IDS will be running a session at the How to Do It conference at Kings College in April. The conference brings together people from many different backgrounds to learn from each other and work together on how to bring about concrete radical social change. It is concerned with how to improve and increase participation, so that many more people can contribute to and help achieve collective aims.
The session will share learnings from our collaboration with Love Matters Kenya and the Sauti Academy on an action research project. Love Matters provides online information on sexual health which is very successful because it is hard to get good information in real life. The Love Matters initiative uses web, mobile and social media platforms to offer young people information that can help them have a safe and healthy sex life. But in order to change norms and behaviour it is essential to engage with reality, which requires the creation of spaces and opportunities for young people to meet and express themselves. During this collaborative action research project we explored citizen engagement in a time of technology on sexual health and rights.
We studied young Kenyans’ sexual attitudes and experiences using the on-line platform and combining this with focus groups discussions and observations off-line. Based on the themes that emerged from this students from the Sauti Academy in Kenya produced songs on themes related to pleasure, responsibility, sexuality and gender roles as part of a competition. Students, ranging from 18 years old to 30, have been invited to attend workshops led by an international creative team. They developed songs on video’s for YouTube that people could vote for to select the people’s choice award winner.
After basic social media training, students were extremely successful in mobilizing people, the people’s award winner, who sung about silencing of rape victims, had over 25000 views on Facebook within a two week period.
Our evaluation found that learning how to market themselves and reaching audiences was one of the main unintended benefits for the artists of this project. Furthermore they learned how to use their own experiences to connect with people, and most said they realized their responsibility and potential as artists to make progressive social change. This project showed the potential of digital activism in Kenya, working with artists to disseminate research results, and linking off-line social mobilisation skills with on-line activism.
Speakers at the session
- Pauline Oosterhoff (Institute of Development Studies)
- Kelly Shephard (Institute of Development Studies)
- Hannah Wallace-Brown (Love Matters/ RNW)
- Emmy Kahega (Independent researcher)
- Arno Peeters (TapeTV)
- Iris Honderdos (independent artist)
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