The road was rough. We were all covered in dust after about 30 minutes of the trip from Mkuranga Town to neighbouring Msorwa village last weekend.

Despite the tough journey, we laughed all the way, thanks to the two comedians, Khalid Yahya and Modestus Matembele, members of a group called Tanzania Community Civic Initiatives.

Yahya was imitating a Sheikh giving sermon, while Modestus posed as an interpreter. It was very funny because Modestus' narrations flowed metrically as if he was doing hip pop rhymes.

The group of 15 people, seven men and eight women, was a make-shift theatre group assembled to tour six districts in the Coast Region. The intention was to impart civic and voters' education as the October General Election nears.

The group also conducted seminars to discuss civic and election matters with special groups such as the youth, women and people living with disabilities.

The aim of the whole exercise was to prepare citizens to choose their leaders wisely during the polls and to encourage special groups, such as women, to fully participate in the elections as voters and candidates.

On reaching Msorwa village, we found only a few people waiting at the venue, 15 at most. Most of them were school children. I moved around to gauge the mood in the village and sensed pessimism. One young man confirmed it all when he said "We are tired of politics".

Obviously, people thought the group was there for political campaigns. They were right to an extent. Only that the group was not there to campaign for a particular candidate, party or ideology. The aim was to raise the level of civic education among citizens.

As a neutral observer, I believed it was the perfect environment to assess whether art in general and theatre in particular was an effective tool in conveying civic and voter education messages. It was also a challenge to the group's artistic competence.

After unpacking the necessary equipment, preparations that involved setting up a public address system at the venue started. The next move involved warming up the audience and attracting more people to the venue because the show was about to begin.

To add spice, the comedians were on the stage and doing their part. The comedy was effective but only managed to hook children.

The performance started with about 30 members of the audience, most of them school children. Since the venue was near a market place, you could see passersby going on with their businesses, unmoved with whatever was happening.

However, after a few minutes, I noticed people slowly taking interest as they began to inch towards the venue. Within ten minutes, most of those who were within hearing distance had joined the audience and were totally absorbed in the play. At this point, the number had risen to about 120 people.

This could easily be attributed to the nature of the performance and competences of the actors.

Later when I asked residents why they had first ignored the performance, one of them, Asha Ramadhan said: "I had thought this was yet another political campaign in disguise... I am tired of being used by politicians".

"But as they proceeded, I realized it was a session that alerts citizens against corrupt leaders and sensitises women about their rights," she said.

"When the play started, I heard villagers (actors in the play) complaining about candidates who were making a lot of noise, yet they were hardly known in the village! I realized this was educative and deserved my attention," another Msorwa resident, Juma Mohammed told me.

"After attending this show my attitude has changed. I now know that it is bad to ignore politics as it affects my life. I now understand that to be able to choose good leaders, I have to attend campaign rallies and listen to candidates' manifestos. Above all, I must scrutinize the candidate's moral standing thoroughly," Juma said.

The play titled 'Seeds of Democratization', tackled a number of themes related to civic education. However, the major ones were women's rights to vote and be voted for and stamping out corruption during elections.

At the end of the play, a discussion followed where the audience had a chance to comment and explain what they had learnt. You could easily see the mood swing from one of pessimism to that optimism as individuals came forward to ask questions or just comment.

And as we left Msorwa village, you could easily see that people hoped there was another play so that they could gain from the much needed civic education.

The group that performed in the Coast Region is one out of the four undertaking similar assignments in four other regions of Tanzania Mainland. The other regions that were reached by the same project include Kigoma, Shinyanga and Lindi.

The project started in April with auditions by artists from regions that host the project. In May, the 60 selected artists received training on civic matters as well as on the concept and execution of theatre for development in Kibaha. From June, the actual campaign started in all the four regions where it ran for about three months.

The group that travelled around the Coast Region had visited Kibaha, Kisarawe, Bagamoyo, Mkuranga, Rufiji and Mafia, performing the play to the general public and conducting seminars with special groups.

The group team leader, Emmanuel Ndumukwa, told me that the campaign proved that art, and theatre in particular, is still as it has always been, an effective method of educating the masses.

"In almost all places we have visited, we are happy that people appreciated our performance not just for art's sake but for the education that it provides", Ndumukwa explained to me.

"I am sure this project has made a difference in the areas we had visited. We wish we had resources to travel to other districts and regions because people really need this kind of education, especially in times like this," he added.

This is the second time that the project, organized by the Tanzania Community Civic Initiatives (TACCI) and funded by USAID, has been implemented. Back in 2005, the same project was run, although it used film instead of theatre performance. The regions that were reached in 2005 included the Coast, Morogoro and Dodoma.

The first phase of the project in 2005 recorded immense success. Facilitators reached 765 villages, where they showed films that educated people on civic matters.

Ninety five percent of all the people who watched the films in 2005 said they had gained knowledge, whereas 91% were happy with the methodology.