Africa: Reimagining Albinism Rights Advocacy

Try an Applied Theater Technique

It is a hot afternoon in a rural district in Malawi. People gather around a tent set up at the Local Trading Center, eager to witness a community outreach program that aims to combat rising violence against people with albinism.

The organizers passionately encourage greater understanding of albinism and the protection of the rights of people with albinism. They ask questions to ensure the listeners have comprehended what has been discussed. At the appointed time, the advocates depart, pleased with the community’s feedback during this short session. “This outreach has been a success,” they say.

While these sessions raise awareness, they often do not actively engage participants in challenging the underlying stigma. They’re mostly passive, so attendees may remember the information briefly, but there’s little follow-up or practical engagement to transform attitudes or behaviors in the long term. Tracking lasting change or impact is difficult.

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As a disability rights advocate, I have seen how unsustainable this approach can be. Also, as a theater practitioner, I aim to combine what I learned in class with my advocacy work. In my efforts to help the community understand albinism, I have utilized an applied theater technique called forum theater.

I create short plays based on real-life injustices faced by people with albinism, illustrating how these barriers deprive both individuals and their communities of their full participation. I offer the audience a glimpse into our lived experiences and let them feel what we feel.

Applied theater approaches usually include follow-up or visits to address any emerging issues and reinforce learning. This makes applied theater more effective for sustaining behavioral or attitudinal change.

Forum theater also invites community members to literally step into the shoes of the characters during the play to suggest and enact their own solutions. This co-creation of ideas empowers the community to address injustices and actively support people with albinism.

Furthermore, this approach enables me to record the community’s proposed solutions and turn them into tangible commitments. These then serve as a foundation for tracking progress to ensure that the rights of people with albinism are actively protected through the very actions the community itself suggests.

I believe that, to be fully effective and sustainable, advocacy needs to move beyond just performance. It has to become a shared act of critical reflection, one that is sustainable and bears fruit long after the advocacy activities have ended.

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