A reflection of us

Faith Koli (left) is the producer of Pendo and Eve D'Souza is the producer of Auntie Boss, both TV shows air on NTV. PHOTOS| COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • All media is a messenger, it is said. It is also a reflection of who we are. The question is, what are these TV shows saying about Kenyan women?

  • What storylines are women in production creating for other women? What inspires these characters?

Those who grew up in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s when KBC was the lone television station came at a time when women were grossly underrepresented in the media. The females made up less than a third of the television characters. When they appeared, they were given the role of the dumbed down house wife.

Especially now with the digital migration giving more space to local content, we are seeing more women owning the television production lines. Women are not just starring on screen, but also creating the productions. This is definitely something to be celebrated.

All media is a messenger, it is said. It is also a reflection of who we are. The question is, what are these TV shows saying about Kenyan women? What storylines are women in production creating for other women? What inspires these characters?

THE WORKING WOMAN

In the past one or two decades, the woman on television was usually a housewife. If she worked, she owned a small salon where she spent her day gossiping and plotting revenge on her wayward husband.

Today, more female televison characters are working professionals.

Auntie Boss, a sitcom produced by Moonbeam Productions and which airs on NTV, looks at the Kenyan working woman in detail.

The comedy drama follows the lives of domestic helps and their bosses, all living in an upper middle class estate in Nairobi. The characters of the women employing these house-helps depict an interesting phenomenon. While the women seem to have figured out their professional lives, they can’t keep the lid on at home.

Vanessa, one of the characters, is a single mother. She is frivolous, irresponsible and hardly ever home to take care of her son. At times, the child seems like an inconvenience to her lifestyle. Other characters seem to have no clue how their homes are running.

Clearly the working women characters have missed the work-life balance. Does this mean that a woman can’t have it all? Eve D’Souza says that this was the question that she and her co-producer Lucy Mwangi had in mind to explore when they were creating the show.

“During our research, we realised that in their quest to achieve this balance, women are faced with a whole load of challenges. Top on the list was house-help drama and strain on marriages and relationships with their children.”

Why focus on the women’s limiting aspects? According to Eve, when you listen to women talk on social media, these struggles are what they mostly talk about. The characters, she says, are not just stereotypes but characters chosen because most women can relate to them in a comical way.

“We are not saying that a woman has to choose between the diaper and the briefcase. We, however definitely agree as producers that the house-help has slowly turned into the ‘Boss’ of most homes. The women who employ them are usually under a lot of pressure to advance their own careers, hence spend long hours away from home,” she says.

THE VICTIM?

On our screens, the woman is usually the victim. She isn’t the one who does things. She is the one who things happen to. Given that we are living in a patriarchal society, may this be an unconscious bias by the producers? After all, an audience is more likely to sympathise with a female victim.

Pendo, a drama series whose second season is currently airing on NTV, starts off with this theme. It looks at the social battles of a woman in prison and her re-integration back into the society. The show’s star, Maria who was wrongfully incarcerated for murder, gets back home to find that the world, including her family, has moved on without her.

Faith Koli, the creator of Pendo, refuses to box the character or the Kenyan woman as a victim. This show, she says, was inspired by the real stories of women she met during a visit to Lang’ata Women’s Prison. Maria may have been a victim of circumstances but she is a strong character who is able to build a successful business from nothing, fight the stigma and fight to get her children back.

“Pendo doesn’t focus on the things that happened to her but on how she dusts herself off and rebuilds her life. The truth is, every woman has a figurative prison that they have been locked up in. It can be lack of opportunities, career glass ceilings or past baggage. This show speaks to them,” Faith argues.

The show’s other star, Maria’s co-wife, is a modern day Cinderella who did not wait for the fairy godmother to turn the pumpkin into a carriage. She sees a chance of changing her fortunes by marrying a rich man and she grabs it. She is the envy of all the house girls around her. Faith maintains that the show’s intention isn’t to glorify these women or their choices.

“We were interested in knowing what drives these women and this is why we try and unpack Mwelu, Maria’s co-wife. There are women out there who opt for means that the society does not approve of to change their fortunes but they too deserve to be heard,” she says of the DIL production.

The super woman

Charity Mwamba is one of the most fascinating female characters on Kenyan television. Playing the lead role in Mother-in-law, a Citizen television comedy-drama that looks into the antics of a meddling mother-in-law, Charity’s character comes close to a realistic representation of various aspects of the Kenyan woman.

While she often goes overboard with her antics, her character is real. She is imperfect and unglamorous. Charity is feisty and fiercely loyal and protective of her family, making her a strong character. Can’t a female character be strong and at the same time loving?

“She can,” says Catherine Wamuyu, “but drama and mischief sells. There are women who have amicable relationships with their mothers-in-law and there are those who don’t. The latter make for a more entertaining story.”

Charity’s gorgeous daughters-in-law are depicted as superwomen. They are beautiful, witty, fashionable and able business women.

They often stand up to their mother-in-law and their husbands. They are able to work outside the home, take care of their children and husbands and deal with an impossible mother-in-law, all without ruining their impeccable makeup or their expensive weaves.

How is the regular woman watching from home supposed to feel about herself? I ask Catherine Wamuyu who produces the show now in its eighth year.

“The Kenyan woman has already defined herself. She is too strong,” Catherine says.

She adds, “Television is an intimate medium and you need to be photogenic to be in it. I made the characters fashionable intentionally. I emphasise the looks because I believe that this is who the Kenyan woman is, or who she can be. The Kenyan woman is not frumpy and this is not what she want to see on her screen.”

Her female characters, she says, are strong but they are not superwomen. They fail sometimes, make silly mistakes, rub their parents-in-law the wrong way but they always get back on their feet. Catherine believes that the Kenyan woman is strong. Stronger than most African women.

THE MESSAGE?

How to Find a Husband, a drama comedy produced by Erika Anyadike is one of the local shows exploring the many facets of the female romance experience. The show, produced by Story Lab Production Company, follows three women with different attitudes to life and love. They struggle with love, career and friendships – issues that everyday women tussle with. The show is a great representation of the everyday woman.

 One interesting observation that can’t be ignored is the fact that marriage and eventual parenthood seem much more important to the society around these women and the men they date. There is a lot of pressure from the society for women to get hitched. When we see the woman caving in to this pressure, does it mean that she hasn’t defined herself?

Erika, the show’s producer, could not be reached for comment but Mother-in-law producer Catherine Wamuyu maintains that the Kenyan woman has defined herself. The local storylines, she says, are not only Kenyan stories but universal ones. Most stories are truths told in fiction. The theatrics, humour and peculiar characters are put in the story to keep the entertainment aspect of it alive.

 “I know that we are modelling to both boys and girls. I have this at the back of my mind when I am creating the characters. When I make female characters strong, I try not to go overboard so that the boys do not grow up thinking that men are weak,” she says.

It is also true that we have come a long way from the days of Mzee Ojwang’ and Mama Kayai. Regarding whether the woman on television today is an accurate portrayal of today’s Kenyan woman, the jury is still out.