Television Soap Operas as the New Frontier in African and Asian (Afrasian) Encounters: The Case of Filipino teleseryes in Africa

AbstractThe end of bipolarity in the early 1990s and later waning hegemonic control witnessed the rise of new political and economic realignments that challenged the monopolistic nature of the control of the international political economy mostly through trade, financial movements, and technological input. This shift was equally seen in the decentralisation of cultural economy through the fluid model of global cultural flows in a complex transnational construction of imaginary landscapes. Within this paradigmatic shift is the emergence of electronic media, especially commercial television, in enhancing emerging Afro-Asian encounters. Within this medium is the emergence of imported soap operas filling in television slots in many African countries. This paper seeks to highlight the emergence of the Philippines in this global cultural economy and in its resultant encounter with Africa given a steady growth of its teleseryes. These patterns allude to shifts in theoretical orientation from the traditional linear flow determined by regional identities and shared histories and towards a more transnational one determined by neoliberal economics. On the flip side however is the limited number of soap operas from Africa to Asia which portrays a power imbalance in this media-oriented cultural encounter. Herein lay an opportunity for further research on understanding one aspect of technologically driven Afrasian encounters and opportunities to further extend Afrasian imaginations.