Zeeworld: How India Is Recolonizing Africa

By Uche Mbah

Forget China. Forget Britain. Forget USA. Our next colonial masters are from Mumbai.

India, a country that fought and gained independence from her Majesty, the Queen of England, shortly before Nigeria got her own has made giant strides in all ramifications. She has become the one-stop destination for medical tourism for African countries, particularly Nigeria. And they have grown in technology, with brand names to themselves.

As at 2017, they boasted of 2.6 trillion USD (surpassing their former colonial masters, which only has 1.1 trillion USD GDP within  the period under review) , with an expectation of 7% growth by 2020 through 2019. In fact, the Asian Developement Bank, ADB, had to trim their forecast from 7.2% to 7%, because, according to them, the “Fiscal outlook in 2018 fell short”.  This is slightly higher than the Fitch rating, which was put at 6.6% (reviewd from a slightly higher volume of 6.8%.) Nigeria, on the other hand, was struggling with 375.8 billion USD during the period under review. Projections, which are at best unrealistic, put expectations at 500 billion USD.

India got independence from Britain 23 years before Nigeria.

Part of the Indian success story was the clinging to their cultural heritages. First, they maintained their language, which they developed further. Nigeria had-well, mother tongue. (Whatever that means.)

Besides Hollywood, Bollywood is arguably the highest grossing film industry in the world. Last year, the most watched soap in the world was a Bollywood flick from the stable of Zee World, Twist Of Fate. Another is on the way to replace it-Mehek, also on the stable of Zee World. And Zee World is already tearing families apart in Nigeria.

Men have taken to Facebook and twitter to demand for the ban of Zee World. A cross section of men interviewed on the streets of Lagos indicated their disenfranchisement from watching the television in their house. Many called for the outright ban on Zee World.

Jude, with twitter handle @bobliite, complained: “Those two Channels (Zee World and Telemundo, a south American Soap) are ruining my family. My sister burns food and Mama defends her”. Bow and go, @chyke11 said: “#wives won’t let us watch TV”. Men are suffering under the so called Zee World”, Edwin Eze, a business man complained. “I had to fight with my family to watch Football. Most times I am forced to go to drinking joints just to escape them. DSTV should ban it. It is tearing families apart”

Women are known to now go to the market to look for “Pragia Skirt” or “Mehek Sari”. And a new lexicon is born in Nigeria: Namaste, the Indian greeting.

The series are usually of basic themes of love, betrayal, property ownership and terrorism. For the first time, Zee World inculcated Africans in the series Mehek. But there is a promise that future series are going to inculcate Nigerian actors, according to Multichoice.