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Kalamu ya Salaam's information blog

 

BY MARYAM KAZEEM 

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Girl Power & Empowerment:

Yegna, Ethiopia’s Spice Girls

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In case you missed it, the UK Department for International Development and Girls’ Hub (Nike) recently presented their very own version of the Spice Girls in Ethiopia. The combination of a campaign for girl’s rights and a music campaign might seem a bit cheeky — but the response to the new power group Yegna and their hit single “Abet” featuring Haile Roots (above) suggests that the campaign is welcomed by audiences throughout the diaspora. Yegna means “ours” in Aramaic and the campaign has been specially designed to “provide positive role models for Ethiopian young women and girls through music, radio, drama and so on. Since the project consists of a radio drama, it tells the story of 5 young women from different walks of life whose “shared love of music creates an unlikely friendship that each character draws on as she faces different challenges.” 

This project seems like a more practical and active way to address girls running the world, rather than just singing it — over and over again. But the idea does leave us with a few questions like: did the Spice Girls themselves really have a positive influence on young girls and their sense of self? How does the Ethiopian context change the message of girl power from it’s supposed birth in the Spice Girls’ era. Most significantly, how will this campaign actually translate into material progress for girl’s rights in Ethiopia?

If anything, the Yegna project seems like what the Spice Girls wish they could have been in terms of girl or female empowerment. Girl power had many moments, but in reality the idea was somewhat empty and certainly a commodified way to help build their brand (we don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the campaign was more about the “Spice Girls” than “Girl Power” itself). A creative way to campaign for girl’s rights indeed, the question now is: will other countries try and follow suit?

 

>via: http://www.okayafrica.com/2013/05/10/yegna-ehtiopia-spice-girls/