fbpx

This Is Why Nickelodeon Will Not Air ‘The Loud House’ In Sub-Saharan Africa

This Is Why Nickelodeon Will Not Air ‘The Loud House’ In Sub-Saharan Africa

Nickelodeon has confirmed it will not air an animated series of The Loud House, that features gay parents, in sub-Saharan Africa.

Viacom International Media Networks Africa announced to its DStv subscribers in South Africa and across the continent that it would not be airing an episode from the animated series that depicts a bi-racial gay dads.

Viacom said showing gay people on Nickelodeon is deemed not appropriate for most of its African audience. The company’s move is one in a trend in the past few months where service providers have censored or pulled content for DStv subscribers across Africa over the same grounds.

At least two other networks have censored the content they air on Multichoice’s DStv since October last year, Channel24 reported.

Discovery Networks International that runs the TLC Entertainment channel was forced to pull the innocuous new docu-drama, I Am Jazz, about a transgendered teen’s struggle and life journey.

NBCUniversal International Networks also pull the second season of I Am Cait, a reality show about transgender Caitlyn Jenner from its E! Entertainment channel in May, making it unavailable for the entire Africa.

According to human rights group Amnesty International, homosexuality is outlawed in 36 out of 54 African countries and punishable by death in four. That goes to indicate the level of intolerance towards the gay community across the continent.

Most African leaders have been harsh towards the gay community, some calling it “unnatural”, “un-African”, or even “a colonial import”, but there are those few who have remained open minded about it.

Uganda and Gambia were adversely mentioned in “The State of LGBT Equality in Africa” report released by The Advocate, a US-based LGBT-interest magazine in 2014, as the worst oppressors of gays in Africa where “homophobia thrives in most countries … making the continent an oppressive place to live for countless LGBT people.”