By Pina Peters
MTV Base has released online the second episode of the fourth season of its hit show, Shuga.
In the newly released episode, Princess and Sophie fail to see eye to eye. Sheila’s family is not as understanding as she expected, and Femi is thinking of ‘cooling off’ things with Sheila.
One of the comments below the video made an important point I think I should share on here. The commenter wrote, “My only wish is that Shuga would try to address the definition of what sex actually is and how HIV can be transferred via anal, oral and vaginal penetrative sex.
“Although this is embarrassing to admit, I did not know that two women could give each other HIV through oral sex until a year ago. I’m sure many other people don’t know that either. Adding at least two gay characters (male and female) would be a great way to start a dialogue about that. I just would hope that those characters would be represented as fully as the straight characters (don’t just give them one or two lines and have them stand in the background of every scene).”
I totally agree with this line of reasoning. Apart from being informative, it would also add much needed depth to the storyline. In MTV Base’s defense though, I think the conservative nature of Africans- especially when it comes to homosexual matters- might be the reason for excluding such an important angle. A lot of people might feel they are promoting homosexual activities, hence the exclusion. Whatever the reason, homosexuality is part of our reality and should be addressed not regarding how uncomfortable it would make certain people feel.
Watch the new episode below.
