Malawi bridge

Nanzikambe was contracted by the Johns Hopkins MalawiBridge Project to provide edutainment services at Three (3) National Youth Congresses through the months of July and August of 2005. The agreed services or activities included the following:

• One (1) 40 min Forum Theatre Performance - Tick-Tock;

• One (1) Plenary Session on the topic 'Understanding Enter-education';

• Concurrent Sessions on the topic 'Using Drama and Comedy in Promoting Behaviour Change';

• Entertainment with the youth i.e. energiser/ice-breaker games, quiz, songs and role-play.

The Nanzikambe team comprised eight (8) performers with a 50% gender representation within the team.

The concept that motivated the undertaking of these activities was the need to energise the youth to 'open-up' about issues affecting them and provoke them to thought about the HIV/AIDS situation in Malawi.

The relevance of the storyline and the issues raised in the forum theatre piece engaged the youthful audience from the start to finish. Even after the performance, the female participants were on several occasions heard singing in unison the 'rape scene song' which was a girl's lament over the sexual abuse of girls by boys.

Response to the Southern Region Congress

'It was so real. How do you act so real?'

The audience's response to the rape scene of the schoolgirl (who later contracted HIV) was that of amusement - the youth were laughing unashamedly at the scene. During this scene, the 'joker' character walked up during the scene and simply asked, 'Is rape funny?' the question drew a blunt silence from the youth, but one of the girls in the audience sternly said 'no!'. After that scene, during the scene where Mbumba is afraid to tell Olive what happened to her some youth exclaimed 'tell her! Why don't you tell her?'. During the forum, most of the youth considered Mbumba a bad friend because she didn't tell Olive the truth that Brave had HIV - and further took Mbumba to task for her actions during the forum.

Most participants were so interested in our theatre methodology, research, improvisation/story-creation that sessions continued even out of classes. A lot of participants wanted detailed notes from the concurrent sessions - since the sessions were more practise than theory. A number of occasions, the participants refused to go to other sessions proving the appeal of the sessions and popularity of theatre.

'I regarded these games to be childish, but I then realised later that they were very appealing and effective'

The participants were observed to be very reserved before our interaction with them. But after participating in the theatre games, the youth were highly energised and engaged in the subsequent activities - proving the games as effective active social learning tools.

During the quiz, the questions that were asked required explanatory answers so as test the extent of HIV/AIDS knowledge with the youth. At one point, the question of what a 'discordant couple' was drew silence from the floor. The answer had to be given by the quizmaster - implying that the quiz was an effective awareness tool in terms of HIV/AIDS facts and information.

Response to the Central Region Youth Congress

'The fight against AIDS is a responsibility for all. This play clearly drives that home '

During one of the role-plays, the youth came to question certain cultural norms, i.e. the girl not being allowed to talk/comment/ask when parents talk about sex, which is contrary to the need for two-way communication in sex education in the home. This was indicative of a heightened intellectual awareness of issues - resulting into an emotional state of questioning and then challenging stereotypes - a state necessary for initiating to the process of behaviour change.

'I will use this game with the girls back at girl guides'

It was apparent that the effect of Nanzikambe's work with the youth at this congress would be felt in other sectors of social transformation - the lady made the comment above after having participated in the interactive game, Lengu!, during one of the concurrent sessions with the youth. This was to the surprise of the most of the youth since the lady was herself not a youth and culturally not expected to 'play games' - this lady's involvement further affirmed the point that interactive games are effective tools for community mobilisation and barrier-breaking regardless of age and culture.

The 'Agree-Disagree' game brought out a wealth of issues, questions and heated debate amongst youth about what their opinions were as regards to HIV and life skills. These were some of the interesting statements that were made by participants.

'I can never marry an HIV infected person. They have messed up their lives and why should they mess up mine'

'It is sad to note that some people believe that AIDS does not kill people'

We should just modernise these cultural practises. These are our traditions we can't just abolish them. Let the fisi use a condom

On the graduation day, two groups staged plays so as to exhibit 'lessons learnt' from the congress. The plays comprised elements of stagework shown them during the Nanzikambe concurrent sessions - this further affirming the popularity of Nanzikambe stage style.

Generally, one anecdote that stood out from all the congresses was how the youth interacted freely with the Nanzikambe facilitators/performers. At one of the congresses, the youth asked to 'interview' the Nanzikambe performers to know more about them. During the 'interviews', the youth were amazed to discover that most of the performers made their living through theatre - since, stereotypically, in Malawi theatre is seen as a profession for lazy people. Through the 'interviews', the performers advised the youth to abstain from early/premarital sex and focus on whatever talents they were gifted with as they, the performers, were doing. Counsel was sort from the performers on issues of AIDS and life even in the night hours. Therefore, the youth no longer viewed the performers as just 'mere actors' or 'celebrities' but as 'role models' that they could trust and confide in.

Also during the forum session, there was a wealth of issues that were brought out after the performance that each session lasted more than an hour with the youth wanting to continue discussing. Issues ranging like 'how to say 'no' to a boy' to 'how parents should talk to their kids about sex' were role-played during the forum. The youth or 'joker' would stop the role-play at anytime if one of the 'players' was acting 'right' or 'wrong' - this really captivated the interest of audience as they were analysing the various 'rehearsals of life' on stage.