Background and context

My focus in this article is a Zimbabwean television soap opera, Studio 263, concentrating on the period 2002 to 2006, even though it is still running on ZBCTV, albeit with intermittent stops and resumptions. Studio 263 has also been screened in Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa (from the Mnet Africa Magic channel). The Studio 263 sponsor, PSI-Z, is a Non-Governmental Organisation that originates from (and arguably represents the interests of) the United States of America. During the period 2002–6, PSI-Z was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the British Department of International Development. The funding of Studio 263 by western development aid agencies is generally seen as bringing about development which I will argue places the developing world in a dependent relationship with the West, making it a prisoner of history. During the same period PSI also sponsored a television talk show called This is Life, co-produced by PSI-Z and ZBCTV. The talk show offered a platform to discuss issues of sexuality, health, HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and mitigation, stigmatization, condom use and safe sex.

The United States government was also involved in fighting HIV/AIDS through a radio soap opera called Mopani Junction which was launched in February 2003 for a planned broadcast of two years and was broadcast at 18:30, three days a week, in three languages – Shona (Monday), Ndebele (Wednesday) and English (Thursday) with repeats in Shona and Ndebele on Saturday and Sunday at 19:30 hours (US Embassy 2003: The Daily News on Sunday).