APPLIED THEATRE AS AN ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION APPROACH FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL COMMUNITIES IN AFRICA

One of the major challenges in Africa’s rural communities is whether people at grassroots level are fully aware of development or “social change” initiatives since many African governments and their agents rely on the use of conventional Euro-American media to communicate with these people. Blake (1997) and other communication researchers have frowned at contemporary Africa’s over-reliance on the Western mode of electronic and print media communication. Blake states that Africa possesses significant communication forms that are gravely neglected or minimally utilised. He makes a case for “dance, drama, song, and ritual” as media of effective communication in rural communities. This article advocates for the adoption of a development communication model that uses applied theatre praxis in the conscientisation of those at grassroots level about development initiatives/projects and the possible impacts these would have on their livelihood. The article suggests applied theatre as method to problematise, identify and challenge major constraints on development as an empowering weapon against ignorance and as a safety harness in the war against disease and poverty. Discussions of models used by practitioners worldwide serve as reference points to highlight applied theatre as “a model of good practice”.


INTRODUCTION
This article is inspired by the desire to find alternative means of communicating with rural African people in a situation where conventional means of communication seem not to produce the desired results.Experience has shown that African governments, in line with the practice of their counterparts in the Euro-American zones, indulge in the dissemination of information to the populace in a fashion that is culturally alienating and ineffective.Despite the digital age, experience on the ground has shown that many impoverished African people, who do not have the means to eat three meals a day, may care less about technological innovation and development as a means of mass communication.
Information about development projects initiated by African governments are often disseminated through broadcast and print media.Governments sometimes employ the services of radio stations and television channels, they publish information on their websites, in yearbooks, pocket guides and newspapers, or they disseminate information on social media, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, MXit, Instagram and Pinterest.Based on the fact that average African households, particularly those in rural areas, are plagued by poverty, some of these devices may be difficult to acquire and access.According to figures from South Africa's 2011 census, of the 51.8 million people in South Africa, 79.2% are from impoverished black communities, 10.5% have no schooling, and 13.9% have some primary school education.In South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga provinces, the percentage of people aged 15 years and older with no schooling or a highest level of education less than Grade 7 are 21.8% and 23.1%, respectively.
Impressive statistical evidence in developed countries shows the dependence of citizens on the public service to transmit to the people information about government policies and social transformation agendas.Because of the gloomy economic and socio-cultural imperatives in Africa, this methodology may not be very effective.Some communication experts, including Blake (1997), have frowned at contemporary Africa's over-reliance on the Western mode of electronic and print media communication.Dyll-Myklebust (2014) studied the value of incorporating local narratives in development projects in local communities.Smith (1999, in Dyll-Myklebust, 2014: 524) calls for "decolonisation of research methodologies as part of a wider project of reclaiming control over indigenous ways of knowing and being".Similarly, Denzin and Lincoln (2008) propose "a critical indigenous qualitative research approach along with interpretive research practice that aim to be ethical, transformative, participatory, and committed to dialogue and community".Using the media to promote development in Africa has not been wholly successful.Morrison (1991: 29) has pointed out that the hopes of the 1960s and 1970s of the mass media as the sine qua non of national development by Western scholars of mass communication and development communication have been dashed as scholars have come to recognise that television, radio and newspapers communicate primarily with urban people in Africa, resulting in an ever-widening gap between rural and urban dwellers.In contemporary society, some development communication models, starting from one of the earliest, the Lasswell Formula (1948), which is a simple formula that structures communication in terms of the communicator, the message, the medium used and the receiver, and the Shannon-Weaver Model (1949), which is a linear one-way top-down system, are replete with shortcomings.This can be attributed to the fact that many of them bombard the assumed ignorant and passive villagers with messages from the sacrosanct media.This situation creates negativity and apathy in the consumption of development messages from some organisations.
