The Nigerian craze for Mexican soap operas
Nigerian soap operas/drama productions rocked our TV screens back in the days (especially the 80s), transcending the 90s from Cock Crow at Dawn, Village Headmaster, Mirror in the Sun, Behind the Clouds, Ripples, Mind Bending, to Supple Blues, Checkmate, Fortunes, among others. Foreign comedies, mainly from the US and UK, gave Nigerians a fun viewing experience that paid off, such as The Jeffersons, Good Times, Sanford and Sons, Different Strokes, Mixed Blessings, Mind your language, Doctor in the House, Rising Dam, Some Mothers do have them, Rent A Ghost, among others. Unfortunately they stopped airing these shows and Nigerians had to be content with the stream of local productions thrown in our faces.
However, “Los Ricos También Lloran” back in the late 80’s paved the way for a plethora of Latin American soap operas (mainly from Mexico) and in some cases from Venezuela, to flood our screens. It was the first soap opera to rule the Nigerian airwaves in those days. Following the recorded audience success, “Secrets of the Sand”, “Nobody but You”, “Lady with the Rose”, “María de los Ángeles”, successively took turns entertaining Nigerians with stories with a Latin American flavor. Unfortunately, sometime in the 1990s, the broadcast of Telenovelas came to an abrupt halt, closing the Latin American era’s book of exciting, exciting, suspenseful moments and intricate plots. Nigerians, especially those living in Lagos State (the center of the entertainment industry), had to make do with foreign genres other than drama, streamed straight into our living rooms, especially from God’s own country.
However, the renaissance of soap operas on our screens returned with force in 2005 with “Cuando seas mía” with 238 episodes starring Paloma/Elena Olivares (Silvia Navarro), Diego Sánchez Serrano (Sergio Basanez), broadcast on African Independent television ( AIT) at 9:00 p.m. and MITV at 7:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday. To say the least, at those times, especially at 9:00 pm, women, teenagers, children, and surprisingly quite a few men tuned into the AIT frequency to catch new episodes of the show. Big was the response to the soap opera that even with the epileptic power supply in the country at the time (which hasn’t changed) families were eagerly seen turning on generators to watch, while those without one could still be seen in open bars. , discos, local restaurants, shops, apartments of neighbors/friends gladly seeing the same.
The cliffhangers were always heart-stopping and at the end of each episode splinter groups emerged, giving their views on what happened in various scenes of the episode, what a particular character they suspected could and could not have done. was the culprit, and a prediction of what would happen in the next episode. Missing an episode was missing a great moment! and those who missed it were seen the next day anxiously asking for their friends in schools, offices, etc. They will inform you about the details. All the actors and actresses played their roles well and none came up short. The screams of Paloma, Diego, the three witches (Bárbara, Berenice, Ángela), Mariano, Fabián and other characters kept coming up in the discussions. It was a great story that kept Nigerians glued to their televisions at set times. Kudos to the writer, casting director, director and all the team who made our viewing pleasure memorable.
“Catalina n Sebastian”, “The Gardener’s Daughter”, “Second Chance” also recorded good ratings. After the second chance concluded an American soap opera took over in its place, unfortunately the Nigerians weren’t as receptive and I think the sponsors realized they shouldn’t have changed the winning brand, and came up with another soap opera “Until My Last Breath” shown only at AIT and Fish Port Princess. Other television stations such as Galaxy, MBI (now defunct), NTA 10, STV, TVC have also taken advantage of the popularity of Latin American soap operas and have/still aired them such as “La mujer de Lorenzo”, “la Usurpadora”, “Esmeralda ”, “Camila”, “Rebeca”, “Rubi”, “La Revancha”, “Storm over paradise”.
Perhaps the beauty of these soap operas lies not only in their foreign origin but also in their content that reveals the realities of life encapsulated in betrayals, deceit, love, hatred, thirst for power and fortune, heartbreak, class distinction as an obstacle . to marriage, weakness of man, seemingly insurmountable mountainous challenges that man, regardless of race, nationality, tribe, gender, religion, faces on a daily basis. Suspense/suspense moments, intrigues, make you want to watch the next episode. Love, the search for true love and happiness has a great projection in soap operas and tends to revolve around the plot of the story. Serenade (who is foreign to this part of the world) is respectively seen in scenes where love is professed and reaffirmed. They certainly have a great culture of love.
The English voice-overs of the characters accurately achieved through a high level of professionalism help non-Spanish speakers to easily follow the drama unfolding in the story. Imagine if it had been subtitled, not everyone would have been able to follow the ongoing dialogue. Another thing they have going for them are the musical themes. The main theme of “When you are mine” became a “soap opera anthem” on the lips of Nigerians (although we couldn’t understand the lyrics of the song), but the rhythms, the chorus and the voice of the lead vocalist made the difference. a memorable song. La Usurpadora, Rebeca, Hasta mi último breatho also have good musical themes. Nigerians can clearly reel off certain phrases reflected in the dialogue process of the actors and actresses such as “My love, Love of my life, I swear, forgive me, on the contrary, Salu.”
However, certain negative recurring decimals such as unforgiveness, paving the way for revenge, the proposition of the theory of love as a justifiable reason for adultery and the pursuit of happiness, divorce, separation, single parenthood , lustful desires, cleavage-revealing tops relegate Christians. doctrines to the background in a country where the Christian faith is presumed to be practiced. This has a tendency to send the wrong signals to people from other nations.
Despite the shortcomings, soap operas have proven over time that they are worth being patronized and viewed by the Nigerian population. I firmly believe that more of these exciting soap operas will continue to hit our screens. Nigerians, however, are patiently awaiting the Latin American telenovela that will overcome the overwhelming effect on them of “The rich also cry” and “When you are mine.”
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