By Leah Mwainyekule
THE pregnant wife has gone to
the antenatal clinic for checkup. The
husband is home and furious that his wife has taken so long there. He is waiting for her return so that he could
show her who the real man is. And yes,
as she comes back he sends her packing, accusing her of infidelity. What he doesn’t know is that he has been
totally unfair to his wife. But there is
only one way to know… the puppet show!
The puppet show is a
performing arts tool being used by youths in Kipili ward in Nkasi district,
Rukwa region in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, to campaign for the gender
oriented sexual and reproductive health and rights promotion. And these youths even have an artistic name –
Sound Beach Boys.
The Sound Beach Boys of Kipili
are the favorite artists of Kipili. They
perform their duties under the coordination of the Mwambao Development Movement
(MWADEMO), who are partners of the Resource Oriented Development Initiative
(RODI) in implementing the TMEP project.
It is funded by the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education
(RFSU).
The Tanzania Men as Equal Partners (TMEP) is a project
that aims to partner with Tanzanian men for gender oriented sexual and
reproductive health and rights promotion.
The Sound Beach Boys (SBB) implement this project through performing
arts, whereby they use puppets to send the message and even sing rap songs that
campaign for the program.
Bazilio Kapunda is MWADEMO’s
Executive Director, he says that the
artists have managed to do public awareness using puppets after attending a two
week training in Sumbawanga, and the shows they do have managed to attract a lot
of people because it is something new seeing puppets do the talking. But what is most important is that the message
reaches the community.
In the puppet show called “what you don’t know…” Mama Sadiki is
being accused by her husband of going to meet other men and coming back home
late, claiming that she took long at the antenatal clinic. The husband sn’t want to listen. He first beats up his pregnant wife and tells
her to leave his house. Unfortunately,
some neighbors who are his friends agree with his decision, saying that women
now have so many excuses to meet their boyfriends behind their husbands’ backs. Luckily, one passer by hears the men
talking proudly, then he advises them not to misjudge their wives. He tells them that husbands have the
responsibility of escorting their wives to the antenatal clinic, and that way
couples who go there are given first priority than those who do not. Baba Sadiki understands, and promises to take
his wife back and be with her whenever he is required.
“When we perform shows like this, you see a lot of people
listening to us attentively and laughing at the humor. But what is most, they get the message and
have their questions answered after the show,” says Desderius Msafiri, who
plays Mama Sadiki’s voice.
Lazaro Godfrey Kayumba is a rapper of the SBB and William
Medad Kamangu is a dancer. “We use all
these methods to attract people. People
love entertainment, people love a little bit of laughter, and so if you use
performing arts to send your message to the community you will definitely get
good results,” they explain.
The boys say that their aim is to do as much shows as
possible so that they could create awareness on reproductive and sexual health
issues, and they believe that by working hard on their performances, the
community will really appreciate the education that they are getting.
The Southern Beach Boys might be a group of only seven
young men, but it is a group with a difference.
It is a group that performs to bring positive change in the community,
and all this is done through puppets.
Through such kind of entertainment and humor, you could definitely expect
the best.
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