Kami is a character on ''

Takalani Sesame ''Takalani Sesame'' ("be happy Sesame" in Venda) is the South African version of the children's television program ''Sesame Street'', co-produced by Sesame Workshop and South African partners. The series debuted in 2000 and currently airs on SABC ...

'' and '' Sesame Square'', the respective

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and

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versions of the

children's television program Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

''. In 2002, Sesame Workshop announced that an

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

-positive character would be introduced to ''

'', the

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–funded

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n version of the show. This idea was considered crucial for an area where

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

is an

epidemic An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics ...

. The character's name, Kami, is derived from ''Kamogelo'', which means acceptance or 'a welcoming' in

Setswana Tswana, also known by its native name , and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu language family within the Sotho-Tswana branch of Zone ...

. Kami is a five-year-old HIV-positive girl

Muppet The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are ...

orphaned by AIDS who always has the sniffles; she is yellow and shaggy in appearance. Her

backstory A backstory, background story, back-story, or background is a set of events invented for a plot, presented as preceding and leading up to that plot. It is a literary device of a narrative history all chronologically earlier than the narrative of p ...

is that she contracted the disease as the result of a transfusion of tainted blood received as an infant; her mother also died of HIV/AIDS. Kami illustrates to Takalani's viewers how to deal with loss and sad feelings in a way that three- to seven-year-olds can understand. Kami was originally presented by Joel Schneider at the 14th

International AIDS Conference The International AIDS Society (IAS) is the world's largest association of HIV/AIDS professionals, with 11,600 members from over 170 countries , including clinicians, people living with HIV, service providers, policy makers and others. It aims to r ...

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, in 2002. Media reports at that time gave many the impression that this character was proposed for the American version of the program; some conservatives vigorously opposed the idea on the grounds that such a character could be "used to teach tolerance and acceptance of homosexuals". Republican congressmen

Billy Tauzin Wilbert Joseph Tauzin II (; born June 14, 1943) is an American lobbyist and politician. He was President and CEO of PhRMA, a pharmaceutical company lobby group. Tauzin was also a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1980 to ...

Chip Pickering Charles Willis "Chip" Pickering Jr. (born August 10, 1963) is an American businessman and former politician who has been the incumbent chief executive officer of Incompas since 2014. Pickering represented as a Republican in the United States H ...

Fred Upton Frederick Stephen Upton (born April 23, 1953) is an American politician serving as a U.S. representative from Michigan since 1987, representing the state's 6th congressional district since 1993. He is a member of the Republican Party. His dist ...

Joe Barton Joseph Linus Barton (born September 15, 1949) is an American politician who represented in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to 2019. The district included Arlington, part of Fort Worth, and several small towns and rural areas south ...

Richard Burr Richard Mauze Burr (born November 30, 1955) is an American businessman and politician who is the senior United States senator from North Carolina, serving since 2005. A member of the Republican Party, Burr was previously a member of the United ...

and

Cliff Stearns Clifford Bundy Stearns Sr. (born April 16, 1941) is an American businessman and politician who was the U.S. representative for from 1989 to 2013. He is a member of the Republican Party. On August 14, 2012, Stearns lost to veterinarian Ted Yoho ...

also cautioned

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

against introducing similarly affected Muppets to an American audience, reminding PBS that Congress could withhold funding. Kami has appeared at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

and at the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

and was interviewed by

Katie Couric Katherine Anne Couric ( ; born January 7, 1957) is an American journalist and presenter. She is founder of Katie Couric Media, a multimedia news and production company. She also publishes a daily newsletter, ''Wake Up Call''. From 2013 to 2017, ...

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

. Kami was named

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

's Champion for Children in November 2003 and has appeared in Takalani segments alongside

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

and

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

, amongst others.

References

External links

BBC article speculates on possible HIV+ Sesame character in the USA

* ttps://www.pbs.org/independentlens/worldaccordingtosesamestreet/ Kami's creators are interviewed in the Sundance Film Festival documentary "The World According to Sesame Street" Fictional characters with HIV/AIDS International Sesame Street characters Sesame Street Muppet characters Television characters introduced in 2002 {{Puppet-stub