This is an excerpt from the thesis "Media and the Empowerment of Communities for Social Change - Chapter Five: Participatory and development communication in Zimbabwe"
5.2 Case Study of Africa Women Filmmakers Trust
This case study focuses on Africa Women Filmmakers Trust (AWFT), which has pioneered the use of participatory video in development in the region. I am one of the founder members of this organisation. In terms of methodology, this enabled me to study the organisation as an insider. I was therefore able to have access to information which an outsider could have had problems accessing through lack of knowledge of their existence. This research was able to benefit from my reflection of events which I was part of. The major threat to validity was subjective bias. How to minimise subjective bias was therefore a challenge throughout the research and write up of this case study. During the course of this study, in some instances I found myself playing a dual role, being both the research instrument and the researched.
This case study is based on information from some participants of the projects, published and unpublished articles about the project, general and annual reports, content analysis of some of the video programmes produced and my experiences as the Director of the organisation between 1992 to 2000 and interviews with project members as shown on the tables 5.6 and some documents shown on table 5.7 below.
| Deevena B. | ||||
| Dengu E. | ||||
| Dube G. | ||||
| Hamlyn G. | ||||
| Ingham-Thorpe | ||||
| Riber J. | ||||
| Matewa C. | ||||
| Munawa T. | ||||
| Munyaneza J. | ||||
| Zunjuze M. |
Table 5.7 Documents and archival materials (AWFT)
Documents and Archival materials (published and unpublished)
Africa Women Filmmakers Annual Reports and Project Proposals from 1992 to 2001
AWFT: Project Document
Appropriate communications in Development: Workshop Proceedings: ITZ 1995.
Broadcasting Services Bill 2001 (Memorandum)
Correspondences between Africa Women Filmmakers Trust and its partners
Ingham-Thorpe, (2001). Re: The Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Broadcasting) Regulations, 2000). A paper presented by The Working Group on Gender Politics on March 12, 2001.
Media for Development Trust Video Resource Centre. (1999). African Images, 2(1).
Neria Grassroots Distribution Project (unpublished report).
Sibanda, B. (2001). The role of Public Broadcasting in democracy. A paper presented at the Misa workshop March 2001 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
The Audio Visual Unit Zimbabwe National Family Planning Unit
The case study focusing on the DTRP run by the Federation of Africa Media Women - Zimbabwe Chapter, looked at the historical background and analysed the techniques which were being used and the impact of these techniques in terms of development. The same approach is used in this study which focuses on the two programmes both run and initiated by AWFT, the Participation in Production Programme and the Access to Media Programme. The Participation in Production Programme focuses on the production of educational and developmental videos using the participatory approach while the Access to Media Programme enables the rural communities who do not have access to television and video facilities to watch the programmes. The video programmes are used as discussion starters, to inform the communities and to create awareness on various development issues. In this study, examples are used to illustrate the success stories and problems encountered. The weaknesses of approaches adopted are analysed and proposals on how they could be enhanced are made.
5.2.1 Background History
Africa Women Filmmakers Trust (AWFT) ventured into the field of participatory community video production during the 1990's when other organisations and media practitioners were dismissing it as being political (Munawa, interview data). Mrs Zunguze, the then information officer of Farm-level Applied Research Method for Southern Africa (FARMESA) talked about a pilot project they had supported on using community video for development in Bulawayo. The Woodvale communities were selected to participate in a pilot project on participatory video. Participants comprised farm labourers, house-girls and houseboys.
The pilot project was meant to establish how video could be used in a participatory way to record indigenous agricultural knowledge. Although the advantages of using participatory video in enabling a two way communication and horizontal communication had been observed, the approach had been dismissed as being political. The basis of this decision was reports and experiences of using community video in Tanzania (Zunguze, interview data).
There were fishermen who were using dynamite in the ocean to kill fish. They would detonate dynamite and fish would die. They would then come and collect the fish. This was creating environmental problems as well as health issues. To the farmers, they saw it as a quick way of catching fish. These people using dynamites were not really farmers but people coming from outside the community to just get the fish. The farmers from the surrounding communities were used to using boats and nets (Zunguze, interview data).
A conflict arose between these farmers and other fishermen on methods used to catch fish. Communities claimed that those in power were allowing other fishermen to use dynamite. This made them angry. These concerns were raised in the video resulting in the process being perceived as being political. Another incident was said to have involved the Masaai people of Tanzania. The Swedish International Development Agency is believed to have sponsored this video project in Mtwara in 1996 (Zunguze, interview data).
So again, there was also another one involving the Masaai. You know, the Masaai are nomadic. They were being restricted to certain areas. Someone did a video with them addressing the municipality and government officials. They took it as a political issue. So, some people in our co-ordinating unit knew of these incidents and they thought, no, community video could lead us to some political sticky situations (Zunguze, interview data).
It is evident that the problem that was emerging from these cases was that of control. With community video, officials found themselves with limited power to determine content. The process placed the ability to determine content in the hands of the community, hence, political. Africa Women Filmmakers Trust (AWFT) would have seen this as a process of giving communities a voice, a process of empowerment that would enable communities to present issues of concern and interest to them in their own way.
Africa Women Filmmakers Trust (AWFT) was launched in 1992 by a group of young Zimbabwean women who were moved by a desire for a more inclusive and democratic audio-visual landscape. The founder members, among them, Tendai Munawa, Rebecca Kapenzi and Chido Matewa had no experience of using participatory video. There was also no institution in the country or region to their knowledge using it, hence no point of reference.
The founder members were exposed to propaganda mobile films by the then Ministry of Information during the colonial era. They had therefore witnessed how the tool had been effective in maintaining the status quo (Cruz, 1999). Africa Women Filmmakers Trust founders, based on their experiences, looked at ways the same media could be used for the empowerment of the marginalised rural communities.
Having experienced firsthand the media's potential to reinforce an oppressive status quo, Matewa began envisioning a different scenario. With a spirit that brings to mind the words spoken by Joseph to his brothers 'Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today' (Genesis, 50:20 NRSV) (Cruz, 1999:11).
