Theatre-for-Development workshops in some Swaziland communities

Read CHAPTER 6 PAGE 43. Answer follow questions. Who organized the first series of Theatre-for-Development workshops in some Swaziland communities? Who introduced the second Theatre-for-Development workshop? Who are regarded as thinks, and what is the special space set aside for their discussions? What was the main purpose of the second workshops? What was the purpose of the KaBulunga Chiefdom Theatre-for-Development workshop? What is the main problem women face although they attend workshops? What is the worst aspect of the men’s negative attitude? What does the Swazi society do whenever a boy or man does something that reflects kindness or affection towards other people, especially girls or women? From all the dialogues it emerged that men were bound by multiple forces of fear. What did they fear? What was the positive outcome of the men’s dialogue? How were the men only meetings a success? CHAPTER SIX From a general to a ‘men-only’ Theatre-for-Development workshop Introduction This chapter is about two Theatre-for-Development workshops which took place in two different communities in Swaziland. The first is a series that were organized by The Population Service International (PSI)24 in collaboration with the National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA)25. These focused on the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS (PMTCT). PSI and NERCHA commissioned two theatre groups to work with communities in all regions of the country. At the end of each workshop there were discussions about the issues raised in the performance. It was from the discussions that the second type of workshop resulted. This one was for men only. The second Theatre-for-Development workshop was introduced by Modison Magagula through reviving the concept of kudliwa kwenhloko ebandla (communally ‘eating of a cow’s head’) following the call for help by women who expressed that men were not committed to the fight against HIV/AIDS. Men in Swaziland are regarded as the ‘thinkers’ and some are even called bucopho (the brain) of the Tinkhundla. They conduct their discussions in private spaces and the kudliwa kwenhloko is a setting where they talk about issues without the intrusion of women and children. The special space set aside for men where women are not allowed is esangweni26. When men enter esangweni to ‘eat the cow’s head,’ they engage in dialogue about anything they consider important. Magagula therefore thought he could revive the kudliwa kwenhloko practice and let it serve as a forum where men could address serious life issues, especially the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Prevention of Mother to Child Virus Transmission workshops. As part of an exercise to curtail the transmission of HIV, the NERCHA, through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare sponsored Theatre-for-Development workshops in the fifty-five Tinkhundla centres. NERCHA contracted two theatre groups to use Theatre-for-Development to provide people with information about the transmission of HIV from mother to child. The workshops were an exercise that resulted from a collaborative effort by the Population Services International (PSI) and other organizations such as UNICEF. The main idea was to promote Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) of individuals’ HIV status in an attempt to prevent the transmission of the virus from pregnant mothers to their babies. Background to the Workshops In 2005, PSI conducted a survey in which 1,568 participants from urban and rural Tinkhundla centres were drawn. The objective was to obtain a representative sample of the rural and urban population per district of young people over 15 years of age. From the survey analysis, it was determined that 80.3% of the 1,568 young people had never gone for counselling and testing. 26 Esangweni is the place next to the entry into the cattle byre, which is reserved for men only. 45 | P a g e Although above 80% of respondents recognized that going for VCT would have positive benefits, only 27% planned to go in the next 12 months yet at the same time, over 85% of the people believed that they could convince a friend, partner or close family member to attend a VCT site. PSI used this and other information to develop a creative brief to which the theatre groups responded. One of the two groups which were selected was Siphila Nje Drama Society. Involving other organizations PSI sought help from other NGOs, private and government sectors involved in HIV related activities to identify the location of VCT services within the Tinkhundla centres. PSI also asked for assistance from the organizations in providing more improved VCT services to the communities. In turn the organizations agreed overwhelmingly to provide ongoing VCT services. The organizations included the Swaziland Infant Nutrition Action Network (SINAN)27 and the Nazarene clinics. UNICEF also became involved in sensitizing people about the importance of using VCT services. Involvement of local leadership structures PSI got into the Tinkhundla through the national leadership structure. The Deputy Prime Minister’s office which is coordinating the constituencies was pivotal in making this exercise a success. Firstly, PSI held a meeting with the Principal Secretary in the Deputy Prime Minister’s office to explain the objectives of the project. They also called the regional secretaries into a meeting to get social support and mobilization of local leaders. Next, the regional secretaries convened the chiefs, tindvuna (chief’s assistants), members of parliament and bandlancane (community executive committee) in an effort to solicit local access and instil a sense of ownership of the project. As PSI networked with the other organizations the SNDS was already preparing to stage Theatre-for-Development workshops in the Tinkhundla centres. Workshops: KaBulunga Chiefdom I was able to participate fully in a Theatre-for-Development workshop in the one of the Tinkhundla centres which took place within the kaBulunga chiefdom. As with the others, the aim of this workshop was to raise awareness of the transmission of HIV from a pregnant woman to her unborn 27 SINAN is the Swaziland Infant Nutrition Action Network that encourages women who have babies to breastfeed. baby. The workshop also aimed to show the advantages of Voluntary Testing and Counselling (VTC) and its connection with changes in people’s sexual behaviour if a partner is HIV positive. UNICEF funded the workshop and the programme of VTC. SINAN provided the information about the transmission of HIV from mother to child. The Nazarene Clinics provided the services for people to utilize. Unlike the other Theatre-for-Development workshops which had been conducted in other Tinkhundla centres, the kaBulunga one involved three primary schools within the community: Nomveshe, Bulunga and Hlane. The schools prepared performances in the form of sketches, songs, dance, praise poetry, poetry and choral music. The KaBulunga community leaders required the community to provide food. It was for all participants of the workshop, but priority was given to the leaders and guests from organizations and members of SNDS. Although providing food for guests and outsiders is part of the culture, it has an exploitative aspect because people do not do it out of choice for those who fail to contribute likely to be fined. Inevitably this removes the element of willingness to do something good for an outsider. Background information