Reconstruction Vol. 12, No. 1

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"From S.A. to L.A.": Branding Transport and Circulating Celebrity in South Africa’s Nonhle Goes to Hollywood / Brandeise Monk-Payton

Abstract: How do local stars navigate global itineraries? This article analyzes black South African celebrity Nonhle Thema and the (dis)continuous flow of her transnational brand. Thema’s individual star image is predicated on her work as a television personality and entertainment news journalist who traverses across global markets in order to bring external (particularly U.S.) star visibility to a South African audience. Thema’s position as a conduit for the circulation of celebrity between South Africa and the world-at-large is made more complex when she becomes the subject of this transport in her original reality series Nonhle Goes to Hollywood (2011). As the theme song notes, Thema is transported "From S.A. to L.A."; Thus, the program follows Nonhle’s adventures in Los Angeles as the international face of Vuzu TV and her subsequent attempts to become a successful star in the United States. Thema’s negotiation of the multiple locales she resides in is indicative of a geographical displacement that highlights her liminal presence within a transnational community and celebrity culture. This essay explores the global commodification and branding of celebrity through the televisual medium. Nonhle Thema’s role as a cultural ambassador for South Africa, simultaneously allows her to import a global entertainment market to the country as well as export global recognition of the country through her star image. Utilizing global media theories of television, I aim to situate Nonhle’s stardom through the reformatting and repackaging of the "celebreality" genre of reality programming on television. Nonhle Goes to Hollywood is exemplar of the paradoxical expansion and containment of celebrity’s transmedia locations as Nonhle exists across televisual and digital markets, yet still retains a strong localized zone of reception.

Introduction

<1> In 2010, South Africa became host to the FIFA World Cup. The presence of the much-celebrated international sporting tournament on South African soil was seen as a victory not only for the country but the continent of Africa as a whole. In particular, the World Cup’s designation as a potential unifying event across nations served to locate South Africa as the site of this transnational solidarity [1]. The televised competition allowed sustained access to the country and solidified global media attention that, in contrast to previous media moments, was not predicated on sociopolitical unrest. Yet this was just the start of South African television’s emergence on the global scene. In the post-Apartheid moment, South African media practices have flourished to become a leading force in communications discourses across the African continent due to the eruption of the country’s production of post-terrestrial (i.e. satellite) programming—programming which includes sports, news, dramas, comedies, and reality shows. In this paper, I discuss a new form of televised South African reality programming by examining one such television show that foregrounds the South African desire for inclusion in as well as mastery over a transnational media flow, through black South African celebrity Nonhle Thema and the (dis)continuous flow of her global brand.

<2> Thema’s individual star image is predicated on her work as a television personality and entertainment news journalist who travels across global markets in order to bring external (particularly U.S.) star visibility to a South African audience. Yet Thema’s position as a conduit for the circulation of celebrity between South Africa and the world-at-large is made more complex when she becomes the subject of this transport in her original reality series Nonhle Goes to Hollywood. The program follows Nonhle’s adventures in Los Angeles as the international face of Vuzu.tv and her attempts to become a successful star in the Western entertainment market. Thema’s negotiation of the multiple locales in which she resides is indicative of a geographical displacement that exemplifies the intricacies, and ultimately failure, of the local star’s navigation of a global itinerary as well as the condition of liminality within a transnational community and a global celebrity culture.