Inspired and encouraged by the late Reverend Stephen Matewa who was also an educationist and development activist, Africa Women Filmmakers Trust was launched. The project therefore believed in an ecumenism, which sought to combine the spiritual and material to develop a whole person in the target groups. Such a philosophy it was believed, would contribute immensely to the emphasis of development as an enterprise in favour of the poor. This firmly anchored on its concerns in the political, social and economic circumstances under which AWFT found itself (AWFT Project Document, Undated:3)
The founder members observed that Media Women were greatly marginalised and lacked the means to produce programmes highlighting issues of concern to women. The 'Trust' therefore hoped to establish a production house which media women could access at nominal fees. Establishment of a production house would also give women an opportunity to control and manage a media institution whose major aim was the production of programmes highlighting issues of interest and concern to women. The participatory approach was to be adopted in the production of these programmes. However, neither the participatory process nor the extent to which the targeted communities were to have a say in the project was defined in the project document.
The short term and long-term aims and objectives of the organisation as stipulated in the project document were:
5.2.2 Objectives of the Project
5.2.2.1 Short Term Objectives
- The empowerment of women through the use of media for self-definition.
- To construct an inclusivity gender dimension into media productions as a way of combating endocentric images and information.
- To highlight the important role women play in development, in the making and shaping of history and giving women an opportunity to set the agenda for social change.
- To explore and expose the reality of lives of women in the rural areas.
- Explore alternative ways, which could be used to empower and protect women in the different situations they found themselves.
5.2.2.2 Long Term Objectives
The long-term objectives were to:
- enhance greater participation and involvement of women in media by placing emphasis on production and consolidating skills training in the different specialities of the trade.
- provide an environment in which personal contact promote exchange of ideas and learning through the experiences of others.
- encourage women to contribute to family income and national development as equal partners.
- develop a people-centred Research and Documentation Centre of the Trust to complement work in the field. This would also incorporate a video library.
- use the Research and Documentation Centre to disseminate information to needy people for education, gender sensitivity training, as well as opening a forum for discourses on gender, women, media and development.
- increase audience access to local video through screening workshops or mobile video festivals in the communal areas and also encourage discussions for screening thus providing a stimulating forum for the transfer of information. The mobile vans would be equipped with battery or generator powered video projectors which would be ideal for rural set ups without electricity.
- sustain the activities of the organisation through marketing of the video films produced.
By dealing with the above aims it was believed that the gross inequalities inherent in centralised control of media production and dissemination would be addressed. The process, it was hoped would help in counteracting the negative portrayal of women in mainstream media. Through the establishment of a production house and mobile video units, it was stated in the project document that the means of production and distribution were to be made accessible to rural women and other marginalised communities.
Funds were required to realise the above aims and objectives. The importance of video in development and as an empowerment tool was little understood or was of little interest among development organisations in the country (Tendai Munawa, interview data). In 1993, a German tourist, Bruno Tuchcherer visited the project. He was interested in the aims and objectives of the project and decided to be an ambassador of AWFT. He put the organisation in contact with a number of overseas organisations among them Bread for the World. In 1994 Bread for the World, a Germany based organisation, approved a grant for the production of the first documentary film that was to focus on the life of Jane Lungile Ngwenya. At this point, there were rays of hope that the organisation would be able to achieve some of its aims and objectives (Munawa, interview data).
Personal correspondences revealed that AWFT received a donation of a simple editing suite and camera from Renate Meinhessen, a personal friend of the late Reverend Stephen Matewa in 1995. Although the equipment was not good enough for broadcasting quality productions, in terms of development work, the equipment was ideal. The only drawback was that the organisation would not be in a position to market its products to broadcasting stations, hence not able to generate revenue to sustain its own activities from the productions (AWFT Annual Report, 1996).
5.2.3 Management of AWFT
A Board of Trustees was set up tasked with the responsibility of formulating policy. These were to be guided by recommendations from the members who were supposed to be represented in the Board by the Producer. It was stated in the project document that the Producer was supposed to be elected by the members and to serve a three-year term.
Diagram 5.3 Structure of AWFT
The responsibility of the Board was to ensure that the organisation was accountable for its activities particularly funds received from donor agencies. The Producer/Director was tasked with the responsibility of the day-to-day running of the organisation and ensuring that the project was implemented as specified in the project document as well as representing members during meetings with the Trustees who formed the Board. However, due to the limited resources and limited personnel, AWFT had not yet embarked on a membership drive and was being managed by the founder members. Members were supposed to form a General Meeting who would form a committee responsible of appointing the Director/Producer and the secretariat. As the Director of AWFT before I embarked on this study, new ideas were being generated. One of the ideas was to initiate the formation of a Community Media Association comprising communities the project serves and work out structures with these communities that would give them more say in the way the project was being run as well as explore how the project could be improved to best meet their needs and aspirations. While AWFT and the Media Association would work closely together, they would however be autonomous bodies.
5.2.4 Video Films Case Studies
The table below shows the list of programmes that have been produced by AWFT using the participatory approach.
| 1. Women of Will - Jane Ngwenya | This film shows how Jane Ngwenya rose to be one of the first women to be trained militarily in Zimbabwe and her role in the struggle for independence and after. | Political and Economic |
| 2. Democracy - Community Participation | This film is on governance issues and the importance of participation of the people in the governing process and the role women play. | Political and Governance |
| 3. Survival | It shows how women are coping economically | Economic |
| 4. Why Vote | Communities highlight why it is important for them to vote | Political and Governance |
| 5. Marbling | It shows how women can dye cloth for sale. | Skills training |
| 6. The Untold Story | Hightlights the plight of the people in Matebeleland during the civil unrest soon after independance. | Political |
| 7. Aloe | Features a woman who has managed to make a breakthrough in business. | Social issues |
| 8. Tie and dye | It shows how to dye cloth with different colours. | Skills |
| 9. An Entrepreneur | This film highlights the pitfalls faced by the co-operative movement and how they can be overcome. | Economic |
| 10. Music and Poetry | Through music and poetry, educational messages are communicated as well as the preservation of culture. | Social issues |
| 11. Alternative Technology | This film highlights the problem women's groups in oil pressing face due to the equipment not being appropriate. | Economic issues |
| 12. Music and Poetry | Through music and poetry, educational messages are communicated as well as the preservation of culture. | Social issues |
| 13. Alternative technology | This film highlights the problem women's groups in oil pressing face due to the equipment not being appropriate. | Economic |
| 14. Drugs and Alcohol Abuse | Highlights the dangers of drugs and alcohol abuse. | Social issues |
| 15. Economic Empowerment | Highlights how other women's co-operatives have been able to make a break-through. | Economic |
| 16. Nkayi Festival | Through music, drama and dance, educational information is communicated. | Social issues |
| 17. Basket Making | Highlights how women in Nkayi have been able to make a breakthrough in the basket-making field. | Skills |
| 18. AIDS in the community | It looks at the impact of AIDS in the community and laws that have been put in place to protect women against the spread of AIDS. | Social issues |
| 19. Women and the Land | It highlights the status of women in Zimbabwe in regards to Land ownership. | Women's rights |
Women of Will – Jane Ngwenya, and Survival are the first two video programmes produced by AWFT. The production process of these video programmes show how the participatory approach which is used by AWFT in the production of its videos was developed.
