Read Oral Literature in Africa Online
Authors: Ruth Finnegan
26
Or so it is usually assumed; it is not in fact certain that all the Uncle Remus tales came directly from Africa via the slaves.
27
See eg. Jacottet’s remarks on this (1908: xxvi). The once mooted idea (of Bleek’s) that animal tales did not occur among the Bantu is now recognized to be untenable.
28
It has been suggested by Posselt (1927: 36) that the emphasis on ogres and cannibals is rare among Central African groups compared to the warlike South African peoples (Zulu, Sotho, etc.). However, even if this is so with the Shona it certainly does not apply to other Central African peoples: we hear, for instance, of ogres in Lamba stories, cannibalistic ‘goblins’ in Nyanja, Thonga ogre stories, etc. On the various related Bantu terms for these ogres in stories see A. Werner’s review of Lindblom’s
Kamba Folklore
1928–30: 433; and Werner 1933: 174ff.
29
Cf. the half-man, half-animal figure that occurs in many West African stories discussed in Calame-Griaule and Ligers 1961.
30
As e.g. Johnston 1966: xli; Dadie 1964: 207.
31
The correct reply, the intonation making it a sound of pleasure and not merely a rude grunt.
32
A woman always kneels when handing food to a man.
33
This can be used like whitewash, and the calabashes are coated outside. Here a mark of favour.
34
Little round grass mats which act as covers or lids.
35
The farms are the only clearing in many parts where the population is not too plentiful.
36
He was so hungry that he would have been unable to resist eating the whole, for he thought it contained food.
37
So that she could take her own away again.
38
A proverb, meaning that whatever you do for a man who is fated to be unlucky he will not profit by it.
39
An expert in beautifying teeth.
40
e.g. Callaway’s presentation of the Zulu tales about Uthlakanyana (Callaway 1868).
41
As in e.g. Werner’s
African Mythology
, which includes chapters on ‘Hare and Jackal Stories’, ‘Tortoise Stories,’ etc., or Arnott’s
African Myths and Legends
(1962) in which the largest single group consists of animal stories.
42
The whole of this passage, and the article as a whole, is worth consulting.
43
e.g. Beier 1966
a
. It is highly doubtful whether these stories were really locally regarded as ‘myths’ in any full sense of the term.
44
There are some exceptions to this in West Africa, where religious ideas sometimes find expression in a belief in pantheons of deities.
45
The Fa or Ifa divination system is described in Ch. 7.
46
For some further examples see Bascom 1965
b
.
47
This follows Lifchitz’s account in
Africa
13, 1940. See also Calame-Griaule 1965: 447ff.
48
e.g. Lindblom and Mbiti (Kamba), Doke (Lamba), Junod (Thonga and Ronga), Cagnolo (Kikuyu), Chatelain (Kimbundu), Theal (Xhosa), Jacottet (Sotho).
49
See the definition of ‘legend’ in Bascom 1965
b
: 4–5, from which the above account is largely drawn. My discussion here is not concerned with the large question of the historical accuracy of legends and oral narratives in general and thus leaves aside the much discussed problem of the dependability of oral traditions for historical research (on which see e.g. Vansina 1965 and references given there); I might add, however, that in view of the inherent variability of oral expression and the significance of the literary aspect, I am rather doubtful how far we can regard oral literary forms as providing much evidence for actual events in earlier periods.
50
There is a good discussion of this in Evans-Pritchard 1967: 24ff. Cf. also Lindblom’s comment on the difficulty of deciding whether Kamba explanatory tales are serious or humorous (Lindblom ii, 1935: iii).
51
e.g. K. Arnott 1962; Werner 1933; J. Maes, ‘Mythes et légendes sur rallume-feu’,
Africa
9, 1936 (Congo); Vanneste 1949 (Alur); Werner 1913; de Clercq 1909, 1912; John-Parsons 1958; Terrisse 1963.
52
e.g. Turnbull’s collection entitled ‘Legends of the BaMbuti’ (1959) in. which, even on his own account, the great majority are ordinary imaginative stories about people, animals, spirits, and the various tricks used among them. The same applies to Ogumefu’s
Yoruba Legend
(1929), the ‘legends of the tortoise’ in Werner 1933, and many other similar references.
53
e.g. the
habaru
and
gisa
forms of the North Cameroons Fulani (Mohamadou 1963: 71).
54
See e.g. Lloyd 1955 (mainly a discussion of what would normally be classed as legends); Beier 1955; Wyndham 1921; Johnson 1921, Chaps. 1 and 2, and
passim
.
55
e.g. Kagwa 1934a and the chronicles associated with various kingdoms and places published in several issues of the
Uganda Journal
and elsewhere.
56
Among the large literature on various aspects of this ‘epic’ see e.g. Boelaert 1949, 1957; de Rop 1964; and for discussion of a written version based on it de Rop 1958. See also discussion in the Note on Epic (Ch. 4).
