Where Are The Afrocentric Representations In Telenovelas?
Spanish or rather ‘Mexican’ television series have become quite popular in Ghanaian society today. And after a long day outdoors, individuals either rush home to beat traffic for their favourite tv series or watch from their various mobile devices.
But due to societal conditioning, many are unaware that the representation of only native-Latinos or Mexicans have a complete blindside and make ignorant the existence of Afrolatinos whose representation in the movie industry are one in a thousand.
Even though viewers mostly do not bother themselves with such matters, the Afro-Latinos community seem to have had enough of their exclusion and are beginning to voice out strong protests especially after the release of Lin- Manuel’s latest work, shot in a predominant Afrolatinos community, another failure to fully encompass all Latin skin shaded
Although the American writer and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda has apologised for the underrepresentation of Afro-Latinos in his latest film In The Heights and he felt the hurt and frustration of the people, unfortunately, he’s not the only producer to neglect that community within their community but the only one to respond to the community.
Aside from Seize The Day [Viver a Vida] by Manoel Carlos, a Brazilian telenovela starring Tsisé Bianca Gama as Helena Toledo, the female lead and Mara -The Only One [A Única Mulher], a Portuguese telenovela by Maria João Mira with actress Ana Sofia Martins both of African descent, never had there been other telenovelas with black leads aired in Ghana.
By Jamila Abdul Wahab Follow on Twitter @activetvgh
