de-Graft Aikins, A;
Akoi-Jackson, B;
(2020)
“Colonial virus”: COVID-19, creative arts and public health communication in Ghana.
Ghana Medical Journal
, 54
(4)
pp. 86-96.
10.4314/GMJ.V54I4S.13.
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Abstract
Since March 2020, Ghana's creative arts communities have tracked the complex facets of the COVID-19 pandemic through various art forms. This paper reports a study that analysed selected 'COVID art forms' through arts and health and critical health psychology frameworks. Art forms produced between March and July 2020, and available in the public sphere - traditional media, social media and public spaces - were collated. The data consisted of comedy, cartoons, songs, murals and textile designs. Three key functions emerged from analysis: health promotion (comedy, cartoons, songs); disease prevention (masks); and improving the aesthetics of the healthcare environment (murals). Textile designs performed broader socio-cultural functions of memorialising and political advocacy. Similar to earlier HIV/AIDS and Ebola arts interventions in other African countries, these Ghanaian COVID art forms translated public health information on COVID-19 in ways that connected emotionally, created social awareness and improved public understanding. However, some art forms had limitations: for example, songs that edutained using fear-based strategies or promoting conspiracy theories on the origins and treatment of COVID-19, and state-sponsored visual art that represented public health messaging decoupled from socio-economic barriers to health protection. These were likely to undermine the public health communication goals of behaviour modification. We outline concrete approaches to incorporate creative arts into COVID-19 public health interventions and post-pandemic health systems strengthening in Ghana.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | “Colonial virus”: COVID-19, creative arts and public health communication in Ghana |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.4314/GMJ.V54I4S.13 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.4314/gmj.v54i4s.13 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s). This is an Open Access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, creative arts, public health communication, behaviour change, Ghana |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > SHS Faculty Office UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > SHS Faculty Office > UCL Institute for Advanced Studies |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10124534 |
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