57
e.g. to cite just a few instances, Delafosse 1913, Wade 1964 (Wolof); East 1935 (Adamawa Fulani); Adam 1940; Arnett 1909–10; Sölken 1959–60; 1963. For various translations or paraphrases of Arabic chronicles see e.g. Houdas and Delafosse 1913 (on the Songhai empire); Delafosse and Gaden 1913; Arnett 1922.
58
As pointed out e.g. by Whiteley 1964: 7; see also the references given in Vansina 1965: 155ff.
59
How seriously these statements are taken, at least by adults, is not at all clear, however.
60
Among the few exceptions to this one can mention Chatelain 1894, Steere 1906, Equilbecq 1913–16, Hulstaert 1965, Dijkmans 1965, Finnegan 1967.
61
See, respectively, Cronise and Ward 1903: 8 (Temne); Johnston 1966: xxx; Leith-Ross 1939: 86 (Hausa); Ellis 1894: 243 (Yoruba and Ewe); Whiteley 1964: 8 (Yao); Krug 1949: 350; Hurel 1922: 1; Trilles 1932: 235 (Pygmies); cf. also the mention of an ‘official story-teller’ to the king among the Luba, according to Donohugh and Berry 1932: 180.
62
This is a common southern African pattern, e.g. among the Thonga, Ronga, Zulu, and Xhosa; it is also mentioned for the Fjort and, in the case of certain types of tales at least, for the Cameroons Fulani.
63
Cf. also the special case of stories introduced into the Yoruba Ifa divination process (Ch. 7) which are delivered by fully professional diviners (male).
64
See the treatment of this in Kilson 1961.
65
For useful general discussions of various possible functions of African stories see Bascom 1965
a
; Fisher 1963; E. W. Smith, ‘The function of folktales’,
Afr. Affairs
39, 1940.
66
e.g. the Ila
kashimi
(byword) stories which, unlike other Ila stories, have a definite didactic aim (Smith and Dale ii, 1920: 343).
67
These titles do not refer to the powers of good and evil, much less to God and Satan. King or chief is merely a title, and corresponds somewhat to our captain.
68
So as to keep the father in.
69
There is a good description of style in Mende story-telling in Innes 1964; see also Jones and Carter 1967.
70
Possibly they are not so frequent in southern Africa, but this impression may be due to lack of interest by local collectors or because I have missed this point in the sources.
71
Helser 1930: 11; Steere 1906: 137; Chatelain 1894: 21, 51, 63; Rattray i, 1913: 48, 66 etc. (and cf. the long closing Housa form given in Tremearne 1913: 11–12); 1930: 3 etc.)
72
Rattray 1913: 48 etc.; Tremearne 1913: 11; Johnson 1931: 340 etc.; Rattray 1930: 49, 53 etc.
73
For some other good descriptions of the narrator’s art see e.g. Roger 1828: 9 ff. (Wolof); Trilles 1932: 234–35, 240 (Pygmies); Tremearne 1913: 27–29.
74
e.g. Yoruba, Ewe, ex-French Equatorial Africa, Bulu (Ellis 1894: 243; 1890: 269; Nassau 1914: 5; Krug 1949: 350). For further points on songs in stories (including some examples) and the common modes of antiphony see Ch. 9. See also Innes 1965; Belinga 1965: 55ff.
75
For further comments on this aspect see e.g. Theal 1886: vii ff.; Finnegan 1967: 94ff.; Junod ii, 1913: 218ff.; Stappers 1962: 14ff. Cf. also Propp’s interesting analysis of the ‘functions’ or stable and constant elements in (Russian) folktales—though his approach seems a little too formalistic for direct application to the African field (Propp 1958).
14. Proverbs
The significance and concept of the proverb. Form and style. Content. Occasions and functions. Specific examples: Jabo; Zulu; Azande. Conclusion
.
I
Proverbs seem to occur almost everywhere in Africa, in apparent contrast with other areas of the world such as aboriginal America and Polynesia. Relatively easy to record, they have been exceedingly popular with collectors. Particularly well represented are proverbs from the Bantu area (especially the Southern Bantu); the Congo and West Africa have also provided many extensive collections. It is notable, however, that there are apparently few or no proverbs among the Bushmen of southern Africa and the Nilotic peoples (Doke 1933: 6; Evans-Pritchard 1963
b
: 109), and few seem to have been recorded in Nilo-Hamitic languages. In other areas proverbs seem universal and in some African languages occur in rich profusion. 4,000 have been published in Rundi, for instance, about 3,000 in Nkundo, and roughly 2,000 in Luba and Hausa. In addition Bascom lists about thirty other African peoples for whom 500 or more proverbs have been recorded (Bascom 1964: 16–17; Doke 1947: 115–7; Whitting 1940). Also many editors say that they doubt whether their collections are complete.
