The Model of Pan-Africanism: The First Black Brazilian TV Station Hits the Air With Help From the Black Family Channel

(LA Times) In Brazil, which is 47% black, yet heavily racist, there are almost no blacks on television. With the creation of TV da Gente (Our TV), black Brazilians have finally created the first black-owned tv station in Brazil. In addition to homegrown shows, TV da Gente purchases programming from black American stations, including the Black Family Channel. (Note: White-owned BET refuses to sell programming to TV da Gente.) Is this the model of Pan-Africanism? What responsibility do Black Americans have to the rest of the African diaspora?

Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois and other great black intellectuals quickly realized that blacks all over the world must unite in economic and political partnership. The fledgling TV da Gente, while still struggling against the odds, represents the very definition of Pan-Africanism.

“That it has the potential to be a lucrative venture seems obvious in a country with the largest black population outside Africa — nearly half of Brazil’s 180 million people. But the fact that it took so long to emerge, 25 years after African Americans first established their own cable TV network in the U.S., attests to attitudes about race that are pervasive in Brazilian society.”

“Surf the channels on Brazilian TV and a clutch of beautiful people quickly crowds the screen: bikinied models, stubble-cheeked soap opera leads, natty news anchors. All are svelte and good-looking. Virtually all are white.”

“When darker-skinned characters crop up in TV dramas, almost invariably they appear as maids and other domestic workers, or worse. “The soap operas here, the black people are always miserable, and they have an important role only when you’re talking about crime,” said Silva, 50.”