Developing a boardgame to ‘pre-bunk’ anti-foreigner narratives

In 2025 ALT Advisory, in partnership with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), led the development of Mzansi Life, an innovative boardgame and facilitation tool designed to promote social cohesion and strengthen young people’s resilience to disinformation about foreign nationals.

Developed with the support of Innovation Norway and in collaboration with South Africa’s Department of Basic Education and other stakeholders, Mzansi Life aims to support the implementation of South Africa’s National Action Plan to combat intolerance. The intervention explores new ways to equip young people with the skills to identify false or manipulative information, while fostering inclusive attitudes toward people from other countries and the value of Ubuntu.

A game with a purpose

Mzansi Life is a gamified educational resource built around the “pre-bunking” method to address mis- and dis-information. (Pre-bunking is a proactive set of techniques to equip people to recognise and counter misinformation before they encounter it in real life. Learn more: A Practical Guide to Prebunking Misinformation Online.)

The intervention uses a combination of facilitated dialogue, group reflection, and interactive play in the form of the Mzansi Life boardgame.

Richly illustrated and using bold, engaging visuals, the game puts each player in the shoes of an ordinary teen experiencing the ups and downs of South African life. Mzansi Life features nine possible characters representing a cross-section of youth in South Africa: locals navigating everyday challenges (like Nathi or Devan), rural migrants finding their feet in a new community (like Dawie or Litha), and foreign nationals – including refugees – in search of safety and a better life (like Sthe or Amina).

As players move through the board, they encounter a range of narrative events, both positive and negative, reflecting common experiences such as friendship and academic success, or bullying and crime. Embedded within these storylines are pre-bunking messages and positive social cues designed to counter harmful myths about foreign nationals and reinforce empathetic, inclusive perspectives.

What is pre-bunking?

Grounded in “inoculation theory,” pre-bunking exposes people to a small, controlled dose of a harmful narrative that they may encounter in real life, paired with a clear explanation of why it is manipulative. This approach aims to sensitise audiences to common forms and techniques of misinformation ahead of time.

Although pre-bunking has been successfully deployed against disinformation in a variety of sectors, such as vaccines, climate change and refugee communities in Europe, Mzansi Life is the first known attempt to adapt the method to counter anti-foreigner sentiment in an African context.

Encouraging early findings

Evaluations conducted with 79 high school learners across Gauteng and Limpopo show promising results. Learners filled out surveys before and after a facilitated session in which they played the game – the survey asked them to respond on a three-point scale (Agree, Disagree, Neutral-Not Sure) to a set of statements relating to social inclusion, cultural openness, and perceptions of immigrants.

Key shifts included:

• Agreement with the statement “People from other countries are the main cause of crime in my community” dropped from 23% to 6%, while disagreement rose from 41% to 68%.
• Agreement with the statement “People from other countries have it too easy when they come to South Africa” fell from 29% to 13%, and disagreement rose from 33% to 59%.
• Agreement with “We should stop blaming our problems on people from other countries” increased from 71% to 88%, with disagreement dropping from 8% to 3%.

Learners also reported high levels of enjoyment and perceived value: 98% learned something new, and 87% described the session as “lots of fun.”

Designed with young people, for young people

About 120 learners took part in early co-creation sessions and prototype testing, convened with the support of our partners at Moxii Africa (formerly Media Monitoring Africa), ensuring that the final version reflects the lived experiences, interests, and language of youth in South Africa, including young people with refugee and asylum-seeker status.

Following this process, the team produced a limited run of fully packaged boxsets for use in a scaled-up pilot.

To ensure widespread access, all digital files – including gameplay components, facilitator guides, and printable artwork – are freely available at mzansi.life.

This means that schools, community organisations, and youth groups nationwide can download and use the materials in their own contexts.

The spirit of the intervention is summed up in Mzansi Life’s slogan: “Let’s work together, play together, win together!”

Learn more, and explore the game, at mzansi.life