes I will drop you off.”

Mpho- “I’ll take a taxi. I want to swing to Lesedi’s house and walk with her to school.”

Tshidi- “Mpho, we need to talk. This thing between you and Lesedi has to come to an end.”

Mpho- Why?

Gogo Zondiwe- “She comes from a family of criminals.

Mpho- “she is a great girl.”

Gogo Zondiwe- “Maybe, but the family is not good, not good at all.”

Tshidi- “we are trying to protect you. She must not drag you into that world.”

Mpho- “She wouldn’t do that.”

Tshidi- “This is not up for discussion. You need to stop seeing each other. End of story.”

In the above scene, the family of Mpho is portrayed as controlling and intrusive. Like in the typical traditional family he has not even the slightest opportunity to argue his case. As his aunt said the matter was “not up to discussion…end of story”. It is instructive to note that in several of the episodes sampled, the characters who tend to 102 exhibit controlling or intrusive tendencies in the family setting are usually the parents or elderly relatives and often, if not all, those being controlled are the younger characters. The proclivity of family members especially parents and close relatives, to meddle into the privacy of their married wards was highlighted in the conversation between Sphe and Zitha in episode 49 (2018):

Sphe to Zitha- “Planning your wedding yet?”

Zitha- “I want it to be perfect, something small, tasteful traditional and with only close friends and family...”

Sphe- “I would have love the same but my family wanted a big public affair, so the whole world would know about the Moroka-Cele alliance.”

Zitha- “I guess it comes with being a princess.”

Sphe- The most difficult part were the Lobola negotiations. Everyone promised not to be difficult, but when it comes down to it, some uncles disagree just for the sake of disagreeing. Family…”

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Table 3: Representation of South African traditional institutions in Generation: The legacy Marriage Chieftaincy Family Repressive Patriarchal Exploitative Domineering Controlling Intrusive Episodes 1. 56(2016) 0 15 0 0 0 15

2. 66(2016) 0 0 0 0 15 15

3. 77(2016) 0 0 0 0 25 30

4. 78(2016) 25 20 0 0 40 25

5. 79(2016) 20 0 0 0 25 20

6. 86(2016) 0 15 0 0 15 20

7. 118(2016) 20 0 0 0 15 10

8. 237(2016) 20 10 0 10 20 15

9. 188(2017) 20 0 0 0 15 15

213(2017) 15 5 0 0 15 5

251(2017) 15 15 0 10 20 10

252(2017) 20 0 0 0 20 20

260 (2017) 20 10 15 20 25 20

40(2018) 20 15 20 25 20 25

43 (2018) 0 0 0 0 20 15

49 (2018) 20 20 20 20 20 15

84 (2018) 0 0 0 15 20 10

101(2018) 0 0 15 15 10 10

102(2018) 0 0 0 0 0 0

59(2018) 15 15 20 10 20 10

Total 230 140 90 125 360 305 Mean 11.5 7 4.5 6.3 18 15

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4.3.3. Representation South African tribal values in Generation: The legacy.

Tribal values refer to beliefs and practices that tribal African communities hold about what is right and wrong and what is important in life. For instance, when upholding truth, moral rectitude is encouraged by a character (s) or when adultery, stealing and other forms of immoral behaviours are discouraged or condemned by a character. To identify the representation of values in Generation: The Legacy, three items were used: Old-fashioned (verbal/nonverbal utterances and actions by a character that suggests the other characters are old fashioned (e.g., “friend, this is 2017”); Inhibiting (verbal/nonverbal utterances and actions by a character that suggests that traditional values are somewhat inhibiting (e.g., “who says a married woman cannot have fun”); Chauvinistic (i.e., “verbal/nonverbal utterances that communicate chauvinism to another characters (e.g., “ they always expect women to be saints”) or references to what a character does.) As indicated in table 4 majority of the characters seems to suggest that South African tribal values are inhibitive (17.7%). The bulk of those who spoke in this light are teenage characters of both sexes. About 15.2% of the characters felt traditional values are somewhat chauvinistic. Those who make comments or utterances to this effect are mainly female characters both married and single. In episode 59 (2018), we found the typical male chauvinism about women in display. Ironically, Mazwi who is having affair is intolerant of the blossoming relationship between his estranged wife, Sphe and a man he describes as a “thug”

Mazwi to Sphe- “Instead of being out there gallivanting like some lovesick teenager.”

Sphe- What are you talking about?

Mazwi- “I know you’re seeing Kumkani Phakade.”

Sphe- “Are you spying on me?”

Mazwi- “I want you to stop.”

Sphe- “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

Mazwi- “I can’t believe you, Kumkani is a common thug! What‘s got into you. Don’t glare at me. He’s dangerous! Are you really that desperate?”

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Sphe- “Mazwi! Shut up! You don’t see me complaining about you running off to Naledi every other night! And besides, we had an agreement. Separate lives! We get to see whoever we want.”

Mazwi- “Okay, Discreetly! You are not hiding it!”

Sphe- “You spying on me! Mazwi, are you upset I’m seeing Kumkani or that I’m seeing someone else?

Mazwi- “I don’t give a damn who you see as long as you keep it discreet and keep your family safe. And with Kumkani you can’t guarantee either”

Sphe- “That’s your opinion.”

It is clear from the altercation between Mazwi and Sphe that Generations: The Legacy, attempts to characterise traditional value system as chauvinistic especially when it has to do with women. While Mazwi felt he could do as he pleases, his wife Sphe had to do what is “right”, behave as a good wife should. In other words, traditional value systems seems to have two set of rules for men and women when it comes to moral rectitude. While, 6.7% of the characters portrayed traditional values in their speech as old-fashioned. Many of the youthful characters find issues such as chastity as completely out of tune with the trends. They also talked in a way that suggested that tribal values were outdated. This tendency was displayed in the encounter between Tshidi and Mpho over the latter’s relationship with the Diale girl, Lesedi.

Lesedi to Mpho- “So you owe me, plus am your girlfriend you supposed to make me happy and this is making me happy.”

Mpho- “Hmmm... Ok, you win”

Lesedi- “Always.” (Tshidi walks in on them as they are sipping their milkshake)

Tshidi to Lesedi- “Do Lucy and Cosmo know you are out gallivanting with boys at night? Shouldn’t you be home doing your homework? I need Mpho to focus on school not girls. Time to go home Lesedi.”

Mpho- “Mam’Tshidi, please!”

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Tshidi-Lesedi- “am sure you are very nice girl, but Mpho has been forbidden to see you. So this relationship ends now. Am I clear?”

Mpho- “you can’t do this. Why are you trying to ruin my life?”

Tshidi- Lesedi…”I said go home.”

Mpho- Lesedi, “sit down we’ll finish our milkshakes. You haven’t done anything wrong” (Episode 188, 2017).

Another instance where traditional value was characterised as old fashioned was in episode 84 (2018). In this scene, the Diales were having dinner and Lucy’s boyfriend, Mrekza popped in with his bags to pass the night. Her obviously scandalised grandmother, Gog’flo, protested but Lucy dismissed her indignation as “old school”.

Cosmo to Mrekza- “And now? What’s with the bags?”

Lucy- Relax, “He is moving in.”

Gog’flo to Lucy- “You can’t live with a man who is not your husband.

Lucy- Gogo, that’s old school stuff. (Now to Mrekza) Sweetie, you are just in time for supper. Put your bags down.”

Cosmo – “Mrekza (he tries to stop him) Don’t you dare! You are disrespecting Gogo.”

Lucy- “Actually, I don’t remember Gogo complaining about Mrekza spending nights here.”

Gogo- “I told you to stop having men over, but you wouldn’t listen.

Lucy- Gogo, times have changed”

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Table 4: Representation South African tribal values in Generation: The legacy

Episode Old-fashioned Inhibitive Chauvinistic

1. 56(2016) 0 20 15 2. 66(2016) 0 15 25 3. 77(2016) 10 35 35 4. 78(2016) 10 30 35 5. 79(2016) 0 10 10 6. 86(2016) 10 20 10 7. 118(2016) 0 5 10 8. 237(2016) 10 20 10 9. 188(2017) 0 20 15 213(2017) 5 5 0 251(2017) 10 15 10 252(2017) 20 15 10 260(2017) 10 15 20 40(2018) 20 15 20 43(2018) 0 20 20 49(2018) 0 20 15 84(2018) 25 25 20 101(2018) 0 20 0 102(2018) 5 10 10 59(2018) 0 20 15

Total 135 355 305

Mean 6.7 17.7 15.2

4.3.4. Representation of tribal South African social norms in Generation: The legacy

In this study, social norms is understood as the rules that prescribe what people should and should not do given their social surroundings and circumstances. Norms

108 generally, are the rules and regulations that groups live by (i.e. children should not back chat elders). To identify the representation of social norms we examined four measures: Prescriptive (i.e. any verbal/nonverbal utterances that suggest social norms are too rigid or strict or restricting); Ineffective (i.e. verbal/nonverbal utterances that suggest that you cannot achieve your aim by upholding social norms); Unrealistic (i.e. verbal/nonverbal communication that suggest that another character is naïve or too idealistic for trying to conform to social norms). Table 5 shows what the characters say about tribal South African social norms. The greater number of characters in the sampled episodes thought social norms in tribal settings were prescriptive (21.2%). In episode 186 (2017), the characters Mpho and Lesedi, expressed their frustrations over the seemingly prescriptive nature of the African social norms which tend to restrict individuals’ choices. For instance, Lesedi’s aunt and uncle are notorious criminals but she is not. But because the general rule is that no decent person should be seen associating with a family of criminals, Mpho’s guardians do not want their ward to be associated with Lesedi. For them to continue their relationship which will go against the norms, they have to find a secret way of seeing each other.

Mpho to Lesedi- “We just can’t spend time at the house.”

Lesedi- “So she thinks am not good enough? Because you live at Siqalo and I’m from Alex?”

Mpho- It’s not that.

Lesedi- “She is a snub! I also have family at Siqalo... My aunt Getty, My sister Namhla. Mpho- She is not the only one who can afford it. She has a problem with your family…not where you live.”

Lesedi- “What do you mean?”

Mpho- “Mam’Tshidi thinks they are criminals. We are not breaking up, if our families have a problem with us dating…they’ll just have to get over it” (Eps 186, 2017)

For many of the characters there appear to be embedded in the social norms, many don’ts, which if followed to the latter, will not allow individuals to compete in the modern world. There is an unwritten rule in South African cultural tradition that demands that when a man dies his surviving wife should mourn him in his house “sitting on the

109 mattress”. So when Karabo lost her husband Zola, her uncle Teboho, insisted that if she had to bury her husband with dignity, “it has to be done from his house” (Episode 86, 2016). The exchange that ensued is indicative of Generation: The Legacy’s attempt at highlighting the prescriptive nature of social norms:

Karabo-‘’ I will do it from here’’

Uncle Teboho –“that’s not how we do things’’ (Episode 86, 2016).

About 11% of the characters made comments which suggest that social norms as practised by traditional society is not only ineffective but also inconsistent with the hustle and bustle of urban life. For instance, Karabo Moroka has lived a life of moral rectitude in her private and business dealings and now she is at a crossroads. Her husband, Zola has died in a most bizarre circumstance and she needs answers and quickly too. But for her to get those answers she would have to compromise her standards. In one of the scenes in Episode 118 (2016) she pours out her heart to her nephew, Mazwi:

Karabo- “What I need, you can’t help me with. The only way to get the job done is to compromise myself”

Mazwi – ‘’The job being?’’

Karabo- ‘’Am going to have to make a deal with the devil’… ‘’It’s the only way, it’s for the greater good’’.

The forgoing seems to highlight the relativity and futility of traditional social norms in the modern world. In the above scene, Generations: The Legacy, seems to suggest that although society attempt to prescribe what individuals ought to do and what not to do, in certain circumstances, especially in the present cut-throat business environment, social norms are ineffectual. Interestingly, only an insignificant percentage (1.4%) think social norms are unrealistic. Meaning that many of the characters believe social norms are practicable.

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Table 5: Representation of tribal South African social norms in Generation: The legacy Prescriptive Ineffective Unrealistic

Episode

1. 56(2016) 15 0 20

2. 66(2016) 20 10 20

3. 77(2016) 25 15 30

4. 78(2016) 20 10 25

5. 79(2016) 15 5 5

6. 86(2016) 20 15 10

7. 118(2016) 25 10 15

8. 237(2016) 20 10 5

9. 188(2017) 10 0 0

213(2017) 25 15 5

251(2017) 25 15 10

252(2017) 30 15 15

260(2017) 20 10 15

40(2018) 25 10 15

43(2018) 25 20 15

49(2018) 25 15 20

84(2018) 20 15 20

101(2018) 20 10 15

102(2018) 20 10 20

59(2018) 20 10 0

Total 425 220 28

Mean 21.2 11 1.4

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4.3.5. Representation of ancestral beliefs in Generation: the Legacy

Ancestral beliefs denote the belief in good and bad spirits, Supreme Being, the power of the dead, soothsayers or seers. In order to determine the representation of ancestral beliefs, two categories of information were examined: Spoken ((i.e., overt references or acts that portray tribal belief system as witchcraft, superstitious or ritualistic. As illustrated in Table 6, characters openly referred to ancestral beliefs as being steeped in rituals (14%), some dismissed them as witchcraft (12%) while others describe beliefs as often unrealistic (9.2%). For instance, in episode 252(2017), Getty had a strange dream and is apprehensive that it portends something ominous but her friend, Nolwazi and educated, uppity city girl, thinks belief in ancestors or consulting seers is hogwash and dismisses it with a wave of the hand. Their conversation below conveys her disdain for tribal belief system:

Getty to Nolwazi- ‘’I had this really weird dream last night, I can’t stop thinking about it’’

Nolwazi – ‘’Another dream?’’

Getty- ‘’ I was drowning in a lake, it was as if something was pulling me into the lake, keeping me under, but I could breathe’’.

Nolwazi- ‘’ Dreams are just weird things, I once dreamt I could fly. Apparently, they are a reflection of your subconscious. Whatever that means’’.