5.2.4.1 Video Film: Women of Will- Part One 'Jane Ngwenya'
This 30 minutes video film features the life story of Jane Lungile Ngwenya, a veteran of Zimbabwe's nationalists armed struggle. The video film shows how she defied all cultural traditional norms against women participation in politics. It focuses not only on the role she played during the struggle of Zimbabwe but the role she played after independence when she was a Member of Parliament and later as a Deputy Minister.
5.2.4.2 Video Film: Survival
Survival is a 30 minutes film, which was produced with financial assistance from Bread for the World. It is evident in this video that rural women who participated in this production did not see themselves as victims of Structural Adjustment Programme but as survivors. The video film highlights not their plight but what they are doing to improve themselves economically. These women do not present themselves as victims but as having taken up an active role as masters of their own destiny. The efforts these women are making in the face of economic and environmental adversity are therefore highlighted. For example, they grow and sell tomatoes, buy and sell second hand clothes, are involved in cattle fattening, are market women and are involved in gold panning. They present themselves in this video as a breed of women who refuse to bow down to adversity.
5.2.5 Women of Will-Part One: Jane Ngwenya
A top down approach was to be used in the production of the first documentary film, which was to be entitled, Women of Will – Jane Lungile Ngwenya. This film was meant to be part of a series of films focusing on the lives of different women of Zimbabwe. Women who were to be featured were meant to be role models for the youth and young women. After an evaluation of this project the need to look at the process that had been adopted critically and its shortcomings were evident.
The traditional approach had been adopted in the production of this film. The first stage had been identifying the person whose life was to be featured. Research was done and the information obtained was used to write a script. After the scripting, the shooting schedule was drafted. Procedures for the production of a documentary video adopted were based on what was taught in media schools.
During shooting, the crew realised that what had been considered important during the scripting is not what Jane felt strongly about. Jane insisted that it was important to include events in her life she felt strongly about. She criticised media for imposing views on people especially women. The media people, she had said, had their own agenda and the other players were mere objects. She wanted the historical issues and her childhood included so that other women would understand that her upbringing and society's attitudes towards women and the church had been obstacles to her advancement. At the end, she had rebelled against the systems she felt oppressed her, that is the church, by challenging the priest, establishing contact with the Vatican and seeking divorce not on the grounds of adultery as is permitted in the Catholic church was involved in the war of liberation. She narrated these events during the shooting of the video. She said that she had developed a critical and questioning mind, which almost brought her education to a premature end.
While I was at Charlesworth School, it was a custom of the school that we had bible teaching every morning. Priests from different denominations used to come to share the scriptures with us.
One day a Reverend Mupanzi came to preach to us. He preached about heaven and earth. He talked about the golden gates in heaven. This, we would inherit in the other life to come. This sermon puzzled me. I had seen some of the things he was talking about. Some people living that life he was preaching. When it was time to ask questions, I lifted my hand and asked. 'Is heaven meant for only Africans? It was only the Africans I saw suffering'. The man my mother had married was a priest. I knew that my stepfather had to go on foot to minister. At one time, he had to borrow money to buy a bicycle to ease his work. He lived in the compound with the people subjected to the same conditions. On the other hand, a Methodist priest who lived close by had a well-built house, with green pastures, almost as what Reverend Mupanzi had talked about. Because of the question I asked, I got into serious trouble. I was suspended pending expulsion (Jane, Women of Will-Part One, 'Jane Ngwenya', 1995).
During the mid-1950's, Jane started to be involved in politics at a time when women's participation in public life was a taboo. When she was imprisoned because of her political involvement, the family was disgraced. Jane's husband was annoyed and once remarked, 'If I did not have a stupid woman like you, I wouldn't be having the police lingering around my house'(Jane, Women of Will-Part One, 'Jane Ngwenya', 1995). As she continued with her political activities, her marital problems increased. She found herself having to choose between politics and her husband.
One day I went to the Post Office with a piece of message I had scribbled on a paper. I asked the attendant how much it would cost me to send it to the Vatican. He looked at it, made a calculation, looked at me shaking his head. He told me, 'fifteen pence and ten shillings and a tickey'. He continued, 'You see, it is very expensive. It's a man's salary for three months'.
I was determined and decided to send the telegram to the Vatican. In it, I asked 'what do you consider as a worse sin, killing or letting me divorce my husband, the man who has brought untold suffering into my life. I am living in hell. If you don't allow me to divorce him, and allow me to see my children growing up as their mother, I will kill him. I am not a witch. I will buy a bottle of poison or grind a bottle of milk he buys for his children and give him to eat. I don't want to stay unhappy. I want to see my children grow. I don't love him any more. I cannot stand the hell (Jane, Women of Will-Part One, 'Jane Ngwenya', 1995).
The Vatican granted her a divorce. Her husband was very angry. One day she came home from a political meeting to discover that her husband had moved, sold the house and taken the children with him. She was homeless and without a family.
From the tone of her voice and how she expressed herself, she had seen herself as a heroine one moment, particularly when her divorce was granted by the Vatican and then as a victim when her husband deserted her with the children. She had however continued participating in the struggle, which was according to her, a male domain at the time. She was a political prisoner a number of times before leaving the country for Zambia and becoming one of the first women to receive military training. She recalled another incident she also felt had to be incorporated in the video film.