Towards a Global Celebrity

<3> Barry King theorizes current celebrity as a "rhizomatic space"; (9) per Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, this conception would seem to suggest a democratization of celebrity culture that constructs it as a complex network without hierarchically definite entry and exit points. Implicit in this definition is a lack of a fixed route, which can be productive in analyzing the amorphous notion of a global celebrity. Caren Kaplan states that "travel proceeds from some point in space and time and endures across a span of places, to result in an arrival or a return to a fixed site" (36). In practical terms, stars travel internationally as an integral aspect of their profession to promote and work at various sites. This travel is usually transient and reflects a return to a specific location of fame, a star homeland, despite transport. However, a global celebrity can be thought of as transcending the geographical contexts predicated by both King’s "poetics of marketability" (7) and what can be considered as a poetics of translatability across locations. King’s poetics of marketability refers to the commercially successful expression of the self, making it necessary for the celebrity to exhibit his/her personality for consumption. Yet it is not enough to express the self as a commodity; global celebrity requires that self to be translatable (and actively purchasable) across diverse transnational zones of reception. Thus, the famous individual has to exist in a constant state of flexibility and mobility, seamlessly adapting to the various sociocultural, political, economical, and historical contexts of his or her image circulation. These contexts interrelate but are not simply unified. Ien Ang describes how a ‘global culture’ "should not be conceived as a process of straightforward homogenization, in which all cultural difference and diversity is gradually eradicated and assimilated" (153). Ang emphasizes the necessity to collapse the global/local binary opposition in favor of an integrated notion of globalization; here, the global does not subsume the local in the process of globalization but rather is mutually reinforced by it. Similarly, though a global celebrity requires a degree of assimilation in circulation, it still retains a semblance of a local specificity. This presence of a particular "accent" renders the star as not autonomous, but fully fused into a heterogeneous space of production and consumption.

<4> Importantly, global celebrity does not exist in isolation of how audiences encounter the star—through the consumption of media text(s). It is the photographic, cinematic, televisual, print, or digital text that allows for the star’s image to circulate worldwide. The global star can therefore be considered the living embodiment of what Arjun Appadurai terms a mediascape, in which audiences experience and transform these individual icons of media culture in order to help produce their own imagined lives as well as those of others around the globe [2]. Technological advances through the expansion of satellite television and the Internet have increased the ability to attain global celebrity distinction. The formation of famous subjects in digital spaces creates a hybrid star market in which celebrity reach and interaction occurs across fixed geographical locales. In South Africa, media convergence in an era of satellite television has allowed for a plethora of avenues by which South African media figures are able to achieve a transnational visibility and to interact with fans and audiences around the globe.

The South African Television Industry: Past and Present

<5> The history of television in South Africa is already predicated on an implicit concept of transnational media flows. Ron Krabill’s account of the medium’s emergence in the country is informed by Althusser’s notion of "structured absence" and in this instance, the use of deliberately exclusionary practices to maintain a hegemonic force. For South Africa, the National Party’s firm ideological resistance to television, particularly its anxiety that the inclusion of TV would make the country susceptible to a global network that could be seen as a threat to Afrikaner identity and the repressive apartheid regime, delayed the existence of the medium in the country until 1976. Incidentally, the famous Soweto Uprising (protests against the mandatory implementation of the Afrikaans language into education) occurred in the same year, and while Krabill states that an actual correlation between the events is not evident, it does seem to be indicative of the instability inherent in Apartheid’s dominance (not to mention in television’s operations). The precarious nature of hegemony as a process that is a constant renegotiation of power allowed for television’s ability as a communicative space to navigate "hegemonic maintenance and decay within the racial project of the Apartheid state." (19)

<6> It was within this contentious environment that the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) emerged from radio and expanded to television, modeling itself after the UK’s BBC and stating a commitment to public service (though one can note that this produced another structured absence, this time of black South Africans on the screen). During the 1980s amidst growing political dissention, in order to sustain apartheid ideology, the National Party installed and promoted the Win Hearts and Minds campaign (WHAM). WHAM was a concerted effort to focus attention on the growing urban, middle-class, black family and to reinforce segregation through communications technology, by allowing for the creation of TV2 and TV3, both geared towards this new audience through the language differentiation provided by indigenous programming. (71) Currently, these channels are known as SABC1, SABC2, and SABC3, and there has been restructuring in terms of viewer demographic for each of them.

