Theatre for Development process continues

Day 5 and 6 TFD

REPORT ON TFD PERFORMANCE BY GBAGYI WOMEN FARMERS IN GWAGWADA, CHIKUN LGA, KADUNA.

After the initiation of women members into the new women farmers’ forum and the voluntary  participation of the community in a week long theatre for development exercises and drama rehearsals,  Saturday was fixed by the members (time and date suitable for them and the members of the community) to perform on stage their stories as well as what they have understood to be the objectives of this project.

The village head (Gora)had earlier apologized for his absence at the performance, as the day fixed clashed with the Gbagyi people’s cultural day and as the head of a village, he would have to pay homage to the Sir Gbagyi (The traditional chief of the Gbagyi tribe). Nevertheless, he was thrilled that his people had been selected for this project and had always expressed his appreciation during previous visits.

The stage performances were held in the market square by both the men and the women group. The stage was created after the two gender groups danced to the tune of the Gbagyi traditional music played by the community drummer and a female singer; the duo gradually enticed the villagers with their magnificent music.  After a good-sized crowd had gathered, the coordinator introduced the participants and what they were going to do.  The women came on stage first. Their drama skits raised issues on the unending daily work load of women, the unavailability of clean water, poverty, the use of mobile handsets, formation of cooperative societies for women farmers and hygiene management skills.

The men’s skit complemented and built on the messages that were portrayed by the women. They discouraged poor and negative attitudes by some men in the community which might pose as a challenge to the development of women and the entire community at large. The drama was excellently performed and there was a huge turn out of audience; both the Gbagyis and the Fulani people were present.

The dramas clearly spelt out the objectives of the project and the audience had a chance to ask questions such as;

• Purpose of the of the project
• What the project is actually focusing on
• The target audience
• The special packages available for farmers in Gwagwada
• If we would be able to help solve the problem of water

I expalined what our role is in the project and what role they are expected to play on their part.

After the Q&A session with the audience, the two groups came together and danced and some of the members of the audience joined. After the dancing exercise, we drove up with our Gwagwada drama troop to our meeting spot underneath the mango tree at the Reverend’s backyard. We gave the participants their snacks entitlement and promised to be back soon to inaugurate the new members of the listeners club.

Report by Binta Zara Ibrahim (ARDA’s Production Manager, North)

 

DAY 4-TFD

Thursday, being a market day, the women did not rehearse their drama sketches because they all went to sell their stuff. The men, as arranged rehearsed their play after which the dramatists and the entire team moved the play to the market square. As a tool for mobilization, the drummers beat and song right to the stage which drew the attention of the villagers. Then, the man performed their play in front of a large audience.

At the end of the play, Binta restated the aim of the drama and encouraged everyone to be a part of the radio program. She also announced the grand performance that would be held on Saturday.

Finally, two male villagers asked questions or rather, mentioned that the major problem faced in the village is lack of water.

Reported by Seember

Theatre for development

DAY 2-TFD

The rehearsals started at 10:45 with a song raised by Luka, the drummer. The women danced in a circle for several minutes after which we acted out some new drama sketches.

SKETCH ONE

Two young women walking to the market complain about the hard economic times and the little profit they make from selling their firewood and other products. An older woman approaches them and tells them to attend the scheduled meeting. The young women refuse; saying that they have never benefited from these meetings in the past, so they would not attend; after all, the meeting wouldn’t pay their bills or put any money in their pockets.

The older woman approaches two other women also going to the market; after much persuasion, one woman agrees to attend while the other refuses and walks away.

SKETCH TWO

The meeting coordinator (who is one of the village women) is sitting alone under a tree wondering aloud if any of her women would show up for the meeting. Finally, the woman who was asking people to come for the meeting joins her and they exchange pleasantries. A few other women join in then the coordinator explains to them what the meeting is about (the project). They ask questions and she educates them further on the project telling them to encourage other women to participate in the forum.

SKETCH 3

A group of women are chatting together in the evening. They start to talk about the GSM that was promised to their women group. One woman is so excited and mentions that she loves the idea because she would really want to call her friends and family. Another woman reminds her that it is just one phone and wonders who would be in charge. They decide that any of the officials in the group will keep it. They keep talking about hiring the phone in order to load it and making calls to the radio station. Then the oldest woman in their midst says she doesn’t care about phones because she is too old and the other women help her see the importance of the mobile phone in getting information.

