Soap operas – whether on TV or radio – have long been hugely popular. The dramatic plots, the stylised characters, the intrigues and twists as well as the common adventures, bonds and successes have global appeal. As such, it is no surprise that soap operas have also frequently been used in peacebuilding efforts. Examples include Atunda Ayenda (Lost and Found) in Sierra Leone, Musekeweya (New Dawn) in Rwanda and New Home, New Life in Afghanistan as well as many others in countries as diverse as Burundi, Nepal, Sri Lanka, South Sudan, Turkey, Greece and Mali.
Most soap operas combine two elements: (1) entertainment – the dramatic plots – and (2) an educational component such as skills regarding collective problem-solving, the building of new and stable societies, non-violent engagement with conflict, the humanisation of a former enemy, and practices of forgiveness and issues of difficult forgetting. It has often been argued that the success of soap operas in peacebuilding can be explained by this edutainment format.
However, this is an insufficient explanation. Why would being entertained and drawn into a dramatic plot in and of itself generate changes in behaviour? After all, we might watch a very entertaining and engaging crime series and learn about how to best murder people and avoid getting caught but that doesn’t mean that we all turn into murderers. Or alternatively, just because we watch a fascinating movie about human rights that teaches us why they are worth protecting, we don’t turn into active civil rights advocates either. Granted, these examples might sound a bit exaggerated and odd, but what they point to nevertheless is that a combination of entertainment and education does not explain the success of soap operas in encouraging more individual responsibility and collective action or a general change in behaviour and norms.
Rather, the success of a soap opera, its ability to build new civil norms and encourage non-violent and collaborative behaviour, can be explained by the civil norm building role it undertakes (on civil norms see my last contribution to Peace News).
Besides being entertaining and educational, impactful soap operas do two things: (1) they engage with the civil concerns of the audiences – their desires and fears regarding peace and conflict – and (2) they provide credible solutions and strategies for societies and individuals to overcome enmity and violence in everyday life. And they do this so authentically and sincerely that audiences identify with the plot and recognise soap operas’ moral authority enabling these soap operas to influence their behaviour and thereby contribute to social change and cohesion. To return to one of the examples above, crime series do not acquire moral authority which is why we don’t turn into murderers when we watch them (at least for the most part). In the case of successful peacebuilding soap operas, the audiences accept that the categories of civil norms of peaceful cooperation can practically be enacted/performed and sustained under difficult and demanding circumstances, and therefore make a genuine contribution to tangible peace.
One of the most successful peacebuilding soap operas in recent years was Team Kenya, which was produced by Search For Common Ground (SFCG) in collaboration with Media Focus on Africa (MFA) in 2008 following the widespread election violence of 2007/2008. It consisted of three seasons broadcast between 2009 and 2011 as a TV version on Citizen TV, Kenya’s most popular TV station and as radio version on Radio Jambo, overall attracting a weekly audience of 3.5 million Kenyans. It was so successful that it became the prototype for similar soap opera series, all entitled The Team and airing in over a dozen countries.
A scene from Kenyan soap opera, “The Team,” screen grab. The show was highly popular among Kenyans.
Team Kenya used the plot of a fictional football tournament scenario that dramatised how a co-ed team of young football players called Imani FC (“Faith FC”) had to work through their prejudice, stereotypes, and fears of working with ‘the other’ in order to become a successful football team. Team Kenya was seen as authentic and credible because (1) it was created and produced locally. Actors and scriptwriters came from the local population and had experienced the election violence as well as Kenya’s tribal conflicts. (2) The fictional Imani F.C. characters came from different backgrounds, had different personalities, and exhibited different degrees of self-interest and moral ambiguity. They attempted to navigate the difficulties and challenges of peaceful cooperation despite difference that Kenyans could identify with and relate to.
Team Kenya recognised the need for moral authority and achieved it by convincingly and authentically exemplifying an adherence to civil norms in its fictionalised football plot. It combined the edutainment format with the civil norm building capacity of soap opera. The combination of both explains its success and that of soap operas in peacebuilding more generally.
This contribution is based on Pukallus, S. (2022) Communication in Peacebuilding. Civil wars, civility and safe spaces. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Pukallus, S. and Brouwers, L. (2023) ‘Peacebuilding through soap opera: The two elements of moral authority of “Team Kenya”’. Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, online first, Dec.
Stef Pukallus
Dr Stef Pukallus is Senior Lecturer in Public Communication and Civil Development at the University of Sheffield (UK) and Founding Chair of the Hub for the Study of Hybrid Communication in Peacebuilding (HCPB). Stef’s overall research interest is the role that public communication (broadly conceived) plays in the building, maintaining, strengthening as well as diminishment and destruction of civil societies across the globe. She is particularly interested in communication’s transformative capacity and has applied this interest to conflict communication (hate speech, dehumanisation, polarisation) as well as to peace communication (post-civil war, European integration). She has developed her own model of communicative peacebuilding, an intrinsic element of which is discursive civility. Stef has acted in an advisory expert capacity to both the European Commission and the United Nations. She published 'Communication in Peacebuilding. Civil wars, civility and safe spaces' in 2022 with Palgrave and her new book 'Contestation in Civil Society: Noise, Listening and Civil Action' is out 2025 with Routledge.
