Pop culture channel MTV puts music videos and celebrities on hold to highlight social issues on award-winning youth drama Shuga (2009-current, stream all 7 seasons to date on Showmax).
There’s no holding back on the edutainment show’s drama, be it the effects of teenage pregnancy or the dreaded impact that toxic masculinity has on adolescent men. Shuga depicts problems that teens around the continent experience, having started in Kenya for Seasons 1 and 2, before branching out to Nigeria and South Africa for the others.
The tales connect the African youth. “Just because it’s educational, that doesn’t mean that it has to be boring,” says actress Thishiwe Ziqubu, who’s been working behind the scenes as creative director on Shuga: Down South (Seasons 5 and 7). “The subjects discussed are real and we wanted to tell these stories in an authentic way,” she adds.
Season 2 was greenlit almost immediately and instead of going with the flow, the production team turned the temperature way, way up.
Apart from complex romances and complicated friendships, Shuga also focuses on the snowball effect of unprotected sex and betraying a partner in a relationship. And there’s no such thing as “too much info” on the show.
Here are the most shocking moments from the seasons that will keep you biting your nails and screaming at your TV screen as the characters misstep…
On the fast track in Nairobi
While the first season is only three episodes, there is plenty of action as it follows varsity students in Nairobi, Kenya. Overly ambitious Ayira (Lupita Nyong’o) is trapped in a web of lies – having grown up without a responsible father figure in her life, she learnt to fend for herself at an early age.
She may claim that she’s in a committed relationship with her boyfriend Ty (Pepe Haze), but she’s secretly having an affair with her lecturer Felix (Tumisho Masha), who is twice her age. She’s so focused on climbing the career ladder that she forgets about the repercussions until they come knocking at her door.
Season 2 was greenlit almost immediately and instead of going with the flow, the production team turned the temperature way, way up.
“The storylines for this season focus on rape, sex-for-money and homosexuality,” explains executive producer Georgia Arnold. “Hand-in-hand with those are HIV and everything that goes with it – testing, the stigma, passing it on, condom use.”
The candid manner in which the characters have sex without thinking about the consequences is the most startling feature of the season, which was cut shorter than planned due to the team choosing to exclude certain scenes involving the gay community and prevalence of HIV infection due to uprisings in Kenya where the season was filmed.
Love triangles back everyone into corners
The third and fourth seasons (called Shuga: Naija) tell one story as the show heads to Lagos, Nigeria. Femi (Emmanuel Ikubese) – who was introduced in Season 2 – returns to his hometown, and instead of talking about his issues, he tries to hide from the trouble he created in Kenya in Season 2.
Like Ayira in Season 1, he’s in a love triangle: he has feelings for his childhood friend Foye (Maria Okanrende), but she’s taken. To get over his heartache, he has unprotected sex with Foye’s bestie Sophie (Dorcas Shola Fapson), secretly hoping that Foye will be jealous and chase after him. How ignorant is that?
“That is the whole point of the show,” explains Emmanuel, adding that “Shuga is all about spreading love, life and HIV sexual health. Our viewers need to know about HIV, Aids, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases.”
The biggest shocker is how easily HIV/Aids is spread and the after-effects as Femi feels abandoned, with no one to talk to or help him with his journey. “You need to understand that this still happens in the world, where people are alienated. And it is not nice,” adds the actor.
Dealing with femicide down south
Shuga moved its production to South Africa for the fifth and seventh seasons, renamed Shuga: Down South. Keeping with the theme of social issues, it shines its spotlight on abusive relationships, which has become global news with rape and murder (referred to as femicide) in South Africa at the head of the matter.
Spoilt brat Sol (Ayanda Makayi) rapes his girlfriend Tsholo (Stephanie Sandows) in the fictional township of Zenzele.
“We wanted to unmask the seeds of toxic masculinity by showing how Sol’s surrounding groomed him into a destructive person,” explains Thishiwe, adding that the most scandalous moment is when Sol is handed his prison sentence: six months for rape and murder.
“He is not remorseful. He actually blames Tsholo for him taking advantage of her. That is the world we live in,” adds the actress.
