''Sesame Square'' is the

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

n version of ''

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) ...

''. It launched in 2011 as

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

's first ''Sesame Street'' adaptation.Webster, George.
HIV-positive muppet to star in Nigeria's 'Sesame Street'
" ''

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

. 6 October 2010. Retrieved 6 October 2010. Nigerians produce and voice the series in Standard English. It will be screened on

Nigerian Television Authority The Nigerian Television Authority or NTA is a Nigerian government-owned and partly commercial broadcast station. Originally known as Nigerian Television (NTV), it was inaugurated in 1977 with a monopoly on national television broadcasting, after ...

network. It is the second foreign co-production of Sesame Street to be shown entirely in English, the first being

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

's ''

Sesame Tree ''Sesame Tree'' is an adaptation of the American children's television series, ''Sesame Street'', which was made entirely in Northern Ireland. The series was produced by Belfast based production company, Sixteen South and Sesame Workshop. The fir ...

''.

Production

The series was co-produced by Sesame Workshop and Ileke Media. It was also produced in collaboration with education advisors from Nigeria's Ministries of Health and Education. Production was challenging as the creators had to balance social norms and traditions of multiple ethnic and religious groups in addition to Sesame Workshop's guidelines. There was also concern that emphasizing diversity over unity might be divisive. English was chosen as the program's main language out of a desire for the show to be "ethnically neutral"; however,

Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a ...

, Hausa, and

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

words were taught in some segments. In 2013 Sesame Workshop was given resources to dub the three seasons of the program into

Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...

. 39 episodes were eventually dubbed for the newly-titled ''Dandalin Sesame.''

Characters and location

The set of Sesame Square resembles a traditional Nigerian village with a central mango tree. The series stars

Kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

, 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

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 ...

(who was originally part of

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 ...

, the South African version of Sesame Street), and Zobi, a blue, furry Muppet who is a ' Yam Monster' (the Nigerian version of the

Cookie Monster Cookie Monster is a blue Muppet character on the long-running PBS/ HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street.'' In a song in 2004, and later in an interview in 2017, Cookie Monster revealed his real name as "Sid". He is best known for hi ...

in the American original).

Big Bird Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the long-running children's television show ''Sesame Street''. An eight-foot two-inch (249 cm) tall bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skat ...

, Bert, and Ernie, all characters who originated in the American production, also appear. The characters were revoiced, however, to give them Nigerian and American accents. Human characters included Uncle Ado. The opening theme tune is "Welcome to Sesame Square" and includes the use of

talking drums The talking drum is an Hourglass drum, hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, whose pitch can be regulated to mimic the tone (linguistics), tone and Prosody (linguistics), prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather t ...

. These are the segments were dubbed in Global Grover,

Play with Me Sesame ''Play with Me Sesame'' is an American children's television series, created by Sesame Workshop and Nickelodeon for their former joint venture Noggin. It is a spin-off of ''Sesame Street'' hosted by Ernie, Bert, Prairie Dawn, and Grover. The ser ...

, Elmo's World, Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures, and Sesame Street English.

Messaging

In addition to teaching letters and numbers, the show aims to educate children about

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

prevention, promote Nigerian unity through the representation of the diverse groups that make up the country, and to lessen the stigma of being HIV-positive. Girls' education and

vaccine A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.

education also feature as topics.

Episodes

The first season contains 26 episodes, one for each letter of the

English alphabet The alphabet for Modern English is a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an upper- and lower-case form. The word ''alphabet'' is a compound of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, ''alpha'' and '' beta''. ...

.Sesame Square to Debut in Nigeria
" '' Ebru News''. Retrieved 6 October 2010. The second season premiered in May 2012 and the third season was broadcast in September 2013. As of 2014 the show had 78 episodes total. Nigeria's Independence Day was featured in episodes from the first and third seasons.

Reception

In 2013 approximately 7.7 million children, aged 3-7, watched the program.

References

Television shows featuring puppetry Nigerian children's television series Sesame Street international co-productions English-language television shows 2010s Nigerian television series {{Nigeria-tv-prog-stub