If rural people are to benefit from development, a more appropriate communication system must evolve.Blake (1997) states that Africa possesses significant communication forms, which are gravely neglected or minimally utilised.He makes a case for "dance, drama, song, and ritual" as media of effective communication in rural communities.In terms of an effective communication paradigm, rural people must be removed from the periphery of the communication process and placed in the centre.Mda (1993: 1) insists that the existing communication system, which is authoritarian in nature, is non-conducive to and dysfunctional for development.He sees the need for the decentralisation and democratisation of the existing order to give rural populations access to messages produced by others and the means to produce and distribute their own messages.In searching for strategies to enhance the democratic exchange of information between governments and rural populations, applied theatre, particularly theatre-for-development (TfD), has been identified as a medium, the use of which could lead to empowerment and better communication with people in rural Africa on issues of development.

WHAT IS APPLIED THEATRE?
In theatre practice as a discipline, amongst other configurations, two broad categories of performance exist.The first is conventional theatre, which deals in the main with pre-packaged plays that are exhibited by either professional or amateur performers before an audience(s) in a defined performance space, popularly known as a theatre building, and which separates the actors on stage from the audience in the auditorium.Most of the productions in this category are imaginative creative works (plays) that often dwell in the world of fantasy with emphasis on aesthetics and programmed "conventions".The second category, "applied", is significant to the purpose of this article as Thompson (2006) and Nicholson (2005) opine that the term "applied" echoes references such as applied mathematics, applied physics and applied chemistry; it also stands in opposition to "pure".Applied theatre abhors the world of fantasy and embraces the real world of living human beings.When theatre becomes applied, it shifts emphasis from aesthetics to utilitarianism.In opposition to the German Bildung, which regards an educated person as one who has acquired a prescribed set of formal knowledge, applied theatre represents the knowledge society, where knowledge for the most part exists only in application.
Applied theatre stands squarely in opposition to conventional theatre that is elitist in conception.Conventional theatre is elitist in the sense that the plays presented are pre-packaged with no contribution whatsoever from the audience.On the other hand, applied theatre advances the principles of democracy.It advocates that play production should be a community project and village-specific.The community should come up with the idea of the play and the whole community should watch the presentation as active participants contributing to the advancement of the play's plot and subject matter.Applied theatre is an outcome-based, participatory popular theatre practice.It has also become a field of study, which addresses the theory and practice of applying the arts of the theatre in non-conventional settings with a mandate that emphasises education, development, therapy and social change.According to Prentki and Preston (2009: 9), applied theatre has emerged in recent years as a term describing a broad set of theatrical practices and creative processes that take participants and audiences beyond the scope of conventional, mainstream theatre into the realm of a theatre that is responsive to ordinary people and their stories, local settings and priorities.Taylor (2003) states: Applied theatre teaches community members to teach others, and helps communities process issues which directly impact them.It can also raise awareness of issues, pose alternatives, heal, challenge contemporary discourses, and voice the views of the silent or marginal … In applied theatre work, artists generate scenarios and create opportunities for the community to respond to their pain through theatre work.The community theatre is an applied theatre where individuals connect with and support one another, and where opportunities are provided for groups to voice who they are and what they aspire to become.The applied theatre becomes a medium through which the storytellers can step into the perspectives of others and gain entry points to different worldviews.
Unlike conventional theatre, applied theatre is not location-specific.In applied theatre, productions can take place in rehabilitation centres, schools, community halls, parks, streets, village squares, religious centres, hostels or industrial sites; in fact, anywhere that there are human activities that need education and "reconstructions".Taylor (ibid.)states that this art form "is an applied theatre because the art form becomes a transformative agent that places the audience or participants in direct and immediate situations where they can witness, confront, and deconstruct aspects of their own and other's actions".It is a practice that encourages "variations of actions and adoption of alternatives" (Boal 1995: 13).This makes it an alternative communication tool in the education and conscientisation of people in many communities, particularly in Africa.This is a special kind of drama production "with a job to do" (Somers 2009: 194).
