BOTSWANA – THE LAEDZA BATANANI EXPERIENCE

In their article, ‘Laedza Batanani: Popular Theatre And Development- A Botswana Case Study’, Byram and Kidd observe that:

In Botswana as in many other developing countries, rural people often become pasive observers of change. Capital development projects rarely require their participation. Educational programmes through the mass media and extension workers are normally conceived as services and information for them rather than as tools by which they can take action for development themselves. [1]

As a result ,adult educators and extension workers were confronted with a form of inadequacy in dealing with the problems of the rural community. Their work and efforts could make very little impact on community issues such as farming, poor health, unemployment, and community and family disintegration. It was to find lasting solutions to the above that the Laedza  Batanani popular theatre programme which sought extension work with the performing arts was developed. Laedza Batanani which in Setswana means ‘The sun is already up. It is time to come and work together’, started in the northern  Bokalala region of Botswana. This region has a scattered settlement pattern, high population mobility and it is said to have suffered from government neglect. Extension workers found it really hard to work in the region as people were reluctant to attend community meetings and to participate in  communal work. There was a heavy reliance on government to provide self improvements and new services to the area.

In 1974, a local councillor and two expatriate adult educators founded the Laedza Batanani programme  to motivate people to get involved in their own development. It also aimed at substituting self-reliance, participation and co-operative action for  the over-dependence on government and excessive individualism. Thus a potent hybrid of education(extension work) and entertainment evolved using the ‘Popular theatre’ of the people. The theatre attracted large audiences including many people who normally stay out of development activities and as the performance was done in the local language, people could identify with it and get involved wholly as well. Since the drama reflected local reality, it also provided a useful and  socially  relevant focus for the discussion of community concerns amongst the largely illiterate participants.

Laedza Batanani developed into an annual one week ‘Community  Awakening’ festival during which a mobile team of actors toured villages and performed followed by organised discussions on highlighted  matters.

The Laedza Batanani campaign was organised along the following  structure involving community members and extension workers.

1.      District Extension Team Meeting.

2.      Community Workshop- Discussion of issues and casting

3.      Actors’ Workshop- Performance rehearsals

4.      Campaign Tour

5.      follow-up

6.      Evaluation

The entire campaign was planned by the district extension team. At their meetings, the problems for the campaign were selected and a timetable was prepared as well as choosing leaders for the other areas such as budgeting. This was followed by a workshop in which the community is involved. During this workshop, community members are put into small groups and then made to list the problems that they face. They breakaway from these small groups into a  into a bigger one where the final problem is chosen. A group performance then takes place  for casting to be made.

Problems ranged from village co – ordination  and general problems, family planning, sanitation, economic and consumer concerns,  and value conflicts. It is worth noting that during the 1975 Laedza Batanani programme, community leaders came out with a list of problems that included the following: problems on Rhodesian boarder; women do all the work and men drink; teenage pregnancy; parent-child conflict; women rights; unemployment; cattle theft; inflation; and transport fares and shop prices are too high. In 1976, the district team chose poor diet from a large list as their campaign topic.

The actors’ workshop is to give an in-depth study into the campaign problem so as to produce  an appropriate folk art that will deal with problem. A choice is made from a variety of  forms  ranging from drama, music or song, puppet play or dance or a combination of these for each problem. The problem study and performance creating form a vital part of the process since decisions are made on which medium is to be used to present the problem. An attempt was made to select a medium that would allow audience involvement through improvisation. For example, in 1974, the Laedza Batanani drama sketch was so potent that during a meeting scene, the audience became part of the meeting and got so involved in the court case  that when the cattle thief fled, the whole audience raced after him.

The campaign tour is then undertaken first , to wake people up through lively performances dealing with local problems and second, to encourage community discussions on these problems. The people thus become aware and are prepared to do something about their own problem. A massive publicity is organised before the campaign through the Kgotla(village meeting place) and on the day of the performance by going around the village in a vehicle, announcing the performance in a loud hailer. Very minimal and simple staging techniques are used. A backdrop is mounted within the Kgotla, taking account of the wind, sun, and the audience position as well as changing area for the performers. The audience is organised in a semi-circle around the staging area. The performance then takes place with the aim of getting the audience into the action by participating in the community songs and dances and then contributing in the drama. In 1974, a conscious effort was made to get four members of the audience to react angrily during a scene in a drama sketch.

