Proverbs, parables and metaphors: applying freire's concept of codification to africa

Experiments in various parts of the world have attempted to apply elements of the Freire model. ... These experiments generally have emphasized several themes: the concept of problem-posing education, the dialogical relationship between educators and learners, participatory planning, the political nature of educational change, and structural analysis of oppression. Except for Kidd and Byram's work with popular theatre in Botswana (1) adult educators have not given much attention to Freire's use of codification.

The present case study focuses on the use of parables, proverbs, and metaphors as codification in an educational program in rural Zaire. Its thesis is that Freire's concept of codifications has tremendous conceptual power for transforming perspectives and providing hope in the face of dominance.

CODIFICATIONS AND PERSPECTIVE TRANSFORMATION

In Pedagogy of the Oppressed (3) Freire outlines a methodology through which people view themselves and their relationships within the social structure. Though caught in the "culture of silence," codifications provide a mechanism through which the relationships are externalized and subjected to critical analysis. This analytical procedure clarifies the sociological dimensions of oppressive structures and transforms the perspective of the participants. The process of codification and decodification helps people move from a sense of fatalism to critical consciousness where they can define their own solutions.

To work effectively, codification must be familiar, their themes neither explicit nor overly enigmatic, and they must be organized as "thematic fans" so that they represent contradictions that include the other contradictions that make up the system of contradictions of the area under study. (4)

Codifications are effective only in externalizing perceptions and subjecting them to analysis when they reflect the cultural context. In Brazil, Freire relied primarily on pictures and drawings, but experience in Zaire suggests that proverbs, parables, and metaphors may be particularly appropriate as codification in rural Africa.

THE SOCIAL-CULTURAL CONTEXT

Forced by world opinion to assume the Congo as a colony to correct the abuses of the Leopoldine system, Belgium ruled through what has been called the "unholy trinity". This alliance included the colonial administration, foreign corporations and Christian missions: together they imposed a European presence unparalleled in Africa. (6) Paternalism formed the basis for Belgian colonial policy which successfully provided employment, social amenities, the pastoral solicitude of a Catholic mission and an educational system for children.

After ignoring the rise of African nationalism, Belgium precipitously granted Zaire its independence in 1960. Unprepared to govern, Zaire's leaders lost control of the country as ethnic and regional hostilities surfaced and people competed for the benefits of independence. The new government raised taxes and imprisoned people without cause. Many political functionaries used military force to exploit their positions economically. The new regime, however , successfully imposed a political system of administrative constraints that contrasted sharply with the expectations and promise of independence. (7)

Although regarded by the Zairian government as a model of progressive development, the Kwilu region exploded into full-scale rebellion in 1964. (8) Capitalizing on widespread dissatisfaction with the results of independence, a provincial government official organized a movement to achieve the 'second independence' in which the benefits would go to the people. (9) Pierre Mulele, then recently returned from China, traveled throughout the region ostensibly to survey local conditions. Covertly, he organized a network of forest training camps where young men studied basic Marxist ideology and tactics of guerrilla warfare.

The rebellion that followed was crushed by government troops, but not before most of the livestock and fields in the area were plundered by the rebels or the marauding national army. Many died in the fighting or in political assassinations: others were victims of disease and malnutrition during months of hiding in the forests. Agricultural activity virtually ceased before people could return to the villages.

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT ACTION

Team members had a variety of backgrounds including secondary school training in agriculture, experience as primary school teachers, training in veterinary medicine and theology. They became involved at the village level: helping community groups identify problems and determine solutions: organizing seminars on rabbit production, nutrition, fish-pond construction and public health: providing technical information in response to agricultural questions; assisting communities to form development committees and serving as resource persons to other groups in the region.

This article, however, focuses specifically on the development activities in one community where parables, proverbs and metaphors were applied as codifications in an attempt to transform perspectives that grew out of Zaire's history of oppression.

THE 'GIFT' OF DEVELOPMENT

There were some variations in priorities and details, but community discussions of local problems typically generated the following list: lack of jobs, lack of money, high prices for consumer goods, low prices for agricultural products sold to merchants, high taxes, the government's policy of forced cultivation, the decline of the palm oil industry, the cost of school fees and lack of adequate transportation.