It was 22nd January 1977. I was in the same tiny office of ours in Zambia making a call. We were preparing for the OAU meeting, which was to be held in Zambia. We were with John Nkomo, Ndingani, Carlos, Dubiso Ngwenya and Jason Moyo. Jason Moyo was handed a parcel. It seemed like he had recognised the writing. He turned it and said, 'I hope no one has tampered with it'.
I saw lightning and then a deafening sound. The bomb had exploded. Jason's bowels fell on my lap. Fire gutted the office. There was confusion. The next thing, I was lying outside in pain and shock (Jane, Women of Will-Part One, 'Jane Ngwenya', 1995).
According to 'aunty' Jane, these events were important and had to be incorporated in the script. The production process adopted by AWFT had been top-down and did not give participants an opportunity to determine content. Jane had courageously challenged that process. One of the aims of the project was empowerment of women through the use of media for self-definition, and this was not to be achieved through the use of the traditional production techniques. AWFT realised that if it was going to achieve one of its goals, empowerment through giving people a voice, they had to give the participants that opportunity to determine content. The story of Jane had to be told from her point of view. She was to be given an opportunity to articulate her voice.
In the agenda setting theory, it is the mass media, which is said to be setting the agenda for discussion. In this case, it was evident that Jane wanted to be able to set that agenda instead of being manipulated by the media or media personnel. The aims and objectives of AWFT were unknown to Jane, yet in all ways, she was steering the project in course. The project was meant to enable participants to set their own agenda, in this case, 'the women's agenda'. Issues that Jane had indicated were important to her were incorporated in the video. AWFT set up a programme that was meant to develop the participatory approach. The programme was called, the Participatory in Production Programme.
5.2.6 The Participation in Production Programme
The Participation in Production Programme was launched in 1995. The aim was to develop the participatory approach technique. The technique was meant to enable rural women to express themselves, provide them with an instrument and avenue they could use to be protagonists of their own development.
Through experience, AWFT had confirmed that women needed an opportunity to define themselves. They wanted an opportunity to determine content, a process that would let them have control of information. Although the project had been initially set up without consultation with women, the first documentary film had confirmed that the aims and objectives of AWFT were in line with what women yearned for, a voice. What AWFT had not developed was a technique that would enable it to achieve this, the participatory methodology. I acknowledge that my experience in 1992 when I was contracted to do a video shooting for UNESCO, of women infected with HIV, was very useful. In this contract, I had to interact once a week with the infected persons at Mashambanzou, teaching them English, which would enable them to communicate with other development workers working in the field as well as researchers. The teaching was done on a voluntary basis. After a couple of weeks, I had built a relationship with the infected women, and eventually did some video shooting with them at a time when most of the infected persons would not dare speak about their plight or confess their status publicly leave alone on camera. The importance and benefits of integrating oneself with the community during this project was acknowledged and were to be adopted in the Participation in Production Programme.
5.2.7 The Participation in Production Methodology
The Participation in Production Methodology can be divided into seven phases as shown below.
Phase 1
This involves the identification of the group or groups, which would participate in the production. This is dependent on either one of these two criteria's, area AWFT is working in or/and how active the contact person or the community is.
Phase 2
The subject of the video production is dependent on two factors. Firstly, as in the case of the film Survival, funds had been secured to do a film on a specific subject. In this case, it had to be on how rural women were coping during the period of Structural Adjustment. So, communities had to come up with scripts on the same lines. In this case, communities determine content and not the subject.
Secondly, communities after watching a video film from another community or those sourced from independent producers may propose to do their own video film during discussions. This normally focuses on issues of concern to them. They also decide how others may benefit from it before embarking on the production process.
Phase 3
Once the community have agreed to participate in the video production, they meet to discuss why that is important to them and why it might also be important to other communities. They start to develop the script. This is sometimes done by members of the community doing role-plays and discussing whether the issues they want to raise are coming out eloquently. The facilitator who also happens to be a member of the community monitors this stage. Since they are all members of the same community, they are able to meet at the most convenient time to themselves. After numerous meetings, and deliberations they will have an almost finished script. At this stage, each member of the community has been allocated a role. A meeting is arranged with AWFT staff.
Phase 4
The communities, contact person or facilitator and AWFT meet. The purpose of the meeting is to finalise the script and jointly plan the next stage. This Phase starts off with the communities' presentation, which is followed by the discussion. The discussion is facilitated by either the contact person or one of the community members. (Discussions on the script are ongoing, and even when shooting, communities might decide to add, modify or to remove a scene.) Locations for the shooting are identified and the shooting schedule is drafted. This enables AWFT staff not only to plan but also to know what equipment will be required.
Phase 5
This involves the shooting of the script. While the communities will be responsible for the content, AWFT crew are responsible for the technical expertise.
Phase 6
The sixth phase is the post-production. This can be divided into three stages depending with the availability of funds. The first stage involves coming up with a rough edited version of the film. The second phase, which is dependent on the budget, involves screening the rough edited version to the communities so that they approve whether the video is coming out the way they envisaged it. At this stage, they may decide scenes, which may need to be removed or incorporated. The last phase is the online editing and production of VHS copies for use in the mobile vans.
Phase 7
The screening of the completed video film marks the end of the process. Communities are not only able to see the outcome but have an opportunity to reflect on issues they would have raised in the video.
However, through the contact person, AWFT makes contact with the traditional leaders who sometimes also participate in the production process. The approval and support of the local leaders is considered important in the Participation in Production Programme as the ownership of the process is placed in the community. Participation of traditional leaders is said to be giving some dignity to that process (personal communications, 2002).
5.2.8 Survival
Survival is the first video film that was produced using the participatory approach in production while Women of Will - Part One, 'Jane Ngwenya' and Women of Will - Part Two, 'Economic Empowerment' and 'Democracy (Community – Participation)' could be considered as the pilot projects. During the production of Survival, four communities participated in the production. Prior to that, a workshop was conducted to which about forty development activists from all rural provinces in the country were invited. AWFT contracted Africa Community Publishing Team to be facilitators of the workshop. The aim of the workshop was to explain to participants the process that was to be used in the production of developmental and educational video films that were to be used by communities. The first task was to produce a thirty-minute edited film, which would highlight how rural women were coping with the economic hardships particularly after the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme. The Structural Adjustment Programme was recommended to developing countries by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The Structural Adjustment Programme was meant to cut government expenditure and boost economic development in the countries that adopted it.