Discussion is the most important part of the programme since it gives a feedback from the community what actions are to be taken to solve the problems presented. As soon as the performance is over, the actors and other extension workers involved with the programme divide the audience into small groups and organise discussions on the problems presented. This is followed by an open discussion involving everybody. The discussions centred on an objective look at the problems as they affect the community and what might be done about them. During the discussions, the services of technical personnel are employed to give expert views  on the issues raised

The follow-up arrangement provides additional information and advice that people need to take action. Follow-up is built on the interests  aroused by the performance and discussions. It is very essential because ideas and solutions must be implemented. This became part of the regular work of extension workers and it yielded some results. A report produced by field workers after the campaign period showed that  cattle theft had reduced in 1974 and in 1976, clinic attendance for venereal diseases treatment had increased by 42% in Laedza Batanani villages.

The programme ended with a careful evaluation of the performance and post performance. By so doing, the impact and success of the planning and organisation of the campaign can be gauged. This also catered for changes and improvement in subsequent campaigns.

Clearly, the Laedza Batanani, programme operated on a model that sought to achieve its aims and objectives through popular theatre.

Again, Byram and Kidd write that:

Laedza Batanani has demonstrated that popular theatre can be an important tool in third world nations, notably in rural areas where underdeveloped mass media and low levels of literacy require an almost total reliance on face-to-face extension work.[2]

Mlama also makes an important observation on the Laedza Batanani programme and she asserts that:

The Laedza Batanani model introduced a two-way communication process important in development communication. People were made aware of their situation, encouraged to look at their problems and take action to solve them instead of merely accepting messages from government employees.[3]

The Laedza Batanani programme achieved a considerable success that affected and influenced similar projects in other African countries. However, there were some criticisms of the approach. One school of thought was that the Laedza Batanani methodology does not really make theatre authentically popular in the sense of theatre being the peoples’ own communication medium.

Zakes Mda, in When People Play People , quotes Byram & Kidd:

Participation as mere performance is no guarantee of progressive change; unless the rural villagers control the popular theatre process,  they may be used as mere mouthpieces of ideas produced by others which mystify their reality and condition them to accept a passive, dependent, uncritical role in an inequitable social structure[4].

Another school of criticism was that the extension workers monopolised the process in terms of analysis, information, scripting the drama, and putting up the performance. The rural folk were not given much room to participate in the crucial aspects of the process and  thus it reduced their participation. There is therefore, not much difference from the top-down communication that Theatre For Development is against. Emphasis was on a technical solution to peoples’ problems rather than on understanding why the problems existed. Also, there was a general view that the discussions at the end of the performances were too short to achieve more that a superficial analysis of the problem. The performances and discussions thus led to very little action and there was very limited follow-up endeavour collective to reinforce the aims of the programme..

However, the Laedza Batanani experience set the basic Theatre For Development model on which similar projects in other parts of Botswana and Africa evolved. For instance, the Maratholi Travelling Theatre in Lesotho; the Chalimbana workshop in Zambia; the Nhlango workshop in Swaziland;, and the Mbalachanda workshop in Malawi all drew their inspiration from the Laedza Batanini approach. Laedza Batanani has clearly paved the way for adult educators/field workers to integrate the skills of community planning and the peoples’ theatre believed to possess an amazing potential as a conscientising  and mobilising force contributing to progressive social change.

[1] Byram & Kidd, ‘Laedza Batanani: Popular Theatre And Development – A Botswana Case Study’, Convergence(Journal Of The International Council For Adult Education), Vol. 10, No. 2, 1977.

[2]  Byram & Kidd, ‘Laedza Batanani: Popular Theatre And Development – A Botswana Case Study’, Convergence(Journal Of The International Council For Adult Education), Vol. 10, No. 2, 1977.

[3] Mlama P, Culture And Development: The Popular Theatre Approach In Africa, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppasala, 1991, p71.

[4] Mda  Z, When People Play People: Development Communication Through Theatre, Witwatersrand University Press, 1993, p15.

GHANA:

THEATRE FOR EXTENSION COMMUNICATION.

