Western Province

In the long run, in fighting the enormous HIV/Aids epidemic, even the most brilliant minds have lost their way through deepening casualties and mortality statistics.

It is an easy virus to get depressed about, and in that, easy to lose focus on the fight.

For Esapan Ngoma, though, you fight the depression and disease with positivity, and you find positivity through son.

Esapan Ngoma, an anti-Aids clubs uses drama and song to encourage people to overcome the psychological woes of the virus and lead nearly-complete lives.

"If talks were creating impacts in this region, I guess more than 55 per cent would have avoided catching HIV for the last decade at least,” says Dieudonne Kubwinana, director of Ngoma.

Looking smart in white and black traditional wear the group of 19 does its thing.

Girls in the group are always first to show how HIV/Aids is a threat and a danger to Africa as a whole; but they tell it through art, interpretive dance, and body language.

Then there are the vigorous boys who use spears and shields to ‘chase’ the virus out of Africa through being faithful to sexual partners, abstinence until marriage, as well as use of condoms for those who can’t be patient.

Song and dancer are universal.

And then they sing.

Inspiring words tell us through music that HIV/Aids is not the end of the road; the virus is not a disability, and many have lived long with it inside of them.

"Music reaches out to even the meanest heart as well as all institutions of life,” says Dieudonne.

"One would wonder why they sing during a burial ceremony or perhaps at war.

The sound of music is felt by all worlds and with people always meticulous to know what the content is.”

The club sites examples of musicians who are to be remembered through their songs in fighting bad policies as well as putting their countries on map.

South Africa’s Lucky Dube sensitized fellow country men against apartheid, and Uganda’s late Philly Lutaya sang ‘Today its Me’, about HIV victims in Kampala.

"We have short skits about family planning, as well as assuring people about the effect of anti-retroviral medication,” says deputy chairman Bosco Kanimba.

The club is set to invest  money in English language trainings so that they can teach in all three official languages.

According to the club, 15 per cent of Western Province has come for free tests and 20 per cent have been persuaded to use anti-retroviral drugs.

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