My village is located in the South Eastern part of Nigeria with a Land mass of about 20 sq metres.
The village has Arable land for Agriculture and surrounded by the rain forest. My people because
of the fertile land produce Agricultural products like Cassava, yam, Palm oil, vegetable, okro etc.
My village is called Ogbodiukwu and it is five Kilometre from Abia State Government House in
Umuahia.
In my village the earliest recorded activities that could be described as traditional mode of
communication include the town crier,s early morning gong, signals that alerted the village dwellers
of an important announcement.
Supporting the town criers dominance was the special emissary of the Chief or village head, who had
the duty to often stand before the gathering at the village square to herald the days important message.
Village meetings, age grade meetings, youth associations,Council of Chiefs, metal gongs, xylophones,
smoke,dancing,drumming, wailings, chanting, Gunshots are also means of communication.
The traditional means of communication has its limitation because it lacks precision, for example Gunshot
or Drumming could communicate that someone died within but it will not tell you who died.
Similarly, some drum sounds or chants communicates war or the attack of the enemies in the village.
In the recent past, we traveled to the village to organise the burial of my uncle and we enquired of the
best means to communicate our Kinsmen of the burial plan and date and we were told to employ the services
of the town criers. However, inspite of the Posters, flexible banners and radio/T.V advertisement that was done,
the town criers services was paid for. This implies that if you want a better turn out or participation in the meeting
you must explore the traditional means of communication even in this age, irrespective of the sophistication in
modern technology or means of communication.
PICTURES FROM GOOGLE IMAGES.