14-13
ROLE PLAYING TO MOTIVATE COMMUNITY ACTION
Role playing has sometimes been used as part of a process to get a whole
community of people thinking and taking action to meet their needs.
In Ghana, Africa, role plays were used to involve the people of Okorase in the
town’s development To help with the role plays, health program leaders invited
a popular cultural group that often performs at local ceremonies. First the group
would help lead a ‘one-day school’ focusing on town problems. Then the group
would stage role plays about one or two particular problems and their possible
solutions. The following description of these events (somewhat shortened and
simplified) is from an article by Larry Frankel in World Education Reports, April,
1981.
The cultural group members (with help from the project) purchased food and palm
wine to entertain their guests. Then they invited the chief, his elders, and other
members of the community to attend the ‘one-day school’. After the traditional
ceremonies and welcoming speeches, they gave the entire morning to small group
discussions of the town’s problems and their possible solutions. Each group had a
discussion leader whose job was to see that everyone participated freely so that the
‘big men’ didn’t dominate.
Before stopping for lunch, each small group was asked to choose a single
problem, one that they considered serious but also solvable by the people’s own
efforts. The small groups then joined together to choose one or two problems and
propose realistic solutions.
After lunch all the people were excused, except the cultural group members.
Everyone thanked the chief and elders for their attendance and their help in trying to
make the problem’s solution a reality.
The cultural group spent the afternoon preparing and practicing two role plays or
brief skits. They wanted to show as dramatically and humorously as possible why
each problem was important and what could be done about it. In the evening, the
chief had the ‘gong gong’ beater call the entire town to a free show. The role plays
were performed, along with drumming, singing, and dancing.
The role plays in Okorase focused on two problems: unhealthy shitting habits and
the lack of a health clinic.
In the first role play, a big shot from Accra (ihe capital) returns to visit his birthplace, Okorase.
He has come to donate a large sum of money to the town development committee. Feeling
nature’s call, he seeks a place to relieve himself. When he finds only bushes, he becomes
increasingly discomfited. His distress amuses several villagers,
who wonder aloud why the bush is no longer good enough for
him. The desperation of the actor playing the big shot had the
people in the audience laughing until they cried. Finally, the
big shot flees Okorase without donating any money. Later,
each of the people who laughed at him falls ill with
some sort of sickness carried in human shit. So now
the villagers become interested in trying a suggested
solution: using low-cost water-sealed toilets to
keep flies off the shit.