At the conclusion of one village meeting, the chief said: "Things are not finished with the mouth. Let's meet again and you take away our mpashi (troubles)." After further discussions, the chief spoke again:

"Children cannot take care of themselves. A father has to take care of them. A father tells his children what they must do. We have cried out our mpashi to you. You are our father and mother. You tell us what to do."

In a neighbouring village, an elder greeted the PAP community-development team with the words: "Thank you to God that you have come. Our troubles are over now that you are here." In another, the people decided to outline a development strategy two weeks after an initial meeting in which problems were identified. An elder announced the arrival of the PAP staff for the strategy session with these words: '"The answer has come! Come and get it! The answer has come!"

The conflict between community expectations and PAP's development philosophy about change and the role of external agents became acute. "Why do you ask us our problems if you don't give us what we need?" several people asked. Another angrily declared: "You are playing games with us. If you want to play games, we will not come to your meetings and we will not sit with you. We shall not talk about our problems."

CODIFICATIONS IN AFRICAN SOCIETY

"A man from southern Zaire was walking down the road to his village. Late in the afternoon, he became very thirsty and wanted a drink of water. Two men were sitting under a tree along the road. One lived in this village and the other was visiting from eastern Zaire. Whom did the traveler from southern Zaire ask for directions to the stream with good water?"

After a moment of silence, the village leader replied: "You have spoken well. We have heard you. Wait here." Without further comment, the group adjourned into an informal discussion in another part of the village, without the PAP agent. They returned with a list of problems to discuss further: the difficulty of carrying water from the distant stream, the epidemics of Newcastle disease that regularly decimated their chicken flocks and the lack of agricultural tools in the community. The initial demands to "give us your program" was replaced with a discussion of how locally defined needs could be met.

Reflection on this incident suggested that conceptualizing development issues in parable and metaphor facilitates the process of critical analysis.

THE ORANGE AND THE ORANGE TREE

In one village meeting that focused on local problems, several people angrily demanded an end to the talk and a start to the action. The chief accused the PAP representatives of not assuming their responsibilities: "You father have left the child in his mpashi. It is good that you think of his mpashi." A woman added: "What do you do when you hear a child crying because he is hungry and you have an orange tree?"

In the discussion that followed, everyone agreed that the owner of the tree should give the hungry child an orange. Several pointed out, however, that it is easy to grow accustomed to eating oranges from someone else's tree. This, in turn, has an inherent danger. What happens to the child if the owner of the orange tree dies? The solution, it was suggested, is that the child should plant his own trees. This generated considerable debate. Several farmers argued that since local trees were not very productive, somebody should import better trees from abroad. Others responded, however, that orange trees grew locally and produced enough to meet community needs.

The group eventually concluded that orange trees grew in the community, seedlings were available locally and people in the village knew how to plant and care for them. The basic issue was making the decision to plant orange trees using proven techniques and then actually carrying through with it.

The discussion began with the analysis of the needs generated in a similar session several weeks earlier. The solutions originally proposed placed the entire burden of change on PAP. PAP should provide cattle and chickens for community flocks, build an agricultural production center and provide jobs for everyone. PAP should also re-open the palm oil processing plant that had recently closed and provide a market for village produce. Questions regarding how the community could deal with these problems generated the hostile accusation that "You really do not want to help us. You are playing games with us." When the woman conceptualized the underlying issues regarding the nature of change through metaphor, however, the meeting was transformed. As different speakers addressed various dimensions of the problem of the orange and the orange tree, they were interrupted with jokes, laughter and applause. Someone interjected that if PAP gave everyone some chickens, many local problems would be solved. He was curtly told, "We are talking about oranges, not PAP."

The orange tree metaphor focused on two problems, first it reflected the nature of community problems and the process of change. Solutions were conceptualized as oranges-materials-that must be provided by the owner of the tree (PAP). The problem in this context, was resolved when the owner of the tree gave an orange to the hungry child. This reflects the assumption that local problems could be solved through salaried employment and gifts of cattle and chickens. Second, the metaphor examined the role of PAP in the community and the relationship of development agents to local citizens. Although the staff perceived themselves as facilitators, the people viewed them as potential donors of livestock and agricultural supplies.

