THE RELEVANCE OF THE FOLK MEDIA AS CHANNELS IN PROMOTING AFRICAN CULTURAL VALUES

Chinwe Elizabeth Uzochukwu, Uchenna Patricia Ekwugha

Abstract


Africans are noted for their rich cultural heritage which has been preserved from generations. However, the influx of foreign cultural materials into Africa has brought about an erosion of the rich African cultural values. Given the important role of oral tradition in the indigenous African setting, there is need to look inward in order to reinvent the folk media as approaches in promoting African cultural values. Folk media have been identified as an important vehicle of social change, in the light of their educational and entertainment functions. Folk media have had remarkable impact on most rural societies because of the acceptable idioms, functional significance and the cultural values they convey. Folk media can overcome the difficulties of language, speech, words and other barriers of communication. Traditional African value systems teach and promote hard work, honesty, loyalty, courage and accomplishments. These values are adequately embedded in those folk media and they are the conduit of their transmission and preservation. The position of this paper therefore is that there should be a reorientation in using folk media channels for promoting African cultural values.

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References


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