Esengo (“Joy”): Methods for Developing a Song and Animated Music Video for Reducing Stigma With Sex Professionals in Pointe-Noire, Congo

Song-making is a powerful tool with the potential to harness cultural knowledge to reduce stigma and support community-led advocacy. HIV prevalence (8.1%) among sex professionals in Congo is double the national average, yet stigma and discrimination deter sex professionals from accessing needed healthcare. Limited research has focused on developing music videos for reducing sex work-related stigma. In the Congolese context, music and song-making are deeply embedded cultural practices for storytelling and solidarity, making them especially resonant vehicles for community-led stigma reduction efforts. This manuscript describes the process of creating Esengo (“Joy”), a song and music video, to reduce stigma and promote the health and rights of sex professionals in Pointe-Noire, Congo. Esengo applies a strengths-based approach to address stigma by incorporating song lyrics, rhythms and melodies created and performed by sex professionals, first identifying ‘problems’ in sites of stigma followed by descriptions of ‘solutions’ that reflect improved community and healthcare scenarios, including animation of sex professional’s visual drawings. Lyrics, melodies, and drawings originate from a participatory mapping intervention that we developed and piloted with sex professionals in Pointe-Noire. We piloted Esengo with sex professionals and healthcare workers, who provided qualitative feedback on their emotional responses and perceptions of stigma, indicating its potential as a health promotion resource and stigma reduction tool. The process underscored how joy can be mobilized for social change, community slogans through songs can strengthen social movements, and community-based co-creation can itself facilitate knowledge translation. This community-based approach to song making may be adapted for other contexts, populations, and health issues to support sex professional-related and other stigma reduction, health promotion, training, and community empowerment.