TRADITIONAL COMMUNICATION AND PROMOTION OF GOOD HEALTH HABITS
Need help with a related project topic or New topic? Send Us Your Topic
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE PROJECT MATERIAL
TRADITIONAL COMMUNICATION AND PROMOTION OF GOOD HEALTH HABITS
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background for the Study
In the distant past, individuals who lived as families and clans in villages and cities interacted with one another using various communication devices. Communication has been used to engage and sustain individuals and cultures throughout history, from the Stone Age to the modern computer generation.
Communication is the communication or exchange of ideas, information, knowledge, attitudes, or feelings between two or more people using specific signs and symbols, with or without the intention of positively or adversely influencing or altering the receiver.
Communication is fundamental to all human activities, including rural and national development and the promotion of healthy behaviours. No community has ever existed without communication.
In recent years, health workers have gained a better understanding of the crucial role communication plays in healthcare. The effective distribution of information about medical issues and healthy lifestyles has contributed significantly to the improvement of people’s health in society.
Thus, communication is critical in healthcare delivery and health promotion. Communication is used to raise public knowledge, encourage healthy behaviour, change attitudes, and motivate people to follow recommended activities
This demonstrates the tight relationship between communication and health, which has given rise to the specialised subject of health communication.
Ratzan (1194), as described by Batta and Wilson (2013), defines health communication as the act and practice of informing, influencing, and inspiring individuals, institutions, and the general public about significant health issues.
It includes the study and application of communication methods to inform and impact individual and community knowledge, attitudes, practices, and decisions about health. Health is more than just the absence of diseases or infirmities; it also refers to man’s physical, mental, and social well-being.
There is very little that can be accomplished without good health. Politics, education, agriculture, trade, and business are all dependent on adequate health (Batta, 2013).
Health promotion falls under the purview of public communication, which imposes a responsibility on individuals to their fellow citizens. Its fundamental objective is to prepare the ground for effective individual and national development.
Thus, if individuals are fully taught on what it means to be in good health and how they might achieve it, there is a need to persuade them to take practical measures towards it in order to live a better life.
The concept of promotion thus operates on the premise that those living on the periphery, where poverty, hunger, and disease are more prevalent, must be educated, sensitised, and constantly motivated to practise and participate in programmes and projects that will help them become aware of their actions and activities towards achieving good health.
Health promotion is a communication activity. As a result, the message code must be properly developed and conveyed in order to effect the intended attitude and behaviour change in individuals, communities, states, and the nation as a whole.
The residents of Uruan, like those of other communities in Akwa Ibom State, are trapped in a cycle of poverty, ignorance, and illiteracy. Traditional communication methods are the most prevalent in Uruan.
Thus, traditional media are communication conduits that represent a people’s culture. They were not introduced to the population through mass media, but rather as part of the people (Nwabuleze, 2007; Nwodu and Nwanmuo, 2006).
Traditional media, known as folk media or oramedia (Ogboajah, 1985), include the town crier, church, village square, market place, chief of council, dance, music, native language, proverbs, folklores, and so on.
Traditional media allows messages to be packaged and communicated in regionally popular artistic forms, making it easier for rural people to absorb and internalise.
Traditional media, like mass media, serve normative functions in society. Some of these functions include citizen education and mobilisation to promote healthy habits.
In view of the foregoing, the purpose of this study is to determine to what extent traditional media in Uruan has contributed to the promotion of good health habits among Uruan residents.
1.1.1 Characteristics of Uruan
According to Uruan historians such as Dominus Essien of Uniuyo and Edet Akpan Udo, both of whom are Ibibios, Uruan people are thought to have migrated in different waves from East Central and South Africa to Uruan Akpeh in the area now known as Idombi in the Rio Del Ray near the South Western Cameroon and Cross River borders, where they settled for centuries.
In the eighth century A.D., Uruan people fled to a location in the Cross River Basin known as Akani Obio Uruan as a result of the first Batanga war, which produced social and economic instability in the region.
The river near the hamlet was named ‘Akwa Akpa Uruan, which means “Mighty River of Uruan.” It is thought that in the 13th century, another Iboku clan went by a different route to join their kindred at Akani Obio Uruan and Akpa Mfri Ukim. Due to topographical issues such as frequent floods,
Uruan people went back to the mainland and occupied the South Eastern region of Nigeria, which is now known as Uruan Local Government Area.
Uruan Local Government Area was formed in 1988 from the Uyo Local Government Area. It has an approximate land area of 449 km2. According to the 2006 census, the population was 118,300.
It is flanked on the north by Itam, Oku Iboku, and Akamkpa; on the south by Okobo and Oron Local Government Area; on the west by the Cross River; and on the west by Uyo and Ekpe Atai Local Government Area.
It is divided into three senatorial districts: Uruan Central District, Southern Uruan District, and Northern Uruan District, with a total of 52 settlements and a headquarters in Idu.
