Author: Vibeke Quaade, Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke Uganda
Date: January 3, 2007
Source: Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke  http://www.ms.dk/sw58900.asp

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At the World Social Forum MS Uganda will illustrate how to use a series of easy-to-digest civic education material about democratic and non-democratic practices. ‘Democracy as a way of life’ is the name of the concept.

It all began in 1999. The Ugandan teacher and local politician Rita Popo went to Denmark to take a closer look at the Danish democracy. For eight weeks she traveled around with a group of other participants from Central America and Africa and experienced how democracy is practiced in Denmark; at the parliament, in schools, in membership organizations, hospitals and at family level.

When Rita Popo returned to Uganda, she suggested that MS Uganda began its own democracy project. The basic idea should be to demystify democracy as solely being a political system and explain it as a way of life.

- In Uganda the general public’s conception is that democracy is a political system which only comes into play by election time. And Uganda is not unique in that respect. We share this problem with many other African countries. I think it is because democracy has been introduced to us as something which is very far away from people’s daily life, says Rita Popo.

Many channels of communication

The ‘Democracy as a way of life’-series includes a democracy handbook, a cartoon book which illustrates the text with a stitch of humor, posters and debate cards as well as manuals on how to teach democracy through discussions, brainstorming while introducing a new subject, encouragement of open and provocative questions, role plays, group work, story telling, field trips, case studies, you name it.

The list is long, but the key principle in all of the methods is participation and creative thinking opposed to one-way communication.

On the World Social Forum the Ugandan forum theatre group International Anti-Corruption Theatre Movement (IATM) will set the stage for problem solutions in a democratic manner. They will use a family situation as an example: The father tries to prevent his daughter to go to school, and beats her up when she does her homework instead of fetching water. The daughter does not know what to do; obey her farther or do her schoolwork. The audience is invited to take part in the play and come up with interactive practical solutions.

Demystifies democracy

Rita Popo states that she is eager to take part in the World Social Forum 2007 to share the vision Democracy as a way of life as a practical instrument to overcome the root causes of poverty.

- Democracy as a way of life demystifies democracy. It makes it a matter of how people relate to each other and respect each others rights at all levels; in the family, in the community and all the way to the national and international level. With this approach democracy has become easy to share with people and the reaction we get is like; why didn’t you tell us this before?

Coming up with the ‘Democracy as a way of life’ concept took a lot of research, drafts and throws-a-ways. And it was not before the Tanzanian born cartoonist Sammy Mwamkinga began sketching daily life situations in a humored manner and related them to democratic and non-democratic practices that the project really took of.

But by 2002 when the first democracy cartoon book was published and selected drawings from the book were enlarged to eye catching posters, there was no doubt. The democracy project was a success, people loved it and the former Ugandan president Godfrey Binaisa officially launched the project.
 
Hit a core in people

The following years new materials were developed, and MS Uganda’s democracy team began to approach official Ugandan institutions like the National Curriculum Development Centre to contribute in developing a new thematic curriculum for Primary School to take of in February 2007.

The democracy team also offered Uganda’s Local Government Association to make some training manuals in governance and democratic practices and got involved in the National Civic Education Programme to be carried out before the February 2006 election, which was the first multiparty election in Uganda for more than 20 years.

Japhes Biimbwa is Programme Officer at MS Uganda, and together with Rita Popo one of the frontrunners of the democracy project. He recalls the reactions when the series was launched:

- The cartoon book hit a core in people. Words like human rights, good governance, participation and community responsibility all of a sudden made sense when they were illustrated in a cartoon and related to people’s own life.

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Other stories from Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke:

Slum youth to perform at the WSF - By Christina Bonde Pedersen, MS-Kenya, January 2, 2007

The youth will put Tanzania on the world map - By Lisbeth Jensen, MS-Tanzania, January 2, 2007

Will Nairobi be the graveyard of Neo-liberalism? - By Patrick Ochieng, Steering Committee Member KSF, January 4, 2007

Singer pulled crowds to the MS Kenya stall - By Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke Kenya, January 24, 2007