MEN PROMOTING EQUALITY THROUGH TRADITIONAL MUSIC
This article is intended to present the exciting and innovative approach that the Ubuntu Bamadoda programme is applying in its activities in Khayelitsha. It also describes the main objectives and activities contained in the Ubuntu Bamadoda programme.
Social development interventions are often separate from economic and cultural practice. The Ubuntu Bamadoda programme combines social, economic and cultural awareness and practice in response to two of the major challenges faced by the community of Khayelitsha: the infection rate of HIV/AIDS and the high level of gender-based violence.
The programme is rooted in a wider network of organizations working with men in the struggle for gender justice and the reduction of HIV infection rates. Numerous organizations and government departments, dedicated to the development of programmes and activities that aim to include men in this struggle, have mushroomed in the Western Cape in the last few years. Broadly speaking, the group of organizations all aim to develop the potential beneficial interaction of men with their partners, families and communities. It is our belief that this will directly reduce the high level of violence and HIV infection prevalent in our communities.
Most perpetrators of crime, violence and rape are male. Unfortunately, this has led to the good, responsible and law-abiding men often being perceived as a threat on the basis of their gender.
The fact that most perpetrators are men does not mean that most men are perpetrators.
HOPE worldwide is a global organization with a variety of programmes aimed at reaching those in need with sustainable solutions to developmental challenges.
In South Africa the main focus of HOPE worldwide is on the prevention of HIV/AIDS infection and care and support of people living with AIDS. Men play a significant role in the spread of HIV/AIDS. Their attitudes, beliefs and practices are often lamented as being largely unaddressed in the work towards overcoming HIV/AIDS. A significant partnership with Engenderhealth and Planned Parenthood South Africa has led to the development of the national Men as Partners programme. The Men as Partners programme, informally referred to as MAP, forms an essential part of the range of services HOPE worldwide offers. It is centred on peer education training that develops into community mobilization efforts managed by participants. It works comprehensively in addressing the beliefs and actions of men in South Africa in the way they relate to HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence.
In Khayelitsha the MAP programme at HOPE worldwide has now extended to include the Ubuntu Bamadoda programme.
Ubuntu Bamadoda utilizes a form of traditional music known as Isicathamiya. Isicathamiya is the style of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who have played a major role in showcasing and developing it to the extent that it has been awarded a Grammy. It is uniquely male and is inevitably thematically based on social issues and their resolution. The importance of the role of music in society has always been clear in the way that it reaches into the hearts of people. Isicathamiya is a form of music that gives men an opportunity to demonstrate a kind of power that is different from violence or brute strength. Thus it holds a powerful opportunity for gender activism since it gives men a captive audience where they can display attitudes and behaviour, and perhaps even more importantly, reach other men with their inner power, supporting the struggle to overcome HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence.
The approach of the Ubuntu Bamadoda programme is strength based in the fact that it works with men who are already responsible in their behaviour. It is community-based and works with five existing Isicathamiya choirs in Khayelitsha. These men are models of a kind that is sorely lacking in an environment like Khayelitsha. They already carry in their hearts and behaviour those aspects that are greatly missing in the lives of women, children and other men. Most of them are in long-term, committed relationships and most of those who have children are committed to the support and nurturing of those children.
The programme has three core activities responding to three areas of development.
1. The heart of Ubuntu Bamadoda is a mentorship programme that supports adult men in working with young boys at risk of entering a range of dangerous behaviours. A weekly rehearsal of Isicathamiya provides an opportunity for these boys to bond with their role models and form strong relationships that will lay a foundation for their future behaviour as men. Like the famous fulcrum Archimedes named, the programme has a fulcrum on which sustainable change rests. The psycho-social work with these mentors is this fulcrum for the Ubuntu Bamadoda programme. Working with their own stories and experiences as men is the starting point for change, first healing the painful memories of their own childhood, then offering something to the boys in their care. The mentors are therefore not just spending time with the boys but are actively taking responsibility for their own lives. This is the main response to the social needs of the participants.
2. The grassroots financial sustainability of the programme rests on the promotion of these choirs as professional musicians to a large potential client base in the Western Cape. None of the choirs in the programme earns a permanent income out of their performance, therefore the programme aims at achieving a partnership with the groups that would lead to efficient promotion, where the group can eventually gain a sustainable income. They are to be responsible for their own promotion and employment. This aspect responds mainly to the economic needs of the participants.
3. The cultural practice of Isicathamiya provides an ideal base from which to start and develop a capacity programme with participants. The capacity programme addresses the growth of the musical expertise, business skills and life skills of the group members. In this sense it dovetails perfectly with the mentorship and financial aspects of Ubuntu Bamadoda.
This, then, is the basic approach of the Ubuntu Bamadoda programme encompassing social, economic and cultural development in one sustainable intervention. The monitoring and evaluation schedule is rigorous with the aim of recording as well as improving the programme design as it is being rolled out. The recorded programme could serve to inform other programmes within the close network of gender interventions that could work in a similar way with a combination of social, economic and cultural aspects.
In conclusion, it is important to note the fact that the programme is not introducing something new to the men in these groups. In the community consultation phase preceding implementation the choirs have been reporting on a remarkable issue: They have been trying to work with boys from their neighbourhoods as early as 1990! They have had successes and have also struggled to continue the work with the boys. When asked about their motivation for doing this, the reply is inevitably: “We have to show them that there is something better to being a man than crime and violence.”
The launch of the programme on 14 June 2006 was placed close to the official National Youth Day since the most important aspect of Ubuntu Bamadoda is the mentorship of young men by elders. The importance of role models or mentors is regaining attention in society with regard to the impact it can have on the behaviour of boys and men in shaping their actions.
In the atmosphere of violence and crime we face daily, Ubuntu Bamadoda reminds us that there are good men living close to boys. If they could meet on a level that counts, a shift towards a reduction in the prevailing levels of crime and chaos is inevitable.