SKETCH 4

Two women walking back from the stream are approached by two other women. They put down their pails (buckets) and the other women scream because the water is coloured. One of the women tells them to wake up earlier. Another woman says she wakes up early but it isn’t much help anymore. They begin to lament about how they have to wake up earlier everyday to get water, how they have to travel farther for firewood and generally about how hard life is. One woman says that perhaps with the women’s group, they would be able to work together in improving their present situation.

SKETCH 5

A stranger (representing development) is seen approaching a shop owner; telling him about a development meeting. The shop owner rudely tells him that he doesn’t have any interest. The man approaches a carpenter who is not rude but also declines being present at the meeting. The man approaches a humorous blacksmith who listens to him and makes him laugh but refuses to be a part of the meeting. Finally, he approaches an elderly man coming from the farm that listens carefully and thanks him, promising to be a part of the meeting. The elderly man also mentions some of the problems they face in the village and welcomes the idea that within themselves they can find a way around those problems.

SKETCH 6

The elderly farmer is able to convince all the other men to attend the meeting so they come but are very impatient and skeptical about the project. One of the men leaves but the others stay back and listen.

SKETCH 7

The elderly farmer is cutting down a tree and is approached by the stranger who encourages him and shows him how to plant trees after cutting them down to prevent desertification.

SKETCH 8

Two young men are making jest of the phone that was given to the women; saying that the women would be unable to manage it; no one would want to go and call, they would not get the hang of the operation, they would misplace it…….then the elderly farmer passes by and they bring him into the conversation; he rebukes their attitude and reinforces how useful it would be to the women for the radio program and also in generating income. The development worker joins in and tells them to show more respect towards women; he mentions all the things women do and praises them thus subduing the taunts from the young men.

 

 

Communicating through theatre and performance

DAY 1…. TFD

The ARDA crew (Elizabeth, Seember and Nda) arrived Gwagwada development area by 10:30a.m and none of the women with whom we had spoken seemed to be in sight. In fact, the village looked like no one was expected there. So I went to the lady coordinator’s house (Lami) and received the sad news that she lost her mother the previous day.

On reaching our regular spot (under a huge mango tree), two women had gathered and were going on about the drummers wanting to know what they would receive at the end of the program. Nice way to start. After a while, they grumbled and left not wanting to be a part of anything. Luckily, a few other women came over and we were able to talk them into staying for their own good. I don’t know what exactly made them stay, but they did. Then I saw some young boys and I went over to chat with them. One of them (Yohanna) advised me to talk to their pastor in order to get drums since the other drummers had refused to “work” without pay. Luckily, the pastor spoke English so I was able to tell him in many words how beneficial this project could be and possibly, even bring other projects. So he thanked us and offered prayers for the smooth take-off of the program and willingly gave us his drums to use. Thank God!

After Yohanna arrived with the drums, the women were up to five then, Lami decided to go and ask an old man for his Kabulu (their local drum) because she said they couldn’t dance to the regular drum as they would want. So together, we went and spoke to the kind old man and he agreed to let us use his Kabulu…yeah finally we were making progress!

The old drummer (Luka) who wouldn’t drum without pay suddenly appeared with his own Kabulu and suddenly it looked like the party was going to be huge. 

On their own, women started coming, the boys also took strategic positions. Luka started drumming and without being told both women and men began to dance…the party had just began!

 After the warm up, everyone was ready to listen to what we had to say and we briefed them on the project; letting them know that we intended to use their cultural entertainment forms to showcase their experiences on the farm and in their household as a result of climate change.

 After explaining the project in brief, Ladi Sarki sang one of their cultural songs and all the women started dancing with a few men joining in the dance.

 After that session, the men and the women acted out scenes that have taken place in the farm, in the forests and at the streams. The men showed us in a drama how they cut down trees and replant while the women demonstrated the lack of water in their streams. We discussed these issues after which a comprehensive list of all the participants was drawn and we went back into town.