Getty- ‘’ this one felt real though. It’s all that creepy woman’s fault though. Yesterday, some crazy woman came into S’kaftin, she said I have a message from my ancestors -that I have a calling’’

Nolwazi- ‘’don’t tell me you believe in that’’

Getty- ‘’of course not. Lucy thinks something is wrong with me, she thinks am cursed. It’s silly, really.

Nolwazi- ‘’yes, then stop stressing, rather focus on getting your life back’’.

Getty- ‘’you are right, it’s just a stupid dream’’ (episode 252, 2017)

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As the above narration indicates, Getty and her friend, Nolwazi consider the dream and the ancestors’ message from the ‘Crazy woman’ as “nonsense” (the exact word Getty used to describe the ancestors’’ message in Episode 251 (2017). In episodes 251 and 252 Lucy, Getty’s sister, is characterised as a traditionalists enamoured with superstitions, while her sister and the friend, Nolwazi represents the progressives who consider such traditional beliefs as unrealistic.

The storyline about Mamlambo, the god snake that protects and brings good fortune demonstrate the futility in consulting and believing in Sangomas. Tshidi and her husband Gadhafi, had suddenly come to a bad patch. Their businesses were experiencing a downturn and they were facing life-threatening situations arising from their dubious dealings especially the theft of Amo (Tau Mogale’s son and Tshidi’s nephew). Desperate and vulnerable, she resorted to seek help from a Sangoma (Seer) to help her avert the looming tragedy especially the haunting from Mogale’s ancestors. But Gaddaffi her husband did not buy into the idea of consulting a spiritualist because he believes the rituals associated with Sangomas are not only mumbo-jumbo but do not always end well. Eventually, the wife dragged her to the Seer, Inyanga, performs a blood bath and presents Tshidi with a snake called Mamlambo. The conversation below was captured in one of the scenes in Episode 56 (2016):

Inyanga to the Phakades- ‘’Dark forces of the night, I call upon you to be with us tonight, I call on you to silence the ancestors of the Mogales and make them vanish from the Phakade’s lives. Do you agree?’’

Inyanga to Tshidi - ‘’you have been baptised by the blood, your whole body is like steel, it will stand against any test, it will be your weapon when you need to fight’’.

Inyanga- ‘’this is Mamlambo, your new protector, Mamlambo is your weapon it will protect you from danger and protect your family, your whole family. You must feed it. Keep it happy. Listen to whatever it tells you’’ (Episode 56, 2016).

As predicted by Gadaffi, not long after the rituals Mamlambo started making outrageous demands. And the Phakades were boxed into a fix. 113

Tshidi- ‘’we made big demands and Mamlambo came through for us, now he is hungry’’

Gadaffi ‘’you are feeding it your own blood’’

Tshidi – ‘’you can’t take care of business so I did, and I told you not to interrupt my rituals’’

‘’Mamlambo is our protection, our power’’ (Episode 66, 2016)

Gadaffi to Tshidi - ‘’There must be another way we can appease the Snake’’

Gadaffi to Tshidi – ‘’ and his Ancestors kept on pushing us to make Amo sick, now we are stuck with the beast and its demands!”

Tshidi- Gadaffi – ‘’let’s give Mamlambo what he wants, it killed the Khumalo brothers who knows what it could do to us….. to Amo’’

Gadaffi to Tshidi- ‘’I’ll figure a way out of this. If we give in now, then what’s next? It could want Amo’s tongue, his eyes, body parts……..Anything. We cannot be held hostage by a snake’’ (Episode 77, 2016)

Tshidi to Mamlambo ‘’you are bleeding me dry o great one’’

Gadaffi to Tshidi ‘’He said he needs Mogale’s blood, what if Mamlambo is never satisfied.

Tshidi- ‘I will do anything as long as I don’t have to give Mamlambo Amo’s blood. But baba said the snake can’t be cheated’’ (Episode 78, 2016)

As evinced from the abovementioned dialogue between Gaddafi and his wife Tshidi, ancestral beliefs are characterised as overly ritualistic if not sadistic. The demand by Mamlambo for the blood of their stolen son, Amo, portray the ancestor god-spirit as vicious.

If the snake spirit had demanded for Tshidi’s blood, it would have been seen as retributive justice but to ask for the blood of an innocent infant, seems a deliberate narrative intended to demonise Seers and scare people from patronising them. The 114 scaremongering tactics were also deployed in navigating the plot about Betty’s resistance to the ‘ancestors call’:

Seer to Getty-‘’the ancestors are calling you but you are not listening. That’s why things are like this. If you don’t yield to the ancestors calling, it will get far worse. Listen, those who come before us will not be ignored. All you have to do is to listen and listen well’’ (Episode 251).

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Table 6: Representation of ancestral beliefs in Generation: the Legacy

Witchcraft Unrealistic Ritualistic

Episode 1. 56(2016) 30 15 30 2. 66(2016) 10 20 30 3. 77(2016) 25 25 15 4. 78(2016) 15 15 25 5. 79(2016) 15 0 20 6. 86(2016) 0 5 0 7. 118(2016) 0 10 15 8. 237(2016) 0 0 0 9. 188(2017) 0 0 0 213(2017) 0 0 0 251(2017) 20 5 0 252(2017) 5 10 5 260(2017) 25 20 20 40(2018) 25 10 20 43(2018) 20 10 20 49(2018) 0 15 15 84(2018) 10 5 30 101(2018) 20 10 15 102(2018) 20 10 20 59(2018) 0 0 0 Total 240 185 280 Mean 12 9.2 14

4.4.1. SECTION B SURVEY

4.4.2. Demographics of Respondents

As illustrated in Table 7, female respondents were 225 (64.3%), while the male gender accounted for 125 (35.7%). The age distribution of respondents (Table 8) shows that half of the respondents 175 (50.0%) fall within the age range of 15 to 25 years. Respondents between 26 and 35 were 100 or 28.6%. 49 (14%) were between 36 and

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45 years, while those between 46 and 55 were 12 or 3.4%. Only 14 (4.0%) of the respondents were within 56 years and above. Virtually, all the respondents are of African race. This suggests that all the respondents are in one way or the other linked to the South African culture.

Table 7: Distribution for Respondents’ Gender

Gender Frequency Percent

Male 125 35.7

Female 225 64.3

Total 350 100.0

Table 8: Distribution for Respondents’ Age.

Age Frequency Percent

15-25 175 50.0

26-35 100 28.6

36-45 49 14.0

46-55 12 3.4

56 and above 14 4.0

Total 350 100.0

A further breakdown of the demographics showed that possessed varying educational qualifications. Generally, the results generally indicate that respondents have higher level of education. As indicated in table 9 below, 150 (42.9%) of the respondents have postgraduate degree qualification. Those with Post-Matric diploma or certificate 117 qualification accounted for 31.7% (111), while 10 (2.9%) have Baccalaureate degrees. 77 (22.0%) of the respondents have matric. Only 2 (0.6%) of the respondents have Grade 11 or lower as their highest educational qualification The location of the study site may be a plausible reason for the high number of respondents with higher educational qualifications. The study area, Alice, is home to The University of Fort Hare, one of South Africa’s oldest Universities. It is likely that the respondents may consist of post graduate students at the university.

Table 9: Distribution for Respondents’ Education qualification.

Educational qualification Frequency Percent

Grade 11 or lower 2 .6

Grade 12 (matric) 77 22.0

Post-matric diploma or certificate 111 31.7

Baccalaureate degree 10 2.9

Post-graduate degree 150 42.9

Total 350 100.0

4.4.3. Frequency of watching television soapies

As can be seen from Table 10, where a detailed analysis of numbers and percentages of respondents have been given, 333 (95.1%) of the respondents indicated that they watch television soapies every day. Only 17(4.9%) of the respondents indicated that they watch television soap few times a week. This suggests that the respondents are fans of soapies.

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Table 10: Frequency of watching television soapies

Watching Television soaps Frequency Percent

Daily 333 95.1

Few times a week 17 4.9

Total 350 100.0

Virtually all the respondent 348 (99.4%) as shown in Table 11, admitted they watched at least, five episodes of Generation-The Legacy in the past 6 months.

Table 11: Frequency of watching Generation: The Legacy in the last 6 months

Episodes of generation Frequency Percent

Yes 348 99.4

No 2 .6

Total 350 100.0

4.4.4. Aspect of culture frequently represented in Generation: The Legacy

Respondents were asked to rate the representation of six elements of South African tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy using a six-point scale (highest –least). Table 12, shows the percentage distribution of the aspects of tribal African culture that respondents think is most frequently characterised and portrayed in Generation: The Legacy. Overwhelming number of respondents 277 or 79.1% selected language as the aspect of South African tribal culture most frequently reflected in the soap. About 269 (76.9%) of the respondents stated that tribal African ceremonies are occasionally represented in Generations: The legacy. Respondents who believe traditions receive moderate representation in Generations: The Legacy were 262 or 74.9%, while 255 (72.9%) of the respondents felt myths are very frequently portrayed in the shows. 119

However, 326 of the respondents representing (93.1%) think tribal African music is rarely represented in Generations: The legacy, while 298 (85.1%) of the respondents felt dance is the least element of tribal culture represented in Generations: The Legacy. About 262 (74.9%) respondents indicated stated that there was moderate reflection of traditions. While 269 (76.9%) of the respondents indicated that traditional ceremonies are only occasionally portrayed in the Generation: The Legacy.

Table 12: Frequency distribution of aspect of culture portrayed in Generations: The Legacy.

derate

Highest Very Mo Occasional Rare Least

No % No % No % No % No % No %

Language 277 79.1 50 14.3 23 6.6 0 0 0 0 0 0 (n=350)

Ceremoni 11 3.1 10 2.9 26 7.4 269 76.9 16 4.6 18 5.1 es (n=350)

Traditions 21 6.0 37 10.6 262 74.9 27 7.7 1 0.3 2 0.6 (n=350)

Myths 19 255 72.9 46 13.1 14 4.0 7 2.0 9 2.6 (n=350)

Music 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 10 2.9 326 14 4.0 (n=350)

Dance 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 4 1.1 48 13.7 298 85.1 (n=350)

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4.4.5. Respondents’ perceptions about representation of South African tribal Culture in Generation: The Legacy

As shown in Table 13 a preponderance of the respondents 240 (68.6%) were of the opinion that Generation-The Legacy gives preference to western culture as against South African tribal culture. More than half of the respondents, 205 or 58.6% stated that watching Generation-The Legacy affect the way they have come to view South African tribal culture, while 207 (59.1%) indicated that watching Generation: The Legacy has somehow affected their perception of their own cultural identity.

Table 13: Respondents’ perceptions of representation of South African tribal Culture in Generation: The Legacy

Yes, definitely Probably Maybe Definitely not sure Not N % N % N % N % N %

. Generation gives preference to western culture 240 68.6 40 11.4 2 6 58 16.6 10 2.9

. Generation affects the way 205 58.6 50 14.3 1 3 88 25.1 6 1.7 I view tribal SA culture

. Generation affects my perception of 207 59.1 47 13.4 1 3 72 20.6 23 6.6 my cultural identity

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4.4.6. Attitude of respondents to representation of South African tribal Culture on Generation: The Legacy

As indicated in Table 14, where a detailed analysis of numbers and percentages of respondents have been given, respondents were asked to state whether they agree or disagree with a series of 10 attitudinal statements on the representation of South African tribal culture in Generation: the Legacy. More than half of the respondents 178 (50.9%) strongly agreed that South African tribal culture is represented negatively in the soap and 182 (52%) of the respondents strongly believe such negative portrayals may erode the cultural identity of black South Africans. With regards to the representation of tribal African values, 206 representing 58.9% of respondents strongly disagreed that Generation: The Legacy promotes African tribal tradition and values. In fact, 191 (54.6%) of the respondents agreed Generation: The Legacy represents South African tribal culture as old-fashioned. 174 (49.7%) of the respondents agreed that Generation: The Legacy promotes western or dominant culture and ideologies. 186 (53.1%) of the respondents strongly agreed the soap makes a mockery of traditional marriage, while 170 (48.6) of the respondents strongly agreed Generation: The Legacy tends to perpetuate stereotypes about black South Africans. 215 (61.4%) of respondents strongly agreed that Generation: The legacy promotes patriarchy or male-controlled society. However, it is not clear, whether this view is shared by both male and female respondents. Interestingly, a considerable proportion of the respondents 182 (52%) strongly agreed that tribal South African languages are well represented in Generation: The Legacy.

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Table 14: The extent of agreement to South African culture in Generation-The Legacy.

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly disagree agree

N % N % N % N % N %

Promotes tribal 74 21.1 206 58.9 17 4.9 16 4.6 37 10.6 SA tradition & values

Promotes SA tribal 24 6.9 40 11.4 13 3.7 91 26.0 182 52.0 languages

Portrays SA tribal culture as 17 4.9 31 8.9 16 4.6 77 22.0 209 59.7 inferiors & backward

Makes a mockery of traditional marriage 6 1.7 19 5.4 59 16.9 80 22.9 186 53.1 institutions

Presents African traditions & values 39 11.1 46 13.1 19 5.4 191 54.6 55 15.7 as old-fashioned

Promotes western or 32 9.1 40 11.4 39 11.1 174 49.7 65 18.6 popular culture & ideals

Perpetuates stereotypes about 15 4.3 10 2.9 43 12.3 112 32.0 170 48.6 black South Africans

Represents tribal African culture negatively 16 4.6 30 8.6 37 10.6 89 25.4 178 50.9

Generation promotes patriarchy 9 2.6 40 11.4 27 7.7 59 16.9 215 61.4

Portrayal of tribal culture in Generation may erodes cultural 31 8.9 51 14.6 42 12.0 44 12.6 182 52.0 identity of black South Africans

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4.4.7. Respondents’ perception of the characterization of South African tribal values and customs in Generation: The Legacy

Respondents were asked to choose out of 8 statements, any three that best describe how Generation: The Legacy characterise tribal South African values and customs. The responses are presented in descending order. As can be seen from Table 15, majority of the respondents 259 (74%) felt Generation: The Legacy tends to characterise traditional values and customs as male oriented. In other words, values and customs often showcased in Generation: The Legacy are those which appear to accentuate a society where men call the shots. 242 (69.1%) of the respondents stated tribal African values and customs are represented as inferior to popular culture which often, is imposed from without. Similarly, 222 (63.4%) stated that Generation: The Legacy tended to characterise African values and customs as archaic or outdated. More than half of the respondents 180 (51.4%) indicated that Generation: The Legacy represents tribal South African customs and values as inhibitive, while 148 (42.3%) felt the soap opera portrays African customs and values as deeply embedded in superstitions.