about the KaBulunga workshop KaBulunga is a rural area in the Manzini region where the Lubombo and Shiselweni regions meet. Although the majority of participants were school children and women, a good number of men attended. Dignitaries who attended included the chief of the area, his mother, the MP of the constituency, UNICEF staff members, the SNDS members, a local pastor, various school teachers and nursing representatives from the headquarters of Nazarene Clinics at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial hospital. I was present as a research student. The main performance day The venue was the Bulunga clinic. I was there early in order to miss none of the activities of the day. Makhosini Mamba, a staff member from UNICEF chaired the meeting. He announced the names of the schools as the school children arrived into the inkhundla. The schools took turns to sing choral music, traditional singing and dancing of various types in order to entertain the early arrivals before the scheduled main events, particularly the theme play by SNDS, started. In this highly gendered society, even the seating arrangements reflected the hierarchy. Chairs had been placed in the shade of a big marquee, but as people began to arrive most women sat on the grass at the edge of it. The school children also sat on the fringes of the marquee supervised by their teachers, whilst the ‘dignitaries’ occupied the front seats inside. However, it was evident that men could also occupy the seats! Only when all the men were seated and some vacant seats still remained did some of the women come inside the marquee to sit on chairs. Women, who had come early and sat on the grass where the glaring sun hit most, clearly ranked themselves as the least important members of the community. They only came into the marquee and occupied the seats when specifically invited to. Mamba, the chairperson asked the local pastor to officially open the workshop with a prayer. He then introduced the community leaders and important people such as the nurses, from the Nazarene clinics, SINAN and UNICEF personnel. The first performance of the day was by school children performing sketches bearing the HIV/AIDS message. Their songs raised the alarm about HIV/AIDS rather than provide information on how to deal with it. They cautioned the people to be ‘careful’ because HIV/AIDS kills. The workshop incorporated performance and speeches. After the primary school children’s performances, speeches followed. A Mr Gamedze stood up to speak on behalf of the chief. He listed the ‘development’ which the area had experienced ever since the MP was elected. The achievements included electricity, water and fenced gardens. He asked the MP to enquire why the water level was going down and causing a problem for the gardens. He also requested the MP to ask the government to provide the people of the area with a dam. He thanked the Nazarene church for building a clinic in the area which serves four main communities. The list of requests was long and included the problem of orphans who need to be taken care of, and last but not least he mentioned the problem of pigs which had destroyed their farm produce including corn and sweet potatoes. I found it to be a remarkable imbalance and misappropriation of priorities for the chief’s representative to place the subject of orphans last in his list; placing an issue of human development after material development, whereas it deserved to be placed in top priority. I take this listing to demonstrate how his society values material development more than issues affecting humans. Gamedze’s speech also showed the community had elements of dependency syndrome in that they expected the government to maintain the water project instead of maintaining it themselves as a project which already belonged to the community. This is also a sign that it is a problem for people to be passive recipients of developmental projects because they tend to lack commitment even in maintaining those projects. From this I deduce that if the community had been committed in bringing about the water project by even contributing money towards it as a community, they would also be committed in maintaining it rather than waiting for the government to do everything for them. I observed that the community could deal with some of their problems well through a forum within which to engage in dialogue to deal with their problems, one by one. For instance, the people could examine their problem of pigs and identify its root cause. Engaging in Theatre-for-Development could remove the ‘blame another’ syndrome and replace it with a ‘take action’ attitude so that people take responsibility over what affects them instead of looking elsewhere for an answer. The kaBulunga community had actually become underdeveloped by the free provision of projects they got. The problem of gardens which were destroyed by their own pigs was an example of it. Having been provided with pigs and gardens, people had little sense of committed ownership of them. They mostly place value on what they have earned, and anything that has been given free has less value. This is the reason why some organizations or donors require at least a membership fee to be paid towards any developmental project in order for the project not to lose its value. Although this community had already been provided with some ‘material development’ in the form of the projects they had received from donors and the government, they still lacked the kind of development which Harding refers to as “consciousness-raising” (Harding 1998: 5), which leads to “a transformation in one’s own self perception that may eventually lead to development of a material sort (ibid). If members have contributed financially towards a project, the sense of ownership helps them explore ways of dealing with their problems themselves instead of always seeking external help. People’s commitment to their development projects raises their self perception to a level where they realise they are capable of dealing with their problems, and to keep exploring new avenues whenever they face further challenges. Although the kaBulunga community did not initiate the workshop, their involvement gave them some experience of how Theatre-for-Development is used to address issues that concern people within a community. The next speaker after the chief’s representative was LaMamba, a nurse from SINAN. LaMamba explained the HIV prevalence trends using charts, figures and percentages to show that 42.6% of the population were infected in 2004. At this rate she pointed out that the nation risked extinction if no change occurred. The statistical information presented in percentages had no meaning for the audience who had little numerical understanding, but the pictograms and bar charts clarified the point because the differences were easily marked by the number of pictures and what they represented as well as the length of the bars. It was clear that the longer or higher the bar representing infected people, the higher the rate of infected people was that year. LaMamba encouraged the kaBulunga community to use the voluntary and counselling facility that had been provided for them in their clinic. The murmurs that came from the people in the marquee were not very distinct. It was not clear whether the people were alarmed by the reality of the killer disease in the country or they were sceptical about undertaking the VTC exercise. Perhaps there was fear of knowledge of their HIV status as is the trend among the people.