In terms of viewing applied theatre as a production with a job to do, there is a spiralling interest in the relationship between the practice and community development.Arguing for the use of theatre as an appropriate medium for development, Byram (1980: 21) states "such media are low-cost, require no complex skills and draw on the resources and creativity of the people".Applied theatre is an umbrella term that covers areas of theatre practices known variously as "theatre-for-development", "forum theatre", "outreach theatre", "participatory theatre", "community theatre", "theatre for education", "interactive theatre" and "theatre of the oppressed".Whatever methodology is adopted by the practitioners in this sphere of endeavour, their objectives coalesce around the subject of encouraging human and societal development (Desai 1991: 8).
Since the late 1980s, the practice of theatre-for-development (TfD) has gained ground in Africa, the Caribbean Islands, Latin America and Asia (see Ebewo 2001;2004;2005;2007).Although its practice is not unknown to developed countries, it is as part of the development process of developing countries that its relevance is profound.In terms of development, applied theatre's major concern is with the role of culture as agency for the development of people's minds.Studies have indicated that cultural awakening is a crucial stage in the development of a people."There is little point in introducing high technology to improve the efficiency of developing economies if one does not stimulate the minds of the people to take creative control of their destinies" (Van Erven 1992: 1).Thus, applied theatre practitioners understand development to mean: The ability of the members of a community to relate creatively to themselves, their neighbors, their environment, and the world at large, so that each one might express his maximum potential.Such development, then, has a lot to do with the distribution of power and of resources -who gets what, how, and why.It is, basically, a process of empowerment (Pradervand 1989: xvii).This is theatre for education.Often drama's role in education is misconstrued, or at best it is seen as a tool for the development of the emotions only.Theatre's emphasis on education is not on basic formal education, which may be concerned only with the process of reading and writing, but with a more fundamental and utilitarian approach to literacy.Experts in the field of adult education, notably the Brazilian Paulo Freire (1972) and the Latin American Augusto Boal (1979;1995), label this "functional literacy".This deals with the awakening of people's critical awareness.Thus, the mission of this kind of education is to "lead forth" and "cause to develop" the good that is latent in everyone.The goal of this education identifies and ensures desirable adaptability and changes in human behaviour.It is education for "social transformation".These educationists emphasise "active approaches to learning … Of peasants becoming the subjects of their transformation rather than remaining the objects of a propaganda exercise" (Kidd 1984: 31).Invariably, applied theatre practice is anchored in the grassroots approach to education and development, and it is meant to be an instrument of empowerment for socially deprived individuals.It serves as the people's media and it is participatory and democratic in outlook; it prompts people in a society to change and modify their thinking or discover ways of combating challenges.
When used for purposes of social intervention, these applied drama and theatre methodologies involve an active engagement between facilitators and their target audience in order to effect the process of conscientisation (Freire 1972;Boal 1979).Chinyowa (2015) notes that this process of raising awareness through critical dialogue requires the active participation of the target audience, or "spect-actors", who will serve both as the subject and object of learning and development.With assistance from the facilitators, the target audience is deemed to be capable of identifying its challenges, discussing and reflecting on why the challenges exist, and deciding on what course of action to take in order to change the circumstances.In order to gain access to the behavioural, emotional and psychological experiences of the targeted community, the indigenous performance cultures of the identified community are utilised.Song, dance, storytelling, narrative styles, praise poetry and rituals are appropriated and integrated into the performance interventions.This makes it possible to gain access to the practices, values and beliefs of the target community.

APPLIED THEATRE AS AN ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION TOOL
Applied theatre is a communication instrument with the capacity to create transformational learning encounters between practitioners (or facilitators) and participants.Of course, other kinds of performances have been used in various ways in the history of mankind.In ancient Greece, the Dithyramb was a sacred hymn and performance exhibited in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility; in ancient Rome, theatre satisfied the Romans' religious and carnival urge; in Medieval times, liturgical and morality plays were utilised in the propagation of Christian faith; and in the contemporary world, performances have not only been used for entertainment but as instruments of propaganda and socio-economic transformation.
