Can karaoke change the world?
Of course not! I thought to myself as I watched someone scramble up to our designated DJ for the night to put in a song request.
I was a thousand miles away from home, having travelled across an ocean and multiple timezones to reach the We Lead Bootcamp in Maputo, Mozambique. The agenda for the bootcamp was shared a few days prior and I definitely hadn’t seen karaoke on there.
When you think of change-makers, you think of them as serious-looking, collared shirt-wearing, coffee-inhaling, black file-holding, keyboard-punching, note-taking crusaders raising their clenched fists in the air at opportune moments. You hardly ever imagine them as a bunch of young people belting out songs at highly questionable pitches. And yet, here I was. In a nondescript room on a piece of land wedged between a river and an ocean, at karaoke night with a group of young leaders who had just a few hours ago worked on the next phase of a global project on sexual and reproductive rights.
Organised ahead of the Global Linking and Learning Festival of the We Lead programme, the bootcamp was an opportunity for the Community of Action Facilitators (CoAFs) to connect and learn from each other. An innovative program, We Lead aims to strengthen the influence and position of young women whose sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are neglected the most. It targets young women and adolescent girls who: live with HIV; face vulnerability and discrimination, live with a disability; and/or are affected by displacement. Over the course of four days, the CoAFs spoke about the context of sexual health and reproductive rights in their countries and local communities, the inspiring activism of feminist organisations on the ground, the dilemmas of donors, the follies of funders and the spirit of stakeholders to power through the highs and the lows.
I went into it expecting serious discussions, formal sessions, a projector in a room with overhead white lights and I came out of it with my head buzzing with conversations on leadership, youth power, contextualising change, and the best karaoke songs – among other things.
As I headed to the airport, ready to hop back across an ocean, I had a thought that made me smile (despite the 22 hour journey ahead). You don’t stop singing karaoke just because your pitch isn’t perfect, do you? You belt out song after song, giddy with the feeling of infinite possibilities in the palm of your hand, music in your ears and the opportunity to sing. Perhaps that’s what the future feels like when I look at the young leaders I had the privilege to meet and interact with. A realm of infinite possibilities where everyone gets a chance to pick a song and sing it out loud. At least that’s what I imagine it to be, if only we have the percipience to pass the mic to young people.
So, going back to where we started – Can karaoke change the world? Perhaps it can. What I can say with unshakeable certainty is that the young leaders I met at the We Lead Bootcamp most definitely can. And I’m quite certain they’ll do it with a song in their heart.
Here’s to Marie, Marcia, Funom, Nour, Martha, Ligia, Laura, Betty, Haneen, and to the brilliant teams at Restless Development, Positive Vibes, Hivos, Amodefa, Fondo Centroamericano de Mujeres, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and The African Women’s Development and Communication Network that support them to lead, together.
Learn more about the We Lead program and our work on sexual and reproductive rights here.