<7> The Electronic Media Network (commonly known as M-Net) began in 1986 as the country’s first subscription service channel. The network gave an affluent South African audience the opportunity to view entertainment fare that lacked news content and an overt political agenda (97) [3]. From its infancy as a "quality" post-network channel, M-Net has served as a space for experimentation through innovative programming and currently markets itself as supplying premium local as well as international content. In a post-apartheid economic policy of deregulation, privatization, and commercialization of media industries, the country has seen even more developments in television production, particularly in a post-network and post-traditional broadcast age. For example, M-Net has extended its reach by partnering with South African company MultiChoice to provide digital broadcasting via satellite through its DStv platform. Due to a process of deterritorialization, satellite television redefines the borders of media circulation, both broadening its reach in terms of geographical boundaries yet tightening it in other ways through the employment of narrowcasting [4]. The multi-channel digital service network includes a range of niche programming options, including Vuzu, an African youth-centered entertainment channel. Launched in July 2009, Vuzu.tv is aimed at young people across the continent and emphasizes interactivity through transmedial connectivity. Indeed, Vuzu markets itself as a space where audiences and users can "meet, share, and play" (Vuzu.tv). The channel transcends its televisual specificity by explicitly marketing itself as a cross-platform media network that is designed to accommodate a new generation of savvy African television viewers invested in accessing their global and local entertainment programming through various communication technologies. Celebreality Goes Global

<8> It is into this environment that Nonhle Goes to Hollywood emerged as a reality program, taking up a specific place in the programming spectrum between the global and local, the public and private, and the ordinary and extra-ordinary [5]. In many countries including South Africa, local versions of international reality formats obtain high ratings; their appeal to advertisers, desirable designation as local content to fulfill licensing conditions, and cheap production costs, make reality television prime programming for various media platforms. Shows that have gained success in the country include Survivor, Big Brother, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and a South African version of the music competition program Idols. These series are repackaged from their original version and framed through South African social, cultural, and political contexts. Other original reality programs currently on air in the country are geared towards education and public service, emphasizing humanitarian efforts and community uplift.

<9> Nonhle Goes to Hollywood is unique in that it adapts the "celebreality" genre of reality television programming. If much reality television thrives in part on transforming ordinary individuals into the extraordinary complete with an obligatory fifteen minutes of fame, the integration of the actual star into reality programming provides an interesting alteration of that model. As Su Holmes comments, the celebrity reality show does not produce the inverse of that model (taking the extraordinary and making it ordinary), but rather utilizes the paradigm flexibly and in multiple ways to its advantage. It is not necessarily that celebreality television forces stars into banality; instead, the genre positions the star in an atmosphere where the entire "celebrity system becomes a source of play" (53). In these televisual texts, the famous can reflexively perform their stardom for viewers within a dominant structuring principle that is still predicated on the illusion of intimacy. This fame game allows for celebreality subjects to enter a program with meanings already attached to them due to their circulation within the entertainment media landscape; therefore, part of the intrigue is to see whether viewer expectations of these stars are validated or negated within a "reality space" (53).

<10> In celebreality shows that are not competition-based, the camera purportedly gives audiences exclusive behind-the-scenes access to celebrities in their professional and personal lives. While there is no specific industrial format, the narrative is formulaic in its documentation of the life of the star, which frequently highlights tensions in the balance between work and home and the demands yet excesses of celebrity culture in an "unscripted" but highly stylized manner. Indeed, the typical confessional and therapeutic discourses inscribed in reality TV, as discussed by Mimi White (1992), Jon Dovey (2000), and other television scholars, are already an aspect of identity construction in celebrity culture, and celebreality programming therefore becomes the site of a heightened manifestation of these discourses. The allure of celebreality programming thus centers on the dual desires of the viewer who wants to gain knowledge of the star’s interiority and the star herself who wants to market her fame by allowing the public (and, more specifically, fans) a glimpse into her daily realities.

<11> Many of celebreality participants in America and the UK are stars in need of a revival or reinvigoration of their careers. As a result, these shows (such as VH1’s The Surreal Life and NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice), viewed as a last attempt to evade obscurity, take on a somewhat pejorative and mocking tone. However, Nonhle Goes to Hollywood is positively touted through its marketing as the first program of its kind in Africa, and the show’s star, Nonhle Thema, comments that: I feel totally blessed and nervous to be the first South African personality to have her own reality show in the country or should I say continent on Vuzu. I feel honoured to be given this torch to break boundaries and start something new and bold in South African television. Someone needed to take the first plunge and I am taking the bullet for all other personalities who will soon have their own reality shows. It’s all about making history and opening doors for others, through this show I have learnt just how brave and fearless I am…this is my destiny. (Nonhle Goes to Hollywood launch party, February 2011) Here, Nonhle situates her program within a historical trajectory of South African television practices. Thema sees her show (for which she has an Executive Producer credit) as being the harbinger of a slew of programs that will give famous African media figures the chance to present an inside perspective on their life as celebrities to television audiences. Thus, the reality show genre itself becomes the epitome of success and progress in the service of (inter)national exposure.

