Colonial Virus": COVID-19, creative arts and public health communication in Ghana.
Ghana Med J
; 54(4 Suppl): 86-96, 2020 Dec.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1436199
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 hadlimitations:
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.FUNDING:
None declared.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Public Health
/
Health Communication
/
COVID-19
/
Health Promotion
/
Medicine in the Arts
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Africa
Language:
English
Journal:
Ghana Med J
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
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