Singing and Dancing for Health: Traditional music and dance for health education and promotion in rural northern Ghana

short link: http://bit.ly/sngdnc4h

Goals

We aim to create, evaluate, and refine effective music and dance interventions for public health education and promotion in the developing world. In particular, we seek to collaboratively develop and assess the impact of participatory "dance dramas" (comprising music, song, dance, poetry, and humor) for public health education in northern Ghana, that country's most underdeveloped area, partnering with a Ghanaian performing arts/education NGO experienced in applications of music and dance to development projects.

Thus far, our focus is two critical health care issues: cholera/diarrhea and malaria. We are also seeking funding to add a third: Ebola. The research process entails the following steps, in collaboration with Youth Home Cultural Group, an arts-based NGO based in Tamale, Ghana.

1. We compose scripts, music, choreography. Scripts are vetted by public health experts in Canada. These dramas are then extensively rehearsed
2. We stage these theatre pieces in the regional capital of Tamale and video record them.
3. From these recordings, we produce edited, English- subtitled video recordings suitable for broadcast on local, national, or international television, or for distribution via Internet or DVD copies.
4. We carry out preliminary health studies in three villages, establishing baseline estimations of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP surveys) relevant to these health issues, developing rapport, and publicizing the project.
5. Then we perform the dance dramas live in each village, alongside workshops encouraging residents’ active participation and learning, enhancing sustainability. These events, accompanied by focus group research, are documented through ethnomusicological fieldwork, to better understand the method's strengths and weaknesses.
6. In the following 6 months, we periodically return to repeat the same health studies. In this way, we will be able to assess the impact of our interventions, and to refine them.

This pilot study, conducted over approximately 10 months, will result in presentations, publications, and external funding applications to development agencies including CIHR, DFATD, IDRC, Grand Challenges, Gates, Ford, WHO, Unicef, and others.

The results promise great significance to ethnomusicology and global health, in light of three recent trends: (a) exponential growth in "applied" ethnomusicology; (b) medical ethnomusicology; (c) global health studies, increasingly recognizing the importance of culturally-sensitized communications.

Research sites and maps

Initial research centers on three villages of varying sizes and locations:

• Tolon (large)
• Ziong (near Nanton; smaller)
• Gbungbaliga (near Yendi; smallest)

Map of possible research sites (with initial sites marked in green)

Map of Tolon District

Regional map

Video outputs

Cholera drama

Malaria drama

News

Citi MF Online (Ghana)