Programme gives kids hands-on experience of democracy

MOST kids don’t cast votes for political leaders or serve as a judge or a witness in a trial. But a programme in Joburg has children act out those experiences to help them understand what it means to live in a democracy.

Children have democratic rights, says Gretchen Wilson-Prangley, the founder and chief executive of Play Africa, a museum designed to teach kids critical skills and important life-changing lessons in “a playful way”.

A Play Africa programme called My Constitution aims to empower them to exercise these rights – which means teaching them how to make their voices heard.

Wilson-Prangley said when she arrived in South Africa 17 years ago she fell in love with our nation’s stories.

“This was shortly after Nelson Mandela was released from prison. I wanted to be a part of this excitement over what was called the ‘Rainbow Nation’.” This led to the idea for Play Africa. My Constitution came about as a result of her observation that many children in South Africa didn’t understand the rights guaranteed to them in the Constitution.

“I wanted to teach children how to practically voice their rights,” she said.

More than 3 000 children have been taught to speak out and WilsonPrangley’s team has produced a My Constitution package for teachers too.

The lessons are about participation. Kids enter a courtroom setting, for example, to learn how to speak as a witness in a trial. Or they learn to cast their vote in a pretend voting station.

“In one exercise, they write on signs and hold these up so that their voices are clearly stated in bold paint for all to see,” Wilson-Prangley said.

Children come up with powerful issues for the courtroom setting – such as the need for more books in schools and the importance of ending corporal punishment, she said. “They also love the feeling of voting – they take it so seriously – and one of the things we have noticed is how children get so excited to count the votes at the end of the election!”

Wilson-Prangley said a girl in Grade 5, who had testified in a real court case, was excited when they started the courtroom part of the programme. “She pulled our facilitators aside and said, ‘Please can I be the judge? I have been a witness in a case, so I know exactly what to do.’”

The programme allowed the girl to see herself as a someone who had wisdom and expertise to share.

Play Africa is based in an appropriate part of Joburg – Constitution Hill, the hub of South Africa's democracy.

“The Constitutional Court is based here and is made of the bricks of a former prison,” Wilson-Prangley said.

As a “museum without walls”, Play Africa has physical exhibits set up at Constitution Hill and in communities, on a rotating basis.

The material for My Constitution is specific to South Africa but she hopes to adapt it for other countries.

“Every democratic nation has its own story of democracy worth protecting.”