"LOST IN THE TRIBE"
(The reality behind the reality show)
Spanish
TV show accused of mistreating Namibia tribe
MADRID (AFP) — A reality television show which placed
three Spanish families with indigenous tribal communities was accused Wednesday
of mistreating members of one of the tribes involved, the San bushmen of
Namibia.
Participating tribe members abandoned their harvest in
exchange for meagre wages in order to take part in "Lost in the Tribe"
while their children missed school, a non-governmental organisation which works
with the San said.
The show, broadcast on private channel Cuatro on
Sunday nights and which has also been produced by broadcasters in other nations
such as Australia and New Zealand, was also accused of misrepresenting the
daily lives of the tribes.
It portrays three middle-class Spanish families as
they live with tribes, two from Namibia and one from Indonesia, for three
weeks.
The Molina-Herrera family, made up of a couple and
their four children, were sent to live at a San camp, which was depicted as a
dozen huts arranged in a semi-circle.
But in reality the San were moved more than 700
kilometres (400 miles) from where they are usually based in the Kalahari desert
to make filming the show easier, according to the Spanish Commission of Refugee
Aid which has worked with the tribe for the past three years.
"The children have not been able to go to school
for one month," a spokeswoman for the organisation, Arantxa Freire, told
AFP, adding the move meant the tribe members are away from their land during
harvest time.
The San tribe are also far less primitive than they
are being depicted on the screen as they do not live in huts and wear shorts,
T-shirts and skirts and not loinclothes, she added.
The San tribe were repeatedly "shown in an
exotic, paternalistic and disrespectful" way which reinforces stereotypes
in the show, which has enjoyed favourable ratings since it started two weeks
ago.
"It is another lost opportunity for these
communities to show first-hand their values and culture and for us to show a
respectful way to get closer," it said, adding the show was an attempt at
"cheap anthropology".
In one scene of the show, the San express in
translated comments their belief that the Molina-Herrera came from the sky and
express their astonishment at their white skin and beauty.
In another scene a mother and her two daughters from
another family who are spending time with a different tribe in Namibia, the
Himba, were seen being told that female members of the tribe did not have the
right to bathe.
But University of Salamanca anthropology professor
Francisco Giner Abati, who lived for nearly three years with the Himba, said
this was "totally false".
"They bathe less than we do because water is
difficult to access, but whenever they get water they take advantage of the
opportunity to bathe," he told AFP, adding "the image given is far
from reality".
Abati, who said he could only bear to watch five
minutes of the first episode of the series, said it was a shame that
"these tribes are being exploited commercially".
A spokesman for Cuatro said the series aims to show
the contrast between Western culture and the participating tribes.
Asked about the accusation that the San were depicted
stereotypically, he said producers had sought out "the most picturesque
and rudimentary aspects" of the participating families.
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