The problem of the orange tree was solved with the consensus that while you should feed a starving child, oranges already grow in the community. In addition, it was concluded, those receiving oranges should plant their own trees using available seedlings. Once this problem was solved through metaphor at the conceptual level, the implications for the community were clear. Instead of further demands for gifts of cattle and chickens, the village formed a committee with PAP to determine how the original list of problems could be solved using local resources. In place of requests for jobs, the community examined ways to market its own produce.

After the initial experience in which the development task and the relationship to PAP were analyzed metaphorically, the orange tree became a regular part of the team's development lexicon in confronting the issue of dependence.

THE SICK MAN AND THE DOCTOR

PAP: What are the problems that people have in this community ?

Villager: It is hard for us to say. We really don't know what our problems are or what we should do about them.

PAP: What are some of the things you wish were different? How would you change things if you could?

Villager: You are the doctor and we are the sick people. You tell us why we are sick and what medicine we should take.

PAP: How does a sick person know when it is time to see the doctor?

Villager: He doesn't feel strong or he is in pain.

PAP: Does the doctor tell the patient where it hurts?

Villager: The patient tells the doctor.

PAP: How do you find out what is wrong with you?

Villager: You tell the doctor what you feel and he will tell you your problem.

PAP: Do doctors always know what is wrong when you are sick?

Villagers: No.

PAP: Why not?

Villager: Because some sicknesses are sicknesses of the doctor ( i.e. the kind doctors can treat), but for others, we have to look for mayele (knowledge) elsewhere.

PAP: You mean that doctors don't know everything?

Villager: The doctors have their mayele but the people of the village have their mayele too.

PAP: What kind of mayele do you look for when you are sick, the mayele of the doctor or the mayele of the village?

Villager: Both, because you do not always know why you are sick or what kind of mayele you are going to need.

PAP: Who has the mayele of the village?

Villager: We do.

PAP: Does everybody have this mayele?

Villager: No

PAP: Who has it then?

Villager: I have some, he has some, she has some, we all have some. . . .

PAP: If the village is sick, where would it find a doctor?

Villager: It would look for someone with mayele.

PAP: Whose has this mayele?

Villager: You have this mayele because you have gone to school and studied much but we have our mayele too.

The metaphor of the sick man and the doctor was introduced by a village chief to halt a needs-assessment discussion. He had expected that PAP would then outline its program to solve community problems. This analysis required more than an hour before consensus emerged on the relationship between the doctor and the patient. When agreement was reached that even a doctor could not successfully treat a sick person without his assistance, the limitations of a doctors mayele were examined. The conclusion was that while people may be ill, most are also doctors in some specific sense. While villagers may be sick, members of the community are also able to treat some of those diseases much more effectively than educated technicians from outside who fail to understand the complexity of local problems.

The discussion which began with the demand to "Tell us the answer to our problems" concluded with the community examining its own concerns. The metaphor externalized the relationship between the community and the development workers and subjected it to critical analysis. When the issue was solved at the conceptual level, the implications for practice were clear. The hostility that frequently emerged when PAP refused to provide answers dissipated, and local people began thinking more specifically about what they could do. After initial success in one village where the PAP/community relationship was analysed metaphorically as the doctor/sick man dialectic, it became a regular feature in village discussion.

FROM REFLECTION TO ACTION

1. Analysis of cultural assumptions. The codification shifted the discussion from specific community problems loaded with emotional content to a level of abstraction in which they could be examined analytically. The starting point was people's perspective regarding the meaning of culture and history, the relationship of the community to the world and the structure of social relationships in the region. The analysis did not generate new facts: the facts were already well known. Clarifying the assumptions underlying the local definition of development led to a shift in perspective, providing the initiative that resulted in community action.
2. Shift in Relationships. The analysis revealed that historical forces such as colonial administration, foreign corporations and Christian missions were viewed as the motor of change. PAP was assumed to fit this mode and expected to bring answers and provide solutions to local problems. When the role of PAP was examined metaphorically as the relationship between the doctor and the patient, the result was a shift in expectations. Instead of waiting for PAP to act, people realized that they were 'doctors' themselves with the knowledge and ability to solve some problems.

