From On Air - Fall 2003

PCI Hosts Soap Summit in Nairobi

This past June, artists, writers, film-makers, producers, researchers, donors and policy makers throughout the African continent met in Nairobi, Kenya for a summit on making entertainment useful. PCI hosted its first time ever Africa Soap Summit®, receiving generous funding from the Ford Foundation.

PCI regional representative Dr. Kimani Njogu and his team organized the multi-country conference by bringing together over 100 participants coming from 9 different countries that are working through entertainment and media to promote social well-being.

In Africa, a popular way of getting messages across to audiences has been through the age old art of storytelling. This is one of the traditional art forms that Africans have used to “make sense of their lives and to help people respond to new events and challenges,” writes Inter Press correspondent Katy Salmon. The focus of the conference was on discovering ways of tapping into the many vibrant art forms that exist on the continent as a way of tackling some of Africa’s most pressing social and public health problems.

Attendees were treated to daily performances by African students and to presentations by policy-makers, government ministers, human rights advocates and researchers. Panel discussions highlighted the importance of entertainment-education programs and the positive impact they have when fused with social content programming. Dr. Njogu remarked that “media efforts are critical in health promotion,” and that “numerous initiatives exist in Africa that use media outlets to improve quality of life for people in a holistic sense.”

Keynote speaker Dr. Micere Mugo, a Kenya native and professor as well as a poet, playwright and political activist, emphasized the importance of working together to address the many problems Africa faces. Dr. Mugo spoke about the pervasive influence of Western culture and entertainment on the deterioration of African identity. As someone who has examined the effects on African children, she spoke passionately about the dangers of African children who are “growing up not seeing their reality, but seeing a reality that tells them they are in the wrong place.”

At the conclusion, a declaration was drafted that captured the discussions that took place throughout the week-long series of events. The Nairobi Declaration was unanimously accepted and signed by the Summit participants, and the document became an accepted list of entertainment-education best practices that work to address the social and political development of Africa. PCI plans to build on the tremendous success of the Nairobi Summit by using the model to host future events in Africa and elsewhere abroad, and to draw attention to the award-winning work it has undertaken throughout the years in Kenya and Tanzania.

Back to top