Conference Presentations by Gavin R Walker
How do we get people to listen when they are tired of hearing? This paper explores musical theatr... more How do we get people to listen when they are tired of hearing? This paper explores musical theatre as a public engagement medium in South African HIV/AIDS communication, specifically discussing 'Lucky, the Hero!’ an edutainment intervention performed by the Educational Theatre Company in South Africa. The latest HSRC report (2014) suggests that in the last two years HIV incidence has risen while both awareness and condom use have fallen despite a wealth of information on HIV and countless health campaigns available to address the epidemic. This paper attempts to unpack various affective cues that help to bypass biases or indifference in order to communicate effectively with large groups, many of whom have become apathetic to the risks. Music, drama, dialogue, and interaction appear to be key components in creating affective environments and encounters through which sensitive topics like sexual debut, HIV/AIDS, and stigma may be broached. I argue that the problem cannot be fully addressed by appealing only to people’s rational decision making faculties. New methods of intervention are required to break risky behaviours that have become social norms. After recent ethnographic fieldwork in South Africa I suggest that interventions through affective media including music and theatre are beginning to do this through embodied performance.
HIV/AIDS, Musical Theatre, Affect, Embodiment, Campaigns, South Africa
Papers by Gavin R Walker
African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music, 2016
African Studies, 2021
ABSTRACT South Africa has the highest number of HIV infections in the world, with more than five ... more ABSTRACT South Africa has the highest number of HIV infections in the world, with more than five million people receiving anti-retroviral (ARV) therapies (UNAIDS 2019). However, during the early stages of the epidemic, there was no provision for ARVs through the state-run public health system, effectively limiting access to life-saving drugs. In response, the AIDS activist group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and their HIV positive choir, The Generics, were established to mobilise South African civil society towards pressuring the government into deploying a national ARV programme. This article analyses and compares three culturally significant songs that were appropriated by The Generics. The analyses are socially and historically contextualised by interview data with current and former TAC members. The article suggests that songs facilitated collective mourning and psychosocial healing at a time when HIV treatments were largely unavailable. They further provided a catalyst for mobilisation that was steeped in the recent history of racial oppression against a virus that affected a disproportionate number of black South Africans. By appropriating struggle songs for their cause, The Generics tapped into emotional reservoirs of resistance culture to propel their agenda of government accountability and access to HIV medication.
Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 2018
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Conference Presentations by Gavin R Walker
HIV/AIDS, Musical Theatre, Affect, Embodiment, Campaigns, South Africa
Papers by Gavin R Walker
HIV/AIDS, Musical Theatre, Affect, Embodiment, Campaigns, South Africa