This project is COMPLETED - Read the Project Report

In the Gambia, women’s songs have long provided an important medium for communication and social support in the context of high levels of illiteracy and a cultural preference for oral forms of communication. This project aimed to investigate the way women have adapted their musical practices in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aims

Findings

The project showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has inspired shifts in women’s practices of musical creativity and dissemination, including new forms of engagement with social media. In particular, the research highlighted the way increasing use of social media has affected the dynamics of inclusion, exclusion, authority, and leadership in women’s health communication work. Social media has enabled women to share their ideas and their music more widely and to build new social networks. At the same time, social media use has reinforced gendered patterns of exclusion, with many women unable to participate in social media platforms due to illiteracy, lack of access to a Working smartphone, lack of money to buy data, or lack of access to mobile networks or electricity. Finally, the project has identified the increased importance of women’s musical groups as familiar, trusted communicators in the face of widespread misinformation about COVID-19 (shared largely through social media) and mistrust of health authorities. The research exceeded expectations, and has therefore turned into a longer-term project, with further in-person research planned for 2023.

Project Team

External Collaborators