Latey: Looking for Love – How Ethiopia's Ethiopia Respo

Boy meets a girl. A girl falls for a boy. The girl is pushed by the love rivals and a boy – finally – she announces her attachment to her.

If you are a fan of reality TV shows, you will see several variants of this story – this is a well -worn plot that plays out on the likes of Love Island, love is blind and the bachelor.

But in Ethiopia, this romantic scenario violated the Convention.

Content Creator Betel Getahun won the insurance agent Messiah Hailemeskel in Latey: You are looking for love – reality TV show that lit the debate on dating norms in the conservative East African country.

Latey's premises reflected this on the aforementioned Hit Us show, The Bachelor (in fact Latey is Amkharski for Ergen/Ergen).

Ten women had to compete for the attachment of Mr. Messiah, a 38-year-old Ethiopian-American who grew up and lives in Dallas.

Throughout the series, women have been fighting in boxing matches, basketball competitions and even a bizarre competition where they had to create a television advertising for a mattress, à la the Apprentice.

YouTube broadcast, lately, has been a rare dating program in a country where courtship is traditionally a private affair.

Winning such an innovative show felt “surreal”, 25-year-old Mrs. Betel told the BBC focus on a podcast in Africa. Weeks from the final, which has picked up over 620,000 views, her victory still “feels like a badge of honor.”

Of course, not everyone feels the same.

“The concept of a dating show is entirely a Western idea,” says Ethiopian Vlogger Semere Kassaye.

“Dating in Ethiopia have always been private matter, something that nourishes carefully and is brought only to the attention of family or society when it reaches a level of maturity.”

G -n Semere, at the age of 41, also believes that the show is depreciating women by treating them as objects that need to be acquired.

Several viewers have expressed the same opinion – a commentator on YouTube wrote: “Ladies, you are not an object that the one with money can easily take you.”

Another asked, “A lot of creativity in production, but if it is against culture, what is the point?”

D -ja Betel agrees that the concept of women openly compete for a man are confronted with Ethiopian traditions, but insists that the show is more than his central prerequisite.

“The whole point of the show is to represent different types of women,” she says.

“If you have watched the episodes, you can see any woman in this episode has many different struggles, origin and all different types of things that are not actually expressed or presented in the media in Ethiopia.”

Latey probably succeeds in this regard. Women who include hotel managers, flight attendants and accountants – quickly connect, sharing their personal stories with each other and viewers.

In one of the more sophisticated scenes, actress Vivian reveals that she escapes to Ethiopia from Eritrea, a neighboring country who imposes unspecified military summons on all working citizensS He is also widely accused of violations of human rights.

Vivian has been traveling alone to Ethiopia and has not seen her mother for five years.

“I miss it so much,” she says tears.

Elsewhere, Rahel, a model, explains that she has dropped out of school to take many jobs and to provide her brothers and sisters, while other women have emotional conversations about grief and their awe of those who raised them.

By blocking these women – and their romantic desires – Latey cemented its place as a “content of its times,” the manufacturer Metasebia Yoseph tells the BBC.

Mrs. Metasebia, co-founder of D!

“Number one – it's not hypersexualized,” she says.

“We leave it to the more innocent, let's understand, stages of dating.”

She says that the show also asks its viewers to question the concept of culture, “a staggering dialogue of” what is our culture? Are we monolith? ”

Adapting a universal reality TV formula to Ethiopia delighted many by commenting: “I love taking risk, given how preserved we are as a society … I've always wanted to see other shows in the Ethiopian version. This is a revolutionary moment.”

A second viewer wrote: “I never imagined watching a bachelor in Ethiopia, but you did an excellent job by reviving it.”

The back of this success, D! NK TV is planning a second series.

This time, says G -Metasebia, a woman can be the one who chooses her match of 10 male hopes.

“We get many reviews from the audience, people want to see the roles facing,” she explains.

As for G -ja Bethel and G -N Messiah? Unfortunately, their love story stopped.

“It's a great distance because he's in America right now with his son. So it's really difficult … I don't know where he's going, in principle,” she says.

But D -ja Betel is still close to some of her fellow competitors, whom she courtesy calls her “sociality”.

She is proud that Latey demonstrates the “romantic side of Ethiopia” and believes that the show will lead to better ideas for women in Ethiopian media.

“This is a new way to show women and how they express themselves,” she says.

“This is a new way of seeing.”