by Christiana Gokyo, Jos
‘Culture’ has been defined as: “the people’s dominant beliefs, attitudes, values, ideals, sentiments and evaluations about the society and the role of self in the society.”
This assertion was made at the Izem Berom cultural festival by the guest speaker, Prof. Dung Pam Sha, of Development Studies Department of Political Science, University of Jos. The occasion was held at the Rwang Pam Stadium recently.
He was speaking on ‘Culture and Education for Development in Beromland,’ while the theme of this year’s Izem Berom is, ‘The Future of Beromland: Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Reorientation.’
He explained that, “Culture consists of three orientations: knowledge of the system, and knowledge of the beliefs about the system (understanding our beliefs, knowing our history, ways of live, among others), feelings of/and attachment to the system (not ashamed of your beliefs, food language).
According to him, “The level of commitment to adherence to values and judgments is to appreciate ways to organize the system – by respecting of traditions, heritage and ability to identify helpful and unhelpful ones,” he noted.
“Education refers to any process, whether in schools or in informal or non-formal educational contexts that develops in children or adults, the knowledge, skill, attitude and values leading to behavioral change.”
Prof. Sha further explained that, “The component parts of Berom culture to be used to promote development in Beromland is belief in the supreme being (Dagwi), meaning, “God, who gives children, gives bumper harvest, gives success in hunting of game (animals) and hard work.”
He added that, other traditional communal practices are those that promote unity of the family and community, community farming, donation of materials for making fire such as tems of guinea corn, chun, pwana bendig (song).
Others, he said, include sharing of meals within the family (Iyal), community support to families during brother of a new-born and community support to families during death.
According to him, other benefits of the activity are: strengthening the Berom culture by building of community or individual museums of arts and culture, introducing of cultural studies in the Berome community Secondary Schools and film-making to promote culture of morality, unity, industry and defence.
Also, the use of Mass Media is to promote culture, language, unity, behaviors and the use of music to propagate good behavior, exposition of beneficial traditional practice, among others.
“While strengthening education in Beromland, there is need for production and dissemination of resolutions of the Berom education summit. This would enable the Berom Nation understand the nature of the problems in education sector and how to approach them towards having a solution,” Prof. Sha stated.
He noted that, it will also help by advocacy meeting with Traditional Council and ministers of God and the political class, and to also mobilize traditional council and ministers of God to understand their visions and take part as critical community actors, in talking to the Berom Nation for positive orientation in education.