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Email: info@jivemedia.co.za
Address: Jive Hub, 279 Boddington Estate, Nottingham Road, 3280
While seemingly separate and distinct, music and science have more in common than first meets the eye (or ear!). They share deep connections in creativity, curiosity and expression – and for young people in South Africa today, these connections provide a beacon of hope amidst the multiple challenges they face.
Music, with its rhythms, melodies, harmonies and lyrics, is a powerful tool for engaging with young people around complex topics that affect their health and well-being. When young people collaborate to create music and songs relevant to their lives, they tap into a transforming source of energy and inspiration that propels them forward.
It is this truth that we have drawn upon at Jive Media Africa with one of our standout initiatives, the Hip Hop U programme. This innovative intervention creates a space for adolescents to take charge of mini-research projects, together with young black male and female researchers, who act as role-models and knowledge specialists. Through this hands-on experience, they learn new ways to see and investigate their reality – whether the topic is mental health, HIV prevention or the impact of water-related diseases in their communities, to name a few.
To share their learnings and to amplify their voices, participants are then invited to express their discoveries and insights by creating and performing hip hop and rap songs. Their powerful messages are shared across social media, community radio stations and even on national television, reaching wide audiences and sparking important conversations.
Why did we specifically choose hip hop? Artists in this field usually make observations about challenging issues within their environments aiming to inspire change. Great examples include Black Eyed Peas, Common, Lauryn Hill, and 2Pac. This is the key component of the intervention. Learners are encouraged to communicate in the language they are most comfortable with. By allowing young people to create in a language and medium that is familiar to them, the power shifts away from the knowledge specialists (usually scientists or researchers), towards the young people who develop new contextual knowledge that has relevance and meaning in their lives.
The intervention can be applied across a range of pressing social issues. For example, in one instance, in consultation with public health experts, the overarching theme of water and health was selected due to its pertinence to the target communities, as well as being a public health topic around which participants could have a level of influence. But in other cases, it’s been applied around the mental health issues related to students starting at a university, and as a harm prevention strategy for those living with high risks of TB and HIV.
This project exemplifies our passion and commitment towards innovative, youth-driven processes that bridge the gap between science and society and allow for connection, co-creation and creativity – towards a brighter future for all.
Imagine a community where kids can create cool science projects with easily accessible materials. Or maybe find a passion for growing food after nurturing their first seed?
This has been our vision for Science Spaza since its inception in 2013, to create a community of inquisitive pupils who want to explore the world in an engaging and safe environment. And hopefully spark a passion for being part of the solution to the challenges we face.
But, in a country where 20,000 schools have no science labs, where are young people supposed to find the support they need for discovery based learning?
The Science Spaza initiative, developed by Jive Media Africa, provides information and learning opportunities in an easily accessible form, through the medium of hands-on activities and information contained in comics. The activities are designed for low-resource settings and include step-by-step instructions with photographs.
Comics provide a powerful tool for bringing audiences into closer engagement with complex subject matter. They also allow for projection and identification. Young people see themselves represented in the comics, building a sense of inclusion and harnessing their natural drive to be part of something bigger than themselves.
With a smashing 10,000 newspapers printed every three months for 100 science clubs across the country, Science Spaza aims to make science accessible and exciting by encouraging students to physically participate in experiments and projects and to share their discoveries and learnings within the clubs network.
A former science club member from a decade ago, Goratileone Oepeng, is now a proud success story. Recently featured in our latest edition, he reminisced about founding a science club which he registered with Science Spaza. Goratileone is currently working on his master’s degree in entomology at the University of Pretoria and highlighting the critical role that bees play in maintaining the health of biodiversity on which we all depend.
Stories like Oepeng’s have given us a deeper understanding and appreciation of just how much can be achieved when young passionate individuals are provided with the support they need to navigate.
As Jive Director Prof Albert Thembinkosi Modi eloquently states, “Growing up, I had no hope of being a scientist. My rural school did not have the facilities, but I managed to succeed and become a professor of science. I am proud to say that through Science Spaza, many young people, technicians, teachers, and professors can interact. This enhances career choices, regardless of a person’s background. Science Spaza makes science-oriented community engagement fun and easy for everyone.”
