A showcase that was

Earlene Aonenji Chimoyo, a very refined girl; natural hair, deep eyes and those rare tender gazes, when she talks, she definitely owns the magic to make you talk back because, you don’t want her to stop.
In Malawi, where she comes from, she’s referred to as the princess of radio because of her job as a morning show host on their Capital radio.
That in Uganda would spell ultimate celebrity but in Joyce Banda’s country, it’s different.
“Radio presenters in Malawi are very normal,” she says.
She was one of the over 200 journalists that Multichoice Africa pulled down to Trou Aux Biches in Mauritius to witness the launch  of Africa Rising campaign and also be part of the first ever content showcase by a pay TV.
The four day multi-million exhibition intended to show what Multichoice’s DSTV has to offer in terms of content and channels but in the same way, an opportunity for entertainment journalists from Africa to socialize, network and create byafayo in form of selfies.

Jara team

The festivities of the entire showcase dubbed ‘Only The Best’ kicked off at Trou Aux Biches Spa and Hotel on Tuesday night. It was the first time many of us were meeting the other journalists from other countries like the mixed bag of Nigerians, very anti-social Kenyans, friendly Ghanaians and Malawians.
Malawian crew was very interesting especially when it came to the knowledge they had about other countries’ social scenes. In Uganda for example, their Daily Nation reporter Yvonne Sundu, knew everything about Sharon O, Chameleone and surprisingly, Doreen Kabarebe.
Chimoyo on the other hand asked me about Gaetano and if I was his younger brother, well because of the Kaggwa name, their enthusiast about African entertainment in general was shocking that I was personally hurt when some snobby South African journalist questioned one if Malawi was part of Zimbabwe.
The showcase was both physical and theoretical; in here we became chefs with BBC Lifestyles celebrated chef ED Baines, footballers with the legendary Kalusha Bwalya and we fell in love over again with Ximena Duque and Carlos Ponce both from Telemundo’s Behind closed doors, the only part i hated was when girls kept running to these celebrities for photo opps at the end of each session….(as if we didn’t exist).

Trou Aux Biches where it all went down

The arguments that were raised through many of the showcases were too valid. Many journalists from other African country felt like DSTV’s MTV Base, Channel O, Africa Magic and the new Ebony Life were accommodating way too much of the Nigerian and South African content – to this Nigerians argued that they are the biggest market which was later watered down by Nico Meyer, CEO Multichoice Africa.
He notes that all the regions in Africa are important to the pay TV, and that’s why they are working to involve most of them.
Caroline Creasy, the General Manager Multichoice Africa argues that many African countries at times fall short of content which at the end forces the station to go back to the Nigerians since they keep rolling out new material all the time.

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Much as many journalists still left Mauritius with many questions, but with the showcase attended by Joel Churcher, Vice President BBC Worldwide and Heather jones of A+E networks among others proved that DSTV is not a masquerader in this pay TV business.
But they were not just showcases, each night was capped by parties organized by different stations, the Channel O and Africa Magic party opened the glitz with the best from the continent, but there was no celebration like the Comedy Central and MTV Base one – they even pulled Salvado to leave the house in stiches, it was a blast.
No wonder, as we parked to leave for the airport, Chimayo pulled her bags slowly and sighed; “That was epic, now I feel like I understand DSTV.”