In the realm of applied theatre, the practice functions mainly as an instrument of communication and education.As committed arts practice, applied theatre can be structured purposely to achieve predetermined goals in communicating issues about service delivery, labour migrancy, peace education, food security, voter education, pollution, child abuse, human rights, gender issues, drug abuse, etc.In a setting of long-term unemployment, the ZAP theatre project in Australia gave alienated young people self-esteem and a voice (Laughton & Johnson 1996: 36-39); in the Philippines, children silenced by poverty were given an identity and a voice through educational drama (Santos-Cabangon 1996: 143-144); and in Papua New Guinea, "awareness theatre" in a post-colonial culture became a force for education and development (Sim & Drewe 1996: 183-189).In Africa, applied drama has had some impact on countries such as Burkina Faso, Botswana, Kenya, Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa.In Lesotho in particular, author Zakes Mda (1993) used applied theatre to communicate with the Basotho people on issues such as alcohol abuse, rural sanitation, agriculture and co-operative societies.
For an in-depth illustration of how applied theatre could serve as an effective instrument of communication, two projects the present author was involved in in Lesotho and Botswana will be discussed (see Ebewo 2008;2017).

Applied theatre and the communication of HIV/Aids in Lesotho
In the early days of reports about the outbreak of the HIV/Aids epidemic, many African communities dismissed them with a wave of the hand.A major problem was, as it still is in some communities, widespread ignorance of the disease.Many clung to the vain belief that Aids does not exist, or that it is an ordinary sexually transmitted disease.In parts of Africa, Aids deaths have been attributed to witchcraft.In the initial stage of the epidemic in particular, many African churches regarded the disease as an "act of God" and punishment for promiscuous sinners, and these churches dismissed condom use as a solution for the fight against the disease.Slowly and steadily growing at the initial stage, HIV/Aids ravaged many communities throughout the world.Infection statistics and deaths, which were low in the 1980s and early 1990s, later reached astronomical heights with dire consequences for many communities.Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Southern and Eastern Africa, was the hardest hit region (Jackson 2002: 8;Annan 2000: 7).Around the dawn of the new millennium, the epidemic reached a stage where the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) literally compelled nations to act fast against its further spread.
As many myths and misconceptions about HIV/Aids existed, several governments embarked on mass education of the populace on the disease and its destructive effects on the individual and society.Mass media, talks, posters, handbills, conferences, seminars, workshops and other propaganda tools were employed to disseminate information on the disease.Although governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have used multi-pronged strategies in the anti-Aids crusade, more effective strategies to stem the epidemic are still being sought.While orthodox methods have been employed in most of these campaigns, educators and information experts have also seen the need to utilise unconventional methods, notably theatre, in the fight against the spread of the disease.This section of the article will recount the author's theatrical presentations and experiences as part of an initiative involving high school students in Lesotho.
By the end of 2000, an estimated 58 million people had acquired HIV infection worldwide.Of this figure, nearly 22 million people had already died.Death rates continued to rise as most of the remaining 36 million progressed to Aids (Jackson 2002: 9).In 1999, the estimated adult HIV prevalence in Lesotho stood at 24%; 240 000 adults and 8 200 children were living with the disease and Aids deaths stood at 16 000 in a country of about 2 million people (UNAIDS 2000).The Aids infant mortality rate in Lesotho was 80% in 1998.
Recognising drama as an effective tool of information dissemination, the National University of Lesotho (NUL) Theatre Group produced a play in 1998 that conveyed a deterring message about Aids, particularly to the youth.The short drama was titled "Flesh to flesh; dust to dust".The play was structured to cover the main aspects of the problem: firstly, it emphasised that Aids is a reality; secondly, it defined what Aids is and what causes it; thirdly, it dealt with the ways in which the disease is transmitted; and finally, how to avoid being infected with it.
