From SOUL BEAT AFRICA - where communication and media are central to AFRICA's social and economic development
In this issue of The Soul Beat:
* PROGRAMME EXPERIENCES on music and xenophobia and malaria
*Spotlight on EDUTAINMENT THEMESITE AND E-NEWSLETTER
* EVALUATIONS of music projects for autistic children and reproductive health
* STRATEGIC THINKING on gender and popular music and music celebrities
* POLL on Arts for Development
* MUSIC-RELATED MATERIALS for migrant workers and HIV awareness
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This issue of The Soul Beat looks at the role that music and musicians can play in bringing about positive social change in Africa. The newsletter shares programme experiences, evaluations, strategic thinking documents, and resource materials related to the use of music to address issues such as human rights, conflict, child welfare, health and HIV/AIDS, and gender.
If you would like your organisation's communication work or research and resource documents to be featured on the Soul Beat Africa website and in The Soul Beat newsletters, please contact soulbeat@comminit.com
To subscribe to The Soul Beat, click here or send an email to soulbeat@comminit.com with a subject of "subscribe".
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PROGRAMME EXPERIENCES
1. Poto-Poto - West Africa
Launched by Plan International in 2006 in collaboration with Artists United for African Rap (AURA), Poto-Poto is a music campaign involving performances and an album by popular hip-hop artists to raise awareness around children’s rights and the challenges they face in West Africa. Plan and AURA brought together hip-hop musicians to develop an album entitled "Les histoires extraordinaires des enfants du Poto-Poto" (The extraordinary stories of the Poto-Poto children) which forms the soundtrack for the live shows. Through the songs on the album, listeners meet the children who live or spend their days at the fictional Poto-Poto market.
Contact Plan - West African Regional Office
childrenmedia@plan-international.org OR AURA info@aurahiphop.com
2. Music Against Xenophobia - South Africa
Launched in November 2008, Music Against Xenophobia (MAX) was a music project by CMFD (Community Media for Development) Productions, supported by MMINO, that brought together musicians from South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe to write and record songs about xenophobia as a way to raise awareness and encourage dialogue. The songs, written in Zulu, Shangaan, and Portuguese, talk about migration and hope to encourage feelings of pan-Africanism. The lyrics of the songs were based on research interviews conducted with 100 migrants from all over the continent about their experiences in South Africa.
Contact Deborah Walter deb@cmfd.org
3. Positive Music Project - Sierra Leone
This project involves a group of young musicians working with the Sierra Leone branch of the International Education & Resource Network (iEARN) to raise awareness among young Sierra Leoneans about issues related to social justice and human rights. The group does this through music, especially hip hop, singing in Krio and English. They have released two albums - "Moving to the Beats Mobilising Youth" in 2005 and "Next Next Generation" in 2007. As part of this project, iEARN invited Rap4Rights Rappers from the Netherlands to meet with iEARN youth to create music, and explore human rights and peace-building.
Contact Andrew Benson Greene andrewgreene_c21st@iearnsierraleone.org OR info@iearnsierraleone.org
4. Shangilia Mtoto wa Afrika (Rejoice Child of Africa) - Kenya
Founded in 1994, Shangilia is a project in Nairobi, Kenya that uses performing arts as a means to change the lives of children living on the streets, and to change negative societal perceptions of these children. Along with providing housing, care, and education to vulnerable children, the organisation uses the performing arts, including drama, acrobatics, choir, tae-kwan-do, and mime to help build the children's self-esteem. In 2008, Shangilia toured the United States where they were given the opportunity to record an album with the New York based Micocci Productions. Their album, titled Rejoice Child of Africa, consists of 10 tracks in a mix of genres, celebrating gospel and secular music.
Contact Japheth Njenga shangilia@nbi.ispkenya.com OR japheth.njenga@enchange.com
5. We are the Drums - Africa
Released in 2004, "We are the Drums" is a song composed by 18 top African musicians in response to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s appeal to combat poverty and promote an HIV/AIDS-free generation. The musicians joined forces to create and perform the song to spark action against poverty and HIV/AIDS in their region as part of the Africa 2015 initiative to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The lyrics of the song invite people to stop being "victims of war, victims of poverty, victims of hunger," and to take individual responsibility to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS so that the disease will not affect the 2015-generation.
Contact Djibril Diallo djibril.diallo@undp.org
6. Voices for a Malaria-Free Future Mali - Mali
Voices for a Malaria-Free Future, in partnership with Groupe Pivot, the national non-governmental organisation umbrella group in Mali, is working at both the national and the community level to raise awareness of issues related to the prevention and treatment of malaria. These include access to insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), provision of intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) for pregnant women, drug resistance, and the use of pesticides used in indoor residual spraying (IRS). As part the advocacy and awareness-raising activities, the campaigns used Malian music personalities to address decision makers, and promoted messages through songs specifically produced by Malian musicians for the campaigns.
Contact Claudia Vondrasek cvondras@jhuccp.org
7. Red for Life - South Africa
A music-based AIDS awareness and advocacy campaign developed by Levi’s® and the South Africa-based Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the campaign aimed to combat HIV/AIDS on three fronts: by instilling a sense of responsibility among youth through education and awareness, by breaking down the stigma associated with the disease, and by raising money to treat those living with HIV/AIDS through the TAC. This initiative used music as the mode of communication and featured the engagement of prominent musicians to increase HIV/AIDS awareness.
Contact TAC info@tac.org.za
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EDUTAINMENT THEMESITE AND E-NEWSLETTER
For more information related to edutainment, please visit the Edutainment theme site
On this site you will find programme experiences, strategic thinking documents, evaluations, and materials that look at the use of radio, television, theatre, puppetry, comics, visual arts, sport etc. to both entertain and educate.