Circulating Stardom

<12> Nonhle Thema gained visibility in the public as a television personality on M-Net’s Channel O, where she interviewed urban artists across the globe on the music program "O Access." After her stint at "O Access," she received a position at Vuzu.tv and became the international face of the emerging youth channel. Thema’s initial work at Vuzu, which included co-hosting the V Entertainment news show, allowed her to be based in her hometown of Johannesburg. Yet the desire to solidify a South African presence overseas and to integrate fully the country into the international entertainment scene compelled Vuzu to offer Thema a position as reporter on location in the United States. Indeed, if Thema had the ability to obtain popular culture news from its most important site, Hollywood, she would serve as a primary source of information for South African audiences and a direct conduit between South African and American entertainment media industries. Nonhle’s labor for the television industry in South Africa is also constructed as a lucrative opportunity for Thema herself, as a move to the United States would conceivably expand her own burgeoning brand and give her exposure on a global scale. Therefore the reality program emerged from this dual plan to include South Africa in a transnational entertainment media environment and the possibility to raise the profile of a South African celebrity in the Western market. As an iteration of a neoliberalist project, Thema’s journey becomes exemplary of a productive citizenship that takes initiative despite risk by advocating entrepreneurial ventures, especially ones that require an overseas visibility.

<13> Thema began to increase her brand visibility overseas primarily through her designation as the "global ambassador" for Dark and Lovely health and beauty products for women of the African Diaspora [6]. In this position, her image circulates as an important symbol for black female "lifestyle" choices across Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and the United States. The celebrity has also been voted as one of the sexiest women by men’s magazine FHM, which is distributed worldwide. Nonhle’s visibility in these contexts strengthens her brand, which is considered to be classy, sexy, feminine, and cosmopolitan. In an interview in the U.S., Thema notes that, "It’s time to find a young, black Charlize Theron" (Kimberly Jessy video interview, Dec. 2010). The reference to Theron, a white South African actress who has gained global success and in particular, marketability in Hollywood, allows Thema simultaneously to identify with Theron’s nationality, yet to dis-identify racially, thus calling attention to the need for a black female presence in the international spotlight for Africa (and particularly South Africa). When asked by a reporter the significance of her groundbreaking show, Nonhle states,

I am a reflection of who my people are. I’m like a bit of light for what we represent. Because I’m tired of how people think Africa is a specific way…Let’s all engage and interact. There’s so much we can learn from each other instead of just only having the one-sidedness of Angelina adopting… (Kimberly Jessy video interview, Dec. 2010)

Thema contests the stereotypical representation of Africa and interestingly offers up star Angelina Jolie and her global adoptions as the singular example of Africa’s image overseas. Therefore, she sees herself as a prototype for how the continent as a whole, as well as the country of South Africa specifically, can be (re)presented with a different valence on an international scale. Furthermore, the comment emphasizes the primacy of transnational exchange. In a reversal of the colonialist perspective, Thema asserts that her transport to Hollywood will also serve the pedagogical function of educating the United States about contemporary South African culture.