Interestingly, only 13.7% (48) of the respondents believe Generation: The Legacy portray tribal South African customs and values as overly ritualistic. Given the regular dose of rituals celebrated in the drama, it was thought that respondents will consider it unrepresentative of tribal South African culture. This also suggests that respondents approve of the rites and ceremonies depicted n Generation: The Legacy. Only a small number of respondents 12 (3.4%) felt Generation: The Legacy portrays tribal South African customs and values as something to be proud about.

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Table 15: Characterisation of tribal South African values and customs Generation: The Legacy

N % Male oriented 259(350) 74.0 Inferior to western culture 242(350) 69.1

Outdated 222(350) 63.4

Inhibitive 180(350) 51.4

Embedded in Superstitious 148(350) 42.3

Overly Ritualistic 48(350) 13.7

Dogmatic 18(350) 5.1

Subjugate women & children 13(350) 3.7

Something to be proud of 12(350) 3.4

4.4.8. Respondents’ ranking of the representation of South African tribal Culture in Generation: The Legacy

Respondents were asked to rank the representation of South African tribal culture on Generation: The Legacy along a five-point scale. As illustrated in Table 16, more than half of the respondents 214 (61.1%) ranked the overall presentation of tribal South African culture on Generation: The Legacy as poor. less than a quarter of the respondents, 59 (16.9%) were of the opinion that Generation: The Legacy portrays African culture fairly. The results suggest that a great proportion of the respondents do not think South African tribal culture receive decent representation in Generation: The Legacy.

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Table 16: Respondents’ ranking of the representation of South African tribal Culture on Generation: The Legacy

Representation SA tribal Frequency Percent

culture in Generation

Very good 25 7.1

Good 20 5.7

Fair 59 16.9

Poor 214 61.1

Very poor 32 9.1

Total 350 100.0

4.4.9. What factors are responsible for the way tribal African culture is represented in Generation: The Legacy?

Respondents were asked to pick one overarching reason out of five, which they thought could be behind the seemingly negative representation of tribal African culture in Generation: The Legacy. As shown in Table 17, most of the respondents 125 (35.7%) attributed the portrayal of tribal African culture in Generation: The Legacy to the cultural orientation of the producers and writers. In other words, the producers and script writers of the drama may be conflicted culturally or have a western cultural orientation. While 98 (28%) of the respondents suggested that the need to satisfy commercial interest may be the reason for the way tribal South African culture is portrayed in Generation: The Legacy. Respondents seem to suggest that the producers and writers appear to construct tribal African culture in a way and manner that will appeal to sponsors and advertisers. 66 (18.8%) of the respondents stated that the portrayal of tribal South African culture in Generation: The Legacy was influenced by western culture. In other words, respondents felt producers of Generation: The Legacy may have been socialised and indoctrinated by western culture and therefore, see the drama as a vehicle to ridicule traditional culture in order validate their new 126 cultural identity or to foist the so called modern values on the audience. However, 40(11.4%) of the respondents think the representation of tribal African culture in Generation: The Legacy is influenced by happenings in the society. meaning, generation: The legacy attempts to reflect the reality of its environment. Only 6.1% (21) of the respondents thought attracting news or more viewers was the reason for the way tribal South African culture is represented in Generation: The Legacy. This suggests that majority of respondents do not believe the representation of African tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy is influenced by the need to grow viewership.

Table 17: Factors influencing representation of tribal South African culture in Generation: The Legacy

Factors Frequency Percent

Cultural orientation of producers/writers 125 35.7

Advertising revenue 98 28.0

Influence of western culture 66 18.8.

What is happening in the society 40 11.4

To attract more viewers 21 6.1

Total 350 100

4.5. Ancillary research questions

The following research questions were investigated using ANOVA and multiple regression analysis.

 To what extent does advertising revenue influence the way South African tribal culture is portrayed in Generation: The Legacy?  Is South African tribal culture portrayed negatively in Generation: The Legacy?  Does South African tradition and values represented in Generation: The Legacy reflect the South African tribal culture?

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 Are South African tribal languages favourably projected in Generation: The Legacy?  Does Generation: The Legacy makes mockery of South African traditional marriage institutions?  Does Generation: The Legacy represents African traditions and values as old- fashioned?  Is Generation: The Legacy a site for propagating dominant culture and ideals?  Does exposure to Generation: The Legacy shape viewers’ thoughts and behaviour towards South African tribal culture?  Does Generations-The Legacy perpetuates stereotypes about South African tribal culture  Does Generations-The Legacy represents tribal South African culture as inferior and backward?  Does Generation-The Legacy promotes tribal South African culture as male- oriented?

4.5.1. Is South African tribal culture portrayed negatively in Generation: The Legacy?

The analysis of variance (ANOVA) test (Table 18), shows that since F = 1.146, df = 350 and p = 0.335 which is greater than 0.05 and Since p-value > 0.05, tribal South African culture is not significantly positively portrayed in Generation: The Legacy. Therefore, we conclude that the South African tribal culture is portrayed negatively in Generation: The Legacy. This is consistent with the outcome of the content analysis presented earlier.

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Table 18: South African tribal culture is portrayed negatively in Generation: The Legacy

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 6.238 4 1.560 1.146 .335

Within Groups 469.650 345 1.361

Total 475.889 349

4.5.2. Does South African tradition and values represented in Generation: The Legacy reflect the South African tribal culture?

The ANOVA test was used to ascertain whether the tradition and values represented in Generation: The Legacy reflect tribal South African culture (Table 19). The result shows that since F = 1.187, df = 349 and p = 0.316 which is greater than 0.05. Since p-value > 0.05, it means South Africa culture tradition and values represented in Generation: The Legacy does not significantly reflect the South African tribal culture Therefore, we conclude that the South African tradition and values represented in Generation: The Legacy does not reflect the South African tribal culture.

Table 19: South African tradition and values represented in Generation: The Legacy

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 6.337 4 1.584 1.187 .316

Within Groups 460.531 345 1.335

Total 466.869 349

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4.5.3. Are South African tribal languages favourably projected in Generation: The Legacy?

The analysis of variance (ANOVA) test (Table 20) produced the following results: F = 1.341, df = 349 and p = 0.254 which is greater than 0.05. Since p-value > 0.05 this shows that African tribal languages are not favourably projected in Generation: The Legacy. Therefore, we conclude that the African tribal languages are favourably projected in Generation: The Legacy.

Table 20: Are South African tribal languages favourably projected in Generation.

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 8.732 4 2.183 1.341 .254

Within Groups 561.443 345 1.627

Total 570.174 349

4.5.4. Does Generation: The Legacy makes mockery of South African traditional marriage institutions?

As illustrated in Table 21, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test shows that since F = 1.296, df = 349 and p = 0.271 which is greater than 0.05 and p-value > 0.05, this indicates that the Generation: The Legacy does not make mockery of South African traditional marriage institutions. Therefore, we conclude that the Generation: The Legacy makes mockery of South African traditional marriage institutions. This is also in accordance with the results of the content analysis.

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Table 21: Generation makes a mockery of South African traditional marriage institutions.

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 5.340 4 1.335 1.296 .271

Within Groups 355.258 345 1.030

Total 360.597 349

4.5.5. Does Generation: The Legacy represents African traditions and values as old-fashioned?

As can be seen from the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test in Table 22, F = 1.3.928, df = 349 and p = 0.004 which is less than 0.05 and since p-value < 0.05, it means that Generation: The Legacy represents African traditions and values as old-fashioned. It is therefore, concluded that Generation: The Legacy represents African traditions and values as old-fashioned. The content analysis produced a similar result.

Table 22: Does Generation: The Legacy represents African traditions and values as old-fashioned

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 22.801 4 5.700 3.928 .004

Within Groups 500.688 345 1.451

Total 523.489 349

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4.5.6. Is Generation: The Legacy a site for propagating dominant culture and ideals?

Results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test as indicated in Table 23,shows F = 2.192, df = 349 and p = 0.069 which is greater than 0.05. Since p-value > 0.05. Therefore, we conclude that Generation: The Legacy is a vehicle for promoting dominant or western culture and ideals. This compares favourably with the content analysis result presented earlier.

Table 23: Is Generation: The Legacy a site for propagating dominant culture and ideals?

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 12.090 4 3.022 2.192 .069

Within Groups 475.624 345 1.379

Total 487.714 349

4.5.7. Does exposure to Generation: The Legacy shape viewers’ thoughts and behaviour towards South African tribal culture?

As demonstrated in Table 24, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows that exposure to Generation: The Legacy has no influence in shaping the thoughts and behaviours of respondents towards tribal African culture. The result shows that since F = 2.149, df = 349 and p = 0.074 which greater than 0.05. Since p-value > 0.05, we conclude that the exposure to Generation: The Legacy does not positively shape the thoughts and behaviour of respondents towards tribal African culture.

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Table 24: Exposure to Generation: The Legacy shapes viewers’ thoughts and behaviour towards South African tribal culture

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 8.903 4 2.226 2.149 .074

Within Groups 357.294 345 1.036

Total 366.197 349

4.5.8. Does Generation: The Legacy perpetuates stereotypes about South African tribal culture?

As indicated in Table 25, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) suggests that Generation: The Legacy perpetuates stereotypes about South African tribal culture (F = 3.980, df = 349 and p = 0.004 which is less than 0.05). Since p-value < 0.05, this shows that Generation: The Legacy perpetuates stereotypes about South African tribal culture. Therefore, we conclude that the Generation: The Legacy perpetuates stereotypes about South African tribal culture.

Table 25: Does Generation: The Legacy perpetuates stereotypes about South African tribal culture

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 16.631 4 4.158 3.980 .004

Within Groups 360.386 345 1.045

Total 377.017 349

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4.5.9. Does Generation: The Legacy represents tribal South African culture as inferior and backward?

The analysis of variance (ANOVA) test as illustrated in Table 26, shows that Generation: The Legacy represents South African tribal culture as inferior and backward (F = 1.673, df = 349 and p = 0.156 which is greater than 0.05). Since p- value > 0.05, we conclude that the Generation: The Legacy represents tribal South African culture as inferior and backward. This corresponds with the results of Content analysis where it was found that Generation: The Legacy tend to represent South African tribal culture as inferior and backward.

Table 26: Does Generation: The Legacy represents tribal South African culture as inferior and backward.

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 9.202 4 2.301 1.673 .156

Within Groups 474.512 345 1.375

Total 483.714 349

4.5.10. Does Generation: The Legacy promotes tribal South African culture as male-oriented?

As shown in Table 27, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test show that Generation: The Legacy promotes South African tribal culture as male-oriented (F = 1.475, df = 349 and p = 0.209 which greater than 0.05. Since p-value > 0.05, we therefore conclude that the Generation: The Legacy tends to promote a male-oriented society. In the content analysis a number of characters were of the opinion that Generation: The Legacy tended to promote the values of a patriarchy or male-oriented society. It was also found from the content analysis that female characters in Generation: The Legacy, felt the marriage institution for instance, tended to favour the male gender.

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Table 27: Does Generation: The Legacy promotes a male-oriented society

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 7.808 4 1.952 1.475 .209

Within Groups 456.446 345 1.323

Total 464.254 349

4.5.11. Multiple linear regression analysis

Multiple regression analysis was conducted to ascertain whether there is a relationship between demographic predictors’ (age, gender and educational qualification) and negative portrayal of tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy. The results are summarised in Table 28. Table 29 shows the model goodness of fit with the three predictors (age, gender and educational qualification) which produced R² = .029, Fdist = 3.399, p < .018. The value of R-squared indicates that there is 16.9% variation of negative portrayal of tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy which can be explained by the respondents’ background information predictors. However, the results from the coefficients from the regression model indicate that a unit increase in negative portrayal of tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy corresponds to -0.394 and significantly decreased in gender, and did not significantly increase in age (0.128). The coefficients did not record any significant decline with regards to educational qualification (-0.060). Therefore there is a significant relationship between negative portrayals of tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy and gender. There is no significant relationship between other predictors (age and education) and negative portrayal of tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy used in the model. In other words, gender is a significant factor in the perception of the representation of tribal African culture in Generation: The Legacy. A post-hoc test suggests that females are more likely to see the portrayal of tribal African culture in Generation: The Legacy as more negative than male.

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Table 28: Multiple linear regression analysis

Model Unstandardized Standardized T Sig. 95.0% Confidence Coefficients Coefficients Interval for B

B Std. Beta Lower Upper Error Bound Bound

(Constant) 4.526 .394 11.497 .000 3.751 5.300

Gender -.394 .182 -.117 -2.161 .031 -.753 -.035

1 Age .128 .072 .096 1.793 .074 -.012 .269

Educational -.060 .061 -.053 -.979 .329 -.180 .060 qualification

Table 29: Model goodness of Fit

Model Sum of df Mean F Sig. R R Square Std. Error of Squares Square the Estimate

Regression 19.991 3 6.664 3.399 .018 .169 .029 1.400

1 Residual 678.366 346 1.961

Total 698.357 349

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CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

5.1. Introduction

The previous chapter focused on data analysis and data presentation. This chapter focuses on the discussion of findings. The discussion will be presented in line with the objectives of the study namely: to examine how South African tribal culture are characterised and represented in Generation: The Legacy; to identify what aspects of South African tribal culture are represented in Generation: The Legacy; to identify the factors that influence the portrayal of tribal African culture in Generation: The Legacy; to establish audience perceptions about the representation of tribal South African culture in Generation: The Legacy; to ascertain whether Generation: The Legacy construct and transmit hegemonic culture and if such representations trigger a shift in attitude to indigenous culture or self. The discussion of the quantitative findings will be juxtaposed with data from content analysis.

