Soapie helps to tackle homophobia

The story line about a gay couple in South Africa's most popular soapie, Generations, is helping teachers to challenge homophobia in the classroom.

With about seven million viewers, Generations is the most watched soap opera in the country.

The introduction of a gay couple - Senzo Dlomo and Jason Malinga, played by Thami Mngqolo and Zolisa Xaluva respectively - created a "furore", said Bongi Ndaba, the soapie's head writer.

Despite the initial negative sentiments, viewers warmed to the couple and the story soon moved from living rooms to the classroom.

During his research, education lecturer Thabo Msibi found that some of the teachers he interviewed used the Generations example to explain homosexuality to pupils and generate debate in the classroom.

"They are powerful figures - authority figures who are tough and hard-working, completely different from how gay men are characterised by the media," said Msibi.

Ndaba said the writers had to be careful in their portrayal of the gay couple, especially given the conservatism in most communities.

"Part of the mandate of the story was to reflect all aspects of this country. We intentionally made the characters complex and avoided stereotypes.

"We wanted to show that any man could be a gay man. We wanted to show how black families deal with this," said Ndaba.

The complex story line - Jason is bisexual and Senzo made a woman pregnant during a drunken affair - was exactly what generated debate in classrooms, said Msibi.

The story becomes even more bizarre - Senzo is also cheating on Jason with a married man whose wife is pregnant.

The story, said Msibi, showed that sexuality was complex. "The learners had questions like how can that happen, which led to discussion around the issues."

Msibi said he had similar experiences teaching sexuality to his students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

"Students will [use an example and then] say 'like Senzo in Generations'," he said.

The university' s education department has developed a compulsory module on race, gender and sexuality to sensitise trainee teachers on same-sex issues.

The course, the only initiative of its kind in the country, has an explicit focus on same-sex issues and is mandatory for the university's fourth-year students. The course, said Msibi, had moved from being theoretical to a more practical and interactive module.

He said young people were quite comfortable speaking about issues of race and power, but it became more difficult when issues of gender were discussed.

A research study on the module's final exam revealed that, faced with a choice of questions, almost 50% chose to answer the question that dealt with sexuality.

"I was surprised," said Msibi, "I expected closer to 20%. The results were exciting because they showed that students' thinking had not only shifted, but that they were also engaging with the issues."

Soon other institutions will follow in the university's footsteps. Msibi has been given a grant from Hivos, a development organisation, to train at least one academic from each of South Africa's higher learning institutions how to teach issues around sexuality.