Abstract
Many African traditions and customs have always been considered very sacred by the people and this sacredness translated as being kept secret in their proceedings and not open for public consumption. However, with the evolving of communities, our way of life, ideologies and practices have changed, and with increased use of the media, for example, almost everything nowadays is filmed and shared with the rest of the world via traditional and new media. The camera is ever-present in everyday life, and vlogging is the new normal. African traditions such as lobola, which is the focus of this study, have been caught up in this trend, and because of their previous nature of being not open for public consumption, these traditions find themselves at the top in consumption as people are curious and want to know and share with each other about these traditions. While fiction in broadcast is still popular with audiences, it is no match for documentaries and the perspective of realism such as reality television shows and self-representations on social media.
This study unpacks the representation of lobola as presented by two reality shows, Mahadi-Lobola (2015) and Traditional Wedding (2017) and looks at audience reception and interpretations of the shows and their derived influence as presented through the shows’ social media platform Facebook. The study presents data on understanding the concept of lobola as presented by the participants on the shows and their audiences in social media comment sections. Stuart Hall’s representation and audience reception theories serve as the fundamental basis the study is framed within, while using semiotic and thematic analysis as the analytic tools for the visual text and Hall’s encoding and decoding three reading positions (dominant, negotiated, and oppositional reading) to unpack the audience commentary texts.
This interpretive research is categorised into themes in its findings: 1). Rituals as the basis of lobola – made up of the following dominant rituals: the making and sharing of African traditional beer, the burning of African incense, and animal sacrifice. 2). Gender issues – exploring gender dynamics in the lobola process, looking at feminist perspectives and the patriarchal issues involved. 3). Power relations – presenting power issues at play between the families and because this study is focused on the representation by television it is crucial to include power issues as presented by the producers of the narrative. 4). The issue of how much? – when discussing lobola the issue of “how much” is always at the center. The study explores the dynamics behind how much is charged, what makes up lobola and why, and the significance of how much is charged as per cultural reference, discussing the issues as per the changes from cattle to money in lobola. The above four themes discuss how lobola is understood by the participants of the shows, what makes up lobola, a semiotic and thematic analysis of the symbols presented, their significance and finally the connotations and denotations of these symbols. 5). The last theme discussed is the celebrity spectacle – presenting the rationale and motives behind participants in reality shows exposing and sharing a part of their lives and traditions previously not for public consumption and exploring the differences between the presentations on lobola by the two reality shows.
Through Hall’s reading positions, the study presents audience interpretations categorising them into two positions: preferred/dominant reading and oppositional reading. Placing the audience members into these categories allows us to explain the ‘why’ behind the interpretation of the audience, the unpack ideologies embedded in the visual text consumed by the audience and within the audience commentary. The categorisation helps to derive the possible influences on the audience by the media and most importantly in the context of this study helps to unpack how audiences interpret and understand the concept of lobola as presented by the shows.
The key findings in the discussion chapter of this study are presented in themes: 1). The call to Africanness and indigenous ways of life – in this theme we discuss the reasons behind why lobola is always among the trending, loved and highly practiced traditions, embraced by many in society and on the media as content. 2). Lobola, the flexible tradition – exploring how, through the flexibility of lobola, the tradition has managed to be among the longest surviving, despite its controversies that might have led to the forsaking of the tradition. whereas other traditions led to such serious controversies that communities banned them. 3). The significance of “how much?” in relation to cultural practice and the understanding of this as presented by the participants and the audience through their engagement. 4). A discussion of the feminist perspective and its influence on lobola, as presented by the shows and audience members, the reinforced stereotypes, and changes and evolution in the tradition. 5). A presentation of the circle of influence – who influences who, between the audience and media giants and big companies, exploring the importance of understanding the influence of aspects such as commercials and how they shape the views of the receiver. Unpacking the evolution of audiences from passive to pro-consumerist as is dominating in social media and discussing trend setters and influencers, as they are termed currently, and their power over audiences and the media. 6). Discussing issues related to the importance of seeing oneself in the media representation, but also investigating how this presentation is created and its effects on the audience member. 7). Lastly, the study discusses the future of lobola in South African communities.