Ghana is endowed with a rich cultural heritage embodied in the indigenous performing arts of music, dance and drama. The social calendar of Ghana is organised around festivals, ceremonies, ritual and recreational activities. All these entail performances that play important roles in the socio-political organisation at community level. The transmission of values and beliefs; issues of informal education, social check and control; group identification, assertion, and mobilisation are effectively carried out through the traditional theatre on the basis of the individual, the group, and society at large. The pure forms of performances appropriate the Ghanaian cultural practices and provide the opportunity for the people to integrate and interact in order to be able to learn and share experiences which enable them to make individual and collective appraisals of their hopes, aspirations, norms, beliefs and practices. In effect, the folk art form has a role in solving the socio-economic, political, cultural and moral conflicts in the society. The traditional communities therefore, through their arts are able to perpetrate informal community education. This has been sustained over the years despite centuries of colonial and foreign influence and exploitation.

The early twentieth century witnessed the emergence of one of the most vital and dynamic folk arts in Ghana. It was a kind of syncretic popular theatre referred to as ‘Concert Party’ in Ghana. This kind of theatre developed from a potent hybrid of the indigenous narrative theatre (Anansesem) and the western musical and dramatic (Vaudeville Minstrelsy) forms. Concert party, a roving comic opera, was basically a slapstick musical comedy with a strong pathos and a very important moral tone running through it. Performances took place in the indigenous language and the drama was shot through with highlife music which continually punctuated it. The actors depicted in a humorous and exaggerated way situations and stereotypes of Ghanaians. Contents of the plays related to everyday problems facing the audience. The show involved a great deal of audience participation as it opened and closed with music to which the audience danced. Concert party plays a very important role in the community. It contributes a lot to the maintenance of the Ghanaian social fabric; provide entertainment and serves as a medium for developmental campaigns. In the late 1950s, Kwame Nkrumah’s government used  the concert party to act as an organs of his party’s(C.P.P) propaganda. He formed the Worker’s Brigade Band and Concert Party. Again in the 1960s, the government of Kwame Nkrumah commissioned the community development, mass education unit to perform plays like Work And Happiness. The information services were also commissioned to tour the rural communities with films on developmental projects like the Akosombo dam, the Tema motorway and Tema harbour. Many concert party groups have evolved that were modelled on the early concert party tradition. An example is the present Adehyeman Theatre Group which was formed in 1989 under the leadership Cecilia Anderson to assist with the adult literacy campaign.

Clearly, it can be seen that the use of the community arts to advance developmental messages is an old tradition in Ghanaian societies. However, many problems relating to development and the improvement in the quality of life for all the people of Ghana plague its government and formal institutions. Development issues are many and varied in scope and immediacy. They include issues on education, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, health, sanitation, family planning, awareness about the people’s rights, empowerment, and child labour among others. The question that remains on the minds of the people concerned with community development is how to promote a meaningful community involvement in national developmental issues and stimulate positive change. The type of media used in developmental projects is believed to be a strong indicator on what effect they will ultimately have on the people. The media of television, film video and radio have been known to distract considerably from the educational messages that they attempt to convey. This is because the audio-visual media is considered to be a novelty and an influence in itself. Also, they have been demonstrated to be one way channels which do not allow audience to respond critically to the information given. There was therefore the quest for a developmental medium that would take into consideration the needs of the rural people or the congested urban centre. A medium that would be community based, relevant to the people and facilitate dialogue between the members of the community and educational workers. The theatre then becomes the most effective channel for the  realisation the above.

These were some of the ideas that stimulated the Theatre For Extension Communication projects at the University Of Ghana in the 1980s. Theatre For Extension Communication is a term used to replace Theatre For Development. The former resulted from the latter in that theatre in isolation can not bring about development, it would have to go through communication, urge the masses to action through the arousal of their consciousness.