Listening & Learning

Baseline Activity Day 2

9:00a.m and we are on the expressway once again. But this time, we are headed to a place called Sabo; a suburb of Kaduna where the district head of Gwagwada resides. After losing our way a number of times, we finally reach the dwellings of the District head. Much to our disappointment, the Sa Gbagyi (as the district Head is known) has gone for an impromptu meeting at the State’s government House. Luckily, the extension worker whom we contacted the previous day is there and so we interview him for 9 minutes. At the end of the interview, we are told to come back later in the evening so we head towards Gwagwada to complete our questionnaire administration and possibly carry out a few focus group discussions. We find our reps at work administering the questionnaires when we arrive. Just as soon as the last questionnaires are filled, Lami, our female rep, gathers the village women. The women come one after the other so we wait for  over 30 minutes until the number of women is up to 12. In the interim, we are offered a sumptuous meal of rice, fish stew, boiled eggs and fura da nono (local yogurt prepared by the fulanis) by the sole administrator.  The sole administrator also chats with us and shows us different women planting corn on his farm land who will be paid 1.75 dollars each at the end of the day.

 As we wait for the women, the male reps are able to gather the men who come all at once and so the men ask us to start with them since they are ready. The men are able to come in a group, because already, they are gathered for a community meeting whereas the women are individually busy with their various chores. The focus group begins and the men are quite vocal save for a few who are a little withdrawn. However, as the discussion heats up, even the more reserved of the group speak up on issues bordering on access to farm inputs. The men also profess to assist their wives in their activities when it comes to post farming activities. The discussion goes on for 25 minutes after which we serve the men light refreshment and thank them for their time.

 As soon as the men are done, the women relocate from underneath a mango tree 30 feet away to the mango tree where the meeting would hold. The discussion takes off immediately with a general question asked to all the women to answer one after another. At first they answer in “Yes and No’s” but very soon, they go into details in their answers. A particular woman goes all out to express her struggle in providing food that is rich in ingredients and tells us how her husband eats the food without bothering to ask how she was able to make provision for it. Another woman tries to hush her but she is determined and spills her guts. Her openness does the magic and the ice is broken. To our excitement more women relate their experiences and the discussion gets very intense. At the end, we explain our purpose and tell them of the participatory theatre to which they agree to be a part of.

 In 40 minutes, the focus group discussion for the women ends and after many thanks, we head back to Sabo. By this time the sun has set but we do not want to take any chances since the District Head’s movements are unpredictable.

45 minutes later, we arrive the chief’s house and luckily, he is available. He welcomes us with malt drinks and a very engaging interview ensues. 15 minutes later, we thank him for his time and he promises to offer us support in whatever way he can. He also asks us to assist the community in getting help in areas of dry season farming  and the Dr. Sola explains to him that we hope to act as intermediaries and give the people a voice so that they can get help form the appropriate quarters.

On departure, we discuss the way forward which is sorting out collected data and transcribing interviews into English which Dr. Sola assigns to me.

Day 2 of listening and learning

Baseline Activity Day 2
9:00a.m and we are on the expressway once again. But this time, we are headed to a place called Sabo; a suburb of Kaduna where the district head of Gwagwada resides. After losing our way a number of times, we finally reach the dwellings of the District head. Much to our disappointment, the Sa Gbagyi (as the district Head is known) has gone for an impromptu meeting at the State’s government House. Luckily, the extension worker whom we contacted the previous day is there and so we interview him for 9 minutes. At the end of the interview, we are told to come back later in the evening so we head towards Gwagwada to complete our questionnaire administration and possibly carry out a few focus group discussions. We find our reps at work administering the questionnaires when we arrive. Just as soon as the last questionnaires are filled, Lami, our female rep, gathers the village women. The women come one after the other so we wait for over 30 minutes until the number of women is up to 12. In the interim, we are offered a sumptuous meal of rice, fish stew, boiled eggs and fura da nono (local yogurt prepared by the fulanis) by the sole administrator. The sole administrator also chats with us and shows us different women planting corn on his farm land who will be paid 1.75 dollars each at the end of the day.

As we wait for the women, the male reps are able to gather the men who come all at once and so the men ask us to start with them since they are ready. The men are able to come in a group, because already, they are gathered for a community meeting whereas the women are individually busy with their various chores. The focus group begins and the men are quite vocal save for a few who are a little withdrawn. However, as the discussion heats up, even the more reserved of the group speak up on issues bordering on access to farm inputs. The men also profess to assist their wives in their activities when it comes to post farming activities. The discussion goes on for 25 minutes after which we serve the men light refreshment and thank them for their time.

