Effects of Folk Music and Community Outreach Drama Performances on HIV and AIDS Awareness in Niger State of Nigeria

The presentation shares the experiences of using participatory drama and folk music in a campaign to address issues of gender inequality and HIV/AIDS in Nupeland of Niger State, Nigeria. A drama was performed at various outreach programmes to create awareness on the dangers of gender discrimination in education, and folk music by a popular musical group was used to create awareness about HIV/AIDS.



According to the paper, music is deeply rooted in most cultures across the globe. There are several advantages to using folk music to educate rural audience. It is popular, can provide immediate feedback, is inexpensive and comes from a perceived credible source. The presenter mentions that music has been used for development purposes across the globe and positive results have been achieved.

According to the prsenter, in focus group discussions, almost all the discussants attributed their awareness of HIV and AIDS and related reproductive health issues to the drama and folk music (played in live performances and later recorded on audio tapes). According to the discussions, drama seems to enjoy relative popularity on preference rating of the two sources compared to music. About two – third (74%) of the discussants highly preferred the drama sketches compared to about one – third (33%) who preferred music. The probable explanation for this finding with particular reference to this study area and the intervention programme could be the live performances by the main actor - Ndayagi in the drama during outreach programmes. Ndayagi is a popular radio actor of nearly four decades whom the audience long to see in live situation rather than on radio. Seeing Ndayagi in live drama scenes and performance during this period undoubtedly increased people’s belief, association, and identifying with the programme for the period it lasted, and eventual popularity of the entire intervention programme.


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