The story revolves around a beautiful young woman who, together with her girlfriends, earns money through prostitution.Her mother condones her behaviour because her daughter manipulates her with gifts.Her father finds out about the practice and severely reprimands his daughter, warning her against the new disease (Aids).The young woman does not listen and, before long, contracts HIV.Characters involved in communicating the message are the health worker, the brothel owner (a madam), and a personification of Aids itself (a masked and grotesquely costumed character in red).The Health Worker, who drinks at the local bar where the young women work, delivers an educational speech on Aids to the bar patrons, who initially display misconceptions about sex and Aids.His message is driven home and supported by the Brothel Owner, who encourages the use of condoms.To prove that Aids is a reality, she fetches one of her girls, who has been reduced to a walking skeleton by the disease.The young woman, thin, coughing, with a rash all over her body, is accompanied by "Aids", which emerges from a coffin placed upright on stage to boast of its distressing deeds to mankind.At the end, the Aids-infected woman does not only die, but one of her lovers confesses that he "used to … with her"; another young woman from the group slumps, crying out aloud that she also "used to" with the infected man.Thus, the play reflects the ways in which the elements of drama are adopted in developmental theatre for the purposes of educating, informing, creating awareness, and conscientising people.With sponsorship from the donor community, in particular the US Embassy, Maseru and the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), this project toured major high schools and communities in Lesotho.

Applied theatre against HIV/Aids stigma and discrimination in Botswana
The prevalence of HIV/Aids in Southern Africa had risen even more than feared, with Botswana topping the list at 38.8% (UNAIDS Update 2002).By 2001 it was noted, "A procession of sobering statistics illustrates the graveness of the situation: fully one-third of the adult population is infected with HIV.Three people die of HIV/Aids every hour, every day.Every hour of every day, five more people are newly infected" (ibid.).The negative impact of this disease in the world generally, and in Botswana in particular, marked the upsurge of an enormous human development crisis.After a decade of persistent effort, with little impact on the spread of the disease, the world re-directed its anti-Aids campaign.This required an understanding of the magnitude of the epidemic and some of the hidden factors behind its spread.The World's Aids Campaign for 2002/2003 focused on stigma, discrimination and human rights as these were believed to be the greatest barriers to preventing further infections.It is known that the prevalence of stigma and discrimination promotes silence and pushes the HIV epidemic underground, as those affected are ashamed and reluctant to express their views.Stigma undermines prevention because people are afraid to establish what their status is.There are three phases to the Aids epidemic: the epidemic of HIV infection, the epidemic of Aids, and the third epidemic of stigma, discrimination, blame and collective denial (Mann 1987, in UNAIDS 2002/2003: 7).There are well-documented cases of people living with HIV/Aids being stigmatised, discriminated against, denied access to public or private services, or even being killed.
In response to the global call to wage war against stigma, the University of Botswana sponsored a project using drama as its mode of delivery in order to persuade and educate high school students to change their social attitudes by reducing and ultimately eliminating all forms of stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/Aids.A play, "The Egret and the Hawk," which had stigma and discrimination as themes, was produced by members of the University of Botswana Traveling Theatre.The scenario is as follows: A rich landlord (Molefe) is determined to evict one of his tenants (Seloma) because he has learned that the tenant is HIV-positive, although he has occupied his flat for eight years.Seloma has done the right thing by publicly disclosing his status, but this infuriates the landlord who feels that Seloma "must be crazy.Someone is HIV-positive and he has the mouth to say it in public?"Motau, a tenant-friend of the landlord, pleads for Seloma but his pleas fall on deaf ears because Molefe, encouraged by his business associate, Gaborone, feels that Seloma is not fit to live where other human beings live.He is cursed and condemned to hell.With pressure from his tenant-friend, his daughter, who is a high school student, and his wife, who is a nurse, Molefe begins to change his attitude.Misconceptions about HIV sufferers are dispelled when it is discovered that his tenant-friend, a person he associates with, is also HIV-positive, and that his wife, who prepares his food, works in the hospital's Aids clinic.Mapo, a male nurse and colleague of Molefe's wife, gives Molefe a good talking to on facts relating to HIV/Aids, stigma, discrimination and human rights abuses.By the time the play ends, Molefe is a changed man who believes that both the hawk and the egret should perch, and whichever says the other should not perch, its wings must break.The play was shown to students in ten selected high schools and communities in Gaborone.