1.1.1a Political and cultural divisions in Uruan
Uruan’s political organisations are founded on social organisations and are divided into six administrative divisions:
– Idip Ete, the first political entity established in Uruan.
– The Ufok is a cluster of families descended from a single parent.
– Ekpuk is a collection of Ufok that trace their roots to one father.
– Obio or Idung is made up of lineages that vary in number from village to village and have the overarching authority which is the Obong Obio.
– Oduk (a village group or sub-clan)
– Ikpa Isong: This denotes a clan, which represents a group of villages descended from a single progenitor. The clan is commanded by Obong Ikpaisong.
1.1.1b Traditional leadership in Uruan (nsommship)
The Uruan founding fathers established an institution called Edidemship. The people addressed the institution’s leader as Edidem Atakpor, and he was considered as a symbol of unity for the Uruan people as well as the living personality of their forefathers.
The office of Edidem was hereditary through the Edidem’s male descendants. Due to internal and external factors, the institution was amended, and the office was changed from hereditary to rotatory among members of the Ofri Essien Uruan Council, the highest traditional authority in Urruan land.
1.1.1c: Nsommshipe
In colonial Uruan, a new traditional title known as Nsomm was introduced and was more commonly used than Edidem Atakpor. When Obong Nyong Essien gained the top traditional stool in Uruan, he was given the title of Edidem Atakpor Nyong Essien, Uruan’s Nsomm 1.
When Nyong Essien, the Nsomm of Uruan, died, Obong James Udoo Affia was named the paramount traditional rural for Uruan, and he became known as the Nsomm11 of Uruan.
1.1.1d Qualifications for Selection of Nsomm
Before being chosen as the Nsomm title holder, a person must be able to trace his ancestry back to the royal stock of Uruan. He must be a person of good moral character and free of corruption; he must also be a personality who can bring his people together.
1.1.1.e Profession
The primary occupation of the Uruan people is fishing; individuals can join and possess fishing equipment such as a net, hook, or canoe. Uruan fishermen fish in both local and open waters in Cameroon, and the fish they catch are used for commercial purposes as well as for human sustenance. They also engage in both local and large-scale agriculture. Cash crops include cassava, palm tree, rubber, and kolanut.
1.2 Statement of Problem
Traditional media and modern communication channels function independently while also complementing one another in the communication network that exists in rural society.
Nonetheless, it is obvious that the existence of modern media in all sectors of society, both rural and urban, has not reduced the importance of traditional modes of communication.
Instead, they are increasingly being used jointly to promote healthy practices. These traditional media are more than just a method of artistic expression; they are also a way to express knowledge in an acceptable and effective manner.
In a typical rural location like Uruan Local Government location, people appear to rely more on traditional forms of communication than mass media for information, education, and mobilisation.
Given the emphasis that people place on traditional media in promoting good health habits, one wonders to what degree traditional forms of communication have contributed to the promotion of good health habits among Uruans.
The question is, to what extent does traditional communication help to promote good health behaviours in Akwa Ibom State’s Uruan Local Government Area?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The study’s aims were:
1. Determine the traditional media used by the people of Uruan.
2. Determine the extent to which traditional media are used to promote healthy habits in Uruan.
3. Assess the efficacy of traditional media in promoting good health behaviours in Uruan.
4. Determine the barriers to the effective use of traditional media for the promotion of healthy habits in Uruan.
5. Determine Uruan residents’ attitudes about the use of traditional media to promote healthy practices.
1.4 Research Question.
The study looked for answers to the following questions.
1. What traditional media are employed in Uruan?
2. To what extent do traditional media promote healthy practices in Uruan?
3. How effective are traditional media in promoting healthy lifestyles in Uruan?
4. What are the barriers to effectively utilising traditional media in the promotion of good health habits in Uruan?
5. What are the people’s thoughts about the employment of traditional media to promote good health behaviours in Uruan?
1.5 Significance of the Study
The study’s findings would help health workers and other organisations choose the correct routes and allocate adequate funds, allowing health programmes and projects aimed at rural areas to achieve immeasurable, unquantifiable results.
The findings will help health workers learn about rural people’s perceptions of the use of traditional media in communicating with them, as well as the importance people place on their language and culture, allowing health workers to make efforts to improve their use of traditional media.
The study’s findings could be generalised to other communities in Akwa Ibom State that share Uruan’s culture. The findings will determine if the government can further develop or invest in traditional media to promote healthy habits. The findings will contribute to existing literature on the issue.
1.6 Limitation of the Study
This work is limited to the study of traditional communication and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. The study is limited to the Uruan Local Government. The study also focused on the indigenous media of Uruan’s rural areas.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
The researcher faced a remarkable dilemma over the course of this study: some respondents refused to fill out the questionnaire because they requested monetary compensation. However, this was overcome via patience and repeated explanations that the job was solely for academic objectives.
Need help with a related project topic or New topic? Send Us Your Topic