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, UNICEF has installed dozens of handwashing stations at rural schools in South Africa.
If you saw our earlier post about the Covered, Clean and Caring Covid-prevention campaign we designed for schools and orphan and vulnerable children centres, you’ll know that in 2022 it evolved to focus on mental health.
Covid-19 was one of the toughest challenges South Africa has faced and it taught us lessons we should never forget about the importance of good hygiene and caring for others.
Jive Media Africa’s Science Writer and Editor, Yves Vanderhaeghen visited COP as part of the Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation delegation. Upon his return he shared this short reflection – underlining the importance of Jive’s role in science communication and translation.
Image above: An artwork by the world-famous Keiskamma Art Project in the Eastern Cape was the backdrop to the South African Pavilion at COP28 inspiring hope and action.
COP28 spawned a bewildering number of presentations and debates by an array of organisations and researchers.
It was all too much to take in, and too much to do anything tangible with. But while the big guns were shooting high for global resolutions on fossil fuels and carbon dioxide emissions, it was in the smaller venues that detailed research was engaged with.
Soil, for example. It has everything, when healthy, that the entire edifice of COP is talking about: biodiversity, water, nutrition, sequestered carbon. And yet, how, mused one banker, do we turn it into an asset class to generate the capital for the small farmer, on the one hand, and to do the heavy lifting to mitigate and adapt to climate change, on the other?
Finance came into just about every conversation, as did just energy transition. Transitioning to green energy is one thing, but getting there with jobs to go around is another, vexed issue altogether, and it is putting a brake on climate imperatives.
Teasing out these debates takes some work, and lots of stamina, and Jive Media Africa listened to a lot of hot air, but got some nuggets in the end, of ideas and research which hold the promise of big things, but which need policy makers, and financiers, as well as society at large, to take up with alacrity to make a difference.
We will continue to grapple with these issues, and to support research engagement at multiple levels and in numerous contexts.
COVID-19 has become part of our daily lives, and will remain that way for a long time to come. While the total lockdown has started to ease, now is the time to be more vigilant than ever. Here’s a chance to share some information, slow the spread and save some lives.
In response to the global pandemic, and in partnership with the United Nations in South Africa, research communication specialists Jive Media Africa have produced a series of posters to grab attention and engage a broad range of public audiences. Download, print or share them now – in any one of 16 languages.
Click on the links below to access the UN posters in PDF format. Print files are available on request – send us an email on the contact form.
UN Partner Posters
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Mask wearing is the new norm. Want to know how to keep our mask clean and stay safe? Click to view, save and share the resource below:
How do you wash your hands when there’s no water? We developed this resource together with Conversation South Africa.
The COVID-19 pandemic is having devastating global impacts – but it’s important to remember that the spread of the Corona Virus is directly linked to the actions and behaviours of individuals.
Encouraging individuals to change their behaviours is a challenging communications task. Information alone is not enough. People must want to change and they must believe they are capable of that change. And first they must engage with the communication medium.
One of the key elements of the campaign is about ensuring that the messages are more about what you can do for others, than what you can do for yourself. “Altruism is a strong motivator” says Director Robert Inglis, “People are looking for ways they can help. Sharing relevant, relatable messages is one of the ways they can.”
The campaign uses comic characters to create strong identification amongst readers, and thanks to the incredible support of individuals and institutions around the world, has been translated into numerous languages.
You can download them for printing here, or simply save them and share them on your social media channels. The posters are published with a Creative Commons licenses so you are free to copy, print and share them (non-comercially and provided no changes are made).
If you are able to offer translation to a language we don’t yet have covered – please email us on the contact form.
Hay’khona is a South African expression signalling strong negative sentiment. We’re saying “No, not here!” to COVID-19.
The posters are also available in the languages listed below.
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Hip Hop U and Science Spaza kicked off National Science Week (NSW) with a bang!
We partnered with Bonwa Dance Company and learners from St. John’s DSG, Maritzburg College and Slangspruit Primary School to tackle this years theme, “Facing the Harsh Realities of Climate Change”. Read more