In a recent episode of South Africa's version of Sesame Street, Takalani Sesame, a girl named Kami lets out a wail. When someone asks why she's upset, she says, “I'm trying to express my emotions. I'm sad because my mum is gone. She died of AIDS.”
She faces a relatively common problem in South Africa. Between now and the end of 2005, more than one million children under the age of 15 will lose their mothers to AIDS in this country. AIDS-related illnesses are the leading cause of death in South Africa. By 2008, more than half a million South Africans will die from AIDS every year, according to a report written by Anthony Kinghorn and Malcolm Steinberg of the HIV Management Service in South Africa. In some provinces, such as the Eastern Cape, as much as 23 percent of the population is HIV-positive. Hundreds of abandoned children die of AIDS in hospitals across South Africa every day.
That's why AIDS is on Sesame Street. Local authorities are going beyond the efforts of the Bush administration to fight the disease. (The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief allocates $15 billion to help fourteen countries, including South Africa. But the plan advocates prevention-only measures such as sexual abstinence -- and doesn't mention condoms.) From bubble gum wrappers to clothing and cartoons, South African culture is inundated with red ribbons and images of condoms. When you drive into Cape Town you pass dozens of colorful street murals depicting condoms in a multitude of colors with slogans such as “Condoms make it safer” or “Choose Life.” Despite their kitschy aspects, the messages are moving and affecting -- and a constant reminder of how widespread the problem of AIDS is.
Classroom discussions about the “two Ps” -- prevention and protection -- are now as important as the “ABCs” in preparing students to function in South African society. And to support parents' and educators' efforts to integrate AIDS awareness into the school curriculum, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)'s education division has created youth programs that confront the cultural effects of HIV/AIDS in different communities. It's a tough assignment.
South Africa's cultural matrix of race and language still reflects the ghosts of apartheid and is one of the major obstacles in developing AIDS-education programming. During apartheid, all South Africans were required to study Afrikaans in primary school; many blacks still associate it with the old government. Although many South Africans speak at least two languages, English or Afrikaans and their local language, it is difficult and expensive for the government to communicate its AIDS awareness messages in all eleven official languages. So multilingual educational programs that appeal to youth by integrating the universal languages of music and sports have an advantage over those that are only language-based.
Despite the difficulties in getting the message across, the programs have been praised by international experts for their effectiveness. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, for example, talks about some of the new anti-AIDS programming as “a highly effective HIV/AIDS prevention strategy.”
The shows don't pull any punches. The multilingual program Takalani (meaning “Be Happy” in the Venda language) Sesame targets 3- to 7-year-olds. The characters talk about issues such as discrimination against HIV-positive people, drug use, and grief. In one episode, a young human character wears a t-shirt bearing the slogan “Don't fear HIV/AIDS; later in the same episode, an English-language musical vignette entitled, “It's OK To Cry” reminds children that crying is a natural way of expressing sadness.
Meanwhile, a teen drama, Yizo-Yizo, chronicles the lives of young city dwellers living in a Johannesburg apartment building. The characters talk about jobs and friends, but they also deal with issues like rape and homosexuality, which are still taboo subjects in many traditional African cultures -- yet crucial in helping teens understand how they can contract HIV.
Other public service programs are also trying to convince children that it's “cool” to be aware of HIV's risks. In one short segment, condom cartoon characters known as the Three Amigos (created by South African Brent Quinn and Canadian Firdaus Kharas) teach young people that condoms are useful and fun, too. The condoms, named Shaft, Dick, and Stretch, preach the virtues of condom use in child-friendly, comic situations. Each cartoon lasts from thirty seconds to one minute, and the Amigos make the most of their airtime by ending each segment with a catchy slogan about safe sex. At the end of one cartoon, the Amigos use soccer as a metaphor for safe sex, joking, “You just can't score without a condom.”
Love Life, a South African youth organization that emphasizes a positive approach to AIDS prevention, targets 12- to 17-year-olds with ads that show children of various ethnicities reciting their commitment to fighting AIDS by abstaining from sexual activity and drug use -- so that they will be alive and healthy for the World Cup festivities in 2010.
And, finally, Red Ribbon, another SABC Education production, is a series of five-minute multilingual programs that helps teach schoolchildren how to “love and care and how to help people with HIV.” The red AIDS ribbon is actually an animated character, appearing in every scene while the human characters explain its importance. During one recent episode, a 7-year-old boy introduces himself as being HIV positive. He describes how his relationship with his best friend remains unchanged, dismissing the myth you can contract AIDS by hugging or eating with someone who is HIV positive. At the end of the program, the children embrace and say, “A friend with AIDS is still your friend.”
The red ribbon floats off into the sunset in search of more AIDS stereotypes to dismantle.
LaNitra Walker, who lived in Cape Town from June to September, is a doctoral student at Duke University.