<14> The highly publicized Nonhle Goes to Hollywood premiered in February 2011 and ended its eight-episode run in March. The first and second episode of the series were shot in South Africa as Nonhle makes the emotional decision to leave her home, where she has become central to the fabric of the community, in order to venture off to the largely foreign terrain of Hollywood. Ultimately, Nonhle embarks on the adventure partly in the service of continuing her mother’s legacy as a discriminated—against model and actress during Apartheid [7]. Thus, the program begins with a sense of nationalistic pride on invocation of history, and a growing impetus to represent properly the country’s current democratic character and the progressive nature of the continent-at-large. It also attempts to assert the progressive potential of globality itself, which leads to a complex dynamic of what can be considered the "national" and the "international" and the subsequent cultural absences and presences that can become apparent due to this relationship. The show thus tries to balance the need to engage with a South African identity (and by extension, Nonhle’s Zulu traditions and values) and the desire for immersion in excessive American-ness, particularly through entertainment and consumer culture. An example of this negotiation is seen in a promotional clip for the program that attempts to evoke a vision of old Hollywood glamour with an interesting twist. The teaser begins with a close-up of Nonhle dressed in a glamorous gown and diamond jewelry and rising from a chaise as flower petals slowly fall around her, and the camera slowly zooms out to reveal that she is on a movie set. Dialogue is absent, replaced in favor of an excessive cinematic score. The staginess of the scene is deliberate and in some ways speaks to the construction and perception of Hollywood in a global context. However, what is most interesting about the promo is that, at one point, a leopard unexpectedly saunters across the screen. The leopard’s intrusion onto the set of the fantasy diegesis seems oddly disruptive, yet seems to be utilized here as the primary signifier of African-ness [8]. The teaser perhaps suggests that though Thema will be situated on her reality show in the unknown (and perhaps fake) environment of Hollywood, there will be a residual South African element and authenticity to her journey.

<15> However, what does it actually mean that Nonhle "goes to Hollywood"? Rob Nixon notes that South Africa and America have had an interesting mutual fascination for each other since Apartheid began, which reveals itself through each country’s literature, performing arts, and media. In particular, Hollywood’s offering of a "mixture of transport and recognition" (31) has influenced artistic practices in the black South African suburb of Sophiatown. During the 1950s, Sophiatown looked towards Hollywood cinema, which infused its own cultural identity. Following this historical trajectory, it is interesting that a contemporary television program literally follows a black South African celebrity to Hollywood in order to showcase the immersion of Thema in an imagined perspective of the star-studded locale presented as authentically real.

<16> Therefore fittingly in the program’s glitzy credit sequence, Nonhle invites audiences to "share her world" by vicariously participating in her travel and cosmopolitan experience from South Africa to an exotically constructed Los Angeles. In addition to the conflation of the representation of Los Angeles with Hollywood (and by extension, the general collapse of the United States with the global entertainment media culture), Hollywood itself functions metonymically here in order to foreground the program’s emphasis on the celebrity narrative. The credit montage depicts certain markers of the entertainment culture of Los Angeles including the Walk of Fame, the Hollywood sign, and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Viewers also get a glimpse of Nonhle’s position on both sides of the red carpet, as reporter and (for the first time) as a star. As a reporter, Nonhle attends red carpet events that are presented on the show as primarily geared towards awareness of HIV/AIDS, a critical epidemic in South Africa. However, little of her time depicted is spent doing this type of work. Rather, she is primarily seen accumulating goods and participating in services that signify a Hollywood lifestyle of leisure and luxury. Audiences watch Nonhle lounging poolside with her American friends, getting pedicures, shopping, and indulging in the nightlife scene of the city. There is great effort put into assuring that Thema will "make it" in LaLaLand as she obtains a personal assistant, publicist, acting coach, trainer, and general managers to help her achieve her dreams of becoming a star whose success and fame is contingent on her marketability and circulation in the United States [9].

Branding Transport

<17> Kaplan comments that, "the oscillation and tension between the liberating promise of mobility and the security of fixed location is one of modernity’s most enduring and complex oppositional binaries." (35) Indeed, despite its alluring quality of increased circulation, there is always a degree of precariousness involved in transport. The concept of transport is integral to Thema’s navigation of her global itinerary. Many of the establishing and transitional shots in the series depict Nonhle driving through the streets of Los Angeles in her brand new Cadillac convertible. The Cadillac even plays an important narrative role in episode three as one of her friends teaches her how to drive on the opposite side of the road, an element of comic relief in the show that reinforces the fish-out-of-water narrative convention. However, this hints at the risk of such transportations, and other instances of transport in the series show this even more clearly as a source of extreme anxiety and tension for the star.

