Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

23 January 2025

4-minute read

Redefining the way we think about mental wellness is Emily Banya, co-founder of Utalli Creative and mental health advocate from Uganda. Emily and her team are redefining mental health through culturally relevant puzzles and board games that serve as therapeutic and sensitisation tools and do more than just entertain – they heal, educate, and empower.

Emily’s personal journey with anxiety a year after university, and the subsequent eating disorder she developed led her to delve into how the mind works. From a psychologist, she learnt that “the brain is a problem-solving tool” that is “either in the past with regret or it is in the future with anxiety”. By giving your brain small problems to solve, says Emily, you can “give it what to do”. She herself was encouraged to use puzzles and games to simulate little problems for her brain to solve to help her conquer her anxiety.

When Emily discovered that there were no puzzles of Africa in Africa, she was inspired to partner with Early Childhood Development specialists to develop culturally relevant game-based therapeutic learning tools to help individuals in her country not only understand mental health but also encourage conversations around it.

Realising what a taboo subject mental health is in Uganda and other African countries, Emily discovered that board games that combine play with therapy work as an effective medium for mental health awareness. Starting with customised jigsaw puzzles displaying touristic images of Uganda, she went on to customise games like Ludo and Chess, adding in mental health messaging that players can subconsciously absorb, and then moving on to giant games like Jenga and Ring-Toss. A card game that Emily and her team have developed called Deeper Connection features conversational starters – questions that really get down to the “juice of who you are.”

In the pipeline is the case study they are building to showcase mental health problems that can be solved with affordable and sustainable alternative therapy like the 3-in-1 mental health kit that will feature the Deeper Connection card game, the Deeper Connection journal, and mood trackers. “You can take your mental health journey into your own hands,” says Emily, and “get to a point where you’re empowered by yourself.”

Public response has been amazing. Emily says that her first taste of fame when BBC picked up the story was “a little bit scary”. Many people come to them privately to share their thoughts on how the games and puzzles have helped them.

Some of the challenges they face include the more traditional society they come from where puzzles are seen to be “for white people”. Many Ugandans also feel that games and puzzles are for kids. Ever a problem-solver, Emily designed a solution where their team set up games in public spaces as an alternative form of entertainment to show people what games can do.

So, if you thought playtime was just for kids, think again! Emily Banya is making strides in ensuring these games serve communities across Africa and beyond and has turned this into a mission to help others. Emily’s vision is changing the face of mental health, one game at a time.

Listen to the full interview with Ml Sulaimaan Ravat on Sabahul Muslim.