Takalani Sesame


Takalani Sesame is the South African version of the children's television program Sesame Street, co-produced by Sesame Workshop and South African partners.
According to Sesame Workshop, Takalani Sesame is a "uniquely South African interpretation of the Sesame model, engaging children and their parents and promoting basic school readiness, literacy, numeracy, and health and hygiene." Takalani Sesame also has a special focus on HIV/AIDS awareness and seeks to introduce HIV/AIDS safety while promoting tolerance and reducing stigma. The Takalani series also includes a popular radio program, a newspaper and magazine comic strip series, and a national campaign which encourages adults to talk to their children about HIV/AIDS and related issues.
The show incorporates all of South Africa's 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Ndebele, Sesotho, Northern Sotho, Tsonga, Tswana and Venda.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, and Nane Annan have made guest appearances on the show. Season 11 of the show was scheduled to begin on 1 June 2020 at 15:30 on South African television channel SABC 2.

Characters

  1. The Muppets sing "Doing the Family Thing"
  2. The Muppets see the importance of exercise in "What I Can Do" and "Mika Skipping Rope"
  3. The song "That's what friends are for" explores the qualities of a friend
  4. Zikwe writes a "book about me"
  5. Takalani Sesame is holding a party about food
  6. In "Sunrise to Sunset", we see the movement of the sun during the day; a farmer plants corn and waits for rain
  7. The Muppets learn that whenever we talk about transport we must also talk about safety; a bird helps a monkey get bananas
  8. This is what my body can do
  9. The children look at some special things that they can make or do
  10. Children make their own elephant masks for a performance
  11. Children greet each other in 11 languages
  12. A little boy's sister has HIV and learns coping strategies
  13. Losing things, looking for them and finding them are at the heart of this show
  14. This show looks at different feelings and how we can express these feelings
  15. Zuzu and Moshe share memories of toys they used to have; combing your hair can be fun
  16. In a song we learn that insects are part of the circle of life
  17. The Muppets and the children learn that everything and everybody needs water
  18. In this show we see the Muppets busy with activities that need persistence and concentration; an ant works around an obstacle in his path
  19. Zikwe and Zuzu use a telescope to look at the moon

    Controversies

The introduction of an HIV-positive Muppet to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS was widely criticised by the U.S. political right, with such groups as the American Family Association seeing it as a means for homosexual activists to influence young viewers. An estimated 17% of South Africa's population aged 15–49 have HIV/AIDS.