A Kenyan-made TV soap opera is gaining new fans and challenging old ideas in UK schools, discovers Georgina Smith.

In a bustling trading centre, an argument breaks out. Loud voices can be heard in the market place as a smartly dressed woman storms into frame, followed, hot on her heels, by a man who is visibly distressed.
“Why are you following me?“ she shouts, “I don’t want anything to do with you!” “Nancy, I think you are over sensationalising this,“ the man pleads.
What happens next? The audience can’t wait to find out…

Nancy is one of a host of characters in the Eastenders-like TV soap opera Makutano Junction, written and produced in Kenya. More than 7 million viewers in the country are caught up in its tales of people who live, do business, fall in love, get sick or get drunk in the fictional town of Makutano.

But perhaps more surprisingly, viewers also include school students in the UK watching the soap in the classroom, where it is being used as an awareness raising teaching aid. And it has got the children hooked.

Makutano Junction is an ‘edutainment’ soap series. This compelling drama – with funding from the Department for International Development – delivers key development messages like how to prevent malaria, or how to live with HIV and AIDS, messages developed with experts and woven into story lines.

The soap itself has attracted impressive accolades: winner of Kenya Film Awards for best directed TV Series; second most popular TV drama series in Kenya and most popular TV drama series in Uganda, to name a few.

Yet the messages written into the scripts have captured a relevance not originally envisaged by the programme’s maker, Mediae Company, such as UK students. It’s something Mediae’s directors, Nairobi-based David Campbell and UK-based Kate Lloyd Morgan, have been working on with training consultants Just Ideas.

Now in its third year, the initiative has taken the drama series into 125 secondary schools across England by teaming up with development education centres, which provide teacher training and advice. It started with a pilot scheme in the west of England and is being extended to schools in Yorkshire, Humberside and the north-east.

The initiative provides funding for teachers to attend induction days, where they are familiarised with programme and supporting material – including a website, and explore how to use them in lessons. With cultural awareness an increasingly important part of UK education, a global dimension is now compulsory in the secondary curriculum, and teachers need to find ways of including it. After watching clips from the programme, children are encouraged to discuss – or develop role plays – based on issues raised in packaged themes such as Exploring Kenya; Living with HIV and AIDS; the Millennium Development Goals and Me.

“It’s fascinating when you go into these schools,” says Lloyd Morgan. “I find it really shocking what kids’ perceptions are – it’s quite an eye opener. Their perceptions are that Africa is very hot, very dirty and very poor, with lots of wild animals and mud huts. Then we show Makutano. In it we have got characters who are dressed smartly, paint their nails and wear groovy jeans.”

So what do British children make of Kenya’s skyscrapers, people who wear fashionable jeans, own a business and use mobile phones? At first, they can be surprised. Lloyd Morgan recalls, “One boy said, ‘But Miss, she has a mobile phone. They don’t have mobile phones in Africa.’” Challenging stereotypes is a large part of what the initiative is about.

A mid-term evaluation of questionnaire results from students before and after using Makutano materials in 12 schools revealed that, on watching the programme, negative perceptions of starvation and poverty, malnutrition, wilderness and suffering changed to more positive images that better reflect the reality of farming and city life.

For example, the percentage of students who thought “starvation” was the biggest cause of death in Africa dropped dramatically from 28% to 8% following Makutano activities, while there was a respective increase of 8% and 6% in the use of words “happiness” and “beauty” to describe Africa.

Scriptwriter Damaris Irungu said: “I believe Makutano Junction is a very powerful tool in changing the perceptions of people abroad about Kenya and developing countries. There is more than issues of just poverty. In Makutano Junction we tackle a wide range of issues… empowering women, access to a good education, financial empowerment.”

Lloyd Morgan notes: “There are subliminal things going on: seeing that an awful lot of people don’t live in mud huts; showing that these are people and they have love and tragedy, high points and low points, and money troubles like everyone does. It’s looking at the commonalities as well as the differences.”

One year 8 student at St James’ Secondary School in Exeter commented in the questionnaire: “We learned about how they cope with different situations, some of them the same situations we have to cope with.”

Liz Roodhouse, coordinator for Craven Development Education Centre is an enthusiast for the project. “I think it engages them right from the word go,” she says. “They can identify with the characters.” Pupils admitted enjoying their Makutano lessons – some even downloading the theme tune onto their mobile phones.

Teachers have also said that a soap is a medium children are already familiar with, and that they find it relevant to a range of subjects, from English, media studies and geography to less evident applications in, say, religious studies. Kelvin Ravenscroft, head of religious studies at Bradford Grammar School, says the programme is useful for exploring issues around which the spiritual dimension can be introduced: poverty; challenges and opportunities in life; HIV; environmental issues; the Millennium Development Goals. “It’s like a key that opens the door,” he says. “They don’t feel that they are being lectured.”

In learning to identify with the Makutano characters through role-play, for example, students have been able to examine community problems. And, in deciding what would benefit the whole community, they seem to have become more aware of their own ability to change things. The questionnaire discovered that a remarkable 16% of those who had used Makutano materials felt they were more able do something to make a difference and tackle poverty.

Beyond the current initiative to roll out Makutano and supporting educational materials, Mediae Company and Just Ideas are seeking support to take the resources into every secondary school in England. Meanwhile, there are ambitions to broadcast the series throughout the whole of English-speaking Africa, where it is already available on satellite TV.

Scriptwriter Philip Luswata-Kafuluma shares his trade secret: “In any story, whatever its nature, there’s inevitably something to learn. While the messages in the series are frequently pre-determined, they are immersed in real life experience stories for authenticity and to ensure a ‘not in your face’ lesson. This is what guarantees its continued popularity.”

Want to find out what happened to Nancy and her man friend? Well, why not get hold of the first series and find out for yourself. You may even find yourself downloading the theme tune onto your mobile phone.

Junction box

• Television ownership in Kenya stands at 77% of all households.
• The programme’s Kenyan audience consists mostly of rural viewers and its impact is greatest for those from lower income groups.
• In a recent survey 40% said that Makutano had influenced their attitudes and behaviour, particularly episodes dealing with health issues, voting procedures and violence against women.
• The Makutano SMS service receives around 30,000 texts a year, providing further information about topics covered by the programme.
• Makutano’s low production costs make it a relatively inexpensive way of raising awareness across a vast viewing public.

Makunto calls for peace

In early 2008, after the results of Kenya’s bitterly contested presidential elections were announced and violence broke out across the country, a 90-second message appeared on Kenyan television. Featuring some of the best-known faces from Makutano Junction, A Message of Peace for all Kenyans ended with the actors talking straight to the camera. “We are all brothers and sisters under the same flag,” they said. “We need our leaders to meet and come to an agreement.” It was a plea that was answered, eventually, in the form of a power-sharing arrangement between the main political rivals. Makutano Junction had, at a time of national crisis, stuck to its mission of spreading the message of development clearly, and with impact. Television had lent its powerful voice to the call for peace, reaching a potential audience of millions.

KENYA

POPULATION 37 million AVERAGE LIFE EXPECTANCY 53 years AVERAGE PER CAPITA INCOME $580
While 46% of the population live below the food poverty line, more children are now in school, HIV/AIDS is falling and there is greater access to clean water and sanitation. DFID provided £52.1m in aid in 2007/8 with a focus on education, governance and health and HIV and AIDS.

Find out more at www.dfid.gov.uk/kenya