A baby abandoned at a health clinic, an abusive boyfriend, dating woes and fake medicines are all plot twists in C’est la Vie (That’s Life), a television series based in, and produced in, Africa. Shot in Senegal, the sitcom takes place in the fictitious Ratanga health clinic, where midwives interact with patients and work on various cases. Their life stories and office politics come into play, adding intrigue, but the overall aim is to raise health awareness through entertainment.

The series, a first in western Africa, was inspired by Mexican pioneer Miguel Sabido—who used telenovelas to promote literacy and family planning—as well as by the educational television series Shuga. Shuga, the MTV English-language series, is now in its six season and has been so successful that it has moved its filming location from Kenya to capture new stories from Nigeria and South Africa.

Réseau Africain d’Education en Santé (RAES), a nongovernmental organization backed by several United Nations agencies and the French Government, founded Keewu, a production company, to launch the show.

RAES founding member and now Keewu producer Alexandre Rideau’s motivation for launching C’est la Vie was to reach millions via television. “The statistics speak for themselves in western Africa,” Mr Rideau said. “Young people are clueless about sexuality, HIV prevention and simple things like menstruation.” He also added that it was obvious from the many questions received that people had real difficulty in accessing information.

The show highlights many of the realities of the region, from high levels of maternal deaths to HIV infection. Four in five children living with HIV in western and central Africa are still not receiving life-saving antiretroviral therapy and AIDS-related deaths among adolescents aged 15–19 years are on the rise in the region, according to a UNAIDS/United Nations Children’s Fund report, Step up the pace. 

In its second season, C’est la Vie has gained in popularity, so much so that actors are being recognized in the street. Mr Rideau recounted that a toll collector in a toll booth in Dakar would not let an actress who plays an unpleasant character in the series go through in her car.

Broadcast in western and central African countries on A+ and TV5 Monde Afrique, as well as local channels, the show reaches about 100 million viewers. Mr Rideau explained that the series may not necessarily change people’s behaviour, but it gets crucial conversations started about health issues. In Senegal and Togo, open debates about the show’s themes take place in town squares following an airing.

Mr Rideau said that he wants to roll the show out in six other countries in 2018. A radio spinoff in the Hausa language is now being distributed in Niger.

PROMO REEL - C'est la vie! - Saison 1 from Keewu Production on Vimeo.