NATIVES’ WIRELESS.

Shannon News, 12 June 1923, Page 4

NATIVES’ WIRELESS.

Primitive native *in darkest South Africa maintain a system ofweless telegraphy that is as efficient as that whifh s P pans the Atlantic; the civilisation of the Old World and the

Nothing more pretentious than the bark drum is their sending instrument and their highly attuned ears are the re ?ilm S village to village, by a series of drum beats, resembling somewhat our own morse code, the natives convey the news of battle, the warning of approaching enemies or epidemic, ana other subjects of importance to jungle | denizens. . Kaffir drum telegraphy is operated almost exclusively in the stillness of the night, when the tap of the tightly drawn skin is heard distinctly for 1 many miles. ..... Sometimes fires are used, hut this system is far behind drum telegraphy as the morse system is superior to thesemaphore. The natives o.f Africa,from the Cape I to Cairo and from Niger to the Nile, perfected long ago a system of tele-

graphy which is only less .efficient than that in use between London and Paris, and which is liable to be interrupted. Astonishing stories have been recorded from time to time, and have perplexed the “civilised” world. The fast that Sir Redvers Buller had been defeated at Colenso was known by natives sixty miles away within two hours, and even more strik- | ing results have been achieved. All through the hours of darkness Africa reverbrates with the deep beat of the drum, Tne drum talks to the next village as plainly as the mouth can utter words, telling of village affairs, of the designs of enemies. The I news is passed to the next village m a moment and replies are Sent. The drum is the newspaper of “Darkest” Africa, circulating home and foreign intelligence, crop reports, accounts of accidents, political discusI sions, dramas of domestic life—in fact I all the news that the London Press brings to the breakfast table. • Every item of importance is related in beats of the drum from the east coast to-the west, passing across the continent with a speed that suggests I the miraculous white man.