Can a soap opera change a nation? During the 2007 elections in Kenya, tribal protests over exteme poverty and corruption left almost 1,500 dead and 300,000 people displaced. Political leaders use tribal factions to their advantage in pitting one tribe against another. But there are those from the media domain that think that their success is not measured in TV ratings but in human lives. A group of ambitious actors and producers have come up with a popular TV show called “The Team” which is watched by 2 million Kenyons. “The Team is a program about a soccer team made up of players from different tribes who “work together to overcome historic rivalries and form a common bond. The hope is that commonalities portrayed in fiction can inspire harmony in the real world” among Kenya’s 42 official tribes.[1]
[1] Available at: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/601/index.html. Accessed: January 2, 2010.
