Self-Help Africa

By Dennis Ringersma on 13 August 2011

Teaching Africans in rural communities with little experience in video how to work with this equipment in four days seems impossible: yet the organisation Self Help Africa is doing exactly that and in a promising way. We met Keelin and Tara, two Irish undergraduates working for Self Help Africa (SHA) in a concrete, congested and polluted city called Lusaka. In the rural communities surrounding this Zambian capital they are training locals how to work with a small digital video camera. But they are not just explaining what one can also find in a technical manual. Lighting, sound, framework, interview techniques,  storyboards, editing and other techniques related to making short films are also important topics. The results are short films and interviews by the local community itself that can be used to report to funders. In four days.

The results are short films and interviews by the local community itself […]

It turns out that in four days, as short a period as it might seem, remarkable results are achieved.  Tara was astounded with the speed instructions were picked up by locals, with the interview techniques displayed and the openness with which people spoke. Tara remarked that experience with mobile phones and workshops by SHA are important preconditions for these results, but also the absence of a fear for technology that you find in some European age groups. That these communities are speedily picking up the ins and outs of working with video and related devices is very interesting in terms of the power of intuitivism, concerning people as well as devices.

The equipment is left on the scene in the hands of a caretaker, who has more knowledge and experience with video techniques. After the four day training provided by SHA, the equipment can be used for anything the community sees fit. For they now have the knowledge and equipment to create films for many purposes. This is a very exciting part of the work that SHA is doing, as the results are unpredictable and, therefore, out of their control. It takes guts for an organisation to take this approach. In my eyes, it is, to some degree a form of social media: people can create their own products and can distribute the material in their own and other communities through easily shared SD cards plus solar powered palm sized projectors which are also left on the scene. Sharing with the world through the Internet could be a next step. SHA is effectively empowering African communities by giving them the means to create, built on and share knowledge in a modern way.

SHA is effectively empowering African communities by giving them the means to create, built on and share knowledge in a modern way.
I, for one, can´t wait to see these unpredictable results. Because who knows what the communities will come up with? They might create a video tutorial on how land can be ploughed in a more effective manner, it might help a person open up about the troubles he or she has encountered, it might serve as a manner to attract other donors, it might enable communities to produce commercial entertainment or educational material. It might and it will. It will at least help Africans help themselves.

tagged with: africa

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