About the Project

Makutano Junction – The Soap Opera

Makutano Junction is a gripping Kenyan produced TV soap opera which currently attracts over seven million viewers in Kenya alone. It aims both to entertain and educate English-speaking African audiences. Set in a fictional Kenyan village,  it follows  the loves and lives of a colourful cast; romance, comedy, corruption, tragedy — it’s all in there!

As well as entertaining audiences, Makutano Junction, like the Archers, was conceived as a means of disseminating valuable information through an engaging and accessible medium. Makutano Junction viewers identify issues of interest to them, such as income-generation, mental and physical health, and rights and responsibilities of good citizens, which are then incorporated into the storylines. Eight series (comprising 13 half hour episodes each) have now been produced and are being broadcast in Africa.

Makutano Junction - The Development Education Project

Thanks to funding from DFID, the producers of Makutano Junction, Mediae, have teamed up with Just Ideas, DECs and teachers across the UK to devise innovative teaching materials which help you develop the Global Dimension across the curriculum.

There are 15 activities at present, with 5 more coming soon. Subject areas include social justice, human rights, youth and relationships, as well as comparisons between soaps in UK and Kenya. Materials suitable for Key Stages 3 and 4 are currently being developed, that can be used in a wide range of subject areas including Geography, English/Drama, Media Studies, ICT and Citizenship.

The first 10 activities have been tested in the South West with teachers, DECs and students and follow up studies showed that they had a positive impact on changing students’ perceptions about poverty, Africa and our global interdependency. The project is now being rolled out in Yorkshire / Humber and the North East.

Comments from students from the South West.

“It’s lush!”

“We expected Kenya to be really poor, but there are skyscrapers and that as well”

“When Red had her nails and hair done, I wouldn’t have expected them to have that – we wear fake nails; I didn’t think they would”

“I thought the men would dress in dresses, but they don’t – they wear trousers. some wear jeans, like us”

“I didn’t expect there to be market stalls, like in Eastenders”