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Africa Media Review
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Indigenous peoples
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- Description:
- Development institutions have in recent years realised the importance of indigenous culture as an important vehicle for communication. This has led to the creation of programmes in which local cultural forms have been "recruited" as the communication process for "selling" development strategies. The paper draws upon the author's experiences of theatre for primary health mobilisation and awareness in rural Malawi. The advantage of performing arts as a medium for development communication are that: 1) they provide a more entertaining form than monologous media, 2) they can easily use local languages and cultural forms such as songs and dances, 3) they encourage participation and debate in the audiences. The main disadvantage is that such intrumental use of the performing arts can lead to a cornmodification of culture which is manifested in: 1) the professionalisation of cultural workers in a context which is not normally commercial, 2) the reification and triviliation of community culture through the use of traditional external forms to convey messages totally at variance with their original context. Such cultural engineering, at its most insensitive can constitute a form of developmental imperialism which erodes rather than supports the cultural cement binding local communities. Suggested solutions demand agents' wide-ranging consultations, not only with development minded stake-holders, but also with those who possess cultural skills and interests.
- Date Issued:
- 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- Conflicts have always been part of human society and mechanisms to resolve them have often tended to reflect the level of political organisation in a particular society. The traditional African society is rife with varied approaches to conflict management. Uganda, for example, is a heterogeneous society which prior to colonial rule was organised around chiefdoms among some tribes and clan elders among others. In the Kingdom areas such as Buganda, Ankore, Bunyoro, Toro and to some extent in Busoga the king ruled through institutions such as the hierarchy of chiefs and laws. In segmentary societies such as Kigezi, Bugisu, Bamba, Bakonjo and the Iteso, the political and social organisation was clan based, regulated by customs and values. In pre-colonial Uganda each society had set conventions, customs and traditions which regulated social behaviour, harmony and stability. These unwritten laws provided a set of acceptable behaviour and controlled deviants in society. Despite the differences in political organisation, it is generally agreed that each of these societies had elaborate systems of governance, rule of law, justice and administrative organs. Each member of society was supposed to know his rights and sanctions were imposed on those individuals who did not comply with the norms. This article will address the issue of conflict, how it was dealt with in traditional African culture, the methods of communication both in traditional and modern Uganda and the question of rights and responsibilities in promoting cross-cultural amity.
- Date Issued:
- 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This paper discusses the development of modern mass media as a necessary attribute of the evolution of an integral Nigerian nation out of the many traditional ethnic communities. It shows that the traditional media which were the precolonial channels of communication were limited in the conduct of national commerce, religion, education, politics and government. The paper, however, contends that the potentials of the traditional media have not been fully explored, and calls for research to establish what roles such media can play in modern politics, and in grassroot development generally.
- Date Issued:
- 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This paper emphasises the role that communication technology plays in the present day world. It embraces Marshall McLuhan's idea of "the global village" as a result of the communication technological strides. The paper states that the term information superhighway incorporates all the existing networks into one system, but at the same time it is multi dimensional, unlike the traffic highway which projects two directions of movement. It moves to underscore pluralism that exists as a result of advanced information technology. This rush towards information technology, is largely interlinked to economic factors. The paper advocates for research in indigenous communication to augment modern communication. It argues that Africa's potential in indigenous knowledge and practices remains largely untapped, adding that information and knowledge can be effectively transmitted using indigenous forms of communication, which are characterised by simplicity of technology and directness of interaction. The paper ends with an assertion that indigenous forms of communication should be integrated with modern communication systems for sustainable development.
- Date Issued:
- 1996-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- The current state of most African countries cannot be dissociated from the Berlin Treaty of 1885, which divided the continent into zones of European influence. Before this year, most communities in this continent ran their own affairs in relative independence, within a clearly understood ethnic region. The most significant characteristics of an ethnic community were it's language and culture. Although the new foreign masters did not always clearly perceive or appreciate these social elements, the diversity and the wealth of these entities was enormous in the African continent. The greatest injustice the colonial masters committed was, undoubtedly, the imposition of their language and culture on the colonized minority groups. This article discusses the consequences of this phenomenon in post-colonial Africa and evaluates the alternative possibilities in relation to conflict resolution in Africa.
- Date Issued:
- 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review