During the three-day workshop, participants had opportunities to work in groups after which they presented what they had been deliberating. They would use song, poetry and sometimes drama to depict certain issues. This was video recorded and played back for the benefit of the group was done after which there were some further discussions. This gave the group and other members of the community an opportunity to reflect on what they had worked on. AWFT was discovering different ways video could be used in development. The workshop had enabled development activists to gain skills on how they were to work with communities and the importance of giving communities control of the process. Apart from that, the presence of a video during the workshop acted like a stimulant among participants.
After the workshop, development activists had the task of mobilising communities to come up with their own stories, which would form part of the video film. By the time the shooting schedule was to be drafted, AWFT had received information from four communities indicating that they were ready for shooting. A shooting schedule was prepared. Before the shooting, AWFT visited the communities so that they could build a relationship with them first. AWFT staff would therefore not be strangers in the community during the actual video recording period. During this period, communities had an opportunity of presenting their stories, which were the basis of the script. This information was important to AWFT as it enabled them to plan the shooting as well as informing AWFT what materials and equipment would be required.
After presentations, there was always a discussion as to how the contents being suggested best reflected the issues that they wanted to highlight. These discussions were facilitated by members of the community or the development activist of that area. This information was used to modify the script.
AWFT received confirmations from some groups, which wanted to participate in the project, but for a fee. These communities did not see how the video and process would benefit them. These communities were not included in the production of the video but were later targeted for the video screenings so that they could have an opportunity to appreciate the role video could play in their lives. It was ironic that while they had wanted to participate for a fee in the video production process, they were also not prepared to pay a fee to attend the video screenings.
5.2.8.1 The Shooting
It was not clear whether this project was going to be a success. There was no shooting script only a small synopsis which had been done after the initial contact with the communities. The communities did not document anything. In this case, the level of literacy was not a handicap to their participation in the group. Before leaving for shooting, the camera person requested a shooting script from the Producer. I recalled a conversation I had with Marinda who was the cameraperson after the shooting process.
I wondered how we were going to shoot a documentary film without a script. I believed that the Director was up to something. If what she was saying was true, that we would work with the communities without a script, I knew it was going to be a disaster. The participatory approach which was being preached, had never seen anyone use it. It did not make any sense. (Marinda, personal communication, 1995).
When the crew including myself, as the Director of the project arrived in Umzingwani near Gwanda where the first case study was to be shot, participants first presented their story. It had been amended since the last time AWFT staff had been there. This was the case with the rest of the other communities which participated. This meant that communities had continued working on their stories, modifying them in the process.
After shooting, the Editor and myself went through the materials and came up with an editing guide as well as how the four cases were to be linked. A few months latter, the film, 'Survival' was completed. It was entered in the Philadelphia Film Festival were it won an honorable mention. The 'peoples script' had been recognised internationally.
5.2.8.2 The Film Survival
A content analysis of the film Survival identified the themes that emerged from the content and the way communities had decided to present the issues.
What is evident in this film is that different communities looked at the issue of Structural Adjustment from different angles. What is similar in all the case studies is that, even though they presented the problems, women featured are seen doing something to change their fate, hence the title 'Survival'. Participants did not want to be seen as victims of economic policies, particularly Structural Adjustment Policies. They perceived themselves as survivors not victims.
The first case study in the film is about Mrs Mpofu, a widow. When her husband who was the main breadwinner died, relatives are said to have taken away the family wealth. Here, we see how African culture and traditions were misinterpreted for selfish gain according to the participants during one of the discussion sessions during production in Umzingwani. Mrs. Mpofu is seen in the video growing and selling tomatoes to make ends meet. Other people in the village were also growing tomatoes to sell. The market was flooded. She started to go to a nearby town of Victoria Falls, were she bought second hand clothes for re-sale in the village. Although there was a market in the village for second hand clothes, the communities buying power was very low, so she had to resort to barter trading.
During production, there had been arguments among the community members as to the appropriateness of this story in depicting the issues members of the community wanted to highlight. Other members of the community initially felt that the case study chosen was not appropriate. The majority had argued that the effect of policies on communities was complex. If the relatives had been economically well off, they would not have deprived the widow and her children of their inheritance. The issue of inheritance had dominated their discussion. Others argued that, traditional practices were being misinterpreted for selfish gain because of the economic situation. The process engaged participants in dialogue. It was enabling them to look critically at issues and collectively identify factors that were causing the problems and how they could be resolved.
Using song, they summed up the story, urging other women to work hard to change their condition. Dependence on husbands was discouraged in the song as in the case of Mrs Mpofu, they could die, leaving the wives to bring up the family alone.
The second case study is about Mrs. Ndlovu, a woman who had been deserted by her husband. The husband had left their rural home going to look for a job in town but, six years on, he had never returned or contacted his family. This woman had therefore been left alone to take care of the four young children. The woman was pregnant at the time the husband left for town to look for a job. According to this community, the man could have failed to come back after failing to secure a job, because of Structural Adjustment Policies, as companies had to reduce expenditure, hence manpower as a coping strategy. In this case study, we see how they effectively blended traditional and modern media, that is poetry with modern media. In this poetry, poverty is objectified.
5.2.8.3 Oh Poverty
Oh Poverty Oh Poverty.
I sleep on a rag.
My rag is you Poverty.
When I wake up looking for something to eat.
All I find is you poverty.
Tears run down my face.
I have no hope because of you Poverty.
It's painful when I think of my parents.
I bade them fare-well not knowing I was coming to you Poverty.
I ask them to pray for me.
So that I can be free of you Poverty.
What is happening?
Poverty is wasting me away.
Why do you trouble me away?
Why do you trouble me Poverty?
There goes my husband on the streets of Bulawayo.
While our children suffer.
No food, no clothes, no uniforms and no fees.
What is happening?
I have told my relatives about you Poverty.
They refuse to listen.
I asked my grandmother to smear some tobacco.
As a ritual to appease my ancestors.
Maybe they will hear my plight.
(Survival, 1996)
The visuals as the poetry is recited reinforce the message. At the end of the film we see the woman as part of the cattle fattening project. The poetry continues.
