Mainly based on word of mouth, the Afar society has been using Dagu’s network, which “is a highly developed traditional system of information management” (Chege et al., 2004, p. 29). In most parts of the world, news is communicated through mass media radio, television, newspaper and the Internet.
Usually through these channels, the news goes to its target audience. In the Afar society, however, the reverse is true. It is the Afars that go to the news and it is Dagu - word of mouth - that communicates the news. As Morell (2005, para. 3) writes: It is through Dagu that they [Afars] learn of any newcomers to their desert realm, of the conditions of water holes and grazing lands, of missing camels and caravans.
They learn of weddings and funerals, of new alliances and betrayals, of the latest battles fought, and the conditions of the trail ahead.
Due to its growing popularity especially among local mass media in the country, Dagu has managed to attract the interests of many people - from development researchers to communication experts, from journalists to ordinary people.
Besides, recent studies on the Afar society make a remarkable reference to Dagu by considering it not only as a good source of information that serves the Afar people but also as a communication system that has a latent potential as a means of development (see Kelemework, 2011; Chege et al., 2004). Though there were only very few links on the Internet that contained information related to Dagu, for example before 2008, within the last three years many texts on various topics (health, pastoralism, education, water services, etc.) making a reference to the traditional news network (Dagu) have been uploaded to the Internet. Nonetheless, several publicities and references have been made about Dagu while it is not yet seriously studied and documented. Despite the fact that Dagu has been there among the Afars since time immemorial, it is not yet duly studied.
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When the majority of the world is virtually dependent upon journalists to know about the happenings around them and the globe at large, the Afars rely on each other as any adult is a traditional newsman. In the Afars’ domain reporting is not a monopoly of radio, TV or in short of journalists. Rather every Afar is a reporter. “When two Afar people [sic] meet, they sit down and spend some time… discussing the major economic, social and political events that took place recently in their respective localities” (Kelemework, 2011, p. 426).
With regard to its meaning, Dagu can take a narrow as well as a more broad meaning. When someone says “Do you have Dagu?” he or she is asking whether the person has new information. In this case, Dagu means information or news. According to the key informants, Dagu “is information; it is the exchange of news and a narration of events”.
Dagu is the process of passing as well as receiving information or news about what two or more individuals have seen or heard. It is a news medium that serves all members of the society virtually equally regardless of their social status. However, it is worth noting that women play fewer roles than men simply because they “are relatively lesser in rate of mobility compared to men” (Gulilat, 2006, p. 75).
The finding of the study revealed that Dagu, as opposed to mass media, is a highly interactive and multi-way communication network, which serves the Afar society equally. The findings of the study also revealed that the Afars have unflagging enthusiasm to obtain fresh information, and regardless of being a traditional newsman, they have remarkable journalistic skills. Every Afar is a moving news medium. The study thus maintains that Dagu has more similarity to journalistic practices than to models of mass communication flows.
Watch Video about Dagu
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