<18> As previously discussed, branding is a vital aspect of Nonhle’s celebrity, and she has cultivated her brand in South Africa to be both inspirational and aspirational. The simultaneous expansion and preservation of her brand across markets is of utmost importance. However, Thema’s brand is jeopardized on the show due to an illogic of transport. One of the primary sources of conflict within the program centers on a delayed package delivery from South Africa to Los Angeles. The package contains different fragrance samples for the star’s approval in order to solidify a deal that would extend her brand in the form of her own perfume line. During episodes five and six, Harold, Thema’s assistant in the U.S., is frequently shown on the phone both with her South African manager, Alice Haravusi, and the postal services trying to deal with the situation of the lost package. Foregrounded in these moments are linguistic barriers in conveying information, as Harold finds it difficult to communicate the complexities of the problem to a non-US audience. Tensions rise as Thema realizes that the most important deal of her career is quickly slipping through her fingertips due to a failure of transport via the postal system. The emotional climax of the event occurs after Thema has a final phone conversation with Haravusi in which her manager gives her the news that the South African company chose another individual to contract for the fragrance line. Distraught about the potential tarnishing of her successful career that she has worked hard to cultivate in South Africa, Nonhle rushes to her bedroom and proceeds to pack her belongings. Crying to Harold, she comments that "I knew I shouldn’t have come to LA when I was asked to come here," explaining that her Vuzu.tv position in Hollywood has jeopardized her current professional goals, and even further, that this trip to the United States hasn’t been nearly as effective in helping her to achieve her dreams as an actress. Therefore, Thema’s mobility and subsequent dislocation are seen as the negative effects of her departure from her homeland.

<19> It is moments such as these that shed light on the possible maladaptive nature of celebrity negotiations of transnational media flows. Despite Thema’s attempts to use her South African star status to her advantage in the U.S., her celebrity seems to resist translation and transportation across borders. These types of disruptions are apparent throughout the series as Thema’s foreign identity renders her absent in the discourse of celebrity in Hollywood. This is particularly salient with her lack of American accent, which has been constructed during the show as a barrier to her obtaining acting jobs overseas. However, the series attempts to remedy Nonhle’s perceived failure as a legitimate celebrity in the U.S. by depicting Hollywood as not definitively closing doors for the South African star, but instead opening up new opportunities. Such alternatives that she is presented with include a better deal to create her own perfume line in Los Angeles. In addition, after an audition for a feature film in which Thema gets critiqued for her accent and for not embodying the character of a stereotypical "ghetto" African-American female, she finds out she got the role in the last moments of the final episode as she is en route back to South Africa. Thus, despite the problems of marketability and translatability that Thema encounters, the show manages to construct her trip as a success due to Hollywood (and by extension, American) hospitality towards the South African export.

Transnational Flows of Reception

<20> If the lasting impression that Nonhle Goes to Hollywood attempts to present to its audience is ultimately the triumph of transport—including the transport of global media circulations themselves—it is interesting that Nonhle Thema returns to her homeland at the end of the series. Thema has seemed to prove herself as a commodity that has the potential to be sold in a foreign market, but does she retain viability in her own country? How does her brand identity now relate to the brand identity that South Africa has created for itself (just like other cultures within the geopolitics of global capitalism)? The "Proudly South African" government campaign launched in 2001 reflects the consumer identity of South Africa’s post-Apartheid market economy. The campaign encourages nationalism through local consumption of goods and services. With the inception of her reality show, Thema as a celebrity commodity circulates both in a Pan-African and transnational environment. However, in light of that nationalism, South Africans have had a contentious relationship to the show, and as a result, to Thema herself.