Now Poverty, I will bid you farewell
You can remain with those who don't want to work for their lives
(Survival, 1996)
From being poor, the woman is seen at the end in a more hopeful economic situation. She is a member of this flourishing cattle fattening project.
5.2.8.4 Video and Community Transformation
During the filming process of Survival, unknown to the crew, the community members had contributed some cash. This had been used to buy some household provisions. These were to be handed to Mrs Ndlovu during one of the scenes the crew realised was being incorporated into the film. Some members of the community belonged to a flourishing cattle fattening project. The crew was taken to the project thinking that the community wanted them to see what they were doing but to their surprise, they wanted another scene shot there. This scene was meant to introduce Mrs. Ndlovu to the project and to show her what was entailed. The group had decided to incorporate her as a full member of the project. As the crew and community were having their afternoon meal, the Councillor of the area announced that he was going to help Mrs Mpofu get birth certificates for her children so that he could recommend that they get assistance in terms of fees for the children from the social services department. AWFT at this point realised how powerful video could be used to bring about social change. This process had helped communities to first look for solutions within their reach. The process had built a sense of community responsibility among participants. Because AWFT crew lived with the communities, they had been integrated as part of them, they were no longer outsiders. Looking at the success of this project in terms of the process adopted and its impact, AWFT adopted participation in the production of educational, developmental and informative videos. With the collaboration of communities, they had discovered a technique that would enable women to articulate their voice, a process that was believed would empower communities, that integrated traditional media, in this case, music and poetry.
5.2.9 Experiences of using the participatory approach
The aim of the Participation in Production Project was to make the means of production accessible to rural women. It was meant to also counteract the gross inequalities inherent in centralised control of media production. Benefits of adopting the participatory methodology were two-fold. Through the process of production, women could be empowered. It was an opportunity for women to be in a position to determine how they wanted to be portrayed and seen. Production was therefore seen as a process meant to give women a voice and create an environment where every individual's voice and perspective was valued and respected. The project believed that the integration of marginalised women as full partners in the socio-economic and political life of a nation and global economy was determined by their integration in today's information society. Through participatory video production the subordination of rural women was being tackled.
Some of the benefits of using the participatory approach which are dealt with below could not have been achieved had the traditional method of video production been adopted.
5.2.9.1 Community Video and Story-Telling
Having participated in the production and video screening workshops by AWFT, communities in Matebeleland started to wonder how they could use the medium to tell their stories. There was a general fear among the elderly that the times were changing. Children were no longer spending much time with their grandparents, as they had to attend school. An opportunity that had been crucial in passing on information and a people's history was being lost. Questions were asked on how community media could be used to preserve a people's history? This community felt that while the history of the country during the pre-colonial era and during colonisation had been recorded, a period in their lives after independence in the 1980's was missing. They strongly felt that the suffering in Matebeleland and the Midlands during this period was unknown except among those who had lived and experienced it. Many felt that they had been denied an opportunity out of fear to tell their stories. Through video, they believed they would be able to tell their own stories to the next generations to come.
When the community members presented their proposal to AWFT, it was a challenge they could not turn down. The proposal was a very sensitive and political one. Communities were clear on what they wanted. They wanted to tell their stories. They also understood that what they wanted to address were politically sensitive issues. Communities feared for their lives for speaking out. This video, which was to be produced, was therefore not meant to be screened to the general public immediately but to be kept as a historical record. AWFT was guided by the communities in the production process. They were taken to sites where it was claimed people had been murdered, massacred, thrown into pit latrines and left to die. Some talked about how their beloved ones had disappeared. Their relatives' estates had not been dealt with as no death certificates could be secured. Others said that they stood by as their loved ones were killed. The crew was taken to other areas where there were once villages but all that was left was ruins. The inhabitants were said to have fled the massacres during the civil war. The participants narrated their stories.
The first cars came in the morning. We were afraid. At night they knocked at our doors. Nobody opened. The children did not go to school. Latter in the morning the children opened and informed us that they had seen cars and soldiers dragging and beating our husband. The elder wife went to check him in his room. There was blood and saliva in the room. We followed the trail of blood but we did not see him. We did not know what to do next. We reported to the police and showed them his photo. We told them that he had not gone to town because his money was still in the hut. Since then, we have not heard from him. We have not heard anything from the police at Tsholotsho. We have gone around with his photograph asking people if they have seen him. (Dube, The Untold Story, 1998).
In some cases other participants preferred to tell their stories to one of the community leaders who would narrate it on their behalf. Because of fear, some of the community members could not articulate their voices. At one point the community leader remarked, 'these people are afraid to speak out because of what they witnessed'. It became evident that in some situations, communities were not sure who, between the government agencies, local dissidents and South African trained dissidents had perpetrated atrocities against them. This was also confirmed by Professor Ranger in the video. He said that one of the victims had remarked, 'We were like beasts between two cannibals. The dissidents mauled at one side of us and the fifth brigade mauled at one side of us and there was nothing left but our bones' (Ranger, The Untold Story, 1998).
After the video shooting a Mrs Ndlovu remarked,
I feel relieved now that I have had an opportunity to tell my story of what happened during this period. It has been weighing on us heavily. At least our grandchildren will be able to know what really happened. (Ndlovu, The Untold Story, 1998)
A Mrs Moyo said,
Accepting to come and visit the sites where some of our loved ones are buried or were murdered has also enabled us to revisit our past. It has enabled me to put that past behind me so that I move on with my life knowing that a permanent record had been made which will outlive us, a record depicting what happened and how we suffered (Moyo, The Untold Story, 1998).
This project had shown that with video, both the literate and illiterate could use it to make a record of their history. To communities, it was a way of telling their story, making sure that it would be passed on to the next generation as they had said it. With the added advantage of picture, places they talked about could be depicted whereas when telling a story in the traditional set up, places could only be described and imagined.
