Comics and Cartoons for Development in Africa
This edition of The Soul Beat looks at the use of comics, graphic novels and animation as educational tools in Africa. We offer here a selection of materials, projects descriptions, strategic thinking documents and evaluations from the Soul Beat network that involve the use of comics and animation to address issues such as xenophobia, HIV/AIDS, discrimination related to sexual orientation, gender equality and ICT education.
SEND US YOUR COMIC MATERIALS
If you are involved in educational projects using comics, graphic novels, photo stories and animation in Africa we would love to hear from you. Please send your materials or your project descriptions, evaluations and strategic thinking documents to Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com
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1. HIV and AIDS: Human Rights for Everyone - Comic Booklet
This cartoon booklet, published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), deals with the need to ensure a welcoming and discrimination-free environment for refugees and returnees in Africa. The cartoon tells the story of a young boy named Fatou whose father is an African refugee who has been sick for several months. Because other refugees and the local community suspect the father of being infected with HIV, children refuse to play with Fatou.
2. Are Your Rights Respected? - Comic Booklet
by Tommy Motswai
This comic book was developed to help outreach education in the deaf community about HIV/AIDS, sexuality, sexual diversity, human rights and empowerment. The comic was developed by the Gay and Lesbian Archives (GALA) and is illustrated by well known South African artist Tommy Motswai, who is also deaf. The comic aims to depict real life stories of the deaf community, while encouraging discussion on important issues affecting the lives of deaf people. It tells the story of a group of friends at a deaf school as they seek to learn about sexual health, and lobby for their right to information.
3. How to Make Grassroot Comics
World Comics has developed a series of guides to help social activists in various fields to use comics as a communication medium. According to World Comics, activists, who have very little or no experience with drawing, can learn how to put their ideas across, using comic wallposters. Grassroot comics are meant to be developed by individuals in the community that the comic is intended for, rather than a professional artist, as this will encourage a storyline more appropriate to the audience.
4. Eyes Wide Open – Comic Book
This is a comic book produced by the Johannesburg-based Gay and Lesbian Archives (GALA). It tells the story of four friends, how they fall in love, make mistakes, and above all stick together as they talk about relationships, safe sex and living with HIV. The comic is based on the real-life experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) youth in South Africa and was developed to help encourage discussion about HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections and different sexualities. It is hoped that the comic book will be used as a discussion starter and training tool by organisations such as schools, hospitals, and resource libraries.
5. Reach Out Speak Out - Comic Booklet
This comic book is about youth, HIV/AIDS and xenophobia and is a joint publication of the United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Roll Back Xenophobia Campaign of the South Africa Human Rights Commission. The comic tells the story of young people in a high school setting who have a classmate who is a refugee from Angola. The comic aims to stimulate discussion, promote tolerance and acceptance of refugees among South African youth.
6. Badilika Uishi Comic Book
This comic book is the result of behaviour change intervention messages discussed, collected, and put together during a behaviour change project involving youth in Kenya. The story revolves around four teenagers struggling with life decisions which young people face in various economic environments. It aims to promote healthy discussion on issues such as relationships with parents, friendships, sexuality and love.
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7. Sara Communication Initiative - Africa
In 1996 UNICEF-ESARO (East and Southern Africa Regional Office) launched the five-year Sara Communication Initiative (SCI) which involved a comic book, an animated film, and supporting print materials. The initiative aimed to address issues around the rights of the child with an emphasis on gender issues and the status and treatment of girls by providing an empowering role model in the form of Sara, a charismatic heroine living in peri-urban Africa.
Contact Justus Olielo jolielo@unicef.org
8. Hai Ti! (Listen Up!) - Namibia
This is a Namibian comic book, produced by SchoolNet Namibia, aimed at rural schools and designed to demystify computers and attract teachers and students to the digital world. An overriding goal is to bring learners and teachers into the computer lab and to spread the word about the ways in which computers and the internet can transform learners' and teachers' lives.
Contact info@schoolnet.na
9. Nuru Comic Project - Kenya
This comic book series is targeted at Kenyan schoolgoing youth and aims to help them make informed decisions about HIV and AIDS and their sexuality. The comic tells the story of Nuru who is an upbeat 17-year-old Kenyan who is well-liked and has many friends. The daughter of a trucker, she lives in a boarding-school, where she comes to know other young people from different parts of the country, different classes and different tribes. Stories in the comic series address issues such as falling in love, receiving a scholarship, marriage and death as well as issues such as rape, economic hardship in the family and orphans.
