So we got going watching movies any way we liked…well, not really. Those were the days when democracy was a one party state affair. I was privileged enough to have a dad who was trotting the globe back then. Many times he would come back home with new movies in the form of video tapes…sort of. The Malawi Censorship Board was working hard to monitor what was coming in the country. There was procedure.
After declaring whatever needed to be, you were thoroughly searched. Any music or videos or books were screened. This meant that you left them there and picked them up from the Board offices when they called you. If there were parts of the tape they considered unfit for the consumption of the Malawian, they erased it…yes they did. There was a time dad brought back some movies and they had more cuts than movie…that was the joke around the house.
Needless to say enterprising individuals found ways of getting the "banned" stuff around the Censorship Board and you still ended up with contraband movies or with no cuts. As we were cruising towards the late 80's, it was apparent that the Censorship Board was losing its grip on what came in the country. Video houses came up by the dozen per month and I assure you what we watched there definitely did not go through the Board!
What does all this have to do with the family? We saw a shift in a lot of things. In my home, some movies were not for us kids. We got "creative" on how to watch them. We also found out that the video houses were a great place to hang out and watch the "forbidden". Language changed. Now we wanted to talk like Sylvester Stallone or Michael Jackson. We wanted to dress up like Vanilla Ice or MC Hammer or sing like Whitney or Bobby… That was the cool thing to do. What changed in your family?
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