Culture and Development

Country/region: Ethiopia
Agency: Ethiopia Gemini Trust

Project Focus

The project was originally supported in 1997 by Comic Relief for Ethiopia Gemini Trust to provide intensive training in creative arts to a group of 30 street children (then aged 12 to 19). Eighteen of the children were trained in dance and twelve in film techniques, which has led to the establishment of the Adugna Community Theatre Dance group and the video production house GemTV in Addis Ababa.

Background

In 1995 UK film maker Andrew Coggins was planning to make a film about Ethiopian street children. He convinced community dance practitioner Royston Muldoom to visit Ethiopia and create a performance to raise consciousness about the plight of street children. More than 100 street children were involved in the performance. The British Ambassador asked the group to perform as part of the British Embassy’s 1996 centenary celebrations. Muldoom returned to produce a piece about the lives of the children themselves, which was performed to 250,000 people in Addis Ababa. The seed was sown for a project to offer dance training to 18 street children and video production training to another 12 street children.

Level of cultural intervention:

Culture as content (contemporary western dance used to promote positive gender images, African dance, video stories depicting or dramatising implications of cultural practices or traditions).

Culture as method (dance/drama/video) – combination of process and tool-based depending on situation and definition of participants/beneficiaries.

Activities

Work with original beneficiaries

The aim was for the film makers to be trained to “articulate their lives from the inside” and the dancers “to raise public awareness about the vulnerability of street children”. The project was envisaged as an 18-month programme but ran for five years. Training for Adugna centred on training in contemporary Western and traditional Ethiopian dance, and arts management and production, and for GemTV in video development and production. There were classes in English, maths, computer and administrative skills, social and other community development skills.

Work with past beneficiaries

A partnership between Adugna and the Ethiopian Police enabled creative activities to be introduced as part of police training between 1998 and 2001 focusing on human rights and the characteristics of open and accountable policing. This work was conducted at the National Police Training College and was extended to the Tigrai and Amhara regions, where over 1,000 police participated. A dance performance and interactive drama were devised reflecting a “Day in the Life of the Police Station”. The drama featured various situations typically encountered by police (sexist attitudes to women police officers, violence against prostitutes, domestic violence, violence in a bar etc) portraying negative police responses. Feedback from discussion groups were subsequently shared and used to portray a policing style more conducive to democratic governance and social justice. In 2001 Gem TV created Another Kind of Life, a film on abduction, rape and forced marriage of girl children. It was produced to encourage local community discussion in the region of Ethiopia in which the film is set (83% of all girls in the region are said to have been abducted.)

Work with current beneficiaries

Adugna is now also teaching other young people – they hold a class for the Gemini kindergarten group; have set up a Junior Adugna class; run a class/group (Alert) in collaboration with Adugna Potentials (an integrated dance group of Adugna and a group of young people with disabilities); undertake outreach work with children with physical and learning disabilities; they provide outreach training in dance and forum theatre to Anti-Aids clubs in Addis Ababa districts.

In 2002, GemTV worked in collaboration with the Afar Pastoralists Development Association to produce a film focusing on the effect of the unequal burden of work on women’s health and mortality.

Austrian Development Corporation commissioned a film, Cutting Edge, addressing female genital mutilation (FGM),which involved affected communities in script development and acting.

Outcomes

• 28 of the original 30 young people are still participating (now as professionals rather than trainees) in the Adugna and Gem TV.
• Both groups graduated with City and Guilds diplomas
• Adugna was commended by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who saw them perform at the African Development Forum Concert of African Artistes, broadcast live on Ethiopian television.
• Adugna dancers have collaborated with other African and European artists and performed at international festivals
• Adugna members worked on a pilot project to create a set of activities addressing gender issues, early forced marriage, and HIV/AIDS.
• Another Kind of Life was shown as part of UNICEF’s “Say Yes Campaign for Children” at the World Summit on Children at the UN General Assembly, and as part of Womankind Report at a UN conference in New York to illustrate the power of video in grassroots community change.
• Another Kind of Life shown at a workshop in the Ethiopian Parliament in 2003. After the film was shown, the Ethiopian Parliament agreed that it was time to legislate against the practice of child abduction and forced marriage.