<21> Indeed, South African reception of the show has been largely negative. A headline for The Sowetan Live newspaper, "Nonhle Show ‘pathetic and fake reality,’" speaks to general viewer sentiment about the series. Most viewers highlighted the show’s poor production values with its shoddy audio and camera work and the program’s overall blatantly staged quality [10]. When asked to describe the reason for such a pejorative response to the show, one viewer commented to me that, "I think it was just not aimed at a South African audience, and hence we felt like we were watching a second grade American show" (Personal email, April 2011). The general caustic consensus about the show in online reviews and the implications of this critique indicate a fundamental fissure in analyzing the efficacy of celebrity transnational media flows.

<22> First, the idea that Nonhle Goes to Hollywood was not marketed towards a local viewership begs the question: who was the target audience for the program? Though the program is set in Los Angeles, it is not available on U.S. television. As Sean Jacobs suggests, South African television exposes and espouses a certain liberalism, commercialization, and cosmopolitanism that is absent around the continent (190). In this vein, Nonhle’s visibility as a transnational ambassador for the continent may be more accepted by a Pan-African audience than by South African viewers. Second, comparing Thema’s reality show to a bad American program suggests that adapting the conventions of the celebreality genre creates an excess in translation; this is to say that in Nonhle’s performance of American celebrity, her assimilation into Hollywood via her reality show is precisely what makes the show seem unreal, fabricated, and unsatisfying to the South African viewer. With Thema’s originality called into question, it is difficult for a local audience to embrace the show as anything but an insufficient copy of American programming imports such as E! Entertainment Television’s Keeping up with the Kardashians, which is much watched in South Africa [11]. Thus, though Nonhle is still considered to be a successful conduit for the spread of information about stars in her labor as an anchor for Vuzu.tv, her labor as an actress and personality for her own program has been tainted by the demands of transnational flows and the desire for an American celebrity status. <23> Nonhle has since left her position as a Vuzu.tv personality and there are currently no plans to produce more installments of Nonhle Goes to Hollywood [12]. Indeed, on September 27, 2011, Thema tweeted that she has "retired from TV presenting" in order to pursue the "Nonhle Thema Brand" which includes a fragrance and beauty line. When asked about her merchandizing ventures, Thema has noted that, "This is how celebrities make money in America," (The Independent Online, July 2011) making all the more apparent her assimilation into a U.S. notion of stardom. In addition to various products, this new brand includes a complete overhaul of her website, www.nonhlethema.tv. The creation of her own digital space is represented quite literally by the site’s graphics, which depict Thema superimposed onto a nebulous galaxy of stars. Glamorous images of Thema "orbit" around the website and the most striking graphic display of her fame is found on a page that links to Nonhle’s circulation in the media. These designs position Nonhle in the foreground and a graphic of Earth in the background; in addition, a vibrant red carpet emerges from the planet. These images point to the degree to which Thema is invested in mastering the global flows of her stardom. In addition to the site’s graphic design, the content is also indicative of the process of producing and managing fame. Visitors are allowed to view and download Thema’s personal press kit, encouraged to interact with her via Facebook or Twitter, and even invited to join her fan club or mentoring project. Thema’s establishment of a solid online presence through such a comprehensive digital media channel speaks to a possible avenue in which her local location can cross boundaries in order to cultivate a global entertainment network.

Conclusion

<24> Nonhle Goes to Hollywood is a reality television text that is exemplar of the paradoxical expansion and containment of the star’s transnational locations, as Nonhle Thema is embedded in a complex politics of exchange "from S.A. to L.A." and circulation within contemporary global celebrity culture. If global celebrity is predicated on both successful marketability and translatability across geographical boundaries, Thema becomes a liminal figure that is indicative of a discontinuous transnational flow of her celebrity. While she is able to promote her stint in Los Angeles as a successful venture for her goal as a cultural ambassador for South Africa, the show nonetheless depicts the ruptures that come along with such an identity. Thema’s function as a commodity to be transported for consumption in the United States in order to create global recognition of South Africa through her star image is mired by her reality show’s localized zone of reception and her own local inflection of identity. In essence, perceiving to adapt too well to a different national context—in this case an American television format and Hollywood culture—may not be received well once travel ultimately ends. The enterprising impetus of her project to instill pride in South Africa’s progressive character can simultaneously serve as a regression in the eyes and minds of the country’s general public. In the changing media economy of South Africa, Thema exists across televisual and digital markets, as well as across local, national, regional, and global ones. Her position within a lucrative network of transnational and transcontinental exchanges ultimately speaks to the various circulations and locations of stardom in a global celebrity culture of multiple origins and destinations.

