by Muchugu KiiruYOU CANNOT CATCH OLD BIRDS WITH CHAFFWOMAN'S MULTIPLE IMAGES IN PROVERBS
AN OVERVIEW ON PROVERBS In spite of their local flavour or topicality, however, proverbs usually are essentially expressions of universal and general truths. That is why we can talk about proverbs as being culture-bound and at the same time as universal statements. And depending on the validity and depth of the truth it contains, a proverb can have such a long life that it becomes impossible to try to say when it came into existence. At the same time, however, proverbs are also dynamic in that as society changes, new proverbs appropriate to the new situation are created or borrowed from other cultures. In their application also, proverbs are not necessarily tied down to the community that first produced them. Thus, one does not have to belong to a game-keeping culture to understand the Yoruba proverb: An old poacher makes the best gamekeeper, or to a bull-rearing culture to understand another Yoruba proverb: It is through his intelligence that an old man runs away from a bull. As it can be seen from these examples, a proverb is usually a short and highly condensed saying, which is generally anonymous in its authorship and authoritative in its application. Brevity is, therefore, one characteristic of a proverb, and this brevity helps to make proverbs memorable, that is, easy to learn and retain in memory. Some proverbs are musical, as is shown by the following Kiswahili proverbs: 1. Hauchi hauchi, unakucha. (It does not, does not dawn. It dawns.) 2. Msafiri kafiri. (A traveller is as bad as an unbeliever ([in the Islamic faith].) This characteristic facilitates their effortless retention in the memory. In addition to their brevity and occasional musicality, proverbs are potent sayings which offer moral advice since they express what are perceived as homely truths. Never choose your women or your linen in the candle light, is one such homely truth. As potent sayings, proverbs are pregnant with meaning. Navels never disappear completely, for instance, embodies a deeper meaning than the observation that we associate with a navel as an anatomical phenomenon. At a deeper level, we are told, this proverb offers advice to young men in search of wives. The deep meaning that we associate with a proverb can also be multiple, that is, a proverb can yield more than one meaning. Indeed, it can yield contradictory meanings. A creaking door hangs the longest, could be an expression of either comfort for, or impatience of the bedridden. In spite of, and perhaps, because of the multiple (and at times contradictory) meanings attached to some proverbs, they are generally seen as embodiments and distillations of time-tested experiences, general truths, ancestral wisdom. Consequently, they are treasured as granaries of distilled wisdom, knowledge and truth, and are revered as authoritative codes of appropriate human behaviour. The use of proverbs as a source of moral authority is facilitated by their nature. In their brevity, musicality, and depth of meaning, proverbs are not only easily memorable, they are also easy to apply at appropriate occasions. It is their nature, incidentally, that makes it possible for them to be easily used in everyday speech. They help enrich and add colour to everyday speech, as they help a speaker make a point briefly, sometimes with devastating effect. Proverbs are also useful in the transmission and revelation of what are perceived as adequate and desirable moral standards and healthy social intercourse. Proverbs initiate youth into adulthood, especially in societies where they are the preserve of elders. And as the youth are initiated into adulthood, they imbibe–-like the proverbial calf that watches its mother's mouth as the mother chews grass--codes of human behaviour as they prepare for future roles as guardians of ancestral wisdom and culture. In doing all this, proverbs help people to think comparatively, that is, thinking of human experiences in other but related terms. Thus the saying that: You cannot catch old birds with chaff, has a wider application than its literal meaning. Referring as it does to birds and chaff, this saying can help an individual to understand his environment better, since the saying is culture-bound. At the same time, however, the saying can help an individual to understand and generalise human experiences. In its meaning--that the old are not easily fooled--this proverb widens an individual's scope of understanding. The universal validity of such a proverb can, of course, be contested. And this brings us to some problems and ambiguities associated with proverbs, treasured as they are in culture and human discourse. To begin with, the effectiveness of a proverb on an audience depends on the level of understanding of the latter. Sometimes, the desired impact of a proverb may be lost if the proverb is derived from stories or events that the audience is unfamiliar with. To make such proverbs effective, the audience must recall the story or event that is represented in an encapsulated form by the proverb. As a result, the audience is able to understand more clearly and learn from the implications of the proverb in question. Then there is the problem of the existence of contradictory proverbs in the same culture. When one door shuts, another opens, and Opportunity never knocks twice at any man's door are examples of proverbs that seem to offer contradictory advice. Such contradictory advice confuses an audience as much as it does an individual who seeks moral guidance in the pair of proverbs: Absence makes the heart grow fonder and Out of sight, out of mind. The effectiveness of proverbs as a source of moral authority and embodiment of universal truth can thus be compromised by the contradictory advice offered or the morals presented. The existence in the same culture of proverbs that seem to contradict and cancel each other out, attests to the complexity and wealth of human discourse. It is also good to note that the existence of proverbs that seem to contradict one another can open doors to the misuse of proverbs in the rationalisation of undesirable behaviour. On the other hand, there exist in any culture several proverbs that reinforce and complement one another. Familiarity breeds contempt, for example, complements Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Similarly, the proverb: The devil finds work for idle hands to do reinforces the proverb: An idle brain is the devil's workshop.
