Determinants Of Exclusive Breastfeeding Among Nursing Mothers In Uyo Metropolis
Chapter One
Introduction
Background of the Study
Moonlight Game is a recreational activity generally played among the children of the same age –grade. Before the age of electricity in Eket Local Government Area, AkwaIbom State, moonlight decorated the skies with fluorescent lightings over small towns and villages. At night time, when there was a full moon, it was a lovely sight to behold. The children were gathered together at the courtyard around the parents’ compound and other relatives joined them. The children were introduced to all sorts of games or plays, moonlight-play songs, riddles, jokes, myths, legends, customs and traditions of the land.
Moonlight play came up with the existence of the kind of communities or settings that the Africans lived. It cannot be credited to anybody that he/she started moonlight games, it is as old as the society itself. They are part of the community where they exist, that is why different African traditions have different moonlight games which are synonymous with the area where they occur. They happen in those areas, not because its an accident but because the games are part of the people’s culture within the environment that they exist. The games are not brought out of vacuum; they are part of the environment. So, nobody can have that credit of having started it. The origin is that it is as old as man himself. As long as the African society has been in existence, moonlight games has been in existence in Africa. These games or plays are rooted in our own cultural environment; it is also part of our own cultural identity. You cannot take out the cultural identity of a place out of moonlight games.
In every traditional African society, there used to be period that people gathered to learn certain things about their society, those things like morality. Storytelling was often used in educating the children of that society. The essence of the storytelling was to serve as moral boosting, a moral enforcement, an avenue through which things are pointed out to the children but this time, not through flogging or punishment but in an easy and friendly way that they were able to understand and learn. Also in every society, there were usually eternal codes and norms which has not been spelt out but are part of the society in which we existed. These eternal codes and norms now unconsciously shape the behavior of a child. In such society, after a hard day work or chores, you will find children or a group of family and relatives living in unity come together after a meal, they would surround their grandfather or grandmother or the eldest person around to hear stories like folktales (Ekong-nke). The children will now happily sing, clap, and dance along in the middle of the stories. At this point, the storyteller may choose to use life experiences to tell them stories. Using animal character like Tortoise, who was tricky and died because of his tricky lifestyle. Such stories for that evening will teach a child to be straight forward, it will also teach them that at amoral point of view, I am supposed to be straight. Those moments used to dissuade a child from being wayward or negative in the society.
The culture, eternal codes and norms, and ethics of a society is easily understood using moonlight games. The essence of moonlight games is to serve as a moral boosting, a moral reinforcement, and avenue which things are pointed out to the people, but this time not through beating or punishing the child but in an easy and friendly way that they will be able to understand.
Like children in other parts of Nigeria and elsewhere, Eket children play many games on moonlight nights. These games covers a wide spectrum of activities, including hide and seek, action game like police pursuing rubbers, riddles, puzzles, breath control games, tongue twisters, and many more. Until the arrival of Television and Radio, these games were played from early hours of the evening to around midnight when almost every person in the village or hamlet has gone to bed. These games takes place, either in the courtyard of the family homestead (for tender children between five to eight years) or in the main street of the village (for children aged about nine to eighteen years). Wearing a pair of shorts with no shirt on top (in case of boys), or a small piece of wrapper around their waists,(in case of girls) the children play these game under the leadership of the most aggressive or the most domineering child in their midst.
Moonlight games were great moments for entertainment, enlightenment and social interaction in traditional societies, like Eket society. With the invasion of the traditional society by modern super structures, either brandished as education or christened as civilization, the traditional have suffered disintegration and in signification. Values are no longer placed on many traditional modes of entertainment and communication despite their proven charisma, aesthetics and paradigms. Children’s games such asekpaekpan, has nearly become extinct despite the mass of rural population still occupying the African literal landscape.
According to Fafunwa in Udoh (2006), moonlight games in the traditional society serves the purpose of educating the child, apart from the recreational purpose. Its goals include;
To develop the child’s latent physical skills.
To develop character
To inculcate respect for elders and those in position of authority.
To develop intellectual skill
To develop a sense of belonging and to participate actively in the family and community affairs and;
To understand, appreciate and promote the cultural heritage of the community at large.
Moonlight games in Eket society are full of folk songs and were not only vehicles for entertainment but also helped them to learn easily without mental stress. In Eket traditional societies, moonlight games significantly enhances the total development of the child’s cognitive, effective and psychomotor domains, as it is coordinated with listening, practicing, play, poetry, language, and other areas.
The essence of moonlight games is to enhance communality because in Africa, we live in community and we live as one. We live in a very large compound, and there is a particular spot in the compound that the children would gathered after a day’s chores, where would create plays and play along, example of such plays are; ekak, ekpang-ekpang, udibe (hide and sick). Now, all these games were classify under mbreoffiong(moonlight plays). These plays or games make the children smart, witty, and knowledgeable.
Statement of the Problem
Until recent times, these games flourished magnificently in rural communities in Eket Local Government of Akwa Ibom State. Unfortunately, they are fast disappearing from our villages and hamlets, thanks to the combined influence of Television, Radio and rural-urban migration. Unless some efforts are made to arrest this threatened extinction of our moonlight games, they may not endure much longer and what is worse, our youths will grow up into adulthood without the benefit of the nurturing activities which have engineered and defined the Eket ethos in the past.
The coming of the Europeans to Africa brought some advantages and disadvantages to us. It bought about progress in terms of scientific and technological development, but retardation in the area of cultural development. Until recent times, these games flourished magnificently in rural communities in Eket Local Government of Akwa Ibom State. Unfortunately, they are fast disappearing from our villages and hamlets, unless some effort is made to arrest this threatened extinction of our moonlight games, they may not endure much longer and what is worse, our youths will grow up into adulthood without the benefit of the nurturing activities which have engineered and defined the Eket ethos in the past. The tradition of our moonlight games which was once a pride to an average youth is becoming obscure.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study among others include:
To reawaken that aspect of morality that has long been lost in Africa through moonlight games.
To get our children back into our own cultural heritage.
To bring into limelight the cultural heritage of Eket community through moonlight games.
To expose the roles of moonlight games and its benefits to the world.
To document folk songs associated with moonlight games for posterity.
To awaken the awareness of Eket people especially the youths about their forgotten cultural values.
1.4 Significance of the Study
The Eket people have a very rich culture which ought to be preserved for posterity and also passed down to the next generation. This study will help in this direction. This study will also be a part of the solution to the problem of the declining use of moonlight games by proffering solution to its appropriate extinction. It will help to re-orientate the adults of their roles in the upbringing of their children. The study will also serve as a source of reference materials to other researchers who may have any interest in the study of Eket culture.
1.5 Scope of De-limitation of the study
This research project is delimited to the aspect of the drama and music in the moonlight games in Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. This work will also investigate the problems facing moonlight games and as well as proffer solution or the way forward to them. The main people used in this project are the Eket people.
This study covers both the young and old, performers, and respondents to interviews.
1.6 Research Methodology
The methodology used in this work include both the primary and the secondary sources. The secondary source include the library aspect which took the form of literature review of published works available on the subject matter, especially recreational activities. But the main method used is the primary source which involved the field work – traveling down to the village, that is, Eket where some of the moonlight games were recorded, translated and transcribed.
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