Every second month, Soul Beat Africa sends out a Soul Beat Extra: Edutainment newsletter which features all the latest edutainment-related summaries posted on the Soul Beat Africa website.
If you would like to receive this free e-publication, click here to register and indicate an interest in edutainment or write to soulbeat@comminit.com indicating that you would like to receive the Edutainment Extra.
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EVALUATIONS
8. Testing Action Media and Entertainment Education with Autistic Children
By Jugbaran Nazliand and Eliza Melissa Moodley
This paper explores the efficacy of an intervention on HIV/AIDS and sexuality education with autistic children. According to the paper, a number of autistic children are sexually active, without realising the consequences of their actions, and this makes them vulnerable to HIV infection and pregnancy. This intervention made use of entertainment education strategies, using puppet shows, theatre and music to educate autistic pupils at a school in Durban. The action media approach was used to involve pupils in the creation of the media product, in this case a music CD. This paper details the origins and implementation of the project, as well as its efficacy.
9. Impact Data - Music Project
This impact data is based on a survey to assess a project that used songs and music videos about family planning performed by two of Nigeria's most popular artists, King Sunny Ade and Onyeka Onwenu. According to the survey, five months after its launch, 57% of urban respondents and 22% of rural respondents saw the videos or heard the songs. More than 90% of those exposed to the songs or videos strongly agreed with the messages that couples should practice family planning and have only the number of children that they can care for. In urban areas, 44% of respondents said that they had spoken to their friends about the songs, and 27% said that they had spoken with their sexual partners about them.
STRATEGIC THINKING
10. Dancing to Change: Gender in the Popular Music of Kampala, Uganda
By Evelyn Lutwama-Rukundo
This article, published in the Glocal Times, the newsletter of Malmo University's Communication for Development programme, looks at the lyrics of popular song from the capital city of Kampala, Uganda, and investigates their contribution to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of gender equity. The article discusses the connections between Ugandan popular music, gender relations, levels of productivity for both men and women, and socio-economic development for the individual, family, and wider community.
11. Employment of Live Mass Information/Entertainment in Terms of Broad Principles of Entertainment Education
By Alan Finlay
This report offers a description of the strategy underpinning an initiative implemented by the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Education and Culture Life Skills Division called the JAE (Just About Education) HIV/AIDS Information Tour. As indicated by the tour tagline (JAE), the project drew on the power of celebrity - "Jae" is a prominent pop star with "enormous popularity among the youth of South Africa." As a role model and AIDS activist, Jae communicates with high school learners about HIV/AIDS, spreading messages about HIV/AIDS and promoting positive lifestyles at schools in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban.
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PLEASE VOTE IN THE NEW SOUL BEAT AFRICA EDUTAINMENT POLL::
In the context of art for social change, art-based projects (e.g., visual arts, photography, poetry, film, music, etc.) are being used most effectively to...(you may choose more than one option)
Options:
*support the individual healing process
*promote inter-cultural understanding
*give a voice to the voiceless
*assist with socio-economic empowerment
*create awareness in the wider community about a social issue
*create a platform for freedom of speech
*develop human capacity in the arts
To vote and send comments, go to the Edutainment theme site and see the Top Right side of the page.
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MATERIALS
12. Famba Zvakanaka - Hamba Kahle - Safe Journey [CD]
Produced by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Famba Zvakanaka - Hamba Kahle Music CD formed a key part of the "Safe Journey" multi-media campaign in Zimbabwe. The campaign sought to reduce the risks of HIV to potential migrants and inform citizens about HIV prevention and the dangers of irregular (or illegal) migration. The CD was designed to reinforce the messages of the Safe Journey campaign, informing Zimbabweans of the risks and realities of irregular migration and living or working abroad without families and/or without correct documentation.
13. Everybody's Everybody Musical Production Guide
Produced by Spiraling Music Publications, Everybody's Everybody is a musical theatre production designed to raise awareness about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, especially focusing on the needs of children in Africa. According to the producers, the musical is intended to be included as part of a month-long curriculum intended to raise the awareness of youth and the general public. In addition to raising awareness, the musical performances can be used as a fundraiser. The producers of the musical have developed this guide to assist with the production of the musical. It includes instructions, a script, scores, and the instrumental soundtrack CD.
14. We Shall Survive: A Music for Life Project [CD]
This CD is the product of a partnership between the United States Government and Ethiopian artists to support the fight against HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. The CD consists of 14 songs sung and produced by 39 Ethiopian artists residing in the United States (US) and Ethiopia. The lyrics, revolving around various thematic areas related to HIV/AIDS, were pre-tested among various focus groups including youth and people living with HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia.
15. Wake Up Africa! Leve-toi, Afrique
The Leve-toi, Afrique! (Wake Up Africa!) song is the centrepiece of the Wake-Up! Africa campaign. Recorded in French and local African languages, the lyrics call on listeners to become aware of the risks of AIDS, to minimise those risks by taking specific actions (practicing fidelity, using condoms, knowing their HIV status) and to increase the acceptance of and compassion for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA). In addition to the song, the campaign included a music video, seven TV and radio spots and a behind the scenes magazine/documentary.
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For previous edutainment-related issues of The Soul Beat newsletter, see:
The Soul Beat 80 - Theatre for Development
The Soul Beat 70 - Comics and Cartoons for Development in Africa
The Soul Beat 64 - Art for Social Change
The Soul Beat 45 - Music
The Soul Beat 42 - Using Puppetry for Communication
Click here to view archived editions of The Soul Beat Newsletter.
