Abstract
In the context of consistently poor provision of state maternity services to impoverished women in western Kenya over many decades, this article discusses the use of arts in relation to researching subaltern perspectives and enabling subaltern voices to be heard by the powerful. The argument is made that behaviour change agendas are almost always top down, while requirements for the authorities to engage with subaltern voices are minimal and frequently resisted. Case studies are offered of two artistic interventions—a play and a documentary film, made in 2018 and 2019 respectively, which sought to engage medical authorities and the middle classes regarding the consequences of the, sometimes very weak, implementation of Kenya’s excellent policies in relation to maternal health for the poor. In conclusion, the question of how to more effectively enable the powerless to speak to power is discussed.
Highlights
In western Kenya, large numbers of women and babies are dying, in a large part because of problems with state maternity services
There are some notable organisations, perhaps Jana Sanskriti in India (Ganguly 2010), which have adhered to the original intention of Forum Theatre, but this has not been the case when development agencies adopt the form, where it routinely becomes faux democratic; this is it is ostensibly open to debate but pushes specific social and behaviour change messaging and never, to my knowledge, empowers ordinary people to challenge more than very local leadership (Plastow 2009)7
The central problem in speaking to power is that the powerful like critique no more than most of the rest of us, but they are often in a more privileged position when it comes to resisting or even shutting down those who question them, especially when the challengers are poor and uneducated. This is one reason for using group art forms to undertake speaking to power, as a community group is always going to be less vulnerable than an individual, if they have outside backing, in the case discussed here by our project, as an internationally funded and staffed piece of research
Summary
In western Kenya, large numbers of women and babies are dying, in a large part because of problems with state maternity services. As a result of these workshops and the stories I heard there, of the poor treatment of women in state-run facilities, and with the active encouragement of many participants, I decided to use my skills as an artist/facilitator/researcher to make two creative works; a play and a television documentary. This would enable the experiences that had been shared with me to be brought to the attention of both those who had direct responsibility for state maternity services: health professionals and politicians, and to the wider Kenyan middle class public who attend private health facilities and never go to a government clinic or hospital. I argue that the tendency to put responsibility and blame for poor life choices on subaltern subjects, as implied in much behaviour change activity, is a neo-liberal, individualist strategy that undermines possibilities for building community cohesion and fails to challenge a range of powerful, and political, entities when they betray their responsibilities and promises to marginalised citizens
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