For a couple of months, AWFT crew feared victimisation from government for having participated in this project or visited sites where atrocities were said to have happened. When AWFT was involved in a car accident coming from Bulawayo after the video recording, they suspected that it was the work of the Central Intelligent Organisation. For months they lived in fear. It was only two years latter that AWFT had enough courage to complete the project although some of the video footage had been lost during the accident. Professor Ranger, a historian at the University of Zimbabwe and Mark Auret who was with the Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice were interviewed for the video. Mark Auret had just completed a book entitled, 'Breaking the Silence' which is about events during this period. This enabled stories from communities to be put into context. With time, AWFT realised that Central Intelligence Organisation had never followed them since they had continued with the project with no incidents. The video, which was entitled, The Untold Story has been shown to a few individuals, and not to the general public. It has been kept as a historical record, which was the aim of the project in the first place.
This video project was seen as a process of helping communities break that silence. A process that would help them to pick up their life and go on. What AWFT may need to explore in the future is how video can be used in building reconciliation and in conflict management. In Zimbabwe, which is at the present moment riddled with complex conflicts at many levels, it might be important to look at how participatory or community video can be used in resolving conflicts, building understanding and creating an environment which is conducive to reconciliation.
5.2.9.2 Community video and people's political attitudes
Democracy - Community Participation is the title of one of the video films that was produced using the participatory approach. The aim of the production was to find out what communities thought about democracy. The video film was divided into two parts. The first part of the video film focused on how experts perceive democracy and the status of Zimbabwean women. What emerged was that women in terms of participation in politics were marginalised. The bible, it was pointed out, also contributed to the subordinated status of women as it considered them as minors. The second part of the video focused on how communities defined democracy. To the communities, democracy was seen in terms of voting and representatives committed to the welfare of the people who had voted them in. The community, which participated in this production, identified four issues as of paramount importance, issues that needed urgent redress. These were, access to water, the rights of handicapped persons, education and poverty. Their choice of a leader was therefore influenced by who would best address these problems. Using drama, they showed how bad leaders would behave and what an ideal leader should be. In this drama, the Councillor, a Mr Zvoma was cast to play the role of a bad leader who would go to meetings drunk and not raise problems that were affecting the community he represented. During the process, AWFT realised that Mr Zvoma was not only role-playing but was actually portraying what he did. The community claimed that he was always drunk and had not initiated any development projects in the area since he was elected. At the end of the filming he addressed participants to everyone's surprise, vowing to work hard for the community. When we visited the community seven months latter after the council elections, we were informed that he had been voted back. One of the community members, a Mrs Mubaira said that Mr Zvoma was a transformed leader, who stood for his people, since the shooting of the film (Mubaira, personal communication). This process was therefore bringing communities and their leaders together and also changing the participant's attitudes. It had given the community an opportunity to say what they expected from their leader and also enabled their leader to hear what was expected of him by the people. Apart from that, the participatory video had enabled the community to reflect and to realise collectively development areas that needed attention. The co-operation of the councillor could hardly have been achieved if the part had been taken by someone outside the community. Community members knew better how to talk to each other and gain each other's co-operation.
In this production, using role-play, communities were able to show how drama could be incorporated. Since they wanted to depict the reality they chose appropriate venues for the shooting. For example, the scene of the councillor who was always drinking was shot at the bar. It was the participants who arranged the programme and sought permission from the owner to shoot there. Communities in this case were not only in control of the process but also in a position to make decisions and implement them.
5.2.9.3 Community video and traditional or indigenous knowledge
In 1998, AWFT was invited to Chinhoyi by a group of women who wanted them to do a programme which would highlight some of the things that they did to generate income. AWFT had just completed a production about tie and dye. This group of women wanted to share with others some techniques of dying cloth called marbling. In this programme, the women raised a desire to know how they could use natural colours to dye cloth. They claimed that traditionally, certain roots, leaves or the bark of certain trees were used to dye but this knowledge was fast disappearing. In response to this request, AWFT has a proposal to research natural dyes and to produce a programme on how these can be used to dye cloth. The issue of conservation of nature will also be highlighted in this project. The aim of the project will therefore be to explore how indigenous knowledge can be integrated in development.
5.2.10 Access to Media Programme
Having realised the production of films using the participatory methodology, the project faced a problem of how other rural people could benefit from these programmes since they had no facilities to view them. Communities yearned for an opportunity to see themselves. They talked about programmes they had participated in but never seen the outcome. They wanted an opportunity to see the products, that is the video films. There is often no electricity in the rural areas. Because roads are bad, a four-wheel drive vehicle was necessary to access most rural communities. Mobile vehicles would enable the screening of films in rural communities. To complement the Participation in Production Programme, the Access to Media Programme was launched, the first of its kind in Zimbabwe.
Another challenge that faced the organisation was how to give screening sessions greater impact among the target groups. There were lessons to be learnt from the Mobile screenings initiated by the Ministry of Information during the colonial era. These propaganda films by the government of the day reinforced an oppressive status quo. AWFT wondered how one could use the same tool, mobile screenings, not for propaganda but for development and the empowerment of grassroots women in particular. The Access to Media Programme was launched. During the first screenings, AWFT would arrive at a location, screen and move on to another location. This process was not effective.
Questions which arose were how video-screening workshops could be used more effectively as educational and developmental tools. There was need to improve the process. The project realised the importance of initiating facilitated group discussions after the screenings, involving communities in the process. The videos became instruments that were being used as discussion starters, and exposing communities to other skills. These video screenings were thought provoking.
5.2.10.1 Community reactions to mobile video screenings
The Access to Media Programme enabled horizontal communication among communities, which had no direct link or those separated by physical and other barriers. During one of the screenings in Chipinge District, one of the men who had come to join the group remarked 'Maunza chiedza kwedu' which literally means 'You have brought light to our community'. Years latter one still ponders about what this had meant to this community, most of whom had never watched a video in their lives. The prospect of AWFT at one point doing a programme with them and having an opportunity to see themselves excited them.
Among the communities that had participated in the production process, it had built confidence in them and when the same video film was shown to them, it enabled them to reflect, an activity which is important in the development process. One of the other videos produced was entitled 'Mufuku' which means 'waterhole'. This community had a problem of access to safe drinking water. By the time they had completed the video, the community had realised that collectively, they could harness their limited resources in an effort to solve their problem. In a way, the project was enabling communities to look within themselves at ways they could use to deal with development problems in their areas, and so become less dependent on donor funding which in some areas was stifling development. When this video film was shown to some communities in Matebeleland who believed that their condition was worse than those in Mashonaland, they realised that their belief that they were being marginalised on tribal grounds was not correct as there were others from other tribes who were worse off than they were.
