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By Gulilat Menbere and Terje S. Skjerdal *
The Afar people of north-eastern Ethiopia possess a traditional communication system that in several ways resembles modern news media. Properly used ‘dagu’ could be a vital instrument in for instance health education.
The Afar region in Ethiopia is not a place Western travelers normally visit. Situated in north-eastern Ethiopia and extending into Eritrea, it stretches across the Danakil Depression which has been named ‘one of the hottest, most inhospitable places on earth’ (Lonely Planet) and the ‘cruelest place on earth’ (National Geographic). This is home to the Afar people, who are not, however, known for being inhospitable.
Numbering 1.4 million, the Afars are a pastoral and semi-pastoral people. The two major clans are Asahimara (‘white Afar’) and Adohimara (‘red Afar’). Both could possibly be defined as ‘rural poor’ by official standards – but then there is hardly a modern cash economy to talk about in Afar and we feel uneasy using a potentially degrading term such as ‘rural poor’. The Afars are mobile pastoralists and typically live by herding goats, sheep, camels and cattle. Less than 9% live in urban (semi-urban) areas.
Modern mass media are not widespread in Afar. Electricity is a rare commodity and television is not an issue. Newspapers are to a small extent distributed outside the big cities in Ethiopia, and there are no big cities in this part of the country. Radio sets, on the other hand, do exist in the Afar region, but not even close to the average distribution of radios in rural Africa. Also, the expense and poor availability of batteries as well as limited broadcasts in Afari make radio a less attractive medium in this region.
Despite all this, the Afars possess a sophisticated system for news exchange. It is called dagu, which could be translated to mean ‘news’, but it is more than a package of hard or soft news. It is a social institution with particular purposes in the daily life of the Afars.
‘What have your ears heard?’
Dagu functions within a defined set of regulations and expectations, though the rules are not necessarily written. The law of dagu means that whenever you meet someone on the road who has traveled reasonably far, say from a nearby village, you are required to pause and engage in a news exchange session. The two persons will usually sit down – not over a cup of coffee, but right there and then without interruption – and the session typically begins with the phrases ‘Iytii maha tobie?’ and ‘Intii maha tubilie?’ (‘What have your ears heard?’; ‘What have your eyes witnessed?’). The dagu can be any item of public relevance, such as weddings, funerals, battles, new alliances, missing cattle or the conditions of the trail ahead.
Failure to pass on relevant information is not only an offense to the conversation partner, but a harm to the community. To this end, misuse of dagu is subject to punishment within customary law (Mada’a), which has a prominent place in the Afar culture. Anyone who passes on unchecked information, for instance, is punished according to the Mada’a. Disseminating false or fabricated information is unforgivable.
Dagu resembles modern news communication in several ways. Even if the information doesn’t reach a large mass simultaneously, it is meant to reach a considerable portion of the population within a short period of time. The swiftness of dagu is indeed remarkable. It can spread to a high number of people within few days. One informant claimed a piece of information can reach from the desert town of Semera to the port cities of Djibouti and Massawa (Eritrea) within two or three days – a road distance of 300 to 700 km.
When four Britons and a Frenchwoman were taken hostage by separatists in the Afar region in March 2007, it was dagu which brought the news of their fate to the international public. They were deported to Eritrea by the kidnappers, but were unharmed and safe according to the report which eventually reached Addis Ababa. The report turned out to be trustworthy (Naughton, 2007).
The Internet of the Afar
Many Afars describe dagu as ‘our telephone’. One informant, who is educated, compared it with the Internet: ‘Dagu is the Internet of the Afar. Information is transmitted in the form of relay where an Afar must quickly share anything new to another Afar on his way to daily practice. It is as dynamic as an interesting e-mail message which someone forwards knowing that the recipient will surely forward it to others soon’ (Awel Wogris Mohammed, head of the Afar Regional Health Bureau).
The analogy of the Internet makes sense. Dagu is not only fast and appealing; it is also an active, participant-oriented medium. Although the receiver is not supposed to alter the message, he or she is expected to engage with the news and take proper action. Also, the conveyer must check the information, similar to what a journalist would do before publishing a news item.
In a feature for National Geographic Virginia Morell (2005: 41) observes that dagu is ‘a poetic litany that can be almost Homeric in its detail and precision.’ At the same time, some informants admit that the information may be slightly distorted en route, as in cases of exaggeration. Straight-up false information, however, is strictly reprimanded, not only for the individual, but for the community. In the words of one informant: ‘False claims defame the clan, not only an individual member. So people take care of sifting the right information.’ (Ali Yayu, Degagegie village).
