TV Seen! Shuga: A Sweet Solution?

As a part of their Staying Alive initiative, MTV now bring the drama series Shuga which is under MTV Ignite. MTV Ignite is a campaign in Kenya, Ukraine & Trinidad & Tobago which aims at creating awareness amongst youth on HIV/AIDS and changing their sexual behavior. The Shuga series is one of the TV programmes to launch the campaign and is aimed at the Kenyan youth market.

Set in modern-day Nairobi, Shuga follows the lives of a group of young Kenyans Skola (David Omwange), Ty (Pepe Haze), Ayira (Luipta Nyong’o), Sindi (Valerie Kimani), Violet (Sharon Olago), Virginia (Eva Kanyang’onda), Leo (Nicholas Mutuma) & Kennedy (Anthony Mwangi.) As it is a show specifically aimed at HIV/AIDs awareness, it mainly focuses on these young Kenyans’ sexual lives as they interact with each other.

Ayira is a beautiful and ambitious lady who wants to make it in the world give take her struggling mum and sister a good life. To achieve this she ends up getting intimately involved with Felix (Tumisho Masha) and she gets hired to his Maverick ad agency. The irresistible screen presence of Ayira and convincing acting from Felix make the pair the standouts of Shuga. There is an intense scene between them in Felix’s office after Ayira suspects he hasn’t told her everything about his past.  As Ayira threatens to quit Felix arrogantly declares “No one quits Maverick!” and Ayira’s reply “I’ll take my chances.” That’s not to say they are the only good actors, most of the actors deliver strong performances and Shuga has discovered new acting talents. Valerie Kimani who has been in Tusker Project Fame 1 and is currently impressing crowds with the Mo Faya musical is on her way to becoming a household name. In Shuga she plays a Sindo, a virgin who disapproves of her friends’ careless lifestyles. Due to her auntie’s death from AIDS she carries around condoms in her handbag to distribute to people.

Shuga although targeted to Kenyan youth, mostly features the lives of middle to upper class Nairobi youth. Take Ty who drives around in a 6-4(American 60s car) and Skola who owns the latest BMW, average Kenyan youth I don’t think so.  Due to the fact that it is about youth sexuality and HIV/AIDs Shuga features quite a number of intimate scenes, some quite heavy with a lot of lip-locking. This sometimes goes overboard though with Leo and Virginia who have just come from a worship session getting real frisky on the church steps. Though times are changing and there is more of this kind of stuff and Kenyan screens I wonder if it is really necessary. There is a lot of excitement and talk surrounding Shuga, but I am concerned many young Kenyans will receive this new drama series unquestioningly. It is bad enough statistics are showing Kenyans are sexually active and younger ages, now they will watch Shuga and think that, that is how Kenyan youth are all living. Of course risky behavior and sexual activity is a reality for many young Kenyans, but does that mean TV shows should be encouraging this lifestyle.

Shuga although it features Sindi as the virgin(I guess to balance it out) still leaves one with the feeling that casual, irresponsible sex is just fine as long as you have a condom in your back pocket.  This is just more Western ideas being imported to Kenyan audiences who are expected and encouraged to adopt them. After all Shuga is an MTV product, the media giant that has been instrumental in brainwashing at least two generations of kids as to what’s hip. Yes Shuga has all the glamour and high production values (and might I add a good soundtrack-Wahu & Nonini’s sound great in it ) but I really doubt this is the stuff Kenyan youth should be consuming right now. I would rather we got more shows like Tahidi High which though don’t have the big budgets are more responsible and want Kenyan solutions to Kenyan questions, not just cut and paste from American(or even South African) life.


Shuga Trailer from mtv staying alive on Vimeo.

Shuga just says to me that the government and Kenyan corporate need to invest more in film and TV shows so that we nurture talent and can have content is originally Kenyan.  Shuga will surely become a popular watch, but this will mostly because it will wow audiences with its Westernized style of presentation (check out the twitter/facebook-like bubbles that pop up during scenes.)  shuga should be the que for Kenyan TV show producers and directors to say, no we are not going to just import foreign ideas for mass consumption . We are Kenyans we know better how to present our issues and connect with youth, it can be done. I’ll be drinking my tea strungi on this one.