Koma People: Analysis of Non-Verbal Communication Behavior

Author: Umar Ibrahim (Ahmadu Bello University Zaria)
Speaker: Umar Ibrahim
Topic: Linguistic Landscapes
The GLOCAL AFALA 2023 General Session

Abstract

Non-verbal communication has been a medium of communication and interpretation of information used differently by people other than the verbal type of communication and interpretation speech forms. The non-verbal communication is conveying of emotions, feelings, and messages through actions and expressions rather than words. (Anjali and Emmanuel 2015:1). Koma language belongs to the Niger-Congo group of languages as classified by Greenberg. The people occupy territory today called Koma in Adamawa State of Nigeria and speak the language known as Koma. Discovered lately in Nigeria by the former military administrator of the then Gongola State, Colonel Yohanna Madaki in 1986, since then the Koma people and their language attracted the attention of scholars from different fields of knowledge. Therefore, this paper is an attempt to analyze an aspect of communication of the Koma people,how they interact with their neighbors, given that the people seem to have little or no significant contact with the outside world, just as their discovery, existence and culture as a people within the Nigerian area obscures many Nigerians particularly their immediate neighbors in Adamawa State and the Republic of Cameroon.

Keywords: Koma, Non Verbal behaviour, Adamawa