Zaluso Arts takes on gambling
A local creative platform, Zaluso Arts, is on a mission to curb effects of gambling among youths through music, poetry, photography and speeches.
A joint statement from the organisation states that the songs are a powerful reflection of the project’s outcomes, focusing on the consequences of gambling on individuals and communities and aimed at bringing to light the lived-experiences related to gambling in the country.
“The release of the songs and their accompanying videos is an exciting development for Zaluso Arts and the Gambling Realities Africa collective by providing a platform to share their findings and creative outputs with a wider audience,” reads the statement in part.
The project is based on a research Zaluso Arts conducted in collaboration with the Malawi Epidemiology Intervention and Research Unit (Meiru), University of Bath in England and the University of Glasgow under the block Gambling Realities Africa Collective.
The research aimed at bringing critical evidence to understand gambling and reduce gambling-related harms across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The platform was formed as part of the British Academy funded project, ‘Leisure or Livelihoods’, which delved into uncovering youth perspectives on gambling in Malawi and Ghana.
Meanwhile, the local platform is engaging youths in creating plays, songs, poems and images that depict the adverse effects of gambling on families, relationships and communities. The art creations are also offering encouragement to those suffering from addiction.
Zaluso Arts director of programmes Otiyela Mtema in a separate interview yesterday said the songs are part of an array of creative outputs from the research, which include drama and provocative images.
He said they want to make people look at the growing commercialised forms of gambling critically.
Mtema said: “We wanted to find out the perspectives that youths have in relation to gambling. We have encountered both negative and positive stories even though the negative ones outweighed the positives.”
Zaluso Arts said the project is in line with the organisation’s mission of using the arts to drive social impact.
Mtema said engaging youths in research and creative production highlights the significant role that they can play in effecting social change.
Malawi Gaming and Lotteries Authority public relations officer Mirriam Kumbuyo said as a regulator they run several initiatives to check both underage and irresponsible gambling.
“We visit schools where we engage pupils and enlighten them on the dangers of irresponsible gambling. Through our set mechanisms, we also make interventions such as barring the accounts of particular individuals when the situation gets out of hand,” she said.
