AFRICANEWS

ZAMBIA

Western media imperialism irks Christians

Zambian Christians are worried that Western media imports are corrupting the morals of their youth. But they feel helpless to act in the face of a massive deluge in both TV and film.

"Western high-tech media organisations must be condemned by the whole world and in particular, Zambia, for polluting the minds of the people especially innocent children with perverse messages," says Frederick Mwanza, a Zambian Christian , whose line of thinking echoes that of Pope John Paul.

Mr Mwanza's remarks come in the wake of the publication of an article authored by the Pontiff published in a local Zambian newspaper - The Sunday Times - early this year headlined "Pope slams profit mania". The article quoted the Pontiff saying, "Western media organisations exporting their products around the world were more interested in making profits than spreading appropriate cultural values".

Thus greed or savage capitalism is at the heart of Western transculturation and is responsible for wrecking the lives of millions of people who consume the products of the Western media corporations.

The Pontiff considers media that propagate messages that erode Christian values as humanity's enemy and believes that savage capitalism is dehumanising and has no respect for human life. "It knows no light, no life but darkness and death."

Man is created in the image of God and is therefore the crowning glory of God's creation. Turning a human being into a mere tool is an insult to God. The reference to the Kingdom of God on earth is in regard to the organisation of society for the promotion of justice and peace in our relationship with each other.

Savage capitalism, points out the Pope, blinds the human race to what is just and right.

Echoing the Pope's sentiments, Mwanza laments that the growing number of Western movies in Zambia have removed parent-child mutual respect.

"Our children have opted for the local culture-eroding Western films prevalent on our television screens. It is particularly hard for us parents to guard our children from unwholesome messages carried in the movies or to ensure that they watch only that which fits their ages and sensibilities."

Mwanza points out that the aggressive media has inculcated in Zambian youth the belief that they have nothing to learn or gain from the rich reservoir of local traditions. The youth derisively reject much of local traditions as archaic - fit only for the old folks.

He singles out Western romantic films as having cheapened sex to a mere act of pleasure - to the great detriment of Zambia's moral fabric. He fears that with sex so cheapened, the AIDS scourge has become a real cause for worry due to high incidence of pre-marital sex among the youth.

Father Jose Dos Santos, a Catholic priest in the small mining town of Chililabombwe says that for Zambia to survive as a nation, her people need to rediscover their culture and traditional moral responsibilities free from Western influence.

But it is not just in Zambia that Christians are worried about the unwholesome media imports from the West. In Kenya, there has been a raging public debate on whether a soap opera screened by the state-owned broadcasting station, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC-TV) should be discontinued.

Opponents of the programme, The Bold and The Beautiful - which is immensely popular with the youth say it's message is morally corrupting. In the programme, a key character, Ridge Forester, has sexual liaison with his brother's wife and with the daughter of his father's lover.

A media critic with the country's largest circulation newspaper, Daily Nation, recently wrote that the programme glorified incest. But the publication was inundated with mail supporting the continued screening of the programme from its keen followers.

They argued that The Bold and The Beautiful had a superb storyline and was immensely entertaining. Thus the entertainment value of the programme is superordinated to its morally corrupting content. The Bold and The Beautiful has been running for more than two years in the state broadcaster now.

Some Kenyan Christian parents have also complained that another popular programme on KBC-TV, World Wrestling Federation wrestling series was overly violent and macho and likely to impart the wrong values in children.

Ironically, it is said that many husbands - who would be otherwise out in the local pub whiling away time with a drink - are normally home early on Tuesdays when the wrestling programme is screened. This is testimony that the programme has followers across the ages.

In another development in Zambia, the Christian community is up in arms over the re-introduction of the death penalty in the country. Zambia abolished the death penalty eight years ago but the country's President, Frederick Chiluba, recently okayed the execution of eight convicted criminals held at a Maximum Security Prison there.

The Zambia Christian Life Community (ZCLC) says that capital punishment is at variance with Christian teachings. "Killing a human being isn't endorsed anywhere in the Bible," says ZCLC head, Mwape Sichilongo. He adds that, "capital punishment is inconsistent with Zambia's declared intention to be guided by the principles of Jesus Christ."

Sichilongo pointed out that the death penalty amounted to continuing that cycle of violence that its victims are accused of perpetrating. He says that ZCLC's opposition to the death penalty should not be interpreted to mean that crimes should go unpunished. ZCLC does not condone violence, he said, and was sympathetic to the victims of violence," but capital punishment does not contribute to the building of a just, peaceful and non-violent society that Christians pledge to work for."

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