In 1999, AWFT showed the film 'Survival', and 'An Entrepreneur' to community members in Zimunya near Mutare who remarked,
When we came we thought at the end we will be given some money to start a project or some blankets like other organisations are doing with orphaned children in this area, but no, you came to inform us, to empower us, to challenge us to stand up like those women in the film 'Survival' and be survivors like them. Here we have no gold, so we cannot do gold panning. But, we have plenty of trees. We should sit down and think what we can do with the resources, which are locally available, and in abundance here. But, as we have been shown in the film 'An Entrepreneur', we have to look at our skills and markets before we embark on anything, otherwise we will fail as many have failed before us. (Annual Report, 1999:2).
A number of the community members in Marange are of apostolic faith. In spite of legislation, they still give away their girl children at a tender age, some as young as seven years old in marriage to men old enough to be their grandfathers. The film Survival, and An Entrepreneur was screened after which a feature film Mwanasikana which was acquired from Media for Development Trust was screened. The Ministry of Youth, Gender and Employment Creation development activist who had helped in organising the screenings in this area, Mrs Chikwanda, remarked,
In this area the problem of marrying away girl children is rampant and the girl children do not even finish primary school. So I think it is a good idea to combine developmental films and those which touch on social issues that affect development directly or indirectly. (Chikwanda, AWFT Annual Report, 1999:2)
During discussions the women admitted that it was not possible for them to tell their husbands what they had learnt. They recommended that men be invited in the future to the video screenings. One of the women participants remarked, 'we need our men to help us change our societies especially attitudes towards the girl child' (Mrs T, personal communication). This was accepted by AWFT. However, it was felt that the fact that the project was a women's project had to be emphasised so that women would not be marginalised by being left at home attending to household chores.
During a similar mobile screening session in Matebeleland, a film was screened entitled, 'Side by Side' bought from Media for Development Trust. The video film deals with the issue of AIDS. One of the women participants questioned how safe it was to use condoms. She said that rumours had spread that the substance inside the condoms was actually the one causing the spread of Aids. At this point, we realised that this process was of benefit to the community as it enabled people to express themselves, start debate on topical issues, and also debate the myths so that communities would develop strategies to deal with them.
With financial assistance from Wilde Ganzen, a Netherlands based organisation, AWFT opened a video library. This has enabled AWFT to source programmes from independent producers and other media houses, which communities would have expressed interest in.
In 2002, AWFT managed to secure funding for the training of animators whose responsibility is to mobilise communities and facilitate discussions after the screenings, giving development activists a major role in the implementation of the project and also linking the work of AWFT with other development initiatives.
5.2.11 Funding and Setting the Agenda
lnitially, the AWFT production team determined themes, which were treated. This was also largely determined by availability of funds. The project members were tempted to come up with titles they believed would help them secure the much-needed funds. The project would therefore have been 'donor driven' and not 'people driven'. This was not the ideal situation. It denied participants the opportunity to set their own agenda. For about ten years, The World Association for Christian Communication funded the Participation in Production Programme without asking the titles of subjects that were to be addressed. This enabled the programme to respond to people's needs and concerns. Communities were able to set their own agenda. By 2001, AWFT was still looking for a willing partner to support the programme as they realised that funding from the World Association for Christian Communication would dry up by the end of 2001. The project hoped that establishing a fully equipped studio would give AWFT greater autonomy and more power to the grassroots to determine which issues were treated or produced, and so more control of subjects and content. The project would also become less dependent on donor funding.
The Evangelical Missionwerk in Germany helped AWFT to establish itself, but not without sacrifices from the staff who had to forfeit their salaries occasionally as the limited resources were used to build the infrastructure that was desperately needed for continuity purposes. By 2001, AWFT had an office and studio but the editing suite was not complete. They did not have a broadcasting quality camera and therefore were not able to take advantage of the Broadcasting Act (2001) which stipulated that 75% of the content on the local broadcasting television stations had to be local. AWFT hoped to produce programmes for sale to broadcasting stations so as to generate revenue.
5.2.12 Conclusion
It is evident in this study that AWFT has managed to achieve most of its short-term objectives that is the empowerment of women through the use of media for self-definition and highlighting the important role women play in the development process and in the making and shaping of history. The participatory approach adopted helps women to set their own agenda for social change. Through the Access to Media Programme, media has been made accessible to the marginalised rural communities, particularly women.
The major weakness of AWFT is its evaluation of its media initiatives. Evaluation is done to fulfil donor requirements and does not inform the project on areas that need to be improved, hence the need of incorporating a participatory evaluation process which is people driven, not donor driven whose main focus would be on improving the effectiveness of the project.
AWFT has been working in isolation from other development organisations. It is therefore evident from this study that one of the major challenges it faces is linking its operations with other development initiatives in the communities they operate. This process seems to have started by the training of animators from various development organisations and development activists who will be working with AWFT in the production and screening of video films in the rural areas.
However, AWFT should be commended for the important role they play and continue to play in improving access to video for the marginalised rural communities, particularly women. Through the Participation in Production Programme, it has been able to give a voice to the marginalised rural communities.
The purpose of this case study was to discover look to what extent participatory video contributes to the advancement and empowerment of rural communities and whether community needs, interests and concerns were served by community media. From this study, it was evident that the participatory process that was adopted for the production of the educational and developmental videos enabled communities to determine content and in some cases, the subjects which were dealt with. In this case, the participants were able to set their own agenda or to present situations from their own point of view. This ability to express oneself was a form of empowerment especially since such communities were generally treated as recipients of development information. The ability of the communities to watch the programmes they had participated in enabled them to reflect upon their experiences. When the video programmes were shown to other communities, it enabled horizontal communication among communities which did not have a direct link. With the added advantage of picture, it enabled communities to learn new skills.
Since the communities sometimes determined the subjects for video films, this enabled issues of interest and concern to the communities to be addressed. Through the use of music and poetry, it showed how traditional media could be integrated with modern media for development. The Access to The Media Programme on the other hand, improved access to educational and developmental video in the rural areas.
For the full text of this thesis, please contact the author.
About Chido E. F. Matewa
More knowledge from Chido E. F. Matewa
Comments
i found nothing
Post new comment