Saturday 27 August 2011

Shuga is back!

Kenyan entertainment can be quite dull when highlighting serious issues facing the youth as it can come off as a very dire documentary. However Shuga, a 3 part drama series on HIV, drugs and alcohol, went and destroyed all that because for once entertainment was first and then the education on these issues was highlighted. (flawlessly)

The use of media in targeting the youth has in the past been extremely under-utilised, but there seems to be a shift shown by the growing number of shows addressing social issues. With media becoming more influential in the lives of young people, it is tools such as Youtube and other social media that will become crucial in communicating to the youth.

Although for me the most exciting part of Shuga coming back is its mentoring programme for young people in areas including directing, producing and acting. Anyone who saw Shuga series 1 knows that the show has been by far one of the best productions to come out of Kenya, hopefully suggesting that in the future we can look forward to greater quality shows.

Countdown begins for the series titled love, sex and money which is to be aired on the 14th of February 2012 but if you missed the last series here is a link to catchup

Shuga Episode 1 from mtv staying alive on Vimeo.