THE STYLE AND TONE

Homeboyz is drama, music, comedy and dance all rolled into six hours of entertaining television. It is a coming-of-age story seen through the eyes of three teenagers for whom music and township life is everything. Temba, Kumbulani (Kooms) and Lukas are very different characters in search of recognition, pleasure, girls, money, fulfilment and fantasy in the form of their musical group, a band called Home Boyz.

They live by a masculine code of ethics - one that is challenged by the inclusion of a girl, Ntombi, in the band. As boys dealing with girls, the series Home Boyz plays with and interrogates themes of love and adolescent sexuality. The band is their cosmos.

Whilst they are all boys together, they have to deal with male codes of loyalty and friendship. The arrival of a young woman in their midst, however, tests their friendships and questions the roles young men traditionally play. For the first time in their lives, the sheer talent, energy and life-force of a young woman, (and the intimacy of their dealings with Ntombi) force them to rethink their masculine universe. 

In this universe, Aids is a living reality. The boys are survivors in a community already scarred by the disease. Their ingenuity, and failures, in dealing with relationships directly affect the band's survival. Homeboyz is a microcosm of the larger community at work, where friendships and alliances, beliefs and attitudes are even more dramatically challenged by the advent of HIV/Aids. These issues are written with the vigour, hope and zest of African youth in mind. A seam of comedy runs through the series.

The band's original music, recorded by Zimbabwean group  Afrika Revenge,  provides the tempo, mood, and rhythm-print of young lives in an African township. The music is lyrical and upbeat. It features Afro-jazz, pop, jit, kwaito, rap, reggae and a host of styles that make up new vistas in African music. Every episode has at least one keynote song which sums up the themes and mood of that episode. Other songs - vocal and instrumental - ripple through every episode, occasionally exploding into huge choreographed sequences in extraordinary township locations. And through all of this, the life of the band will be expressed in rehearsal, in live concert and through a web of relationships touched by the music and the musicians.

The themes are vast, but bundled up with a young energy that always entertains and questions, without instructing or prescribing.

We see Temba struggle with his relationships with women. We see him falter when he has to care for his Aids-stricken brother at home.

We watch Lukas move from petty gangster to Christian convert. This is no superficial change. The spiritual dimensions of transformation set up dramatic questions and conflicts. Lukas moves from self-absorption to compassion. He wrestles with his sexuality and, in so doing, learns love.

Kooms struggles with jealousy and rage. He flounders without direction as he searches for role models outside his debased family. His journey is to actualise his yearnings for recognition. His way is often comic. He has to come to terms with his enormous, unbridled talent.

Ntombi must find her worth in her self-expression. Throughout this series we see her mature and influence those around her, with her voice and charm and, ultimately, her learned wisdom.

We see these young people challenged by outside forces. Not least of these is the gang-leader Zi, who tries to damage each member of the band one by one. He is the villain of the piece, not without appeal. Each member of the band is beholden to him in some way. Each of them comes under his shadow, influence and dominion. Each one of them must escape his power and assert their own independence.

From this point of view, Home Boyz is most definitely a coming-of-age series. We have told a number of stories in six episodes for television. There are countless other stories about youth as yet untold. Home Boyz the series is a wonderful vessel for carrying these stories. It allows for music and humour, for dance and passion, for love, life and relationships within the band and reaching out into the community that cares for the band - and sometimes seeks to destroy it.

Although the stories wrap up neatly enough at the end of six episodes (when the band records their first CD) the life of the group is open-ended. Home Boyz is destined to become a long-running series, dealing with the lives, hopes and obstacles young people face in the townships. The locale gives the series a particular, vibrant look - the texture of township life. But the stories could happen anywhere, with young people all over the world. Music and dance cross boundaries. Home Boyz will also cross boundaries - in an exciting, accessible and uplifting aural and visual medium.

Through music The Homeboyz seek to express the views and concerns of young people, to their community and the world.  Behind the music, we explore the complexities of the individuals through their relationships with each other, their peers, friends, families, teachers, role models and community.  The dramatic series is a musical, with choreographed sequences and 'live' performances from The Homeboyz designed for and integrated into the stories.

The Homeboyz soundtrack will be another important component of the project to reinforce the purpose of the series.

The Project so far

The Homeboyz Project received development funding from The Ford Foundation during 2001.  This was granted as a follow-up to the highly successful Yellow Card feature film project, funded in part by the Ford Foundation.

To date the following has been achieved:

1. MFD has completed the scripts for the series.  Summary documents describing the characters, locations and storylines are attached.  Full scripts are available on request.
2. Discovering Homeboyz, a fifteen-minute video documenting the script development process, accompanies the project proposal
3. Foundation music has been recorded for the series.  A compact disk of licensed original music from the young Zimbabwean band Afrika Revenge accompanies the project proposal.
4. MFD has secured strategic partnerships with a selection of African Broadcasters and Independent Film/Video Production Companies from across the continent.

Project goals

1. Media for Development Trust (MFD) will produce six hours of quality African television drama, using low-cost digital technologies.
2. The series will be made in Africa, for Africa by Africans.
3. The project will involve partnership arrangements with a selection of African Broadcasters and Independent Production Companies from across the continent.  Partners will be involved in the production and post-production phases of the project, in the context of building capacity, with training components specific to the application of digital technologies.
4. MFD and partners will prepare Swahili, French and Portuguese dubs of the program. The program will be produced in English.
5. MFD and partners will distribute the programs through African television and video networks, reaching tens of millions of viewers across the continent.
6. MFD and partners will produce support materials (print and video) to supplement use of the programs in formal and informal training and learning opportunities.
7. MFD and partners will implement 'grassroots distribution' efforts in selected countries.
8. The project will include a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation component, managed and implemented independently.