Beneficiary feedback (observed)

Original beneficiaries:

“Dance has changed my life, before I had shame and nothing to do. But now I work with people with disabilities. Most people think people with disabilities can’t do anything but they are very surprised when they see how well they can move, how much they have to offer.” (Addisu Demmissie,Adugna)

“I was 15 years old when I joined Adugna. Before that I spent time on the street. I had no work or education. Because of that I got upset and thought about smoking, drinking, stealing and other bad things. Before I joined Adugna I thought of myself as a useless person but now I… think of myself as a hopeful person. I have changed physically, socially and mentally. I learned a lot more than I expected in all aspects of my life. I would like to change the life of street children and work with the many poor children in my country.When we come to dance what’s really nice is that we are teaching them through enjoyment so they learn and don’t stop listening or learning because they enjoy themselves.You’re not just teaching them about HIV or something else, you’re showing them it’s about life. Most young people want to talk, they want to move, so with our work they can do that and learn.” (Mekbul Jemal,Adugna)

“Contemporary dance gives me freedom to be myself and equal with the male members of the company. Dance has changed my life. I used to sell things on the street but now I teach other people about important issues. Dance has changed the way I think.. My family didn’t like me doing contemporary dance and told me to leave home but I said:‘No, I will stay at home and I will dance, because dance has changed my life and lets me help others to change the way they think’.” (Meseret Yirga,Adugna).

Current beneficiaries:

“We had a group before we came here but we were not strong. After our work with Adugna our dancing is better and we are a stronger group. I have started teaching a group of younger people with disabilities. People in Ethiopia think that people with disabilities can’t do anything so we are showing them that we can work too. They are very surprised to see us dancing with and lifting able bodied dancers and they are changing the way they think about disabilities.” (Tilahon,Adugna Potentials).

“Before we started this training [with Adugna] it was mostly the girls that were trying to work with the community about HIV/AIDS… with maybe two of the boys coming along to help. But now we are all working together, we all have the same amount of information, we are as many boys as girls,we are a cohesive group now. The training has given us a lot more options to use in the future with our community. We really like all the things we have learned, it has given us more pride in ourselves and more confidence to do our work in the community. At first the contemporary dance was hard for us [because it takes us out of our traditional gender roles] but now we enjoy it very much, it lets us tell the community about [the issues related to the behaviours that put young people at risk of] HIV and AIDS” (Compilation of comments from 4 male and 4 female members of a 21 strong member Kebele Anti AIDS club, being trained by members of Adugna).

Individual impact: Terefwork Negussie

The researcher witnessed the impact of the Adugna programme on one individual and her family. Terefwork Negussie is severely disabled with cerebral palsy. She was accepted into the group, Adugna Potentials, consisting mostly of young people with physical disabilities resulting from polio. Her father Ato Negussie explained that before joining Adugna Potentials Teref had “sat in her chair all day in the house, shut away, very depressed and angry with us, her parents.” Within three months of joining Adugna Potentials he reports that:“Now Teref herself, we her family and everyone are really excited and thrilled for her performances and the improvements she is showing in her behavioural attitudes… She has avoided all those unpleasant behaviours like worry ness [sic], frustrations, sadness, nervousness and unnecessary bothering. Instead she became calm, happy, sociable, morally she built confidence, peaceful and loving. Due to the dancing exercise and activities she gained active movements in her physical conditions. This is really a wonderful achievement. Look at her, rolling herself along the floor, rolling over other dancers, pushing others to roll them over and enjoying every minute… it is wonderful to see her now, she is doing so much with her body we never dreamed she could do”.

Sources

• Plastow, J. (2003). Dance and transformation:The Adugna Community Dance Theatre.
• Ethiopia Gemini Trust evaluations and annual reports to Comic Relief.
• Interviews with members of Ethiopia Gemini Trust staff,members of Adugna, Adugna Potentials and Anti AIDS club members.
• Interview with and documentation provided by Ato Negussie, father of Terefwork.