   One village in which people assumed that PAP would provide jobs and distribute livestock , illustrates this change. In a second meeting following one in which the orange tree metaphor was examined, one farmer angrily demanded an end to the talk and the initiation of PAP's program to provide employment and distribute agricultural supplies. Another man who had earlier expressed the same sentiments responded:

   "You don't understand what these people (i.e. the PAP staff) are doing here. They cannot give us jobs. They don't have jobs to give. They are here to ask questions that help us find out what we can do for ourselves. If we want to have money, we will have to look and see what we can do here. That is why we have come together."

3. Collective Action. While it is to early to evaluate the long-term impact of this process of codification and decodification, several significant changes occurred. The requests for jobs and livestock virtually ceased. Several villages formed development committees to provide leadership in outlining the community agenda. These committees organized seminars on fish production and nutrition education: shared information on raising rabbits, soybeans and chickens; and served as unpaid animateurs in encouraging villages to take specific actions. While this process led to a dramatic increase in the number of farmers raising fish in ponds, the single most significant actions resulting from the committees' efforts were the repair and reopening of the road leading into the community that had been closed for five months. During that period, no produce could be transported by vehicle, undoubtedly, few of these actions would have been possible if people expected PAP to solve their problems for them.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF THIS APPROACH

1. Participatory nature. Adult educators are searching for ways to involve learners on planning and implementing their own programs. The process described in this case study illustrates how people can participate in analysis of their own problems and identify specific solutions.
2. Cultural relevance. Proverbs, parables and metaphors are an integral part of Zairian culture and frequently used in resolving disputes.
3. Manipulability. Parables and metaphors lend themselves to repeated reconceptualizations that express alternative points of view. Metaphors can be modified during discussions within the context of larger metaphors that may be examined concurrently.
4. Simplicity. These decodification discussion require no external paraphernalia: no projectors, posters, cameras, or artistic skills. They assume only a fertile imagination and an understanding of cognitive structures in traditional African society.
5. Pleasure. Story telling is an important activity in Zairian villages so decodification discussions provide entertainment. They move social analysis from a serious and frequently hostile environment to a level of abstraction where issues can be examined without their emotional content.

LIMITATIONS OF THE PROCESS

1. Requires skillful coordinators. Coordinating discussion employing these codifications requires patience and skill. Some coordinators have neither the temperament nor the ideological commitment necessary to facilitate the process of self-directed change.
2. Intimate knowledge of language and culture. Leading discussions employing symbols requires an intimate understanding of the cultural context, including language and cognitive structures.
3. Deliberate pace of change. A process of analysis that incorporates an entire community frustrates those with specific timetables and an action orientation. Perspectives, on the other hand, change very slowly.
4. Difficulty of praxis. The transition from talking about problems to solving them is frequently difficult. People disagree on what should be done, how and when the action should begin. Some are always ready to move while others want to discuss the situation further.
5. Structural limitations. The decodifications in this study resulted in small, incremental actions following changes in perspectives about the nature of change and the role of external agents in the process. There were not, however, major structural changes in the community. Government agents still oppress village farmers. Inflation is accelerating and economic conditions continue to deteriorate as a result of conscious choices made by government officials.

CONCLUSION

The case study suggests that parables, proverbs and metaphors not only meet Freire's criteria for codifications, but are useful devices for conceptualizing problems in African society and subjecting them to critical analysis. They reflect the cultural context and lead from reflection to action.

Although not without weaknesses, Freire's concept of codifications can facilitate social analysis and contribute to the movement from reflection to action. More research is needed, however, to determine how codifications can be most effectively used in other cultural contexts.

Notes and references

2. Freire, Paulo. Education for critical consciousness. New York: Seabury Press, 1973, p. 3.

3. Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder, 1970.

4. Ibid., p. 108.

5. Slade, Ruth. King Leopold's Congo. London: Oxford University Press, 1962, p. 1.

6. Young, M. Crawford. "African rebellion". In: African report, Vol. 10, no. 4 (1965), pp. 6-11.

7. Verhaegen, Benoit. Rebellions au Congo. Bruxelles: Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques, 1966, p. 62.

8. The Kwilu is a river in central Bandundu region where this study was done.

9. Fox, Tenee C., Willy de Craemer and Jean-Marie Ribeaucourt. "The second independence: a case study of the Kwilu rebellion in the Congo" in Comparative studies in society and history, Vol. 8., no. 1 (October 1965), pp. 78-109.

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