Contact publications@path.org
10. Living Positively - West and Northern Africa
This project was initiated by the Family Health and AIDS (FHA) project and partners to address the stigmatisation of, and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) in Francophone Africa. A comic book and video promote the concept of "living positively" with HIV/AIDS. These materials are geared toward the general public as well as those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS and cover topics such as how to reveal one's status to loved ones, join an association, accept a parent or friend living with HIV, and follow a healthy lifestyle.
Contact Claudia Vondrasek cvondras@jhuccp.org
11. Illustrated Manuals for Development Projects (IMDP) - Global
IMDP is a technique for producing simple training manuals for non-literate farmers worldwide. Using sequences of linked pictures on a particular topic, these manuals clearly depict the task without the use of words. The methodology was developed by the Institute of Ecology and Resource Management at the University of Edinburgh, in collaboration with local people in West Africa, and aims to help development organisations produce cheap and effective training materials.
Contact Rose Clarksonenquiries@imdp.org.uk
12. Africa Animated! - East Africa
Africa Animated! is a multimedia animation training project aimed at young people from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The programme organiser, UNESCO, hoped to address the fact that, despite efforts by regional broadcasters and the audiovisual community in Africa, children's programmes - and, in particular, computer-animated cartoons - were mostly imported from abroad. The project aims to build skills in information and communication technology (ICT) in order to ensure the production of high-quality animated cartoons that allow children and young people in Africa to hear, see, and express themselves.
Contact Femi Babawande babawandefemi@yahoo.com OR Alonso Aznar alonso.aznar@unesco.unon.org
13. Three Amigos - Global
Piggybacking on a South Africa project that was launched in 2003, Three Amigos is a global initiative to produce, distribute, and promote multilingual cartoon condoms against AIDS. This initiative uses humour to promote safe sex and involves 20 short videos of animated condoms in 41 languages. The aim of the project is to build awareness that safe sex prevents the spread of HIV/AIDS, transform the stigma about condoms, communicate that condoms are friends or Amigos and empower women, in particular, to demand the use of a condom.
Contact Brent Quinn quintet@icon.co.za OR Firdaus J. Kharas info@thethreeamigos.org
14. Sara: A Role Model for Girls as They Face HIV and AIDS in Africa
A Review of the Sara Communication Initiative
UNICEF and Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs
This is an evaluation of the Sara Communication Initiative (SCI) which looks at both the implementation of the project in various Africa countries, offers an evaluation of the pilot project as well as a mid term evaluation of the edutainment initiative. According to the results of the mid-term evaluation there is good evidence that Sara has the potential to be recognised widely throughout Sub-Saharan Africa as a symbol for girls' empowerment in the face of HIV/AIDS and other threats to health and well being. According to the research, she is also seen as a supportive, positive role model for girls' rights.
15. Eish! Thandi Breaks Her Silence
An Evaluation of the Power of the Comic as an element of an HIV/AIDS Communication Strategy
This paper is an evaluation of the South African eKasi comics series featuring Thandi as the main character who "Breaks Her Silence" by confessing on air to having been raped by her uncle and is now HIV positive. This 24 issue comic series addresses issues such as HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, sexual violence, pregnancy, peer pressure, family violence, gender issues, alcoholism and Antiretroviral Treatment (ART). Research findings showed that readers actively engaged with the comics, identified strongly with the characters and that the social context in the comics mirrored the world of the readers.
16. Picturing AIDS: Using Images to Raise Community Awareness
Edwin Mapara and David Morley
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Teaching-aids At Low Cost (TALC)
This is a two-paged article about using colour images as opposed to words in HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns in Southern Africa. The authors say they have found that using colour images of HIV/AIDS in a workshop setting to provoke discussion can be a useful alternative to more conventional, written materials. In this article, they discuss their experience of using such images to raise community awareness about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Botswana.
17. UNICEF Bombs the Smurfs in Fund-Raising Campaign for Ex-Child Soldiers
David Rennie
This article describes a 26-second advertisement from UNICEF Belgium, created as part of a fund-raising campaign to raise funds to help rehabilitate child soldiers in Burundi. The spot shows the blue cartoon Smurfs' village being destroyed by warplanes, and was designed to raise awareness about the impact war has on children. A spokesman for UNICEF Belgium is quoted as saying that traditional images of suffering in war zones have lost their power to move viewers, and a spokesman for the Smurf fan club expressed hope that the spot would "make people think".
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The Soul Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
Please send material for The Soul Beat to the Editor - Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com
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