5.2. Discussion of key findings

Representation of South African tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy.

The first research objective assessed how South African tribal culture are characterised and represented in Generation: The Legacy. The findings show that the values and traditions represented in Generation: The Legacy do not significantly reflect the South African tribal tradition and values. The majority of respondents think tribal African values and customs are represented as inferior, archaic, inhibitive and deeply rooted in superstitions. The findings suggest that the representation of South African tribal culture is generally stereotypical. Nearly half of the respondents strongly believe Generation: The Legacy tends to perpetuate stereotypes about black South Africans. The finding is consistent with literature. As evinced from literature review section media representations are often characterised by stereotyping and essentializing. Television drama content in particular is replete with stereotypes. Dennis (1989 in Pieter, 2001:303), contends that ‘stereotypes’ not only straddles the boundary 137 between cognitions, mental pictures of the world about us, but also affect our attitudes, our feelings and evaluations of persons, issues, and situations in the world around us. Interestingly, the producers and script writers of Generation: The Legacy are blacks. Why would these individuals stereotype people of the same group with them? This may not be unconnected with the move to reflect a changing society. According to Tager (2010), contemporary South African soap opera is “both a product of post- apartheid South Africa and as a mechanism which maintains, and promotes changes in, its viewers’ preferences, beliefs and patterns of everyday life social behaviour”. It may also be influenced by commercial considerations.

As indicated by the findings the cultural texts of Generation: The Legacy is deep in essentialism. Cultural essentialism is the practice of categorising groups of people within a culture, or from other cultures, according to essential qualities”. Essentialism is the view that people and things have 'natural' attributes that are in-built and static. This set of innate characteristics according to Cartwright (1968), is essential to the identity and function of every individual. In several of the episodes, characters are characterised as overly ritualistic and superstitious. This tend to suggest that rituals and superstition are the essence of black people and without which they cannot function. For instance, in the storyline of mamlambo, the snake, the character Tshidi, is portrayed as a typical superstitious upwardly-mobile African woman, who in spite of her exposure, feels insecure and have to resort to witchcraft and black magic in order to find her essence. Tshidi –“Mamlambo is our protection, our power’’ (Episode 66, 2016).The black magic ordeal of Tshidi and the attendant rituals to appease the snake god, seem to suggest that ancestral belief system is always evil and leads to deadly rituals. As seen in Episode 78, where Mamlambo demanded for the blood of Amo (the stolen child of Tshidi and Kumkani Phakade).

Gadaffi to Tshidi – ‘’ and his Ancestors kept on pushing us to make Amo sick, now we are stuck with the beast and its demands!”

Tshidi- Gadaffi – ‘’let’s give Mamlambo what he wants, it killed the Khumalo brothers who knows what it could do to us….. to Amo’’

Gadaffi to Tshidi- ‘’I’ll figure a way out of this. If we give in now, then what’s next? It could want Amo’s tongue, his eyes, body

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parts……..Anything. We cannot be held hostage by a snake’’ (Episode 77, 2016).

Such characterisations seem to suggest that tribal African human cultural behaviour is fixed. In other words, indigenous people are wired to resort to rituals. But as the American Anthropological Association (1998) pointed out human cultural behaviour is subject to modifications. However, in a bid to interpret current social and political issues facing the South African society, Generation: The Legacy has become not just a site for the creation and transmission of hegemonic or so called popular culture, but also a veritable ground for projection of an imaginary world (Andersson, 2003), where the value system of South African tribal culture is constantly being interrogated and sometimes, maligned. In her analysis of one of South African soap operas, 7de Laan, Knoetze 2015: 276) found that the soap tended to construct a dreamland which does not reflect reality:

“7de Laan presents a version of South African society which constructs the rainbow nation uncritically as an Afrikaans utopia, while still perpetuating hegemonies associated with whiteness”. 7de Laan’s audience are thus presented with a particular take on South African society, one which is, arguably, not on par with what is happening the South African reality”.

As a cultural product, Generation: The Legacy indulges in unbridled essentialism about race, identity and culture. For instance, about 186 (53%) of the respondents thought the soap makes a mockery of South African traditional marriage institutions. Chalabaev (2013) describes stereotypes as a potent and most prevalent structures used for social orientation. They are often based on tradition and are resistant to change. Even if certain arguments allow refuting a stereotype, people would rather treat it as an exception that proves the rule, than change the way of thinking (Pervez and Qasim, 2014). An overwhelming proportion of the respondents 259 (74%) felt Generation: The Legacy tends to characterise traditional values and customs as male- oriented. In other words, the soap tended to promote the predominantly patriarchal principles especially when it comes to domestic family relationships.

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The men are generally cast as providers - the ones who call the shots and who the female should be beholden to. Mbagwu, (2011) posits that the representation of men on television, do not deviate much from the traditional male-controlled notion of masculinity. Katz, (2003) points out that representation of masculinity on television is a white, middle-class heterosexual masculinity. Similarly, the images of women on television reflect stereotypes about femininity. The seeming permissiveness of masculinity has been traced to the fact that it is produced under a heteronormative context underpinned by “male-dominated, multi-national media conglomerates and within discursive practices which construct the male as the norm” (Gledhill, 2003: 365). Over the years, female gender has been mostly represented or stereotyped as housewives or (as a mother), homemaker or sexual object (Vela, Manzano, et al, 2008). In several episodes of Generation: The Legacy, Tshidi is characterised as the classic femme fatale who uses her beauty and sexual prowess, to hoodwink, seduce manipulate, or compromise her sexual partners sometimes, compelling them to engage in dangerous and deadly deals. The ‘wife’ in Generation: The Legacy remains the stereotypical nagging, possessive and ever-scheming insecure woman. For instance, in Episode 188 (2016), when Sphe felt she was losing the attention of her husband (Mazwi), she resorted to inject her daughter Rorisang and make her sick in order to get Mazwi’s full attention. In episode, 40 (2018), Tau’s mother (Mam’zondiwe) is presented as the typical mother – possessive, protective who will do anything to prevent “the witch of a woman”, Zitha (Tau’s girlfriend) from getting any closer to her son because of her perceived city ways. In the ensuing dialogue, Mam’Zondiwe- discloses her evil plot to break their relationship:

Mam’Zondiwe- ‘’why do you think? It’s that witch. I have to find a way to get rid of her, she is poisoning my son against me’’

Patricia- ‘’ you said you had a plan’’.

Mam’zondiwe- ‘’ the stupid woman who was supposed to help me, messed up. You know, in my days, when you seduced a man, you did everything you could to have him, but Carol… Nonsense”.

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But as the content analysis shows, characterisation in Generation: The Legacy do not adhere strictly to this predominantly heteronormative principles. For instance, a number of female characters like Tshidi, Karabo, Lucy and Sphe do not fit into the patriarchal notion of female roles in the traditional society. In Generation: The Legacy, “gender roles are challenged not only regarding dominant ideas about sexual preferences, but also regarding power relationships” (Marx 2007: 110). Although most marriages in the soap are heterosexual, there were characters who display alternative behaviours. For instance, in the traditional African culture, a woman only moves in to a man’s house after marriage. But in Episode 84 (2016), Lucy asked her boyfriend (Mrekza) to move in permanently to her home. When her grandmother (Gog’Flo) characterised as traditionalist protested, she was dismissed as old-school. Another instance of alternative behaviour from the norm is Karabo’s decision to marry two husbands and her decision to observe the traditional mourning rituals from off her husband house (Karabo-‘’ I will do it from here’’ Episode 88, 2016), Also Sphe’s Generation: The Legacy present strong independent women who are operating outside the patriarchal ideology. Also outside the purview of heteronormative relationship is the plot about Karabo wanting to go into polyandry. By insisting on marrying two husbands, Karabo was attempting to question social justice in traditional values and norms. Here, Generation: The Legacy attempts to expose the underbelly of social norm which tended to pander to whims of men but quick to moralise when women are involved. In other words, Karabo was questioning why it was good for men to marry two wives but abomination for women to even contemplate such fantasies. But tribal culture do not completely allow men to always have their ways. For instance, Zola’s son, Vuyo condemned his father’s morally reprehensible plan:

Vuyo to Zola– ‘’what kind of man marries another man’s wife’’ it is immoral and disgusting. You are marrying your son’s girlfriend’s stepmother who is still married to her father’’ (Episode 56, 2016).

While marriage is celebrated in the above episodes it also provides a veritable avenue to interrogate, if not contest, hegemonic ideologies about marriage. Fiske (1995: 342) argues that “building the threat into the celebration opens marriage up to readings other than those preferred by patriarchy”.

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In all, ‘not only the textual format, but also the visual format and dialogue genders local soap operas as feminine’ (Marx 2007:100). There are also explicit storylines exploring same sex relationships and alternative sexual behaviour. For instance, a series of episodes dwelt on the storyline of a male character (Wandile) exploring alternative sexual and gender identities. In Episode 84 (2016), Wandile is turn between being a transgender or a woman. His sister, Zitha and the gay admirer, Zoe who empathise with her, are portrayed as progressives who are abreast of the trend.

The prominence given to themes such as homosexuality may be a plausible explanation for why majority of respondents think Generation: The Legacy promotes western culture.

Aspects of South African tribal culture represented in Generation: The Legacy

As revealed by the findings, 277 (79.1%) of the respondents think language is the aspect of South African tribal culture most frequently reflected in Generation: The Legacy. Language is critical in the process of constructing and exchanging meaning between members of a culture. Language is one of the tools of cultural representation. Hall, (1997: 15) posits that representation involves using language to describe or say something meaningful or to represent the world meaningfully, to other people. The different ways of producing and communicating meaning work through languages because they use some elements to represent our intentions or what we want to say. Soap opera emerged from culture and folk story (Williams, 1992). The prominence enjoyed by tribal languages in Generation: The Legacy may not be unconnected to the key role language plays in identity construction. Webb (Marx 2007:114) argues that it is the “accrual by words of affective or social meanings, which likewise reflect values, norms and attitudes”. In other words, language can be used to construct people’s view of reality. A common language which uses familiar codes and conventions that are commonly understood, appears a potent tool of communicating, translating or connecting concepts and ideas or feelings (Hall 2017). The use of indigenous language is in keeping with the South Africa’s government efforts at preserving and promoting indigenous languages. Part of the aims of introducing the seven language policy is to promote indigenous language and cultural heritage in schools and visual media. Webb (Marx, 2007: 116) writes that:

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multilingualism can function as an index of ‘being South African’: through the fact that citizens know more than two (of the specific 11) languages and can thus communicate more effectively across linguistic boundaries, as well as developing a culture of multilingualism, of pluralism, and of upholding the values associated with multilingualism.

The use of tribal language or combination of tribal languages in Generation: The Legacy is not only according to the dictates of policy, but also a way of ensuring that the actors produce meaning as intended by the writers or producers. But as Hall argues, meaning is not only constructed in and through language. For meaning to be produced the receiver must be able to interpret or decode the meaning (Hall, 1997). The tribal languages spoken in Generation: The Legacy are often the urbanised or corrupt version of the original languages – often, embellished with some slangs and street codes. It is important that the recipient of the meanings is not only familiar with the linguistic codes, but speaks and understands the language. In other words, the person receiving the language must speak enough of the same language and be able to translate what was said. They must have a broad familiar ways of producing sounds to make what they would both understand. The language of Generation: The Legacy is reflective of its target audience. From its inception as Generations and in its new format as Generation: The Legacy, the soap is primarily targets the black upper-class audiences (Marx, 2007:116) “and largely employs indigenous languages (Zulu, Xhosa and Sotho) apart from English with English subtitles when the characters are not speaking English”. The use of many indigenous languages makes Generation: the Legacy “accessible to a larger audience and gives audiences the opportunity to interact with different cultures and languages, in this way deconstructing existing language identities and broadening the scope of potential viewers” (Marx, 2007:117). It also has the potential of fostering national unity.

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Factors influencing the characterisation of South African tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy.

Cultural orientation of the producers and script writers of Generation: The Legacy emerged as the number one factor that respondents felt was responsible for the way South African tribal culture is represented in the soap. As shown by the findings 125(35.7%) of respondents hold this opinion. The findings corresponds with existing empirical studies such as Lockyear (2004) which suggests that cultural products in the media reflects the cultural orientation of the producers or creators. The findings also support Hall’s argument which states that texts are largely generated by the producer (who encodes) the texts to create meaning. Marx (2004: 113) argues that popular visual culture such as soaps, attempts to reflect the shifts in the political, economic and cultural paradigms while constructing meaning. In other words, it is likely that producers of Generation: The Legacy who may have been socialised and indoctrinated by western culture, use the drama to promote and foist their new found worldview or culture on the audience. It is also plausible that producers may be using the drama as a vehicle to validate their new cultural identity. Television audiences are ‘socially constructed viewers’ who represent ‘the meaning systems and modes of expression’ articulated ‘by groups … in the course of their collective attempt to come to terms with the contradictions in their shared social situation’ (Tulloch, 1990: 210)

Commercial interest was the second most important factor mentioned by the respondents as influencing the representation of tribal South African culture in Generation: The Legacy. This finding corresponds with Lockyear (2004: 41) research which found that commercial interest influenced the content of soaps especially the tendency to produce “homogenised South African stereotypes”. According to Lockyear, (2004) the trends and economic realities of the environment will exert an influence on the cultural products produced. As a cultural product, Generation: The Legacy is part of the “broader political economic context of South Africa” and derives its sustenance from commercial revenue. As noted by Williams (1992: 2) “soap opera is commercial”. While the primary aim of soap is to provide entertainment, the entertainment comes with some cost and the hope of making profit. Most of the soap operas survive on revenue from commercials. These advertisements are often placed by hegemonic forces who hold different social values from the producers. Oftentimes, producers and writers are mindful of constructing tribal African culture in a way that it 144 will appeal not only to sponsors and advertisers but also to a broader audience “across time, cultures and even classes” (Williams, 1992:2). McQuail (1994: 150) argues that the higher the dependence on advertising as a source of revenue, the less independent the content of the cultural production. Although there may not be a compelling contractual arrangement, soap opera producers are somewhat beholden to the dictates or interest of commercial forces. Lockyear (2004:31) maintains that “the needs for sponsorship, dependency on funding, competition for a viewer market and specific target groups, all exert an influence” on the content of soap operas.

