BY TEWODROS KASSA
Information is a decisive power, especially during this time of globalization. Several countries do have various their own platforms that help the society to exchange information and facilitate its socio-economic development.
In Ethiopia, the people of Afar, who are residing in the north eastern part of Ethiopia, are known for their numerous traditional values and well-established, unique traditional communication network.
The people share information and convey message through this traditional communication network called Dagu system.
Dagu, which is considered to be the fast information sharing system among the Afar people, is one of the values that have been passed down from generation to generation for the past several years until today. It has served as a great means of communication for many years without modern communication tools and is still serving as a traditional means of communication among the society. It is a traditional method of communication that has been conserved well by Afar people for centuries and cannot be separated from the Afar community’s identity.
According to various researches done on Dagu, the Afar people are highly pastoral and semi-pastoral community who move from place to place in search of pastures and waterhole grazing for their animals. Thus, they need to have sufficient information about their society; and have developed a culture of asking anyone who is a member of their community about what is new around.
The people have a non-written agreement to share information/news to their society without any hesitation. According to the custom of the people, it is common to hold Dagu at any time, in any situation. If two Afar people met accidentally on the road, it is cultural responsibility to hold Dagu and exchange information about what is happening and what is new in their surroundings.
Every member of the community discharges responsibility by conducting Dagu; receiving and giving information. No one says “I am in a hurry.”
The two persons will communicate about what is new in their surroundings. The first question Afar people Dagu when they meet begins with the phrases “what have your ears heard? And 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 like matters. Failure to pass on relevant information is not only an offence to the conversation partner, but is harmful to the community.
In Dagu information exchange, the source of information is given special attention as false information is never tolerated. The person transmitting the information, who gave it to him; and chains of the information will be checked and rechecked.
To this end, misuse of Dagu is subject to punishment within customary law of Afar which has a prominent place in the Afar culture. Anyone who passes on unchecked or fake information is punished. Disseminating false or fabricated information is an unforgivable offense among Afars.
Different studies have given different interpretations about Dagu. The following are among the major manifestations of Dagu. It literally means news. Dagu means not only listening to and watching information, but also embraces the traditional responsibility of passing on what someone have heard and seen to others as it is, without distorting the information.
In addition, if we see it from the perspective of modern technology, Dagu is a wireless fast data exchange method that uses no other technology. It is a traditional method of information sharing in which information reaches many people in a short period of time without using any technology. When the Afar received and inherited it from generation to generation for centuries, they inherited this great value from their ancestors to their grandchildren.
For Afar people, Dagu is part and parcel of their life. It is a mechanism manifested in their day to day activities, seen, done and expressed in every event. It is important because it explains in detail what is happening in the community and what has to been done. For the reason that Afar people move from place to place, holding Dagu has decisive role to have the required information in detail.
In Dagu information exchange, the source of information is given special attention, false information is never tolerated. The person transmitting the information has the responsibility to check who gave the information to him/her.
During Dagu, interrupting the one who is talking is strictly prohibited. Priority is given to the older person to start Dagu.
Dagu is one of the most understudied cultural heritages of the country. Promoting such tradition should be enhanced by enriching the values that are important for the modern world of communication.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 23 DECEMBER 2022
