Fountain University’s Don on Ibadan Community that See Satan as the Engineer of all Modern Inventions

In this WETi (What Expert Tells Infoprations), Kamoru Salaudeen shares his research experience about  a community in Ibadan, South West, Nigeria, where the people believe that the media are the real devils in the society and disconnect themselves from all modern inventions that make life more meaningful to live.

No man survives without communication. What is the significance of communication according to religion doctrines and principles?

Communication is significant and inevitable in religion for its survival and propagation. The following points illustrate that: When God created the first man, Adam; the first this He did for him is to give him the instrument of communication by teaching him names of everything, the root of all global languages today. The scripture establishes the fact that God was communicating with Adam as at then. Then, communication between God and His prophets traverses both mundane and extra-mundane spheres. Also, God instructed both His messengers and their followers to communicate His wills to the people to do His wish. Being strictly a human affair, religion cannot survive without communication. Not even just communication, but strategic communication; the prophet stressed this by saying: "Alas! Communication is indeed magical (in effect)".

What is the place of communication in religion and its essence in societal growth?

When God gives scriptures to His prophets and messengers, it's an indication of the realisation of the inevitability of communication in religion as an instrument of human and societal development and network. 

What and what can media be used for and cannot be used for according to your own religion?

Universally, it is expected that the Media will be ethically and socially responsible to the society they serve. Islam encourages propagating and dissemination of any idea, information and knowledge that's beneficial to human race. The major problem is the definition of what's moral and ethical from community to community. For Muslims, morality is both Quranically and prophetically defined. That is, if the Quran or Prophet Muhammad says something is moral and vice-versa. 

Recently, you and your lecturer in the University of Ibadan conducted a study about a community that believes media are Devils? Can you share your experience from the study?

This ethnographic study actually began in 2011 when I paid a welcome visit to my boss, teacher and mentor, Dr. Ayo Ojebode of the Department of Communication and Language Arts (now a professor) in his office on his arrival from the U.S. He showed some pictures of some members of the Amish community and discussed their attitude to modernity based on their religious ideology. That quickly reminded me of the "Kari-kasa" people in Ibadan because they shared so many things with the Amish except that the Amish are Christians and Kari-kasa are Muslims.

After a few weeks, Professor Ojebode called me to his office and initiated the idea of studying the attitude of the Kari-kasa people to the media. The product of the study was an article titled "The media are of the devil: Kari-kasa community and its disdain of media." The paper made vibrant waves at a panel chaired by Professor Lai Oso at the Alfred Opubor Conference in Community Media held in University of Ibadan in 2012 and was published in 2013 after very tasking and challenging ethnographic work beyond the conference.

It was very surprising to the audience. This is because all papers were talking about government policy that would facilitate community media that is truly for the communities that were yearning for one and here is a paper talking about a community that doesn't want to hear of the media let alone having one. It was very interesting and unique.

The Kari-kasa people believe that Satan is the engineer of all modern inventions including the media. So, they abandon and eschew them. They live in mud houses with thatched roof and even walls sometimes. Some of them were graduates before the imbibed the ideology, but abandoned their professional skills for petty trades and minor vocations. They don't use phone, TVs, radio, modern means of transportation and anything linked to modern and western inventions. They cook in locally made ceramic pots, eat and drink in calabash, as they don't drink tap borne water. In fact, it's difficult to believe in this age. In my visits to their settlement during the ethnography, they would entertain me with river water in calabash- the ordeal of a researcher is how I managed the situations without annoying them. They neither allowed me to make notes in jotter nor record their voices during interviews, to them, meant contact with modernity.

When they believe that media are Devils, then what are they using to align with the larger modern society?

First and foremost, they didn't believe they needed to communicate with anybody that isn't physically available. When asked a similar question during the study, their answer: "we'll wait for anybody that travels to come back. If it is in the destiny that we'll talk to him on that issue, he'll surely return to us." They don't use modern means of transportation. Theirs is a horse, camel or trek.

Can we say Islam forbid the current categories of the media? Is it that media did not exist during prophets and their caliphs?

Islam has a basis for modern development. There are verses of the Quran that talk about technology and development in chapters 18 and 25. There were media of communication in all eras based on the level of development of the society just like shelter. There were oral media and some form of print media. If I may conceptualise the idea of media with Islam in the era of Prophet Muhammad, then I'll say Quran is a medium. Mosque is a medium. Letters and communiqués sent by the prophet to kings and powerful people were some form of media. Emissaries and town criers were media existing and relevant in those societies. Not only that the prophet didn't condemn them, he also used them. There were Muslim poets, scribes and even comedians and they didn't turn non-Muslims as a result.

Is there any possibility that the community will change from their current ideologies about the media and communications in the next few years?

The way ideological issues work is very difficult to predict. We may not be able to say yes or no. But there is a predictor, the ideology itself. If they remain on the ideology, they're likely to remain like that for decades and centuries. We, however, need to stress that, even though they're Muslims, Islamic scholars have observed that they have a wrong understanding of the religion. But consistent strategic reorientation through their acceptable media can change their views faster than we may think. This is how the U.S modified the behaviour of the Amish to the state they are today.