Overreliance on advertising revenue often lead cultural content producers to lose control or compromise the content of their production (McQuail, 1994: 150). The drive to satisfy commercial interest often leads to producers pandering to sponsors’ ideology. Milton and Fourie (2015: 201) hold that in the pursuit of profits, the media “marginalises and indeed misrepresents peripheral communities in programming and content decisions”. While images are derived from the society, the images we see in films or soap operas are produced by those who control the means of production. They decide what to include or to exclude - who should speak and who should be silenced in the production of images (Entman, 1993). These gatekeepers project a particular world view which is often, the moral or political view that is congruent with their beliefs and political persuasions. For instance, the writers of a narrative or those who fund the production of the narrative may decide to focus on the aspect they think may appeal to viewers or what from their own perspective reflects reality. Marx (2004: 113) argues that “the needs for sponsorship, dependency on funding, competition for a viewer market and specific target groups, all exert an influence.” What this means is that soaps even as much as they aspire to reflect the multicultural nuances of the society, are hamstrung on one hand by market forces and on the other, by the ideals of the dominant groups. In other words, “the permissiveness and power of hegemony in the media has allowed undesired contents” (Omenugha, Uzuegbunam &Ndolo, 2016: 204).

Influence of western culture was also highlighted as plausible reason for the manner in which tribal South African culture is represented in Generation: The Legacy. As indicated by the findings, 19% of the respondents (19%) believe the portrayal of tribal South African culture in Generation: The Legacy is influenced by western culture. Marx (2004: 113) posits that popular visual culture such as soaps attempts to reflect the 145 shifts in the political, economic and cultural paradigms while constructing meaning. South Africa is a multi-ethnic society with diverse cultures and the soaps attempt to reflect this cultural diversity. Hall (1997) notes that it is the participants in a culture that give meaning to people, objects, and events. However, when different cultures share the same geographic niche there may be problems, the culture of the host country stands the risk of being infiltrated and diluted by foreign values and traditions. As more people learn and adopt other people’s culture there is tendency for one to feel superior to other and this can adversely affect representations. As there are diverse meanings to any aspect of a culture so are there different ways of interpreting or representing meaning. It is common for people of one culture to misrepresent other people’s culture and in most cases, these representations are founded on stereotypes.

Generation: The Legacy tend to represent South African tribal culture as the ‘other’ to the Western or dominant group culture. This may be regarded as reversal of ‘Orientalism’. ‘Orientalism’ according to Said (1978), refers to the tendency to define people one does not know… in terms of the perceived differences between them and you”. Strangely, the narrators of Generation: The Legacy are the same people with the audience. The need to provide a cosmopolitan narrative which could attract more advertising revenue may be a plausible reason for the negative characterisation of tribal culture. This has implications for how the audience constructs self and cultural identities.

Audience perceptions and attitudes towards the representation of tribal South African culture in Generation: The Legacy.

Audience perception denotes the aggregate of individual attitudes to media representation of something or someone in an environment. Audience theorists posit that there is no uniformity of perception. Buckingham (2004) argues that some audience may accept a media representation as true while others may consider it as false. This is consistent with the findings of this study which show that respondents are not the same in their perception of the representations of South African tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy. While the majority of the respondents 214 (61.1%) thought tribal South African culture is poorly represented, 59(16.9%) of the respondents felt the representation was fair. Hall (1973 in Procter, 2004: 59-61) argues

146 that media texts are not static or determined by the sender, but open to various interpretations. Often the audience may decode or read meanings different from what the producers or encoder intended to convey as against South African tribal culture. The finding showed that some audience members tend to interpret the representations of Generation: The Legacy in line with their cultural values. This is consistent with Morley’s (1980) postulations that audiences engage in negotiated reading of texts in which even though they acknowledge the code, the encoder or producer expects them to recognize and decode, they still go ahead to read the texts in line with their “own values and opinions”. For instance, if in an episode of Generation: The Legacy, the preferred meaning suggests that consulting Sangomas is primitive. The audience can read his own meaning to the text. Previous experience, motivational and emotional state often influence how an individual perceives a phenomenon (Alan & Gary, 2011). Meaning that an individual may perceive or responds to an object or target depending on his or her emotional and motivational state.

In some situations individuals may resort to a "perceptual defence" and ends up seeing "what he wants to see". Many of the respondents are familiar with their culture, they have experience of ‘what ought to be’ with regards to their value system and they apply these values in interpreting texts from Generation: The Legacy. Gregory (1977) holds that for humans to make inferences about incoming stimuli they would have to rely on previous experiences or top-down processing. In other words, perception is not direct, but has to be processed based on stored information. Gregory’s theory is seen as a balanced and more acceptable explanation for the process of perception in that although it acknowledges that perception starts with the natural (what we see with our eyes), it however requires and a cognitive process which relies on exiting information to understand what we perceive. Perception is intrinsically linked to attitude. How we perceive something or someone will determine our attitude (feeling or thinking) about that something or someone. As indicated by the findings the respondents’ attitudes were underpinned by their perception of the representation of South African tribal culture on Generation: The Legacy. More than half of the respondents178 (50.9%) strongly feel that South African tribal culture is represented negatively in the soap and, about 182 (52%) of the respondents strongly believe such negative portrayals may erode the cultural identity of black South Africans. Generally, more than half of the

147 respondents 206 (58.9%) disagreed that Generation: The Legacy promotes African tribal tradition and values.

Generation: The Legacy constructs and transmits hegemonic culture.

The findings indicate that nearly half of the respondents 174 (49.7%) agreed that Generation: The Legacy promotes western or dominant culture and ideologies. Lingen (2014: 209) writes that “homosexuality has received more media coverage … and it is now more often seen as part of contemporary society”. Generation: The Legacy has been unapologetic in exploring homosexuality. In several episodes it display characters (Wandile, Elam) who manifest sexual behaviours that are outside the traditional heterosexual notions. The character Wandile for instance, has been used to interrogate gender identities: In episode 84, we see his/her struggles to transmute from man to transgender and then a woman and the attendant challenges:

Wandile- ‘’everyone knows who I am and how I got here’’.

Zitha- ‘’But if you do this everyone will know. Do you want to be referred to as a woman or transgender?’

Wandile- ‘’It’s who I am Zee’’

Zitha- ‘’this label will stay with you forever’’

Wandile- Zitha, ‘’I won’t deny my history. I am a woman and proudly transgender. For me the two are one and the same’’.

Wandile to Sizo- “I am a man, I like to dress up as a woman. My real name is Wandile”. (Episode 86, 2016).

Wandile to Elam- ‘’Sizo really believed I was a woman. Tonight I will have a real date with a man”

Elam- ‘’what happens when Sizo finds out you are a guy’’. (Episode 77, 2016).

Continuous circulation of explicit narratives showcasing gender identities and relationships outside the heteronormative ideology relationships has a normalising effect. Gramsci (1971) contends that the media basically generate and normalise hegemonic ideas. Media representation according to Gramsci, tends to promote 148 cultural ideology of the dominant race. As Gledhill (2003: 360) has argued what is represented in soap opera is not always reality but “what the dominant culture believes to be the case, to what is generally accepted as credible, suitable, (and) proper”. Marx (2007:113) notes that the original Generations was “criticized for portraying a one- sided view of westernized, upper-class black characters”. When it comes to what is included and excluded in the media the power of ownership and hegemony come into play. There is “an increasingly commercialised, privatised and mediated public sphere at national levels, driven by market logic and focused on rating …It is hard for ordinary citizens to access media as a result” (Dagron &Tufte 2006: xxxiv). Privately controlled mediated public sphere does not only circumscribe access but also determines the representation or images of the various constituencies of society.

Although representations are drawn from the society, the images shown in we see in films or soap operas are often the version of reality as perceived by those who owns the means of production. They constitute the gatekeepers who decide what images and voices get to be represented (Entman, 1993). Often, these gatekeepers chose images that are consistent with their cultural beliefs, political persuasion. For instance, soaps generally draw their storylines from the everyday lives of urban dwellers and as Mbembe (2004, 394) has argued, contemporary South African urban cities have become “public theatres of late capitalism.” Media representations of the urban world even though varied tend to conflict with reality (Hall as cited in McQueen, 1998) because oftentimes, the representations reflect mostly the world of the dominant class. These inconsistent constructions underpinned by single and partial narratives, tend to create tensions which could lead the audience to challenge or create counter representations (Georgiou, 2006).

Whether watching Generation: The Legacy triggers a shift in attitude towards indigenous culture or self?

Culture is critical for the mental and physical development of individuals in any society (Omenugha, Uzuegbunam & Ndolo 2016: 204). Drama is embedded in culture and is an important vehicle for cultural awareness. Cultural representations in the media such as soap can be a very powerful vehicle for identity construction (Currie & Markovitz, 1993: 91) especially in the early life of individuals. As noted by Dimitriadis (2009: 65)

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“young people today are using contemporary media to define themselves and to map their daily lives in ways that often confound adults”. Kellner (1995, 1) argues that ‘radio, television, film, and the other products of the culture industries provide the models of what it means to be male or female, successful or a failure, powerful or powerless. Media culture also provides the materials out of which many people construct their sense of class, of ethnicity and race, of nationality, of sexuality, of ‘us’ and ‘them’. As indicated by the findings, 205 (58.6%) of the respondents stated that watching Generation: The Legacy affect the way they have come to view South African tribal culture. This may be as a result of the characterisation of traditional institutions, beliefs, values and practices as unprogressive. Such representations not only reinforce stereotypes about indigenous peoples and their tribal practices, but also have the potential of creating identity crisis and possibly, repudiation of traditional behaviour. Hall (1992: 293) posits that one can learn about a specific culture, and the construction of identities within such cultures, by analysing the stories told by and about this culture. According to him, identities are contained in the stories told about nations – “memories which connect its present with its past, and images which are constructed of it”.

It has been argued that the media provide a veritable avenue for constructing and normalising common cultural values (Gramsci, 1971). As can be seen from the findings the common culture projected by Generation: The Legacy is that of the dominant class. For instance, Generation: The Legacy display storylines which explicitly explore and project contentious alternative sexual behaviours such as same sex relationship and acquisition of wealth through dubious means. In some episodes characters are encouraged to eschew some tribal values and norms. Some deviant behaviours are somewhat presented as socially acceptable. The continued construction of these new cultural paradigms and ideals has the potential of making them a new normal. Gramsci (1971), posits that dominant ideologies can easily become normalised and popularised by their recurring circulation. Commercial media has the capacity to promote and foist contemporary ideals and social creations as normal (Strinati, 1995). This poses a challenge especially for soap which is a fantasy or imagined world. There is a tendency for some audience members to see this imagined community and the culture exhibited therein as real. Watching soaps according to Spence (1995), “is experiencing a fantasy which we believe to be true

150 enough to warrant drawing moral conclusions, forming opinions, and comparing what we know from the real world. As one of the most popular and oldest soap operas, Generation: The Legacy has become a site for the construction of ideas and values, motivating social change and cultivating images, lifestyle practices and beliefs which may be diametrically opposed to indigenous value system and culture. Therefore, the way South African tribal culture is framed or represented in this imagined community has the potential of triggering rejection of indigenous culture and cultivation or acceptance of the culture projected on soaps.

As shown by the findings, 207 (59.1%) of the respondents indicated that watching Generation: The Legacy has somehow affected their perception of their own cultural identity. Fourie, (2007) and Pitout, (1996) argue that soap opera texts have moralising and socialising effect on the audience. Clearly, audience exposure to Generation: The Legacy and the dominant social values and ideas it frequently circulate may be responsible for the shift in perception and attitude towards tribal South African culture. It has also caused respondents to interrogate certain tribal values and customs which is likely to foster crisis of cultural identity.

Having become immersed in the soap opera and the verisimilitude embedded in it, the audience may have cultivated “the impression that they could live and breathe and operate outside their fictional form and could be transferred to other situations and still retain their credibility” (Hobson, 2003). This situation as Beck (2012: 152) argues, leads to “complex, co-constructed narrative intersections that contribute to powerful and multi-layered experiences”. Exposure to and regular viewing of soaps are believed to contribute to the breakdown of indigenous cultural practices, replacing those with homogeneous model of soaps (Miller, 1995). As noted by Andersson (2004) nothing stops South African audiences from appropriating and applying the fictional texts represented in soap “as their own” realities.

5.3 Situating the findings with existing theories.

The findings of this study fits into existing theories of representations especially the constructionist model. While I agree with Hall’s (1997) position that the media reflects pre-existing meaning of the real’” (Orgad, 2014), this reflection is often embellished by the social orientation of the person encoding the message. Even though the 151 reflectionist notion can, to some extent, apply to news reporting or event coverage, it poses some challenge when applied to culture and cultural products, given that the media do not always reflect the meaning society ascribed to these cultural products. Even in news coverage, the media’s reflection of reality is not totally snow white and or without fault especially when a person from a dominant culture is undertaking a report on objects, persons and events about the “other”. Often, the reportage or analysis is strewn with stereotypes and essentialism. As research has shown mainstream media have not been particularly successful in reflecting “social diversity existing in the community they serve and target” (Media Diversity Institute, 2008: 2). The interests of minority or less powerful groups are reported in bad light or ignored completely. For instance, Sreberny (1999) writes that television does not reflect the multicultural nature of Britain. This is because mass media constructs social reality by framing images of reality in a predictable and patterned way (McQuail, 1994:331). The researcher aligned with Orgad (2014) that media never really mirror reality.

