Page 190 - The Power to Change Anything

Find Strength in Numbers 179

and men. And yet these people felt unable to exert sufficient
influence to change the behavior they despised. So Japhet gave
them a way. In his own words:
“On the TV program Soul City, we purposefully created a
well-respected teacher, Thabang, who repeatedly abused his
likable wife Matlakala. Viewers—both male and female—
quickly concluded that Matlakala didn’t deserve the abuse as
tradition had often spoken. She was pleasant, easy to get along
with, and nothing more than an innocent victim. Equally
curious, Thabang was mostly a reasonable and good person—
much like themselves.”
Then the writers showed how interested friends and neigh-
bors could be part of the solution. Dr. Arvind Singhal, who
served as a research adviser to Soul City, reports, “On one
episode the neighbors hear Thabang beating poor Matlakala
and they can take it no longer, so they decide to let Thabang
know that his actions aren’t going unobserved. But how?
How could they let Thabang know without being too intrusive?
How could they do it without putting themselves at physical
risk? Saying something directly would be unacceptable and
dangerous.”
Dr. Singhal explains. “To send their violent neighbor the
message that his behavior is neither private nor acceptable, the
neighbors gather outside Thabang’s front door and bang pots
and pans. They don’t say a word; they just bang pots and pans.”
In the program, Thabang becomes embarrassed and begins to
change his behavior.
What happened after that was totally unexpected. People
in several townships across South Africa, upon hearing the
sounds of spousal abuse next door, began to stand in front of
their neighbor’s homes and bang pots and pans.
The power of vicarious modeling had worked its magic.
The message was out. Men would no longer be allowed to
abuse their wives with impunity. Violent behavior, and the col-
lective silence that supported it, were not part of the new norm.