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n Netflix's "Young, Famous & African", a group
of music and showbiz celebrities from around the continent
party, flirt and fall out in opulent settings in Johannesburg's
Sandton area, proudly presented as "the richest square mile in
Africa".
Showmax's "The Real Housewives of Lagos", part of an
international franchise, portrays a group of glamorous,
entrepreneurial women seeking to outshine each other as they go
about their lives in Nigeria's commercial capital.
"People have this misconception about what Africa is," said
Ugandan businesswoman and socialite Zari Hassan, who as "Zari
the Boss Lady" is a key protagonist of the Netflix series along
with her ex-partner, Tanzanian music star Diamond Platnumz.
"Why is it that it's only in the States or Europe where we're
supposed to be seeing the money, the private jets, the Ferraris
and everything? We have these things in Africa. This is the new
Africa. This is the modern Africa," she told Reuters in an
interview at her office in Pretoria.
Both series have been hits, according to their platforms, and
have generated huge volumes of comment on social media.
At a recent launch event in Johannesburg for "The Real
Housewives of Lagos", the show's stars sported vertiginous
hairstyles, tight-fitting evening gowns and eye-popping nail
extensions as they posed for photographs on the red carpet.
"For us, it was a case of 'you know what, if they can do this
internationally, why can't we do it locally?'," said Candice
Fangueiro, Head of Content at Showmax, speaking at the event.
"We've seen the Nigerians, we know the calibre of women, the
lifestyles they live, how exuberant and ostentatious and
incredible they are."
Showmax, part of the South African pay-TV group MultiChoice,
says the series set a Nigerian record for the most first-day
views on the platform when it was released in April. Six weeks
later it was still in the top five most-watched series in
Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, Showmax said.
Netflix says "Young, Famous & African" ranked number one on the
continent in its first week of release, in March, and stayed in
the top 10 for four weeks in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
South African actress Khanyi Mbau, one of the stars of the
Netflix series, said that during the gloom of the COVID-19
pandemic Africa had mostly been presented as a continent that
was in a bad place, lacking vaccines.
"(The show) came at the right time after the darkness that we
faced," she said, speaking on the red carpet at the Housewives
launch event.
"If you look at the world, our music, our fashion, it has
filtered through to European countries, the Americans love what
we do. So this show is actually to show us that we are truly the
motherland. We are the sound, we are the tone."
(Writing by Estelle Shirbon. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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