The findings of this study negates the media reflectionist theory. Despite the fact that soaps attempt to imitate the established meaning of the real (Orgad, 2014) or construct a sort of parallel universe (van der Merwe, 2012: 51), these representations are largely imagined and therefore are not always realistic. Some authors such as La Pastina and Straubhaar (2005) consider soap as realistic because of its “cultural proximity”. This position however, seems to discountenance the role of the encoders of these cultural elements. The frames that are used to represent reality in the media is determined by individuals and institutions. These frames follow “a predictable and patterned way” (McQuail, 1994: 331). By providing, repeating, and thereby reinforcing words and visual images that reference some ideas but not others, frames work to make some ideas more salient in the text, others less so and others entirely invisible through repetition, placement, and reinforcing association with each other, the words and images that comprise the frame render one basic interpretation more readily discernible, comprehensible, and memorable than others” (Grbesa, 2010). I argue therefore, that the purported realism in soap in spite of the so called notion of cultural proximity, is only relative to what the encoder includes or consider credible and proper. Granting that images in soap operas are derived from the environment, these images however, are often moderated by owners of capital who sometimes function as to

152 gatekeepers. Most times, the images or aspects of society they decide to include tend to be their own morals or worldview.

The fact that soap approximate it’s time to the real present time and sometimes incorporate cultural elements, current social problems or characters and plots which the viewers can identify with (Lamuedra and O’Donnell, 2013), do not make it realistic. Clearly, soap opera takes signs from the social and cultural world familiar to us and use it to produce a similar world. The world represented however, is fictional and as envisaged by the encoders. As evinced from respondents, what is presented in Generation: the Legacy as it relate to tribal South African culture, is not completely in sync with reality. They are in the main, constructions of reality. As Hall (1997:25) argues, “things don’t mean: we construct meaning, using representative system- concepts and signs”. So the representation of South African tribal culture and people in Generation: The Legacy is fundamentally and inexorably, a construction - a selective and particular depiction of some elements of reality, which always generates some specific meanings and excludes others (Orgad, 2014). It is, to paraphrase Hall (1997: 3), the meaning the writers and producers of Generation: The Legacy give to South African tribal values and belief systems, how they represent them – the words they use about them, the stories they tell about them, the images of them they produce, the emotions they associate with them, the ways they classify and conceptualise them, the value they place on them (Hall, 1997:3). As the findings indicated these representations are often “exaggerated, far-fetched, stretching things, over the top, overboard, extreme, even ridiculous or surreal” (Lamuedra and O’Donnell, 2013).

These fictional representations clearly cannot be termed to represent reality, but verisimilitude. As has been established the meaning that media representation projects often is the “truth” of events as constructed by those who controls the means of representation (Goman, 2011)).The finding therefore, validates Gledhill’s (2003) postulations that soaps offer verisimilitude and not reality. Verisimilitude according to Gledhill “refers not to what may or may not actually be the case but rather to what the dominant culture believes to be the case, to what is generally accepted as credible, suitable, and proper. This is consistent with Gramsci’s media hegemony and dominant theory. Gramsci argues that socio-cultural representation in the media is often dictated by dominant social grouping who owns the means of representations. They leverage on their dominance of socio-cultural production to coerce the less powerful group to 153 consent to their ideologies. Soaps such as Generation: The legacy becomes fertile ground for popularising and normalising what is generally acceptable to the dominant culture. As attested to by respondents, Generation: The legacy propagates western ideology. This may not be unconnected to the need to satisfy vested interests. As revealed in the study, the producers of Generation: The legacy are somewhat beholden to market forces because the soap is sustained through advertisement revenue. Existing knowledge indeed show that there is a linkage between commercial interests and normalised stereotypes in South African soap operas (Lockyear, 2004). There is “an increasingly commercialised, privatised and mediated public sphere at national levels, driven by market logic and focused on rating …It is hard for ordinary citizens to access media as a result” (Dagron &Tufte 2006: xxxiv).

Privately controlled mediated public sphere does not only circumscribe access but also determines the representation or images of the various constituencies of society. Producers of cultural products such as Generation: The Legacy often tend to construct an imagined community that will appeal not only to sponsors and advertisers but also to a broader audience “across time, cultures and even classes” (Williams, 1992: 2). The findings of this study do not support the active audience theory. Proponents of active audience theory hold that audience members are distinct, rationale and discerning. In fact, Bauer (1960) describes the audience as independent, obstinate and “impervious to influence" of media messages. Klapper (1960) a major exponent of this theory and his adherents (Heeter, D’AlIessio, Greenberg, & McVoy, 1983) posit that the audience is discriminatory in their selection of media content or programme. In other words, audience members carefully choses the content or programme they are exposed to (Levy, 1983: 110), often to satisfy their specific needs (Palmgreen& Rayburn, 1985; Palmgreen, 1984; Levy, 1983; Dervin, 1980; Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974). In fact, Blumer (1979) argues that the audience choses media content intentionally. Intentionality here, means "media consumption...directed by prior motivation". Levy (1983) had argued that audience members are not only actively involved but also apply some sort of mental cognitive organization and information structuring of incoming media message. Meaning that the audience are not passive but do engage with the texts (Fiske, 1987) and have the capacity to read and take positions (Ang, 2007).

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The active audience theory seems to suggest that the audience is in control and capable of defending itself against media influence. The weakness of this theory is in its inability to properly define what really constitutes activity. As Abiocca (2016: 52) notes, each facet purports to define an intangible and relative process called ‘activity.’ The researcher can see that the concept of active audience defined as cognitive independence, personal freedom, and imperviousness to influence appears strangely to be both bloated and seemingly anaemic and thin. “By attempting to cover everything the audience member does, it ends up specifying little and excluding nothing. Every twitch, every thought, every choice-both mindful and mindless-is recorded as evidence of "activity.” (Abiocca, 2016: 75)

On the contrary, the findings of this study show that the audience of Generation: The Legacy are not impervious to media influence or completely independent as Bauer suggested. A preponderance of respondents stated that watching Generation: The Legacy affect the way they have come to view South African tribal culture. This suggests that “the audience member is not an unconstructed master of his or her cultural faith" (Blumler et al. 1985: 259). I therefore align with Abiocca (2016) argument that “the active audience position is overextended and often trivial”. This is because as Hall has argued, texts are largely generated by the producer (who encodes) and received by the audience (who decodes) in order to create meaning. In a cultural product like soap where the producer or encoder aims to control the reading of the message by positioning or steering the audience to read the text from their established codes or preferred or suggested meaning, the audience can take this "connoted meaning full and straight and decodes the message in terms of the reference-code in which it has been coded, it operates inside the dominant code" (Hall, 1973:16). The researcher holds the view, that the audience is neither completely active nor passive. Their reception or perception of media messages indeed vary. Rubin (Cooper & Tang, 2009) and (Tulloch, 1990) holds that, an individual tend to respond to situations at various degrees, it can be passive or active at different points; at times actively choosing the medium and at other times choosing the medium because it is accessible or a habit. Because audiences are subculture socially constructed, how they interpret media representations will depend on the socialisation of audience members and how they identify with the media representation. In the Encoding and Decoding model, Hall 155

(1973) argues that media tests are not only open to different interpretations or meanings, but fixed or determined by the sender, the message is never transparent and the audience is not a passive recipient of meaning (Procter, 2004: 59–61). Morley (1980), insists that no matter how a message is encoded, the audiences tend to engage in negotiated reading of texts by bringing in their “own values and opinions”. In this process demographic and socio-cultural factors such as age, gender, class and ethnicity come into play (Hall, 1973).

Chapter Conclusion

This chapter discusses in detail the findings of this study. The next Chapter focuses on conclusions and recommendations of the study as well as discussion and summary of the key findings that emerged from this study. Summary of contributions and implications of his study as well as limitation of the study, suggestions for further research and conclusion to the study are also discussed.

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CHAPTER SIX:

CONCLUSIONS AND REOMMENDATIONS

6.1 Introduction

The main purpose of this research was to ascertain how South African tribal culture is represented in the popular soap opera, Generation: The Legacy and how the audience perceived these characterisations. In addition, the thesis sought to determine the elements of South African tribal culture that is frequently characterised and portrayed in the soap opera. The study also sought to explore whether there are factors responsible for the way tribal African culture is represented in Generation: The Legacy. Finally, the research sought to establish whether Generation: The Legacy creates and transmits hegemonic ideas and whether regular exposure to the soap has any effect on audience members’ attitude to indigenous culture and how they negotiate their identities. Specifically, the study sought to answer the following research questions:

The research methodology employed for the study was the mixed methods which involved the use of content analysis and survey. Random sampling technique was used to draw sample for the survey and content analysis. A total of 350 respondents were sampled for the survey while 20 episodes of Generation: The Legacy aired between March 2016 and April 2018 were selected for content analysis.

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The sequential parallel data analysis approach was used to analyse data. First, both data sets (content analysis ad survey) were analysed independently, then matched and combined during the discussion stage. This chapter provides a brief description of the findings situating them along the research objectives. This is followed by the conclusions drawn based on the research findings. Thereafter is the suggestions, limitation, implication and contribution of the study. First, a summary of the chapters is provided.

6.2 Summary of chapters.

The thesis began with an introductory chapter which defined the objectives, context, scope and limitation of the study. The chapter provided the overall research design and research instruments to be used in achieving the research objectives. In this chapter the significance of the study, the theoretical and practical contributions were articulated. The chapter also provided a contextual understanding of soap opera in South Africa. It was found that “the South African soap is part of the broader political economic context of South Africa”. It was argued that soaps are not only popular across the cultural, racial and demographic constituents of South Africa, but constitute a powerful platform for negotiating and renegotiating identities. It was highlighted that the soapies in an attempt to project a new reality of non-racist, sexist and united country, often construct and display representations of a seemingly non-dichotomous society where race, ethnicity and culture appear homogenised. And this leads to contradictions and tensions. It was highlighted that South African media tended to characterise South African tribal culture as inferior and out of sync with dominant social value. This, it was argued, had the potential to cause repudiation of indigenous culture or crisis of cultural identity. Although a number of studies have been carried out on soap operas in South Africa, no notable research has been done that examined cultural representations in soaps. This study therefore, sought to find out how South African tribal language, traditional institutions, values, social norms and ancestral beliefs are portrayed through the television drama, Generation: The Legacy and what viewers thought about those depictions. In the second chapter we examined the concept of representation in detail. The primary objective of the chapter was to provide a better understanding of cultural representation in soap opera. The various

158 perspectives to media representations were discussed. Using Hall’s (1997) approach it was established that media representations basically attempt to do two things: Firstly, reflect reality or the pre-existing meanings of ‘the real’” (Orgad, 2014). Secondly, Media representations attempt to construct reality. In other words, media including soap opera constructs social reality or give things meaning by “framing images of reality in a predictable and patterned way” (McQuail, 1994:331). As evinced from literature media representation serves as veritable tool to normalise and popularise dominant ideologies (Gramsci 1971). The implication of this is that media representations has the potential to project and normalise cultural values of hegemonic forces through their recurring circulation in the media. But as literature suggest, what constitute reality remains a contentious issue (Lamuedra and O’Donnell, 2013). For instance, while some scholars argue that what is shown in soap opera represents reality apparently because of its “cultural proximity” (La Pastina and Straubhaar, 2005), others such as Fourie (2007), contend that media representations contains some elements of truth and fiction. Some hold that, Soap operas in the main, are often “exaggerated, far-fetched, stretching things, over the top, overboard, extreme, even ridiculous or surreal” (Lamuedra & O’Donnell, 2013). What emerged from the literature review, suggests that media representations presents verisimilitude that is, “what may or may not actually be the case but rather to what the dominant culture believes to be the case, to what is generally accepted as credible, suitable, proper” (Gledhill, 2003). In other words, what is represented in the media, soap inclusive, is determined by some gatekeepers – the writer or the narrator, the one who has responsibility to approve what gets published or shown, and of course, the sponsors and owners of the means of representation. The literature review examined the two main perspectives on how the audience interpret or perceive media texts. From Gibson’s Bottom-Up Theory it was suggested that perception is an inherent process which does not require learning. Gibson holds that humans have sufficient information in their environment to form an opinion about a new stimulus. On the other hand, Gregory in his Top down Processing Theory, argued that humans construct their perception by relying on previous experience. In other words, perception is not a direct natural process, but has to be processed based on stored information. Many argue that Gregory’s theory offers a plausible explanation for the process of explanation in that it incorporates the natural cognitive processes involved

159 in making sense of a phenomenon. The Chapter went on to explore the tensions among theorists over how the audience engage with media texts. In one end of the dialectics, are theorists who strongly hold that audience members are not just passive consumers of media text but actually engage with media messages. The active audience theorists contend that audience members in their interaction with media texts are selective (Klapper, 1960; Levy, 1983), independent and often obstinate impervious to influence (Bauer, 1964), and uses media texts to gratify specific needs (Katz et al., 1974). Stuart Hall (1973, 1980) argues that the audience does not simply passively accept any media message warts and all. The audience Hall insists, have the capacity and latitude to agree or disagree with media texts or construct a contrary meaning that is completely opposite to what the media producers or encoders might have intended. The passive audience theorists however, perceive the audience as being powerless to plethora of texts from seemingly insidious and sinister media. Gebner et al., (1989) cultivation theory highlights not only the influence of the media over the audience but also the helplessness of the audience in the face of a barrage of persuasive media offerings. While there are empirical evidences to support the activeness of the audience with regards to media consumption, this researcher is persuaded to agree with Abiocca (2016) “that the active audience position is overextended and often trivial”. Interestingly, some of the proponents of the active audience theory, have come to the realisation that the audience member is not after all, “an unconstructed master of his or her cultural faith" (Blumler et al. 1985:259). The so called “active audience" may in fact be "more affected" by the media (Levy and Windahl, 1984). Essentially, the Audience theories submit that media representations are not a closed process but open to different interpretations and that their meanings are not fixed. The audience can accept the intended meaning of the text or reject it or even create an opposite meaning of the text (Hall, 1973).This chapter also focused on soap opera, its evolution and characteristics. From its early days when it was confined to America and later Europe, soap opera has become a global phenomenon occupying primetime on television across the globe. Although soap opera is now a universal television product which has been adapted to suit local context in many countries, the genre retains some features such as format, theme, narrative pattern which set it apart from other segmented television programmes.

