HIV hop project (youth project):
Rap as a medium
Television, radio, movies, videos, music, video games the Internet and more occupies the time and mind of young people.
The attention span of your average teenager is as long as it takes to switch the remote control to another channel. After spending a whole week working or going to school, most people would prefer entertainment to conventional education.
Hip hop or rap music as it is popularly known has the potential of combining both education and entertainment.
Brief description of HIV HOP on-air campaign
HIV Hop explored creative ways of using (community) radio and popular youth culture (hip-hop) as tools for HIV and AIDS education.
This involved developing and processing questionnaires that would identify
what young people know about HIV and AIDS, what they would like to know, what they do in their spare time, what kind of music they listened to, etc.
The outcomes of the questionnaires provided us with the necessary information to design the content of the actual on air campaign.
Engaging youth in the radio shows were also explored. Students representing schools in Gugulethu and Mitchell's Plain (two of the biggest townships in the Western Cape) participated.
After consulting professionals in the health and, HIV and AIDS field, we provided local hip-hop artists with data to write songs about. This was produced and recorded at Bush Radio.
Open phone lines and competitions (rap/poetry and graffiti) were used to encourage further participation.
Presentation approach also involved communicating in a way in which young people feel comfortable
expressing themselves. The usage of slang, humour and other methods
that young people can relate to were also utilised. This proved to
be very effective, judging the phone input from listeners and
evaluation.
YAA2000 (Youth Against Aids 2000) as a concept was innovative, interactive and participatory. It was aimed at addressing youth on issues around HIV and AIDS. This it certainly achieved.
What one usually finds with projects such as these is that as soon as the event component has been completed (as a culminating activity), the project is essentially complete and the process starts from scratch, AGAIN.
Because of the success of the project, Bush Radio recognised the need to keep the momentum going, to keep young people interested, and to keep creating awareness beyond the ever present messaging that spoke to youth about abstinence and condom use.
With YAA2000 we saw youth actively participating and in essence, taking ownership of an issue that affects them. This is how HIV Hop came about.
The medium of rap/hip hop proved successful and was very well received by the youth Bush Radio was trying to reach.
The HIV hop campaign was the structured use of Hip Hop aimed at further educating youth on HIV and AIDS.
Hip Hop as an educational tool went beyond traditional boundaries of print in that it engaged youth in a language and a medium that they could all relate to.
HIV hop has since evolved. Its focus is not just radio, although radio is an integral part of the project. It has since evolved into weekly visits to our township schools with AIDS messaging beyond abstinence and condom use, and also, youth workshop sessions held at Bush Radio every Saturday.
Awareness around HIV and AIDS is not limited to "what the virus is", "how is it contracted" or "safer sex and the protection of oneself".
What HIV hop is trying to achieve is education on some of the broader issues in a social context.
What do we mean by this?
We cannot look at the lack of education and not examine the complex social hierarchy that existed during apartheid and now post apartheid South Africa.
With the HIV hop project Bush Radio is trying to alert young people to some of the larger issues of culture, tradition, existing socio-economic trends and conditions - and the socialisation of men and women in South African society in an effort to encourage the employment of critical thought when analysing issues such as HIV and AIDS and contextualising it.
HIV and AIDS does not exist in a vacuum. YAA2000 was but a stepping
stone.