Lessons for life--Past and present modes of sexuality education in Tanzanian society

The provision of sexuality education and contraceptive services to unmarried adolescents has became a key issue in the era of AIDS. International health organizations are promoting action worldwide. In Tanzania the Ministry of Health has started policy work, while the NGO sector is spearheading activities in the field. Yet there is a lot of public scepticism and resistance to launching such programmes, as many believe that these will promote promiscuity among the young. This article explores the efforts of the Family Planning Association of Tanzania (UMATI), collaborating with the Swedish Association of Sex Education (RFSU), to develop appropriate and sensitive programme activities, drawing on the experiences of other countries as well as on local customs tied to traditional initiation rites. Capacity building involving the provision of techniques for training, research, advocacy and outreach has been the focus of the exchange between the two NGOs. The aim has been to take a broad but integrated perspective on the issue, including an understanding of adolescent sexuality as well as that of reproduction. Most of the data presented here were generated during a follow-up study of the UMATI/RFSU collaboration.sexuality education initiation rituals Tanzania contraceptives

Latin American telenovelas and African screen media: from reception to production

Latin American telenovelas began to be widely broadcast on African screens between the late 1970s and early 1980s, and today are among the most popular entertainment products on the continent. The content, aesthetic and narrative format of telenovelas have become a model for many African video film producers, who have incorporated some of telenovelas’ defining elements in their productions in order to attract local audiences. This special issue analyses the impact of telenovelas’ circulation in Africa by focusing on the ‘uses’ African audiences and media producers make of them. Why do telenovelas travel so well around sub-Saharan Africa? How do African audiences make sense of them? And what impact do these media products have on local media entrepreneurs and on the aesthetics and narrative aspects of the contents they produce? In this introduction we provide some background and data about the history and the political economy of telenovelas’ circulation in Africa, and answer the questions raised above by connecting the finding of the essays included in the special issue to ongoing debates on the global circulation of melodrama, on the transformation of African screen media, and on the performative dimension of African audiences’ engagement with foreign media forms