The community theatre project started at the University Of Ghana as part of the academic programme of the School Of performing Arts(SPA). The programme was initiate by Sandy Arkhurst, a lecturer at the School Of Performing Arts, who had been teaching at the Ahmadu Bello University and worked with the ABU Collective. In September 1988, the School Of Performing Arts organised a two-week Theatre For Development workshop, it had as its theme: ‘Fostering Information, Awareness and Development Through Theatre’. Prior to this workshop, there had been an attempt at community theatre in November, 1987 by a set of Theatre Arts  students who went to various spots on the campus of the University of Ghana – the Bush Canteen, the Cafeteria Market, and the Commonwealth Hall Bush Canteen – and gathered information on various themes. They made improvisations which were not really aimed at the residents on campus. The 1988 workshop was therefore a follow-up of this early attempt.

Sandy Arkhurst, the director of the workshop comments:

The crystallisation of the ideas and the Community Theatre exercises into a project happened in 1988. This was as a result of the realisation that we had neglected the satellite communities around Legon campus which never watched any play performances. We were interested in taking theatre to the people, but not merely for entertainment purposes………..[1]

The ideological base of this project was modelled on the ABU Collective’s Samaru project in Nigeria. However, there were some slight differences in the implementation of the methodology. The workshop was aimed at empowering participants – made up of students of the school, social workers, and community animators - to create an awakening of society to solving its problems. Four communities in Accra namely Okponglo, Kisseman, Maamobi, and Madina, experienced the project. The communities, most of which are semi-urban villages, have mixed populations with the inhabitants drawn from all parts of the country. Some of the people work in the university. The students on the other hand were drawn from the first year and second year drama and dance students who may not specialise in Drama-in-Education as final year option in the third year of their studies. Theatre For Extension Communication as part of the curriculum of the School Of Performing Arts is organised with the following methodology:

1.Research

2.Discusion and Scenario Development

3.Performance

4.Discussion

5.Follow-Up

The research work was based in the community in which the project was to be conducted. In this case, the work started in Maamobi, Nima, Kisseman, Okponglo, and Madina. The students got first hand information from the inhabitants, appreciated their customs, practices and views and also got to know the people they would work with. The students made contacts with the political organisation of the communities. Their initial contacts were with the chiefs, assemblymen, sometimes the local councils. Like the Samaru project, the students were encouraged to take several research trips into the various communities.

The second stage involved an analysis of the data collected by the students. An attempt was made to find the commonest and most prevalent issue in each of  the sub-groups. These discussions took place in the Theatre Arts Department away from the people of the various communities. The obvious question was how sure they were that their discussions reflected the priority needs of the people. The problems were concretised into theatrical performance using familiar artistic forms of the people- drama, music, dance, storytelling and riddles amongst others. The drama evolved through a conscious effort to get the students to work with the elements of improvisation. Thus characterisation,  plot, conflict, suspense,  style and theme were of great importance in the project.

The performances were the final product of the exercise and they  were done in streets in the various communities .The attention of the audience was captured through the music and dance and during the performance the audience reacted to the issues raised. They passed comments of approval or dissatisfaction.

The post-performance discussions led by a facilitator were of utmost importance since it was the stage that they people were motivated to take positive action for change. It was believed that discussions ensured community participation and brought out the root causes of problems. Through the discussions the people could suggest practicable ways of solving the problems.

The follow-up process was meant to assess the overall effect of the project on the community. This was not carried out in any detail by the students who were only engaged in a project as a component of a comprehensive academic programme and could not afford to compromise on other vital academic requisites.

The methodology has undergone changes over the years but the various stages identified above are still the basic form used in the School Of Performing Arts. Students have undertaken many successful projects and development agencies have engaged students on the course to organise projects in various communities. In 1990, the development team performed at Kisseman as the School’s contribution to the nation-wide functional literacy drive. In the same year, the Maamobi community in Accra together with the Theatre For Development team used a play titled Zaako to get the residents involved in the public latrine campaign. In 1992, the UNDP commissioned the Popular Theatre Collective(PTC) of the School Of Performing Arts, through the Ghana Institute Of Journalism(GIJ), to explore the use of a popular exciting Ashanti folk lyrical form – Nwonkro – for Family Planning Education in Rural Communities. The exercise involved the use of newly created verbal messages that extolled the ideals of family life into the matrix of the original Nwonkro musical structure. Also, in 1992, Osita Okagbu was invited by the Non-formal Education division of the government of Ghana to act as a consultant for the Theatre For Development project in Madina, a suburb of Accra.