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In spite of the generic characteristics inherent in soap opera, there exist three subtypes of soap opera namely, dyadic, Dynamic and community soap opera (Liebes and Livingstone, 1998). The diversity and ability of soap operas to be amendable to local situation negates the argument that they are tools of cultural hegemony. It also challenges the notion of “McDonaldization” (Ritzer, 1993), “Cocacolonization” or cultural homogenisation. The chapter discussed how audience perceives soaps. As highlighted in the review, the audience are not just mere passive receivers of soap operas, they play roles. The chapter discussed Gramsci’s theory of hegemony and it was highlighted that soap operas function not only as entertainment vehicles but also as potent sites for generating and normalising modern culture, which often, is the culture of the dominant group in society. Whereas indigenisation provide a leeway to produce soap opera that is in sync with local cultural heritage and identities, local soaps in a bid to project global culture, are often susceptible to internal hegemonic forces or capitalists. The unfettered use of gay characters and ample time given to transgender storylines provide concrete examples of the potential of local soap opera to question longstanding gender roles and negotiate new identities. It could be inferred from the literature review that although soap opera attempts to reflect everyday life social behaviour, what it reflects or represents “may or may not actually be the case but rather to what the dominant culture believes to be the case, to what is generally accepted as credible, suitable, proper” (Gledhill, 2003: 360). In chapter three, the methodology adopted for the study was outlined. It was considered expedient to use the mixed methods approach given the nature of the problem of the study, portrayal of a cultural group in soap. While the survey method enabled us obtain a more nuanced data about the feelings of the public (Floyed & Fowler 2013) on the topic, content analysis provided an effective tool to examine critically the contents of the soap as regards the representation of South African tribal culture in Generation: The Legacy.

In the fourth chapter, the data analysis was executed using the parallel data analysis method. The process involved analysing the survey and content analysis separately. The content analysis follows established content categories. Five major content categories were established for this study. The survey data was analysed using descriptive statistics. This method enabled the researcher to summarise and compare

161 variables such as respondents’ demographics, perceptions and viewership patterns. Inferential statistics, Chi-square and multiple regression analyses were used to explain variance within groups and relationships among variables. The unit of analysis was every speaking or named character of each episode. First, the content analysis was presented and then followed by the presentation of the survey.

6.3. Summary of Key Findings

6.3.1 How South African tribal culture is characterised and represented in Generation: The Legacy.

The content analysis revealed that (17.7%) of the characters in the sampled episodes seems to suggest that South African tribal values are inhibitive, the bulk of those who spoke in this light are teenage characters of both sexes. Similarly, 15.2% of the characters felt traditional values are somewhat chauvinistic. Those who make comments or utterances to this effect are mainly female characters both married and single. About 21.2% of the characters in the sampled episodes thought social norms in tribal settings were prescriptive, while 11% consider them ineffective. Nearly, 6.7% of the characters portrayed traditional values in their speech as old-fashioned. It was found that Generation: The Legacy generally projects the traditional marriage institution as patriarchal in which the female gender is often is characterised as subservient to men. Words uttered by characters seem to suggest the traditional marriage institution was repressive and the marriage codes oppressive. These views were mostly expressed by the upwardly mobile, working class wives and young educated single characters. About 7% of the characters spoke words that suggests that traditional marriage institution and its mores are underpinned by patriarchal ideology and women are often at the receiving end. The characters who hold these views are mainly the upwardly mobile working class wives and the young educated singles. The narratives generally suggest that the female gender is always at the receiving end of tradition. In many of the episodes Generation: The Legacy tended to interrogate the seemingly Janus-faced tendencies of heteronormative society. Similarly, tradition is often portrayed as old-fashioned in Generation: The Legacy With regards to the institution of chieftaincy, 6% of the characters uttered or communicated words that characterise chiefs or traditional leaders as domineering 162 and always seeking to impose decisions on their subjects. The comments are mainly found among characters from the villages or townships were the chiefs have jurisdiction over. Only about 4.5% of the characters uttered words that portrayed chiefs or institution of chieftaincy as exploitative. Majority of the characters felt African traditional family is controlling and intrusive. The young characters felt older parents (read as traditionalists) often, attempt to micromanage the affairs of their wards including their love lives which they consider intrusive and controlling. The proclivity of family members especially parents and close relatives, to meddle into the privacy of their married wards was highlighted in many episodes. A significant number of characters openly referred to ancestral beliefs as being steeped in rituals (14%) or embedded in witchcraft (12%) and often unrealistic (9.2%). Gender emerged as a significant factor in the perception of the representation of tribal African culture in Generation: The Legacy. A post-hoc test suggests that females are more likely to see the portrayal of tribal African culture in generation as more negative than male. It can be inferred from the content analysis that Generation: The Legacy often characterise South African tribal values as inhibitive and tilted in favour of the male gender. Generation: The Legacy portrays the traditional family as controlling and intrusive and tended to characterise the traditional institution of marriage as patriarchal in orientation and often repressive especially to the female gender. In Generation: The Legacy, the chieftaincy is characterised as overbearing and selfish. This finding supports the argument of Dennis (1989 in Pieter, 2001:303), that ‘stereotypes’ not only straddles the boundary between cognitions, mental pictures of the world about us, but also affect our attitudes, our feelings and evaluations of persons, issues, and situations in the world around us. Interestingly, the producers and script writers of Generation: The Legacy are blacks. Why would these individuals stereotype people of the same group with them? This may not be unconnected with the move to reflect a changing society. According to Tager (2010), contemporary South African soap opera is “both a product of post- apartheid South Africa and as a mechanism which maintains, and promotes changes in, its viewers’ preferences, beliefs and patterns of everyday life social behaviour”. The finding is consistent with (Andersson, 2003) postulations that the media has become not just a site for the creation and transmission of hegemonic or so called popular culture, but also a veritable ground for projection of an imaginary world. The

163 finding also aligns with the findings of Knoetze (2015:276) which indicate that soap tended to construct a dreamland which do not reflect reality.

The findings of this study as it relates to the portrayal of gender, correspond with the findings of Mbagwu (2011) which shows that “men, as represented on adult television, do not deviate much from the traditional patriarchal notion of men and masculinity”. Katz (2003) also found that “the masculinity represented on television is a white, middle-class heterosexual masculinity”. This finding also supports the empirical study of Gledhill (2003: 365) which indicate that gender representations in cultural products tend to pander to heteronormative principles “within discursive practices which construct the male as the norm”. The finding validates Marx (2007: 110) study which showed that soaps can be used to challenge gender roles “not only regarding dominant ideas about sexual preferences but also regarding power relationships”.

6.3.2 Aspects of South African tribal culture represented in Generations: The Legacy.

Language was selected by 79.1% respondents as the aspect of South African tribal culture frequently reflected in Generation: The Legacy. Myths and traditions receive moderate inclusion while ceremonies are occasionally portrayed in Generation: The Legacy. Respondents considered tribal African music and dance as the least represented in Generations: The Legacy. As indicated by the content analysis the greater percentage of the dialogue Generations: The Legacy is in isiZulu language, followed by Sotho and then IsiXhosa and Setswana respectively. The characters frequently switch between English and another language and vice versa, often within same sentence. It could be concluded that indigenous languages receive favourably representation in Generations: The Legacy. The findings with regards to language align with Hall’s (1997: 15) argument that language is critical in cultural representation. It aligns with the findings of Marx (2007: 116) which indicate that Generations: The Legacy targets black audience by the use of indigenous languages.

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6.3.3 Factors that influence the portrayal of tribal African culture in Generation: The legacy

About 35.7% of respondents identified the cultural orientation of the producers and script writers of Generations: The Legacy as the number one factor responsible for the way South African tribal culture is represented in the soap. While 28% of the respondents stated that commercial interest, that is the need for advertising revenue, influences the way South African tribal culture is portrayed in Generations: The Legacy. About 18.8% of the respondents believe the influence of western culture may be the reason for the way tribal South African culture is represented in Generations: The Legacy. It is safe to conclude that the representation of South African tribal culture in Generations: The Legacy is largely influenced by the social orientation of the script writers/producers and the need for advertising revenue. This finding is also consistent with Lockyear’s (2004: 41) study which found that commercial interest influenced the content of soaps especially the tendency to produce “homogenised South African stereotypes”. The finding supports McQuail’s (1994: 150) theory that overreliance on advertising revenue often lead cultural content producers to lose control or compromise the content of their production. The finding that representations in Generations: The Legacy are influenced by dominant culture, corresponds with the findings of Marx (2004: 113) which shows that popular visual culture such as soaps attempts to reflect the shifts in the political, economic and cultural paradigms while constructing meaning.

6.3.4 Audience perceptions and attitudes towards the representation of tribal South African culture in Generation: The Legacy

About 69.1% of the respondents thought tribal African values and customs are represented as inferior to popular culture. Similarly, 63.4% stated that Generations: The Legacy is likely to to characterise African values and customs as archaic or outdated. More than half of the respondents (51.4%) indicated that Generations: The Legacy characterise tribal South African customs and values as inhibitive, while 42.3% felt the soap opera portrays African customs and values as deeply rooted in superstitions. Respondents felt Generations: The Legacy perpetuates stereotypes about South African tribal culture. 165

Overwhelming majority of respondents felt that such negative portrayals may erode the cultural identity of black South Africans. Respondents generally believe that Generations: The Legacy makes mockery of South African traditional marriage institutions. More than two quarters of the respondents hold the view that the soap attempts to ridicule traditional marriage and its underlining rules.

An overwhelming proportion of the respondents (74%) felt Generations: The Legacy tends to characterise traditional values and customs as male oriented. Many of the respondents strongly believe that role portrayals in Generations: The Legacy reflect patriarchy or male-controlled society. Interestingly, majority of the respondents disagreed that Generations: The Legacy characterise tribal South African customs and values as overly ritualistic. Only 12 (3.4%) of the respondents agreed that the way tribal South African customs and values are characterised in Generations: The Legacy make them something to be proud of. This means that an overwhelming proportion (96.6%) of respondents do not agree that Generations: The Legacy portrays African customs and values as something to be proud of. In all, 61.1% of respondents ranked the overall presentation of tribal South African culture on Generations: The Legacy as poor. Only 16.9% of the respondents think Generations: The Legacy portrays African culture fairly. In conclusion, the findings indicate that South African tribal culture is represented negatively in the soap. In other words, the South African tradition and values represented in Generations: The Legacy do not reflect the South African tribal culture. The findings align with Hall’s encoding/decoding theory which suggest that the audience decodes or interpret media texts or messages differently. The finding is consistent with Morley’s (1980) postulations that audiences engage in negotiated reading of texts in which even though they acknowledge the code, the encoder or producer expects them to recognize and decode, they still go ahead to read the texts in line with their “own values and opinions”. However, the findings of this study do not support the active audience theory. It supports the argument of Blumer (1985: 259) that audiences are not “masters of their cultural faith”.

6.3.5 Whether Generations: The Legacy creates and transmit hegemonic culture

About 68.6% of the respondents were of the opinion that Generations: The Legacy gives preference to western culture as against South African tribal culture. Nearly half 166 of the respondents (48.6%) strongly agreed that Generations: The Legacy, perpetuates stereotypes about black South Africans. 58.6% of the respondents stated that watching Generations: The Legacy affect the way they have come to view South African tribal culture, while 59.1% indicated that watching Generations: The Legacy has somehow affected their perception of their own cultural identity. Generations: The Legacy is vehicle for propagating promotes dominant culture and ideals. It can be deduced from the above that Generations: The Legacy is not only a site for the construction and transmission of the ideals of the dominant groups but a platform to negotiate and renegotiate cultural identities which could lead to acculturation. The findings validates Gledhill’s (2003:360) postulations that what is represented in the media is actually the aspect of reality which “dominant culture believes to be the case, to what is generally accepted as credible, suitable, and proper”. For instance, Lingen (2014: 209) writes that “homosexuality has received more media coverage … and it is now more often seen as part of contemporary society”. The finding aligns with the criticism that Generations: The Legacy tend to portray unrepresentative view of so called “westernized, upper-class black characters”. The findings correspond with the Gramsci’s media hegemony theory which suggests that the media essentially generate and normalise dominant groups’ ideas. The drive to satisfy commercial interest often leads to producers pandering to sponsors’ ideology. Milton and Fourier (2015: 201) argue that in the pursuit of profits, the media “marginalises and indeed misrepresents peripheral communities in programming and content decisions”.

6.4. Summary of contributions of this study and implications

The central contribution of this study lies in the generation of new information concerning the representation of South African tribal culture in soaps. Until now, very little was known about the cultural content of soaps as available studies tended to focus mainly on audience studies. This study therefore addresses that gap in knowledge by providing baseline information on the representation of African culture on Generations: The Legacy and how the audience perceives and reacts to such characterization. The study achieved its aim to point out that the mass media, soap opera particularly, not only tended to characterise African tradition as outdated but also capable of propagating dominant culture. The study also identified the factors

167 influencing the way South African tribal culture is represented in soap opera. It provided insight into the role social orientation and commercial interests play in how African tradition is constructed and displayed on soap opera. This deepens our understanding of cultural representations in the media and contributes to the body of knowledge on media representations. It is important for producers of soaps to realise that their narratives have moralising and normalising effects on the audience. The attempt to promote dominant ideals should not negate the need to promote those aspects of culture which have served the society right for ages. While the need for revenue cannot be overemphasized producers should not sacrifice indigenous culture on the altar of revenue. The tendency to project hegemonic ideologies while insidiously lampooning African tradition has the potential to not only alienate viewers but also reinforce stereotypes about African culture. Audience use the representations of African tradition in Generations: The Legacy - the myths and symbols, to deﬁne what is good or bad, positive or negative, moral or evil. Therefore, framing African culture as inimical and opposite to the dominant group’s definition of modernity could result in situation where people become not only brainwashed and pliable object of change but also susceptible to abandoning or ignoring their culture and embracing the model of modernisation as prescribed and promoted by soaps like Generations: The Legacy. The point been made is that the stories Generations: The Legacy tell about South African tribal culture plays a significant role in shaping black South Africans’ perception of their culture and ultimately cultural identity. As has been argued in the literature review, a people’s identity is entrenched in the story told about them. It is likely, that for many young viewers, Generation may be their only way of encountering and acquiring African cultural and social norms. The stories told about this cultural values in Generations: The Legacy may be what they will eventually use to define themselves and map their daily lives. Given that cultural identity is not absolute and static, the recounted story of African culture in Generations: The Legacy which is often an incomplete and biased representations of reality, has the potential of leading to the construction of ‘tangled identities. It will be beneficial for Generations: The Legacy to explore narratives that project traditional values as necessary even if inhibiting. The merits of its constraining nature should be highlighted. Generations: The Legacy should also desist from the single narratives

168 about traditional family marriage institution tending to the heteronormative principles of society. The male view of family and marriage should be given equal expression. As it is, only the views of the female gender are projected in Generations: The Legacy. It will be gainful also to incorporate more scenes of African music and dance in Generations: The Legacy. These are critical aspects of indigenous culture that need to be promoted in the show. In order to achieve this, there is need to incorporate writers who are more culturally oriented so they will be able to infuse stories that captures the essence of tribal tradition and cultural values. The current storylines are outlandish, too western oriented and tend to pander too much to commercial interests.