It should be noted that each performance in the two projects recounted was followed by a post-performance discussion, a device to make the production participatory and to empower the audience to contribute to the issues raised.This methodology made for effective central, rather than peripheral, communication.The utilisation of arts projects, such as applied theatre in the education of people in Africa on the dangers of HIV/Aids, attests to the importance attached to drama as a medium of communication.
In Lesotho, the Aids drama production afforded the communities an opportunity to discuss issues, which were thought to be beyond their reach.The general impression was that the play had succeeded in making an impact, particularly in dispelling taboos relating to sexual matters.In the HIV/Aids education drama, staged in Lesotho, it became obvious that prior to the presentation in Lesotho schools, many students had never seen or heard of condoms.Those who knew about condoms were apprehensive about their use.Through the drama, some myths were dispelled through practical demonstrations with a condom to determine its elasticity and durability.Kerr and Setumo (2001: 30) reported on a similar incident in Botswana when female students talked at length about sex after watching a play dealing with Aids.

CONCLUSION
In some parts of Africa, conservative attitudes towards theatre and drama have placed it very low on the utility scale.Although this attitude has begun to wane, some people still regard drama with condescension, viewing it as the intangible exhibition of mundane "primitive" dances and nudity.In the contemporary global world, drama and theatre as a profession and a discipline in the academe has gone far beyond this prejudicial or parochial notion.As a source of creativity, drama operates on the principle of play.As play theorist Izzo (1997) argues, "playing" enables people to create symbolic alternatives to reality.It affords a neutral space for rehearsing actions that may not be easily transmitted without consequences in ordinary life.The playing of the drama therefore can be viewed as a form of "staged authenticity" that wields the power to act as a commentary on even the most sensitive issues.The combination of different features of play, such as enjoyment, freedom, spontaneity, improvisation and imagination, functions as social engineering mechanisms for "fixing", "unfixing" and "refixing" reality.It is the intense absorption arising from the playing of the drama that moves the co-players to another state of being.As play exists outside the boundaries of ordinary time and space, it creates an alternative order of existence that provides participants an opportunity to generate new symbolic worlds.Knowledge gained through acting can eventually be transferred to real life situations, as Boal (1995) has consistently argued that the "image of reality" can be translated into the "reality of the image".
The purpose of this article was to present theatre beyond entertainment as a pivotal platform in the communication of human and societal development.Theatre for development is a didactic tool in the education and conscientisation of the rural poor about the world they live in.Applied theatre's emphasis on community participation is a means of giving people a voice to deliberate on topics that can change their lives for the better.Theatre-for-development challenges development agents to always consider beneficiaries' input in all projects that are meant for the upliftment of the community.Most of the plays presented through this methodology dramatised beneficiaries' appreciation of local projects; this appreciation improves the sustainability and respectability of the projects.The organisation of applied theatre activities in local communities is an avenue to integrate, empower and educate local people on how to improve their livelihood.Theatre-for-development's emphasis on community participation aligns with the Peasants' Charter of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO 1981): Participation by the people in the institutions and systems which govern their lives is a basic human right and also essential for realignment of political power in favour of disadvantaged groups and for social and economic development.Rural development strategies can realise their full potential only through the motivation, active involvement and organisation at the grassroots level of rural people, with special emphasis on the least advantaged, in conceptualising and designing policies and programmes and in creating administrative, social and economic institutions, including cooperative and other voluntary forms of organisation for implementing and evaluating them.
As an alternative means of communication, applied theatre could be used by governments and their agents in Africa to communicate effectively with citizens, especially in rural areas, on issues relating to development.