I will briefly review one project undertaken by students of the Theatre Arts Department. In 1996, a joint project was done by Karin Wacher(an occasional student at the University of Ghana) and Samuel Yirenkye, a final-year drama student. The  project addressed  the issues of teenage pregnancy. They used the Teenage Mother’s Centre at Abriw-Akwapim in the Eastern region of Ghana for the basis of the project. The centre is supported by the PPAG and various NGOs. The mothers attend the activities at the centre for free. Their children at the centre are also fed for free and the mothers are taught various vocations so that they could make a living after the course.

Karin and Samuel spent several weeks travelling from Accra, Legon to Abriw doing their research work, trying to find out what aspect of teenage pregnancy they could tackle. They conducted interviews in Twi, the local language of the people. This was easy for them because Samuel is an Akwapim and could speak very well the native dialect. According to Samuel, during the research they spent a session on a group discussion with the teenage mothers at the Centre. It was after this discussion that they decided to focus the project on the problems that teenage mothers face in the community. After a series of analyses they came out with a story line that was to guide the improvisation. One remarkable feature of this project was that the initiators used the  mothers of the Centre as the core of their performers. In fact  all but the main character was from the centre. The main character was played by a final year dance student who had the responsibility of ensuring some degree of cohesiveness as none of the mothers had A theatrical background. She was also to free the women from all sorts of attack and vulnerability from that might  emerge from the audience response. This was a very sensible step, because they were dealing with a very sensitive issue - teenage mothers playing their own lives and aspirations. Some PPAG members of the centre had earlier on expressed reservations and warned the initiators of the programme not to oblige the women into doing it in that the initiators would be endangering the feeling of safety surrounding the centre if the women put themselves on display.

The performance followed a simple story line which allowed the audience to contribute or react during its run. There was a conscious attempt to make the audience react as the actors constantly threw questions at the audience. The performance did not have an actual ending. It evolved into a forum with a student from the university who facilitated the discussion. Audience members participated in the discussions and came out with meaningful suggestion. The performers themselves could not help but got involved in the discussion. As an observer, I would say that the performance was well staged and the women improvised with a lot of energy and commitment. The content of the piece seemed to be more inclined towards the activities of the centre rather than dealing with the problems of teenage pregnancy.

In her paper, ‘Theatre For Development: A Comparison Between Conventional Theatre And Theatre For Development’, Karin sums up her views on the project as:

The most difficulties we faced, aside from financial constrains and organising everybody in the community(the chief and his elders, PPAG, the District Commissioner, Assemblyman etc.) was the fact that the project was too contrived and we personally as students had too much a personal stake at hand. We went to them looking for a problem to suit our academic needs, making them a kind of guinea pig for our experiment which we are graded on. This is why we strove so hard to make it as pure a form of Theatre For Development as possible. I suspect that they felt we were imposing the project on them and that they did not really understand why and what would exactly happen…..’[2]

The performance ended, and the students left which marked the end of the project. The students left at the most important stage where steps must be taken to implement the solutions arrived at and also to assess the after-effect of the project on the people. The question then is what happens to the state of matters raised when the students have left?

In a critical essay, Osita Okagbu observes that:

This mode of intervention merely creates ripples in the pond of the oppressed which returns to its relative calm when the buzz or excitement of the ripples are gone.[3]

There have been suggestions that a contact person from the community should be made responsible for the implementation of the solutions. But then how can one monitor the level of commitment of this so called contact person who might not have been involved in the whole process.

However, it must be noted that Theatre For Extension Communication has been successful in achieving its aim in some of the communities. Developmental changes have happened in communities  as a result of Theatre For Extension Communication projects that took place there. An example is the realisation and completion of a water-project, in Oyarifa, a village near the University, after students carried out a Theatre For Extension Communication project there.

[1] Arkhurst S, ‘The Community Theatre Project: A Rethink’, News Letter Of  The School Of Performing Arts, No. 2, 1994, p4.

[2] Wachter K, ‘Theatre For Development: A Comparison Between Conventional Theatre And Theatre For Development’, A Paper Presented To The School Of Performing Arts, University Of Ghana, Legon, 1996, p7.

[3] Salhi k, African Theatre for Development, Intellect, 1998, p32.