''Takalani Sesame'' ("be happy Sesame" in

Venda Venda () was a Bantustan in northern South Africa, which is fairly close to the South African border with Zimbabwe to the north, while to the south and east, it shared a long border with another black homeland, Gazankulu. It is now part of the ...

) is the

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

n version 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) ...

'', co-produced by Sesame Workshop and

n partners. The series debuted in 2000 and currently airs on SABC 2. According to Sesame Workshop, ''Takalani Sesame'' is a "uniquely

n interpretation of the Sesame model, engaging children and their parents and promoting basic school readiness, literacy, numeracy, and health and hygiene." ''Takalani Sesame'' also has a special focus on

HIV/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 ...

awareness and seeks to introduce HIV/AIDS safety while promoting tolerance and reducing stigma. The Takalani series also includes a popular radio program, a newspaper and magazine comic strip series, and a national campaign which encourages adults to talk to their children about HIV/AIDS and related issues. The show incorporates all of

South Africa's 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 ...

official languages An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, Zulu,

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

Swazi Swazi may refer to: * Swazi people, a people of southeastern Africa * Swazi language * Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked coun ...

Ndebele Ndebele may refer to: *Southern Ndebele people, located in South Africa *Northern Ndebele people, located in Zimbabwe and Botswana Languages * Southern Ndebele language, the language of the South Ndebele *Northern Ndebele language Northern ...

Sesotho Sotho () or Sesotho () or Southern Sotho is a Southern Bantu language of the Sotho–Tswana ("S.30") group, spoken primarily by the Basotho in Lesotho, where it is the national and official language; South Africa (particularly the Free ...

Northern Sotho Northern Sotho, or as an endonym, is a Sotho-Tswana language spoken in the northeastern provinces of South Africa. It is sometimes referred to as or , its main dialect, through synecdoche. According to the South African National Census o ...

, Tsonga,

Tswana Tswana may refer to: * Tswana people, the Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions * Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people * Bophuthatswana, the former ba ...

and

TshiVenda Venda or Tshivenda is a Bantu language and an official language of South Africa. It is mainly spoken by the Venda people in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo province, as well as by some Lemba people in South Africa. The Venda lan ...

Characters

The series features a number of

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 ...

characters.

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-positive five-year old muppet, joined the show in its third season in 2002. Basma and Jad, who both originated in Ahlan Simsim, debuted on Takalani in its thirteenth season. Other muppet characters include: * Moshe * Zikwe * Kupukeji *

Elmo Elmo is a red Muppet monster character on the long-running PBS/ HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street''. A furry red monster who has a falsetto voice and illeism, he hosts the last full five-minute segment (fifteen minutes prio ...

(named "Neno" from 2000 to 2016, or sometimes 2019) * Zuzu *

Grover Grover is a blue Muppet character on the popular PBS/HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street''. Self-described as lovable, cute and furry, he is a blue monster who rarely uses contractions when he speaks or sings. Grover was originall ...

Guests

Archbishop Desmond Tutu,

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founde ...

, and Nane Annan have made guest appearances on the show. Season 13 featured guest appearances from celebrities like Jason and Nicholas Goliath, David Kau,

Sho Madjozi Maya Christinah Xichavo Wegerif (born 9 May 1992), known professionally as Sho Madjozi ( ), is a South African rapper, singer, songwriter, actress and poet. Madjozi incorporates the Tsonga culture through her music and public image. In 20 ...

and Holly Rey.

Crew

* Executive producer: Seipati Bulane-Hopa * Chief producer: Horace Rayners * Director of operations: Stan Joseph * Line Producer: Shame * Producer: Pulane Boesak * Digital Producer: Joy Ngoma

Episodes

Season 11 of the show was scheduled to begin on 1 June 2020 on South African television channel

SABC 2 SABC 2 is a South African family public television channel owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). SABC 2 broadcasts programming in English, Sepedi, Afrikaans, Venda, and Tsonga. As of August 2018, the channel started broad ...

. Season 12 played from 7 June 2021 to 3 December 2021 at 15:30 weekdays on

. Season 12 currently repeats weekdays at 07:00 on Sabc1. Season 13 started on 6 June 2022 on Sabc2 at 15:30 and will run for 130 episodes.

List of episodes

* Season 1 (September 2000 – March 2001) # The Muppets sing "Doing the Family Thing" (2000) # The Muppets see the importance of exercise in "What I Can Do" and "Mika Skipping Rope" (2000) # The song "That's what friends are for" explores the qualities of a friend (2000) # Zikwe writes a "book about me" (2000) # Takalani Sesame is holding a party about food (2000) # In "Sunrise to Sunset", we see the movement of the sun during the day; a farmer plants corn and waits for rain (2000) # The Muppets learn that whenever we talk about transport we must also talk about safety; a bird helps a monkey get bananas (2000) # This is what my body can do (2000) # The children look at some special things that they can make or do (2000) # Children make their own elephant masks for a performance (2000) # Children greet each other in 11 languages (2000) # A little boy's sister has HIV and learns coping strategies (2000) # Losing things, looking for them and finding them are at the heart of this show (2001) # This show looks at different feelings and how we can express these feelings (2001) # Zuzu and Moshe share memories of toys they used to have; combing your hair can be fun (2001) # In a song we learn that insects are part of the circle of life (2001) # The Muppets and the children learn that everything and everybody needs water (2001) # In this show we see the Muppets busy with activities that need persistence and concentration; an ant works around an obstacle in his path (2001) # Zikwe and Zuzu use a telescope to look at the moon (2001)

Awards

In late 2022 the program was nominated for an Annual Kidscreen Award in the Preschool Programming category.

Controversies

The introduction of an HIV-positive Muppet,

, to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS was widely criticised by the U.S.

political right Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, auth ...

, with such groups as the American Family Association seeing it as a means for homosexual activists to influence young viewers.GOP Grouchy Over HIV Muppet
/ref> An estimated 17% of South Africa's population aged 15–49 have HIV/AIDS.

References

External links

Official Website

IMDb - ''Takalani Sesame''Sesame Workshop Website

* ttp://cache-origin.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,10235,00.html?newsrellink An HIV-positive muppet {{Sesame Street international Sesame Street international co-productions South African television shows featuring puppetry 2000 South African television series debuts 2003 South African television series endings 2007 South African television series debuts 2009 South African television series endings South African children's television series South African Broadcasting Corporation television shows South African television series based on American television series