As soon as the men are done, the women relocate from underneath a mango tree 30 feet away to the mango tree where the meeting would hold. The discussion takes off immediately with a general question asked to all the women to answer one after another. At first they answer in “Yes and No’s” but very soon, they go into details in their answers. A particular woman goes all out to express her struggle in providing food that is rich in ingredients and tells us how her husband eats the food without bothering to ask how she was able to make provision for it. Another woman tries to hush her but she is determined and spills her guts. Her openness does the magic and the ice is broken. To our excitement more women relate their experiences and the discussion gets very intense. At the end, we explain our purpose and tell them of the participatory theatre to which they agree to be a part of.

In 40 minutes, the focus group discussion for the women ends and after many thanks, we head back to Sabo. By this time the sun has set but we do not want to take any chances since the District Head’s movements are unpredictable.
45 minutes later, we arrive the chief’s house and luckily, he is available. He welcomes us with malt drinks and a very engaging interview ensues. 15 minutes later, we thank him for his time and he promises to offer us support in whatever way he can. He also asks us to assist the community in getting help in areas of dry season farming and the Dr. Sola explains to him that we hope to act as intermediaries and give the people a voice so that they can get help form the appropriate quarters.
On departure, we discuss the way forward which is sorting out collected data and transcribing interviews into English which Dr. Sola assigns to me.

Learning with the community

Baseline study, Day 1
A week has gone by since the inception meeting for the GENARDIS project and today we are all set to start the baseline research. Driving into the village, the car of the sole administrator is parked in front of the deserted secretariat. We seize the opportunity and after a few minutes of introduction, a key informant interview is underway. The interview lasts for 15 minutes and after light refreshments we try to get our representatives from the village to distribute questionnaires. We realize that distributing the questionnaires will not be so easy because 99% of our target farmers are illiterate meaning that the questionnaires would have to be administered one after the other; interview style. Also, after a long search Dr. Sola was able to find a translator who rewrote the questionnaire in the local dialect of the farmers; Gbagyi. This becomes a challenge because our representatives find it extremely difficult to read even though it is their dialect. So after 10 minutes of struggle by the representatives to read the questionnaire, we reach a unanimous conclusion that the aim of the questionnaire in Gbagyi language has been defeated. We let for a few moments of silence and then we get the reps to translate the questionnaires into Hausa. By the time the questionnaires are ready, we are told that it is too late to start interviewing. We manage to convince them otherwise so in groups of twos, the 6 of us split into different households and start administering the questionnaires one after the other. Dr. Shola directs us on the households to go into. Fortunately, we are not turned down by any household even though we got the occasional monotonous reply but on the average, the villagers cooperate with us. When we reach the extreme of the village, we realize that most of the women are absent and we are told they have all gone into Kaduna town for a particular market day. With no more households to visit within our sample area, we pause the administration until tomorrow. Darkness takes over and we head back into town.

 

On departure, we contact the district head of Gwagwada and schedule a meeting for tomorrow at 10a.m.

Report by Seember Nyanger

Project start up

GENARDIS INCEPTION MEETING REPORT

March 17, 2009. Kaduna State

The inception meeting for Majelissa Matar Manoma project took place in Kaduna State.  The project title Majelissa Matar Manoma means “Anyiko Awaniyi Ayazhiba”, in Gbagyi Language. The meeting started at exactly 9am and ended at 2.00pm. A total of ten persons participated: 3 community members from Gwagwada station, (2 males and 1 female); a theatre for development (TFD) consultant from the department of Theatre Arts, University of Jos, a research consultant from the Mass communication department, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1 radio station personnel and 4 ARDA staff. (See attached list of participants for names and contacts).

 The meeting began with an opening prayer by Dr. Elizabeth Nyager, the TFD consultant. An introduction of participants was facilitated by Seember, ARDA’s program Assistant, Kaduna. This session was brief as participants swiftly introduced themselves and their organization. Participants’ expectation session was highly participatory. They were asked to express their expectations for the meeting on colored VIP cards distributed to them during the exercise. This written exercise was interesting as everyone shared their expectations. These were summarized by Data Phido, ARDA’s Executive Director who advised that participants note all the expectations shared during discussions so as to ensure that the meeting addressed and met each and everyone. She also stated the objective of the one-day inception meeting. (See attached the outcome of participants expectation exercise). 