PROVERBS' VIEW OF WOMAN AND MAN
Proverbs that portray women negatively At the same time, some proverbs cast aspersions at a woman's trustworthiness: "Believe a woman's word the day after" (Gîkûyû, Kenya), He who listened to the woman suffered famine at harvest time.(Bemba,?Zambia), Woman is not a chicken cage you hang on your shoulder (Bassar, Togo), You can trust your brother, your father, your mother, but never your wife (Benin), and A woman is like a rat: even if it grows up in your house, it steals from you (Ganda, Uganda). Having asserted that a woman is untrustworthy, proverbs take a short step to allege that she is promiscuous: Woman is a path: don't ask who has walked on it or who will walk on it (Wolof, Senegal), and All women are unfaithful; it is only the excessively unfaithful that people call harlot (Yoruba, Nigeria). In the same breath, some proverbs assert the husband's superiority over his wife: Two cocks do not crow on the same roof (Mongo, Democratic Republic of Congo), and The hen knows when it is morning, but she looks at the mouth of the cock (Ashanti, Ghana). Other proverbs urge a husband to treat his wife with a heavy hand. Beat your wife regularly; if you don't know why, she will (West Africa), and If you really love your wife, you have to beat her (Tigrinya, Ethiopia). There are proverbs that are insensitive to the humiliation that a childless woman undergoes: A barren woman should not scold a bad child (Minyanka, Burkina Faso). The woman whose sons have died is richer than a barren woman (Gîkûyû, Kenya). From Baganda we have this disparaging proverb: A useless person is like a woman, both lazy and barren. Lest the reader conclude that proverbs which belittle women are a preserve of Africa, several anti-women proverbs are found outside Africa. Thus in the United Kingdom, some proverbs criticise, ridicule, or insult the woman when they unflatteringly compare her docility to that of quadrupeds in: It is a good horse that never stumbles and a good wife that never grumbles. Others rationalise violence against her, saying: A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more you beat them the better they be. And likening her to a piece of garment, they lord the man over her and reduce her to an object of his selection: Never choose your women or linen by candlelight. See what a small rating a woman is given in the proverb: If you would be happy for a week take a wife; if you would be happy for a month kill a pig; and if you would be happy all your life plant a garden! Still outside Africa, some proverbs, accusing the woman of being a Jezebel, damn her as a poisonous temptress: Like the scorpion, woman is a relative of the devil: when she sees a poor wretch, she wriggles her behind and moves away (Uruguay).
Proverbs that portray women positively At the same time, we have proverbs which appear to be insulting to the wife, but which in reality explicitly indicate the sufferings of the woman in a polygamous marriage, and so implicitly condemn polygamy as an institution that brings out the worst in a woman's nature: If you dance with your co-wife, don't close your eyelid (Burundi). Two wives are two pots of poison (Gîkûyû, Kenya). In this way, these proverbs complement the proverb: If a wife has kicked her co-wife, it is on the husband's shoulder she has found support (Fulani, Senegal).
Gender-neutral or complementarity proverbs
AN EVALUATION
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