(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)  More than sixty youth participants at a workshop on Edutainment in Antigua and Barbuda on Tuesday were taught how to utilise dance, ring games and folk songs as powerful tools that could be used to pass on anti-drug messages.

The workshop, which started on Monday, in St Johns Antigua and Barbuda, brought together young people from 13 Member States who are being trained in using edutainment to educate their peers on the social, physical and judicial consequences of substance abuse. It is an initiative of the CARICOM Secretariat supported by the European Union under the 9Th EDF Programme, and forms part of a broader strategy to build the capacity of Member States in dealing with the worsening problem of drug abuse and illicit trafficking within the Community.

Facilitator, Damion Andrews of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, in putting the participants through their dance paces, informed them that Dance was a powerful art form to which young people gravitated and as such should always be included in an edutainment package.

“Edutainment is entertainment,” he said “and the primary purpose of using this medium is to ensure that young people have fun even while learning and changing behaviour. Edutainment is the art of entertaining and educating simultaneously,” he added.

And indeed his explanation was supported by the ensuing demonstration as the participants, including officials from the CARICOM Secretariat, enthusiastically moved through the basic movements of the traditional Jamaican dance, Ettu, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Ettu is an African retention kept alive by a small group of people found in Hanover, Jamaica. The dance is a dramatic piece usually performed at weddings, feasts and wakes. Its musical accompaniment is the rhythmic beating of the congo drums.

Following the lesson in traditional dance, Edna Manley Lecturer, Ann Marie Cephas interspersed the traditional folk song into the session, explaining that the folklore was an integral part of the oral tradition which was the primary means of communication long before technology existed.

“Its appeal is in its story-telling quality and the capacity of the listeners to retain what is musical, rhythmic and repetitive rather than what is perceived as a lecture or a speech,” she stated.

“Young people do not like to be talked at,” she pointed out, “they prefer interactive participatory media and they learn better and are more inclined to change behaviour when they ‘do’ rather than when they watch” she added.

The spotlight was then shifted from the use of folksongs to the use of Ring Games, a delightful session also facilitated by Damion Andrews. The popular Jamaican ring game enacted by the participants depicted a scenario in which a rooster attempts to lure chickens away from their mother hen. The fascinating inter-play between the young men or rather the ‘young roosters’ and the ‘young chicks’ was an audience’s delight, as the young men, through effective use of body language and enticing lyrics – ‘chick chick chick -’ attempted to seduce the young women who flirtatiously endeavoured to stave of their subtle advances with, “me nuh want no corn.” The sexual nuances were inescapable.

In explaining their importance, Ms Phyllis Hemmings, Director of Arts and Education at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts stated that Ring Games were little games played by younger children, particularly from rural communities and were based on the social activities of those communities. “They are like dramatic parables with an underlying story line that teaches a profound lesson on life.” Many of those, she said, could be used effectively to teach young people to build self-confidence; cope with peer pressure; work on teams and develop a sense of responsibility.

The five day workshop ends on Saturday, when the participants would have transferred learning to the production of several mini edutainment pieces representing their final performance in Heritage Square in St Johns.

Contact:  piu@caricom.org