Elderly people, especially men, have a particular responsibility to check and affirm the information passed on. A common journalistic tool, namely crosschecking with multiple sources, is one of the techniques used in this exercise. This is reflected in an Afar proverb: ‘Numma sidihaawai yabienii’ (‘News is heard thrice’). Especially if the information might have disastrous consequences, it is extraordinarily important that the news is double- and triple-checked before it is passed on. The quality of the source will then be one of the testing points. In other words it is not arbitrary who the information came from. This is pinpointed in another traditional proverb: ‘Kok iyiiyie kok iyie numuk iyiiyie?’ (‘Who told you; who told the person who told you?’).
Gender differences
Social structure and hierarchy are manifested in dagu. As noted above, elderly men are particularly trusted to verify the information passed on. They are also observed to have the most passionate relationship with dagu and perform it with utmost patience. To underline the earnestness they often close the session with prayer (du’aa).
The practice of dagu does show some gender differences. In his MA thesis research on dagu, Gulilat Menbere found that it is more frequently used by men than by women. Men are more often seen exchanging dagu, and this is confirmed by the informants. There is an expectation for Afar men of some age to employ and master dagu. As one informant said, ‘It is unmanly to avoid dagu for an Afar man. He would never be considered a responsible member of the pastoral community if he avoids dagu.’
It is however doubtful that the gender differences in using dagu are solely caused by gender prejudice. The fact that men use dagu more than women is largely a result of men’s higher mobility in daily life. They travel more when they look after the cattle and thus meet more outsiders. Still, one informant – an elderly woman from Wasero village – contended that it is because of males’ suspicions and prejudices that women engage somewhat less in dagu. She maintained that ‘our husbands feel that we would be more easily sexually abused if we encountered someone from outside of the family.’ Nevertheless, dagu is used by both men and women and there is no principal restriction for women to use it less than men.
There is some concern that urbanization and modern culture will negatively affect dagu. Some locals express the view that hectic town life is not concordant with proper use of dagu. The claim is that respect for dagu requires time and this is not something modern communication cares for. One informant referred to an Afari saying to express this: ‘Yardiee dagu kee defia daguu inkii gidee hinaa’ (‘Settled dagu and brisk dagu do not bring the same return’). This again shows that dagu has a status on its own and stands in contrast to a typical hasty conversation about the latest news as we know it in the North.
Using dagu in education
How does dagu fit in with new forms of communication? There seems to be partly
contradictory opinions about this among the Afars, and the dividing line appears to be between the young and the mature. Some of the elderly people are skeptical to including information from national mass media in the dagu. Nura Mohammed, an elderly pastoralist from Dohoo, expresses his skepticism to radio broadcasts: ‘If I tune to radio, I am afraid that I miss some important dagu.’ His trust lies much more with dagu than with a distant medium where he can’t see the communication partner face-to-face. In contrast to the radio he calls dagu ‘a reliable source of information’.
Some younger people, on the other hand, say that they sometimes incorporate information from the radio in dagu conversations. Even so, it appears that modern media messages are only to a limited extent incorporated and merged with dagu. This poses a challenge to communication agents who rely on traditional mass communication, including posters, to convey messages in the Afar region.
It would appear that one of the keys to successful mass communication in this region lies in the value of oratory. Oral, face-to-face communication encourages instantaneous feedback and makes use of non-verbal cues. This is dagu in practice. Most importantly, dagu is liked by the rural majority and is the most trusted means to convey public information. Properly used it could be a vital instrument in for instance HIV/AIDS communication.
It is also a means of communication where equality and mutual care is at the heart. As one Afari proverb rightly affirms, ‘Numuktienak daguu abanah numuktenak ogiel defianah’ (‘Inquiring information from someone makes you his contemporary’).
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* Gulilat Menbere is a lecturer in journalism and communication studies at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. He spent much time in the Afar region in 2006 doing field research on dagu.
* Terje S. Skjerdal (terje.skjerdal@mediehogskolen.no) is an assistant professor at Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication, Kristiansand, Norway, and also teaches at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
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Source: Media Development 1/2008, pp. 19–21. ISSN 0143-5558
http://www.waccglobal.org/lang-en/publications/media-development/44-2008- 1.html?layout=simple
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