Four former Imagine Afrika contestants – Kitso Masi in Botswana, Coulibaly Miniatteni in Côte d’Ivoire and Brenda Amongin and Allan-Roy in Uganda – act as “i-Reporters” becoming the viewers’ eyes and ears as they shadow the main characters through the series.
The camera is in their hands and we accompany them as they follow our characters day-by-day. And when things get tough they talk frankly to us about their feelings and the struggles they are facing – we get to see them at their most vulnerable, when they want to give up. What will it take to keep them committed and to get up the next day and continue with the task?
Kitso is focusing on vulnerable young people and knocking on doors looking for Ntoro, who has gone AWOL. After two weeks in prison, Ntoro says he wants to change. But where is he? His sister, Keitumetse, has been the breadwinner for him and her younger brother since their parents died. And Peo is trying to find her family and get an ID document. She is a new mother and at nineteen cannot find a job unless she has her ID. What next? Remember it is an election year.
Coulibaly is on the trail of three characters - Coffie, Desiree and Bolatsch - who epitomize youth lifestyles in a country where young people under the age of 25 represent 64 per cent of the total population. Coffie is upwardly mobile from the suburbs; dealing with trust, love and responsibility. Beautiful Des is a young mother and a dancer. Her struggle is to make a career out of dancing and confront traditional norms. She wants her one‐year old daughter to live with her, but tradition dictates that the child belongs to the father. Bolatsch is part of the hip‐hop generation, a sensitive rapper, in need of communications with his father and to assert his identity. Will he and his father open up to each other?
Brenda brings it home with Barbara, a single HIV‐positive mother of 4‐month old Courtney, who went on the PMTCT programme when she was pregnant. Resourceful and charismatic, she survives by doing testimonials about her status and selling coffee and hot chocolate. She wants more out of life. But first she has to go back and confront her past before she can go forward. Then there is Jacky who is in a PMTCT programme, 9 months pregnant and is due any day now. Rachel is strong and resilient. She was born HIV-positive. Her grandmother raised her and has inspired her to move forward with her life. Her story is a love story. She met her husband at an HIV treatment centre; he later proposed, and now they are expecting a child. She’s on the PMTCT programme.
Which one of these young Africans will blow your mind, break your heart, make you stop and think? This is real human drama. We go beneath the surface. Follow the drama as the characters’ stories unfold — fresh, raw, real — and “Imagine the Possibility of an HIV free Generation: It Begins with YOU!”
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