Last week, I attended a Civil Society, Donor and
Media launch for a Democracy and Constitutional awareness campaign at the Laico
regency, organized by HIVOS, an NGO concerned with making the peoples voice
count. Other key participants were the Constitutional Reform Education
consortium (CRECO) and the Institute for Education in Democracy (IED).
This
launch was significant in many ways; first it highlighted the need of citizen
understanding and engagement in the management affairs of their country.
Secondly citizen awareness of their rights and civic responsibility. That
aside, the forum evoked a fundamental question. What has
been the impact of teaching strategies for citizen awareness bearing in mind
that most ordinary Kenyans can barely comprehend the constitution? Have the previous educators been using wrong methods
to teach democracy thereby making it even harder and complex verses user
friendly? And is it time for change.
Away from the traditional conferences and trainings where
experts come, dish out many handouts that are never read after and present long
boring and academic presentations. HIVOS cleverly brought in Art to tell the
stories, stories that evoke emotions and added a soft warm touch in the study
of democracy and constitutionalism. To illustrate this further, the team mixed drama,
skits and music for Kenyans in the room to dance to the democracy and
constitutional tune.
The setting of the room in itself was work of art; the
main podium was laced with all components that go to a complete music band,
talk of the guitars, drums, pianos and other assorted music equipment. From
this setting, one could easily think it was a music fest that was underway, but
this was a democracy class just to start. Walls on the other hand were
dominated by animated African paintings, seat arrangement was done with details,
spaced and round tables encouraged conversations among the invited guests, far
from the class room arrangement we see in such workshops.
At the back of the
room was a music mixer that would be the central point when action starts.
Corners of the room were not left empty, synonymous to a football arena; the
participants stood hands free, no notebooks or pens, but cameras, phones and
others with pads.
To start the meeting, participants sang the national
anthem in Kiswahili and this is where the beat resonated clearly in each of the
participants. The uniqueness of this anthem was the instruments that
accompanied it, Kenyan National anthem is a very beautiful anthem when
integrated with a band tune, this, the Sarabi band pulled it to the excitement
of the audience. Talking of the dress code and the ambience, casual ware was
the trick, ties and suits were nowhere to be seen, you could easily think that
the organizers of the forum prohibited formal ware in their invitation cards.
After the welcome speech and few comments from the
organizers that were not read like ordinary speeches, the audience was treated
to a hearty skits, using puppets and emotive narratives to illustrate
authoritarianism, greedy leadership and the need for proper citizen engagement
in governance. These skits, true candid reflections of George Orwell book, “The
Animal Farm”, Kithaka Wa Mberia “Kifo Kisimani” and Ruganda’s “Shreds of
Tenderness”; and how they relate to the current leadership in Kenya. Short
captivating speeches from different presenters made this occasion interesting,
the audience was diverse, the young, and the middle aged and even the old. Men
and women came in equal measure.
Generally the event was full of energy, lively and
captivation, focus being to create an interface between art forms; music,
drama, skits and understanding democracy and constitutionalism. This strategy
was collectively summed up as Innovative Media Outreach Platform (IMOP),
bringing in all form of media including Radio, TV, Blogging and grass root
campaigns as strategies of creating citizen awareness and engagement platforms
for good governance in Kenya.
Use of art in education is special in many ways; art
is a unique vehicle of communicating and expressing emotions and ideas in no
other way they could be best said. Integrating art therefore in learning
complex topics like democracy and constitutionalism will automatically enable
the targeted audience comprehend easily, relate to it and be able to consume and
apply the content. Painting, sculpturing, music, narratives, drama and
other forms of storytelling will also open up space for future careers and
talent growth, providing alternative form of income earning for the artists. For Democracy
and constitutionalism to reach the grassroots,new strategies must be adopted and the use of art
is the best way to do it
The writer works for The Institute for Education in Democracy. This
article first appeared in the Saturday Standard of 14th March 2015