 Mrs Data Phido gave an overview of the project and its objectives. She stated that ARDA has chosen to embark on this project in order to contribute its quota to women empowerment in Nigeria. She described the project strategy and expected outcomes as written in the project document, copies of which were made available to all participants. She then talked about the potential of ICTs for empowering rural populations particularly women farmers and the ways in which it can contribute to meaningful development in the community. She said that rural women need recognition and financial support for their work. She described the gender issues that the project planned to challenge: the unequal distribution of labor and resources. She illustrated this by comparing a community woman’s daily activities with those of a man using the daily activity diaries recorded during ARDA’s earlier needs assessment conducted in the community. She gave a typical example of how a woman’s daily activities started at 5.00 am in the morning and ended at 11.00 pm in the night while a man’s daily activities started at 7am with breakfast a woman had cooked and then farm work until an early evening return, dinner and relaxation with friends and bed time. The community men at the meeting couldn’t help but laugh but agree with her point. She pointed out that women’s efforts are often not appreciated and pointed out that the gender inequalities affected everyone in the community adversely and that equality will benefit the whole society.  She also mentioned importance of micro-finance which is not readily available to women famers as another challenge. She therefore called on every participant to make effort to contribute towards the success of this ICTs project.

 The call for support and contribution led the team to another session. This session was another active one. The participants were asked to write their vision and mission on more colored cards. These written expressions were shared among the team. (Attached is the list of vision and mission shared by the participants). Every participant expressed great hopes for a successful gender and ICT outcome for the project and identified critical roles they plan to play and contribution they will make in order to achieve their visions.

 As this is an action research project undertaken particularly for its learning objectives, the monitoring and evaluation component is very important and needs to be integrated from the very onset of the implementation. It was decided that a combination of methodologies will be used to study the project (participatory action research, PAR, outcome mapping and Gender Evaluation Methods, GEM). The research consultant asked for the reports of the earlier study done by ARDA in Gwagwada to enable him check for gaps that should be covered during the baseline/formative study. The TFD consultant stated that she would wait for the outcome of the baseline /formative research in order to identify community-based performing groups for possible collaboration on that part of the project.

 After a session of questions and discussions, the team drew up a work plan in other to know “who does what and at what time” bearing in mind the seasonal farming calendar for community women farmers. (See attached work plan).

 It was impressed on the group that this would be a fast-paced project for which everyone must be ready to work hard and fast, keeping the timelines in mind. The mid-project report is due by July, 2009 and the final report is before November, 2009. Reports will be both narrative, audio-visual and financial including original receipts. In this regard, a video camcorder was left behind with the zonal staff for recording with permission community activities. Mrs. Phido downloaded the FOSS audio recording/editing suite, “Audacity” and shared with the zonal staff.

 The Radio representative (who is a director of KSMC) invited ARDA staff to guest on a Saturday morning TV show to talk about the project. Binta and Seember were mandated to plan with her for a suitable date perhaps close to the launch of the TFD and radio programs. She also advised ARDA to plan an advocacy visit to the Radio station’s management to intimate on the laudable objectives of the project  in order to elicit their support for a one hour prime time program in Gbagyi at a reduced airtime rate. She also suggested a producer that she felt would be ideal for the program who is Gwari.

 After a group photograph and lunch, a participant from the community led closing prayers and the meeting ended with promises that the report and contact list will be made available in the next few days while the research consultant will plan the baseline.

Hello world!

Women Farmers in the rural areas of Nigeria are responsible for a major percentage of all the food produced in the country but their contributions are often overlooked and their voices ignored in community decision-making. ARDA has partnered with GenARDIS to facilitate access to radio and mobile phones by women farmers in Gwagwada Junction, a small depressed community about 50km from Kaduna city in Northern Nigeria.

We plan to share some of the highlights of the engagement with these beautiful hardworking and inspiring women who have so many strikes against them (cultural second class placement, gender inequality, poor resource base, poverty, illiteracy) with you. This is a learning process for everyone involved, the women, their male counterparts, the broadcaster, Kaduna State Media Corporation’s FM Radio, the extension services and ARDA staff.