University of Alberta professors enlist country’s biggest pop stars to save lives through a song, titled “Lib Yaleh,” involving renowned Ethiopian singers Zeritu Kebede and Tadele Gemechu.
By Geoff McMaster (Folio)
Roger Turnell had his doubts after seeing the lyrics for “Lib Yaleh” for the first time.
“How the hell is a song about a man singing about the death of his wife and child going to sell?” wondered the director of the University of Alberta’s (U of A) Ethiopia-Canada Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Project.
And how will such a depressing sentiment have any effect in reducing the high rate of maternal deaths in Ethiopia, the intended audience for the song?
The lyrics are without a doubt heart-wrenching and bleak, but when Turnell showed them to a group of Ethiopian midwives, their reaction surprised him.
“That will go over great,” they said. “It will really sell in this country.”
The song and video were released on 24 October 2019 in Addis Ababa, with a national press conference involving UNICEF, Global Affairs Canada and Ethiopia’s ministries of education and health.
Along with the tragic story, the song’s refrain is blunt and unrelenting: if the father had taken his pregnant wife to the clinic, he wouldn’t have lost her and the child.
The accompanying video ends with a scene of expectant mothers seeking care at a clinic, followed by a happy family, smiling baby and a tagline: “Care at the clinic saves lives.”
Now that “Lib Yaleh”—which means “If you have heart”—and the video are released, fingers are crossed the message will spread widely and help curtail abnormally high rates of maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity in Ethiopia. The rates are especially inflated in rural areas where 80 per cent of expectant mothers choose to give birth at home rather than in a health center.
Promoting public health with music
The idea to tackle maternal mortality in Ethiopia through song started with Michael Frishkopf, the director of the U of A-based Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology, who has devoted much of his career to spreading positive messages about public health through music.
“When I found out about this project, I thought we should do some music,” he said.
“A song is so powerful because it combines ideas and emotion.
“It galvanizes people around an issue and it’s repeatable. People actually go home singing and humming it. It’s broadcastable and can hit every corner of the country—and it overcomes illiteracy.”
The overall maternal mortality rate in Ethiopia is somewhere between 350 to 450 per 100,000 live births, said Turnell. In Canada the rate is six per 100,000.
Continue reading this story at U of A’s Folio