People now see town-crying as part of folklore –Town crier

They were involved in reading proclamations, local laws, announcing market days or missing person in a given society. They were usually employed by town council to make public announcements in the streets. Town criers, as many would say, were the forerunners of the modern announcer who delivers radio and television commercials. The services of town […]

They were involved in reading proclamations, local laws, announcing market days or missing person in a given society. They were usually employed by town council to make public announcements in the streets. Town criers, as many would say, were the forerunners of the modern announcer who delivers radio and television commercials.

The services of town criers were a global phenomenon just as studies attributed its spread largely due to British colonisation.

 But with the advent of modern communications, the tradition has not only creaked under the heavy weight of the giant media which develops in a geometric progression, but it has cracked and deemed by many as part of folklore especially in Africa, where even in some remote villages you could hardly come across one.

In the days they held sway, town criers have enjoyed similar if not the same sensationalism television or radio announcers enjoy today, but presently the story is different.

85-year-old Alhaji Audu Hadejia who has been practicing the act of town crying in Jos had attributed the relegation of town crying to the back bench as a resultant effect of the modern media, “TV and radio has now taken over the stage from us because of the development in the field of communication, people now only need to tune to a station to watch or listen to what they want”.

One other factors, that saw the draining of the practice down the slippery slope was because often, the work of the town crier is passed down from father to son for many generations, “But children these days don’t even give it a second look, because there is no zeal in them to serve the community or to serve as custodians of tradition”.

On how he found himself practising town-crying, he said, “You know when you are associating with people that are engage in a particular endeavour, there is the likelihood that you will be involved in that thing too, there was this man that I met who was involved in town crying at a very young age, in my early twenties, then I used to view it as fun and adventurous”.

According to him, their roles as town criers in the olden days included announcing tax, announcement of missing persons among other roles, “Majorly, we were involved in announcing issues of tax or issues about a missing person, ceremonies among others”.

Comparing the modern media and the traditional town crying, Alhaji Audu stated that despite the fact that  the former has the advantage of effectiveness in terms immediacy, town crying too had its own advantage, his reasons, “The act of sending messages through the act of town crying does not allow the audience to hear the message as words of mouth, but will also avail the audience with presence of the message crier, which brings about a special bondage and trust between the source and receiver”.

He added, “People used to come to my house to ask me about the latest news and I would not only tell them the news but also make further clarifications on the fact on ground”.

But was the practice in any way a means a self sustenance for those that were involved in it? Alhaji Audu stated that, “The origin of a town crier originated from the town council or the emir’s palace in this part of the world, therefore most of what came your way was token of appreciation from people while on duty, since we used to do the job principally because we enjoyed keeping an ancient tradition alive and considered it to serve as an honour and privilege to serve our community”.

He was quick to add, “In those days, people used to give us like Taro (3 kobo) Sisi (5 kobo) when we were in the process of our job as a token of appreciation”.

Like every profession, town crying too had its own repercussion while the practitioners were on the field, especially when the news was about taxes, “You know people didn’t like issues about taxes, so whenever you came to talk about tax increase, people would like to harass you, some would grimace at you while others would mock you.”

According to Alhaji Audu, for one to be qualified to serve as a town crier, one had to have a loud and clear voice, “Those are the essentials if you want to serve as a town crier, and apart from that, the job requires one that is trustworthy because you are handling information that is supposed to be consumed by the populace”he said.

The act of town crying according to Alhaji Audu has its own way of attracting audience, “Usually, TV and radio have their own way of telling their audience using jingles that are unique to a particular programme, the town crier too had his own jingle of announcing his presence. We usually shout sanarwa! (Announcement) three times before we start the main announcement”.

Another role played by town criers was praise singing according Alhaji Audu where they performed at wedding or naming ceremonies, comparing the two roles; he said, “Praise singing is an extension of town crying we perform at wedding and naming ceremonies. Although there are praise-singers around now, but none of them is willing to perform as a town crier, because we have different world views of the act, we see it as an ancient tradition that needs to be preserved, they see it as something else that has become part of a folklore”.