Netflixing Perceptions from the Global North to the Global South.

By Takura Zhangazha*

I would not have thought of it had it not been mentioned by a young comrade in relation to new ways of ‘socializing’ for young urban Zimbabweans. I had asked him how his weekend had been and he casually replied that he had managed to do something called “Netflix and chill.” 

Now I know and when I can, watch Netflix.  I did not quite get how it would be all ‘chilled’ since it has so much content at a comparatively high cost in Zimbabwe. 

It turns out that it is a fashionable or even a status symbol habit among young urban Zimbabweans to have occasional access to the online streaming platform Netflix and watch the content from the comfort of the home.  All one needs is a laptop, Wi-Fi/data or even a smart phone and you are good to go. 

It would be a little different from my youth days where a small stereo player, electricity (supplied directly or via batteries) to play cassettes would have made the weekend fairly special. 

With a key discussion point eventually being what did you listen to the whole weekend?  Or the contemporary equivalent question would be,  “So what did you watch?”  All preferably in bi-lateral intimacy as opposed to Solomon Skhuza or Leonard Dembo ‘with the boys and Chibuku scuds’. 

Upon a little more reflection I have come to consider that what entertains urban young Zimbabweans in audio visual mediated format is mostly via new accessible streaming platforms such as Netflix. 

Even if they do not have regular access to it, they actively work toward and aspire to acquiring it in the present.

In all probability Netflix, Showmax and other online content streaming platforms are probably ‘status’ symbols.  Almost like having a video cassette recorder (VCR) or access to satellite television and Music television (MTV) back in the 1990s. Together with World Wrestling Federation (WWF) choreographed for television shows which at some point became bigger than even the international religiosity around European broadcast football.   As was the case for some of us comparative oldies (no ageism intended) 

And we could argue for a while about the class/social ramifications implied by access to these new online platforms or the older analogue ones.  The more important matter would be the content that the new digital content streaming platforms such as Netflix and others convey in the contemporary. 

What is interesting in the latter regard is the fact that a majority of the content that we would access via these new internet based platforms in made for television or movie theater formats is both old and new.  Old in the sense that it represents the past about representations of the global south (juxtapose Black Panther with Tarzan) 

And new in relation to the reality that it represents the quantitative expansion of a globalized understanding of how societies in the global south and global north can come to regard each other. In what remains a largely one-sided/lopsided manner.

In some instances, the latter point can be considered as a democratization of perception.  When we, in the global south watch Netflix programmes as they are availed we often do so in as real time as a person in the global north.  Especially if the content is new in the form of documentaries, new drama series or movies.

Expectedly, based on the amount of content we consume as it comes in the quantitative majority of cases from the global north, we in the global south may not be in a position to say that platforms such as Netflix in their global reach are balanced in relation to this democratization of perception.  In some cases, and in the wake of the Black Lives Matter nascent movement, we have seen the removal of some global north oriented content (even if it was produced in the global south) that was deemed as promoting racist stereotypes. 

What matters more however is the fact that because Netflix and similar streaming platforms are not going to go away nor do they intend to, given their huge profit margins, those of us in the global south need to come to a more holistic understanding of how the content presented therein reflects how we are potentially viewed in the global scheme of things.  Especially in the age of Covid 19.  While we may have addictions to specific content about drugs in South America or glossed over political dramas on political systems in Western Europe, we would still need to be grounded in our own realities.  Beyond the mediums.

This includes the fact that we need to be able to create content that reflects on our own contextual realities and aspirations.  From documentaries through to made for television series’ and movies. Not only for our own contextual cultural appreciation but also in order to occupy these new platforms as enabled by the internet and access to it.

In this, a key question that emerges is always how do we capture our own imaginations outside of the cultural grasp of the global north?  It is a question that I do not have an answer to.  What I abstractly know is that the mediums through which we seek entertainment come with a significant amount of baggage (historical, economic, political and social).  And one sided perceptions except in relatively unique circumstances such as when these streaming platforms allow ground breaking historical/political documentaries or made in the image of the global north soap operas or television shows.

Harnessing these online and rapidly expanding in African urban areas content streaming platforms may be a long way off.  For now.  It may also controversially require state/government subsidies that we are able to sustainably produce content for emerging online platforms such as Netflix.  And in the process learn to truly ‘chill’.

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)