The impact soap operas have on Ugandans is increasing day by day especially among women. Some have reached an extent of turning their relationships into soap opera rehearsals, which is causing more harm than good in many marriages and relationships?

A soap opera is an on-going episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming.

Soap operas were originally introduced as American radio programmes during the 1930s and were transferred to our television screens after on-going success in the 1950s. They were originally sponsored by soap manufacturing companies such as Proctor and Gamble, hence the reference to ‘soap’.

They were produced with female viewers specifically in mind with the intention of selling soap powder to the traditional house-bound woman. These early radio series were broadcast on weekdays during day time when most listeners would be housewives; thus the shows were aimed at a predominantly female audience.

However, it is now common to find men joining their wives and daughters to watch their favourite soap.

In Uganda, the telenovelas have today become like an addiction that without it one cannot function properly. It has become part and parcel of one’s daily routine that one cannot risk missing to watch an episode.

What has even made it worse is the Telemundo Channel on DSTV/GOTv which shows these soaps 24/7.

I think the main reason why women have turned their relationships into soap operas is because of the way love is portrayed in these movies.

Love is the one thing that makes a woman happy. Be it love of a child, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend or a parent. They have corrupted people’s minds and now they have started acting them into reality. But what most don’t know is that they are just movies, they are acted according to a script.

So these women/girls want to act in their own movies however, they forget that there are others forces that interrupt their scenes unlike in a real movie where a director will make the actors repeat the scene until it is acted his own way.

What makes me wonder is why most if not all of these soaps are based on love and there is always that bad person who is always against the main character (star). These bad characters always end up dead or jailed or embarrassed. Yet in life, not all bad people end up suffering, some keep winning or get away with it.

Just take a look at our government officials who embezzle billions of money, what happens to them? They are dragged to court but at the end of the day, they are given bail and that will be the end of the case. They go back home and enjoy their stolen dimes. Others kill people and implicate the innocent who are locked in the coolers of Luzira prison for ever.

So basically it is love that attracts women to these soap operas. I guess they compare them to their lives and want to perfect their relationships.

Question is why are women obsessed with love? I leave the question to you the reader.

Men have complained of many women especially their wives and girlfriends who want them to change them into “Salvador”, a character in Second Chance that made females create so many fantasies. However, these women forget that for a relationship to be all perfect, it requires effort from both partners. Are they (women) being the most loving and caring partners to their boyfriends and husbands?

Don’t expect your man to turn into ‘Salvador’ if you are a nagging wife, boring in bed and unromantic. Step up your game, challenge him and he will be forced to act like Salvador. Otherwise, if you don’t change yourself, all that fantasy will stay in your dreams.

These soap operas are imaginations; the scenes acted are wild dreams that perambulate the minds of the script writers.

Some parents have even started naming their children names of soap icons such Miguel, Salvador, Barbarita, One, Isabella etc. Soaps have changed people’s dressing codes. When Second Chance was airing, most women started buying Caribbean skirts all in the name of looking like Isabel.

After watching these soaps, people go and practice what the soap has taught them, especially when it comes to dressing, names and manners.

I think the effect of these soaps has created more harm than good in many relationships. Feel free to prove me wrong.