Takalani Sesame: Collaboration and Harmony in the Rainbow Nation
When Nelson Mandela delivered his inaugural speech as South Africa’s first black and democratically-elected president, his words set the country on a course toward the future as a strong, hopeful, and united nation. Speaking in Pretoria on May 10, 1994, President Mandela said:
"We enter into a covenant that we shall build a society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world."
South Africa in 1994 was a place of joy and big dreams. It felt as though anything was possible. People felt it was finally within their grasp to reshape their country, which had been released from so much sadness and violence.
Takalani Sesame, the South African version of Sesame Street, was conceived during this period of national exhilaration, and it extends Mandela’s idea of a “rainbow nation” through its vision of the country as a racially harmonious and peaceful place. In the context of this national mood, it was exciting to envision a show that featured citizens of all races interacting, showed a village alongside a township, and applied an authentic African voice to the whole endeavor.
Takalani Sesame’s mood is as happy and carefree as the national mood at the time, as reflected in the name. “Takalani,” means “be happy” in TshiVenda, one of South Africa’s 11 official languages.
Many colors, one street
Seipati Bulani-Hopa, executive producer of Takalani Sesame’s first season, was eager to create a program that showed a South Africa that was communicating.
| The set of Takalani Sesame |
“The street needed to be a place where all the races came together,” she explains, saying that they strove to “create one place where all the accents were there and all the colors were there.”
When the first season aired in 2000, it achieved exactly that through the classic characters of Bert and Ernie. In this version of Sesame Street, Bert speaks with a black South African accent and Ernie with a white one, sending a message of collaboration and harmony to post-apartheid South Africa.
The team also wanted to maximize the material that showed children the beauty and power of their country and continent.
“We needed to show children the different images, the different visuals that go with South Africa,” says Bulani-Hopa. “Takalani Sesame gave us an opportunity to create a bigger presence for an African vision.”
The producers achieved this goal through the set, which shows rural, industrial, and township scenes. It was a top priority that the set resonated with all South African children, regardless of their background. Besides the varied street scenes, the set also features a train station. This is highly symbolic, Bulani-Hopa points out, because of a train’s ability to connect people, bringing parents back and forth from work and allowing children to visit family and friends.
“In the South Africa of my childhood [the train] was the ultimate connector,” she says.
Addressing the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic
As HIV/AIDS continues to have a devastating impact on South Africa’s children, Sesame Workshop is addressing the issue head on through Kami, a vibrant and loving HIV-positive Muppet. SinceSeptember 2002, Kami has helped dispel the culture of silence that prevents so many South Africans from seeking and receiving care for their illness.
“Sometimes when you’re ill, you mustn’t keep it a secret, you must tell people,“ Kami says in one Takalani Sesame episode.
| Kami (Takalani Sesame) |
The idea of an HIV-positive Muppet began to take shape early in 2002, when Sesame Workshop and South African partners met in South Africa and New York to discuss their commitment to addressing the HIV/AIDS issue on the show.
Producers thought carefully about what form this HIV-positive character should take – they were concerned about casting a child in this role because of the potential for social stigma, so the decision was made to create a Muppet.
The process of conceptualizing and building the golden yellow Muppet with a shock of ginger hair took five months – and deciding on her name took eight. The team was eager to select the right name for the Muppet, and after a lot of discussion, Yvonne Kgame, head of South African Broadcasting Co-operation Education TV, suggested the name “Kami,” which is derived from the Setswana word “Kamogelo,” meaning “acceptance.”
Kami has the characteristics of a five-year-old girl, and her personality is upbeat and helpful. In one episode, she points out that people need to help each other be happy. “If someone is sad, you must cheer them up!”
”Her whole intention is that she lives positively despite the fact that she has this disease,” says Sesame Workshop’s Takalani Sesame producer Naila Farouky. “She’s also asymptomatic, which people are becoming more familiar with, especially with the proliferation of drugs that the government has just started to make available.”
The challenge to include all South African languages
As of 2008, Takalani Sesame is in its fifth season, and is always seeking new ways to ensure that it resonates with each South African child. South Africa has 11 official languages, a fact that producers initially handled by interspersing each language throughout different segments.
| Moshe, Zuzu, Elmo, Zikwe, Kami (Takalani Sesame) |
Seeta Pai, Sesame Workshop’s director of international research, explains the shortcomings of this approach.
“Research showed that children would tune out a language that they didn’t understand, so it became counter-productive.”
In 2007, this all changed with the introduction of the “applied language approach.” Now, each episode of Takalani Sesame is produced in nine of the 11 languages; the broadcaster, SABC 1 and SABC 2, rotates the languages, dedicating one day a week to each.
The languages include seTswana (Tuesdays), tshiVenda (Wednesdays), isiZulu (Thursdays), sePedi (Fridays) and English on Mondays on SABC 1 and Saturdays on SABC 2. Season five, which aired in early 2008, included a new choice of languages including isiXhosa, xiTsonga, seSotho, Afrikaans, and English.
Farouky is proud of the result. “It’s the first time ever on South African television that the issue of having 11 official languages has been addressed in a dedicated way,” she says.
“Every child who speaks one of the nine languages can see the same program in their home language.”
Pai believes that the new language strategy is better suited to a child’s learning ability.
“Educationally, it is sound to give children a cognitive and language foundation in their native tongue,” she says.
The language solution presented a new challenge, however: the Muppeteers all had to learn languages that they didn’t normally speak. The Takalani team brought language coaches on to the set to smooth the language difficulties and prevent inadvertent mistakes.
“If you pronounce something wrong, it has cultural nuances. It could change the entire meaning of the word,” Farouky explains.
The new language strategy also extends to radio programming, with the series broadcasting in the languages relevant to each region.
The show has gone through a lot of growth since it was conceived back in 1994. When Bulani-Hopa thinks of a symbol that represents the show, she remembers a character from the first season who carried around a suitcase full of fascinating stories. ”The suitcase … represents Takalani Sesame,” she says. “It [brings] a wealth of wisdom and opportunities to learn.”
Takalani Sesame continues to seek new ways of presenting South Africa’s children with these opportunities to learn, in a way that’s inclusive of all races and languages, and regardless of whether they are living with HIV/AIDS.
It’s enough to make Nelson Mandela proud.
Funding Partners
ELMA Foundation (through SABC)
Mai Family Foundation
Sanlam Life Insurance Limited
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)
Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Production Partners
Kwasukasukela
SANLAM Life Insurance Limited
South African Broadcasting Corporation
South African Department of Education
Broadcasters
South African Broadcasting Corporation
