Makeovers Made Over: Ubuntu and Decolonization in Reality TV

Abstract

Narratives about Africa are often shaped by deficit discourses that frame “development” as an instrument for advancing the interests of global capitalism. From within this neoliberal view, Africa has to “catch up” to and “be taught” how to emulate and achieve the standards promulgated in mainstream media. Through the lens of an alternative realism, however, such narratives can be reshaped. The African philosophy of ubuntu is one example of a deeply relational ethic from within which development can be reconceptualized as “freedom” in terms of democratic ideals and which can be used as a guiding principle for media work and the refashioning of (reality television) images.

Exploring the Virtual Culture of Reality Television Communities: Lessons From #Date My Family

“…Although reality TV’s rise to power has inevitably drawn the interest of many scholars from various disciplines (Deller 2016; Ouellette 2014; Tavernaro-Haidarian 2020; Vertoont 2018), there remains much to be done in terms of investigating the gap between RTV and the culture of engagement through social media. Indeed, audiences have found social media such as Twitter to be an excellent venue through which to interact with RTV content as a second screen (Deery 2015; Harrington et al 2013; Ngcongo and Fekisi 2019).…”