6.5 Limitations of the study.

It is possible that the issue of negative representations of South African tribal culture may pervade all the soap operas in South Africa. Therefore to determine how South African tribal culture is represented in soap operas would require at least, a random sampling of the target soap population. However this study investigated only one soap opera in one city and this is an important limitation of the study as we cannot confidently draw a conclusion about how soaps represent South African tribal culture. Therefore the conclusions of this study with regards to representation South African tribal culture are suggestive and not definitive. Nevertheless, the narrow focus of the study allowed for a detailed analysis.

The main argument of the potential of Generations: The Legacy to represent South African tribal culture negatively centred on locating its cultural representations. The concept of culture, especially non-material culture is convoluted given that it is often times, abstract in nature. Although a considerable effort was made to construct measureable variables of culture especially for the content categories, it is possible that some aspects of tribal culture may have been lumped together or omitted. The inferences made about cultural representations in Generations: The Legacy mainly focused on the possible deleterious effect of the soap, which is keeping with the scope and focus of the study. What was not explored is the positive potential cultural representation in the soap may have.

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6.6 Suggestions for further research

This study as highlighted earlier, only focused on one soap opera which limits the conclusions. It will therefore, be useful to investigate other soap operas in order to draw a general conclusion on the representation of African tradition on soap opera in South Africa. As was pointed out in the limitation section, this study attempted to highlight the potential of soaps, particularly, Generations: The Legacy to construct African tribal culture negatively. The conclusions obtained were mainly negative. It is possible that not all the cultural content in Generations: The Legacy are negative. Further research on soap opera could attempt to investigate the positive contents of cultural representations in South African soaps. Many studies on soap opera had focused on audience reaction, it will be beneficial to interrogate scriptwriters and producers to ascertain how they approach the issue of cultural content in their narratives. A possible suggestion for further research might be to focus on one specific soap opera in order to analyse soap opera in more detail with regard to the construction of identity. An issue that was mentioned but was not investigated in details was the influence of advertising revenue in soap opera production. It will be beneficial to investigate what role sponsorship and advertisement play in the representation of South African tribal culture. Further research on this area could help our understanding of the depth and pervasiveness of the factor.

Another possible research that would provide a more nuanced understanding of cultural representation in South African soaps, may be a comparative analysis of soaps produced by white and black south Africans respectively in order to ascertain the difference (if any) in the way both parties tell stories about the others’ culture.

6.7. Conclusions

Commercial media entertainment offerings especially mainstream soap operas in South Africa, are progressively infusing dominant social values and ideas which are alien to South African tribal societies. In most of the commodified television drama series, people who still hold tight to traditional beliefs and values are often characterised as traditionalists still leaving in the past, while those who have imbibed the western defined dicta and ideology of modernity are seen as progressives. I have

170 argued that representing tribal institutions, spiritual beliefs and values in this light will not only reinforce stereotypes about indigenous peoples and their tribal practices but also, has the potential of creating identity crisis and possible repudiation of traditional culture and this could pave way for cultural hegemony. This is because these representations serve not only as reference points for interaction in local and global discourses on tribal culture in the media, but also form the basis for attitudes, and public opinion. Stuart Hall (1992: 293), posits that one can learn about a specific culture, and the construction of identities within such cultures, by analysing the stories told by and about this culture. According to him, identities are contained in the stories told about nations – “memories which connect its present with its past, and images which are constructed of it”. It has been theorised that media could be a veritable avenue to construct and normalise common cultural values. Gramsci (1971), insists that dominant ideologies can easily become normalised and popularised by their recurring circulation in the media. His views are consistent with Brinkerhoff (2013), who holds that the mass media including television dramas, have far reaching influence on cultural transmission especially popular culture because they are key agencies that affect how individuals learn about the world and interact with one another. Some scholars (Fourie, 1984, 2007 and Pitout, 1996) hold that soap opera texts have moralising and socialising effect on the audience.

The findings show that Generations: The Legacy tended to represent tribal African values and customs as archaic, inhibitive; inferior to popular culture and deeply rooted in superstitions. It was found that Generations: The Legacy perpetuates stereotypes about South African tribal culture, which an overwhelming majority of respondents thought has the potential to erode the cultural identity of black South Africans. As the findings indicate, Generations: The Legacy often characterise South African tribal values as tilting in favour of heteronormative principles. In other words, values and customs often showcased in Generations: The Legacy are those which appear to accentuate a society where men call the shots. In addition, the findings indicate that Generation: the Legacy is a vehicle for promoting dominant or western culture and ideals. More than half of the respondents stated that watching Generations-The Legacy affect the way they perceive their own cultural identity. As evinced from the findings, Generations: the legacy portrays the traditional family as controlling and

171 intrusive and tended to characterise the traditional institution of marriage as patriarchal in orientation and often repressive especially to the female gender. Similarly, the chieftaincy or institution of chiefs, tend to be characterised as overbearing and selfish. While Generations: The Legacy represents indigenous languages favourably, other aspects of culture such as music and dance feature sparingly. In all, participants rated the representation of South African tribal culture as poor. The findings of this study generally suggests that South African tribal culture is negatively represented in the Generations: The Legacy. In other words, the South African tradition and values represented in the soap opera does not reflect the South African tribal culture. From both quantitative and qualitative data, it is safe to conclude that the representation of South African tribal culture in Generations: The Legacy is largely influenced by the social orientation of the script writers/producers and the need for advertising revenue. It can also be concluded that Generations: The Legacy is not only a site for the construction and transmission of the ideals of the dominant groups but also a platform for negotiation and renegotiation of cultural identities. Continuous circulation of this popular culture in Generation: the Legacy and other soaps could lead to acculturation.

I argue that while Generations: The Legacy is an attempts to construct a seemingly homogenised society that is non-racist, sexist and united, it tend to create tension in cultural identity because the cultural frames chosen to represent this imagined community is fraught with incongruities. The depictions of African tradition is largely stereotypical. In most of the episodes, South African tribal institutions, spiritual beliefs and values which held society together over the years tend to be presented as archaic and odious or inimical to modernisation and individual’s freedom. This, apart from reinforcing stereotypes about tribal cultural practices, has the potential of popularising, foisting and normalising dominant cultural values or even triggering repudiation of indigenous culture. As has been observed the mass media including soap operas, have far reaching influence on cultural transmission especially popular culture because they are key agencies that affect how individuals learn about the world and interact with one another. I submit that the continuous negative framing and circulation of South African tribal culture as inhibitive and primitive in Generations: The Legacy while giving unfettered promotion of hegemonic ideals as progressive, could lead not only to cultural hegemony and conflict of identity, but also can results to a situation in

172 which the audience insert themselves into the popular culture being created by media culture. I therefore conclude that while South African tribal culture is increasingly finding expression on mainstream soap opera, tribal South African values and beliefs are often depicted as old-fashioned, and inimical to modernisation, and individual’s freedom.

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Images of Generation: the Legacy

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Appendix 2 Screenshots in episode 237

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Appendix 22 – Questionnaire

Dear Sir/Madam,

I, Oluwayemisi Onyenankeya a PhD student at the Department of Communication, University of Fort Hare, is undertaking a research project to determine the representation of tribal South African culture in Generation-The legacy drama serial (soapies). To this end I kindly request that you complete the following short questionnaire regarding your habits, preferences and attitudes towards Generation- The legacy. It should take no longer than 10 minutes of your time. Your response is of the utmost importance to us.

Please do not enter your name or contact details on the questionnaire. For ethical reasons, all responses will remain anonymous and private and there will be no way to identify individual responses. Your cooperation in filling each of the responses below in which describes your honest opinion is greatly appreciated. Should you have any queries or comments regarding this survey, you are welcome to contact me on telephone: 0844206522 or e-mail: [email protected].

Yours sincerely

Onyenankeya O.M

PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS BY CROSSING (x) THE RELEVANT BLOCK OR WRITING DOWN YOUR ANSWER IN THE SPACE PROVIDED.

EXAMPLE of how to complete this questionnaire:

Your gender? If you are female: Male 1 Female 2

Question A – Background Information This section of the questionnaire refers to background or biographical information. Although we are aware of the sensitivity of the questions in this section, the information will allow us to compare groups of respondents. Once again, we assure you that your response will remain anonymous. Your co-operation is appreciated.

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1. GENDER Male 1 Female 2

2. AGE 15-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56 and above

3. ETHNICITY: Please choose which ethnic background you most identify with. African Heritage European Heritage Indian or Asian Heritage Other (please specify)

4. YOUR HIGHEST EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION Grade 11 or Lower Grade 12(matric) Post-matric Diploma or Certificate Baccalaureate Degree(s) Post-Graduate Degree(s)

Section B This section of the questionnaire explores your habits and preferences, if any, with regard to the viewership of Generation-The legacy. 5. How often do you watch television Soapies? Daily A few times a week Weekly A few times a month Monthly A few times a year Never

6. Have you watched at least five episodes Of Generation-The legacy in the past 6 months? Yes 1 No 2

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7. Which of the following aspect (s) of South African tribal culture are frequently portrayed in Generation the legacy. (Kindly rank them in order of frequency (1 2 3 4 5 6) 1=highest frequency 6=least frequency

aspects of culture Frequency Language Dance Music traditions myths Ceremonies

Section C This section explores your attitude and perceptions regarding representation of Tribal African culture in Generation-The legacy.

8. Do you think Generation-The legacy gives preference to western culture as against African tribal culture?

Yes, definitely Probably Maybe Definitely not Not Sure

9. Does watching Generation-The legacy affects the way you view tribal South African culture?

Yes, definitely Probably Maybe Definitely not Not Sure

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10. Does watching Generation-The Legacy affects your perception of your cultural identity?

Yes, definitely Probably Maybe Definitely not Not Sure

11. How do you rank the presentation and display of South African culture in Generation-The legacy?

Very good 1 Good 2 Fair 3 Poor 4 Very poor 5

12. To what extent do you agree with each of the following statements? Please indicate your answer using the following 5-point scale where: 1. = Strongly disagree 2. = Disagree 3. = Neutral 4. = Agree 5. = Strongly Agree

Disagree Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Agree Strongly

The tradition and values represented in Generation- the legacy reflects the South African tribal culture African tribal languages are favourably projected in Generation-The legacy Generation-The legacy represents tribal south African culture as inferior and backward Generation-the legacy makes a mockery of our traditional marriage institutions Generations-the legacy represents African traditions and values as old-fashioned Generation-The legacy tends to promote western culture and ideals Exposure to Generation-The legacy has shaped y thoughts and behaviour towards tribal African culture Generation the legacy perpetuates stereotypes about South African tribal culture

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Generally, African tribal culture is represented negatively in Generation-the legacy Generation-the legacy promotes a male-controlled society

In totality, negative portrayal of tribal culture in Generation- The legacy may erode cultural identity of black South Africans

13. In your opinion, which of the following describes how tribal South African culture is characterised in Generations-the legacy? (You may tick more than one response).

Old-fashioned Male-controlled Inhibitive or holds back Subjugate women and children Superstitious Ceremonial something to be proud of Inferior to western culture Better than western culture

14. In your opinion which of the following factors are responsible for the way tribal African culture is represented in Generation: The Legacy?

Cultural orientation of producers/writers Advertising revenue Influence of Western culture What is happening in the society To attract more viewers

Thank you for your co-operation in completing this questionnaire. Kindly return the questionnaire as specified in the cover letter.

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Appendix 23- Coding sheet for content Analysis

Indigenous language frequency in Generation: The legacy

nda

Episodes

isiZulu isiXhosa Tswana Ve Sotho Northern Sotho Ndebele SiSwati Tsonga 56

118

237

188

213

251

252

260

268

101

102

Marriage Chieftaincy Family

Repressive Patriarchal Exploitative Domineering Controlling Intrusive

Episodes

56(2016)

66(2016)

77(2016)

78(2016)

79(2016)

86(2016)

118(2016)

237(2016)

188(2017)

213(2017)

251(2017)

252(2017)

260 (2017)

40(2018)

43 (2018)

49 (2018)

269

84 (2018)

101(2018)

102(2018)

59(2018)

Episode Old-fashioned Inhibitive Chauvinistic

56(2016) 66(2016) 77(2016) 78(2016) 79(2016) 86(2016) 118(2016) 237(2016) 188(2017) 213(2017) 251(2017) 252(2017) 260(2017) 40(2018) 43(2018) 49(2018) 84(2018) 101(2018) 102(2018) 59(2018)

270

Prescriptive Ineffective Unrealistic

Episode

56(2016)

66(2016)

77(2016)

78(2016)

79(2016)

86(2016)

118(2016)

237(2016)

188(2017)

213(2017)

251(2017)

252(2017)

260(2017)

40(2018)

43(2018)

49(2018)

84(2018)

101(2018)

102(2018)

59(2018)

271

Witchcraft Unrealistic Ritualistic

Episode

56(2016) 66(2016) 77(2016) 78(2016) 79(2016) 86(2016) 118(2016) 237(2016) 188(2017) 213(2017) 251(2017) 252(2017) 260(2017) 40(2018) 43(2018) 49(2018) 84(2018) 101(2018) 102(2018) 59(2018)

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Appendix 24 -Ethical clearance

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