Music and HIV/AIDS in Africa

Barz, Gregory F.; Cohen, Judah M.

doi:10.4324/9780203927878-13

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Generally, edutainment health interventions are complementary to traditional public health interventions ( 18 ). Several studies have reported how songs and music can be used as a means of education and increasing awareness in public health context and clinical experience ( 12 , 19 – 21 , 50 ). Thus, the use of music to influence knowledge, attitudes and behaviors toward infectious diseases like COVID-19 is not a new phenomenon in Africa.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating Awareness About COVID-19 Through Songs: An Example From Ghana

Thompson

Nutor

Johnson

2021

Front. Public Health

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Research has shown that music can be used to educate or disseminate information about public health crises. Grounded in the edutainment approach, we explored how songs are being used to create awareness about COVID-19 in Ghana, a sub-Saharan African country. YouTube was searched, and 28 songs met the study inclusion criteria. We conducted a thematic analysis of the song lyrics. Most lyrics were in English, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Akan, Ga, or Dagbani. Reflecting the multilingual population of Ghana, half of the songs contained three languages to convey their message, and only five songs were in one language. Eight themes emerged from the analysis: public health guidelines, COVID-19 is real and not a hoax, COVID-19 is infectious, prayer as method to stop the virus, emotional reaction and disruption of “everyday” activities; verbally expelling the virus, call for unity and collective efforts, and inspiring hope. We show that songs have the potential as a method for rapidly sharing information about emerging public health crises. Even though, it is beyond the scope of this study to draw conclusions about the reception and impact of songs on awareness and knowledge, the study shows that examining song lyrics can still be useful in understanding local attitudes toward COVID-19, as well as strategies for promoting preventive behaviors. We note that additional multidimensional efforts are needed to increase awareness among the general public about the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating Awareness About COVID-19 Through Songs: An Example From Ghana

Thompson

Nutor

Johnson

2021

Front. Public Health

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“…The leaders of these groups strategically reinterpret the initiatives their visitors ask them to sing about, in ways that underline their own authority in the community, and may introduce complications and even contradictions into the narratives they have been told to sing (Pier 2015). Local performers took considerable initiative in defining, for local audiences, the global emergency of HIV/AIDS, in ways that went beyond the topics prescribed by the government and international NGOs (Barz 2006).…”

Section: Theorizing Biopolitics In Ugandan Historical Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 and the Ugandan Presidential Election: Contesting Lockdown Authority in Popular Songs

Pier¹,

Mutagubya²

2022

Afr. Stud. Rev.

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The COVID-19 pandemic struck when Uganda was in the middle of an acrimonious campaign season, in which longstanding president Yoweri Museveni was being challenged by Bobi Wine, a reggae singer turned politician. When Museveni imposed a strict lockdown, musicians sympathetic to Wine responded with songs about COVID-19 that challenged the government’s short-term, biopolitical demarcation of the national emergency. Pier and Mutagubya interpret a selection of Ugandan COVID-19 pop songs from 2020, considering in musical-historical perspective their various strategies for re-narrating the health crisis.

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Music and HIV/AIDS in Africa

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Communicating Awareness About COVID-19 Through Songs: An Example From Ghana

Communicating Awareness About COVID-19 Through Songs: An Example From Ghana

COVID-19 and the Ugandan Presidential Election: Contesting Lockdown Authority in Popular Songs

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