African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 772
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RADIO AND TELEVISION DRAMA
Many African radio stations were first set up in the 1920s, but they did not carry
extensive programming specifically designed for African listeners until the early 1940s.
African television stations were first established in the late 1950s. Drama programs in
both African and European languages have been an important part of broadcasting
content since colonial times.
Dramas are among the most popular of all broadcast genres. Successful dramas draw
some of the most devoted audiences, and are typically equaled only by the broadcast of
soccer matches and presidential press conferences in their ability to attract very large
audiences. For example, in South Africa, Zulu musical dramas based on folk songs were
first aired in the mid-1940s and have aired regularly since the late 1950s. One of the
longest running radio dramas can be heard on Radio Zambia. Entitled Malikopo, this
Tonga language program about the adventures and mishaps of an urban man began in the
late 1940s, and continues to air to this day.
The form and content of African radio and television dramas are quite diverse, as are
the inspirational sources for these creative works. Some programs are dramatizations of
traditional folktales and myths. Others are broadcast versions of original works, which
were first scripted and produced for the theater, or which first appeared as novels. In
addition, countless dramas are written explicitly for television and radio. Many are longrunning
serials, with a melodramatic (or soap operalike) plot construction. One of the
first serial dramas on South African radio, Deliwe, ran for twenty-five episodes in March
1964, and was followed by a fifty-nine-episode sequel two months later.
Melodrama plots typically revolve around unfolding personal relationships, marriage
and romance, power struggles, schemes for financial success, rivalries between families,
moral transgressions, and stories about ambition and betrayal. One example from Egypt
is the long running serial Hilmiyya Nights, which aired every year between 1988 and
1992 during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. This immensely popular television
show told the story of the intertwined lives and fortunes of a group of characters over a
forty-year period. A hybrid product reflecting the influence of imported melodramas from
Latin America and the United States, Hilmiyya Nights was distin guished for its
glamorous and fashionable women characters and its lavish sets.
In addition to melodramas, numerous other dramatic genres are represented in African
broadcasting, including comedy, romance, suspense, social realism, myths, and historical
drama. Recent examples include a feminist Egyptian television serial in Arabic about a