Indigenous resources in Africa: Unexplored communication potential

Abstract

This article explores the untapped potential of indigenous resources in developing countries for promoting primary health care, particularly in West Africa. Although indigenous leadership, organizations, and media have been identified and incorporated into many development projects, their potential to support change has often not been optimized. Folk theatre and puppetry have received extensive attention in the literature regarding communication and development, but other forms of traditional media—songs, stories, drumming, and proverbs—have not been adequately investigated. Suggestions are made in this article as to how the rich store of African proverbs, for example, might be adapted to development messages in particular situations. The lack of close attention to indigenous structures and to indigenous communication systems is related to the increasing dependence of many African governments on outside agencies, and to those agencies' size, proliferation, and priorities.