Notes

[1] When South Africa was announced as the bid winner in 2004, former President Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and others all attested to the positive effects that the decision would have on both the country and the continent. South African bid chief Irvin Khoza called it an instance of "African renewal" while then-President Thabo Mbeki noted that the World Cup in South Africa would "reaffirm our common humanity and prove we all belong to one family."

[2] And one can see this in different national and cultural contexts; for example, in his book, Ron Krabill examines the reception during the early 80s and 90s of American star Bill Cosby in South Africa, who became a surrogate figure for Nelson Mandela’s absent image in the country during Apartheid.

[3] M-Net’s status as a subscription service produced an audience that lacked racial and economic diversity. M-Net originally had an "open-slot" from 5-7pm before primetime programming when non-subscribers could view the channel, but this slot was closed in 2007.

[4] For more theorization on the concept of the satellite, see Lisa Parks’ Cultures in Orbit: Satellites and the Televisual (2005). In the book, Parks discusses the cultural component of satellite footprinting, which can serve as a deregulator of state television production and distribution. The footprinting tethers television audiences to a specific geographical context yet also expands them into an ether beyond the material site, allowing for "the power to transform, redefine, and hybridize nations, territories, and cultures." (70)

[5] Vuzu’s schedule includes three other reality television shows: Running with the Reps (which follows the Johannesburg-based dance group The Repertoires), The Verge (an interactive gaming program), and V Entertainment (which features global and local celebrities).

[6] The role was previously held by pop group Destiny’s Child member and current solo act, Kelly Rowland.

[7] In many interviews, Nonhle discusses her mother, Cynthia Shange, who became one of the first black women to participate in the Miss World pageant in 1972, receiving her passport to travel across the globe as the black representative of South Africa during the repressive Apartheid regime. She also starred in uDeliwe, the popular film which follows a young black South African woman’s rise to success from her rural beginnings, a parallel to Thema’s own pursuit of stardom.

[8] The leopard is one of the Big 5 animals of Africa, and in South Africa the creature is featured on the highest denomination of the country’s Rand currency (200). There is a way in which this inclusion depicts the show as making claims to quality reality programming through the money form.

[9] In one instance, Nonhle poses with wax figures of American celebrities at Madame Toussauds wax museum, perhaps an idealistic integration of herself into Hollywood culture.

[10] The critique of the show’s constructed nature included Nonhle’s presence online, particularly via the social networking site, Twitter. It was a widely held belief that Nonhle staged a fake Twitter fight with one of her American friends on Nonhle Goes to Hollywood to gain more buzz for the program. Nonhle also used her Twitter account as a venting site to comment on the multiple critiques of the program by fans and South African viewers.

[11] Indeed, Thema has referred to herself as the Kim Kardashian of South Africa on her official Facebook page. In contrast, the granddaughters of former South African President Nelson Mandela announced their plans for a reality show, explicitly stating that they would not be the "African Kardashians." (http://mg.co.za/article/2011-09-29-mandelas-grandkids-hit-the-reality-tv-show-circuit/) With these two references, it is interesting that the Kardashian family has such popular appeal in the country and has become the epitome of a certain kind of stylized and successful reality television celebrity predicated on the excessive branding and marketing of its image.

[12] The official press release commenting on Thema’s departure from Vuzu.tv states that, "Vuzu is a dynamic brand which give young talent the opportunity to shine on television. It’s our vision to launch the careers of many more local personalities while we continue to enthrall our viewers with the entertainment Vuzu has become famous for. Vuzu stars such as Nonhle have contributed to making Vuzu the second coolest TV channel in the country, as voted for by participants in this year’s Sunday Times Generation Y research. Vuzu would like to thank Nonhle for her contributions to the channel and wishes her well with her new ventures." (http://vuzu.dstv.com/blog/2011/07/vuzu-and-nonhle-thema-move-on/)

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