The literary relevance of these short sayings is clear. Proverbs are a rich source of imagery and succinct expression on which more elaborate forms can draw. As Nketia puts it in his comment on Ghanaian proverbs
The value of the proverb to us in modern Ghana does not lie only in what it reveals of the thoughts of the past. For the poet today or indeed for the speaker who is some sort of an artist in the use of words, the proverb is a model of compressed or forceful language. In addition to drawing on it for
its words of wisdom, therefore, he takes interest in its verbal techniques—its selection of words, its use of comparison as a method of statement, and so on. Familiarity with its techniques enables him to create, as it were, his own proverbs. This enables him to avoid hackneyed expressions and give a certain amount of freshness to his speech.
This … approach to proverbs which is evident in the speech of people who are regarded as accomplished speakers or poets of a sort makes the proverbs not only a body of short statements built up over the years and which reflect the thought and insight of Ghanaians into problems of life, but also a technique of verbal expression, which is greatly appreciated by the Ghanaian. It is no wonder therefore that the use of proverbs has continued to be a living tradition in Ghana
(Nketia 1958: 21).
In many African cultures a feeling for language, for imagery, and for the expression of abstract ideas through compressed and allusive phraseology comes out particularly clearly in proverbs. The figurative quality of proverbs is especially striking; one of their most noticeable characteristics is their allusive wording, usually in metaphorical form. This also emerges in many of the native words translated as ‘proverb’ and in the general stress often laid on the significance of speaking in symbolic terms. Indeed, this type of figurative expression is sometimes taken so far as to be almost a whole mode of speech in its own right. The Fulani term
mallol
for instance, means not only a proverb but also allusion in general, and is especially used when there is some deep hidden meaning in a proverb different from the obvious one’ (Gaden 1931: vi). Similarly with the Kamba term
ndimo
. This does not exactly correspond to our term ‘proverb’ but is its nearest equivalent, and really means a ‘dark saying’ or ‘metaphorical wording’, a sort of secret and allusive language (Lindblom iii, 1934: 28).
The literary significance of proverbs in Africa is also brought out by their close connection with other forms of oral literature. This is sometimes apparent in the local terminology, for proverbs are not always distinguished by a special term from other categories of verbal art. The Nyanja
mwambi
, for instance, refers to story, riddle, or proverb, the Ganda
olugero
means, among other things, a saying, a story, a proverb, and a parable (Doke 1947: 102) and the Mongo
bokolo
is used of all poetic expression including fable, proverb, poetry and allegory (Hulstaert 1958: 6). This overlap in terms is fairly common in Bantu languages and also sometimes occurs in West Africa too: the Limba
mboro
refers to story, riddle, and parable as well as to sayings which we might term proverbs, while the Fulani
tindol
can mean not only a popular moral story but also a proverb or maxim (Gaden 1931: vi).
In some languages (such as Yoruba or Zulu) a distinction does exist in terminology between proverbs and other types of literary expression.
1
But even here there is often a practical connection between proverbs and other forms of oral literature. Chatelain pointed out that Kimbundu proverbs are closely related to anecdotes, so much so that anecdotes are sometimes just illustrations of a proverb, while a proverb is frequently an anecdote in a nutshell (Chatelain 1894: 21). Again, the Nyanja proverb ‘Pity killed the francolin’ is a direct allusion to the story in which the francolin came to the help of a python and was in return eaten by it (Gray 1944: 102). Similar connections between story and proverb are mentioned for the Azande, Zulu, Ashanti, and many others, and a moralizing story may end with, or imply, a proverb to drive home its point. As well, proverbs frequently appear in songs and poems. The drum proverbs of Ghana or Dahomey are particularly striking examples here. Among other instances we could mention the Nguni saying ‘The earth does not get fat’ (i.e. however many dead it receives the earth is never satiated) which also appears as the central theme and chorus in an impressive Ngoni lament (in Ch. 7 above) and the Swahili poem about silence based on the proverb ‘Much silence has a mighty noise’ (‘Still waters run deep’) but elaborated and drawn out in the verses arising from it (Taylor 1891: 32–3). Written forms too sometimes make use of traditional proverbs, as in Muyaka’s Swahili poems, and these in turn may give further currency to new or old proverbs (Doke 1947: 105). Proverbs are also sometimes connected with riddles (e.g. the Anang ‘proverb-riddles’ discussed below, p. 431) or, as among the Liberian Jabo, with praise names (Herzog 1936: 12). They also frequently occur in general conversation and in oratory to embellish, conceal, or hint. Proverbs, in short, are closely interwoven with other aspects of linguistic and literary behaviour.
As well as these obvious and common ways in which proverbs overlap with other kinds of verbal art, they also appear in certain specialized forms. Their use in the form of ‘proverb names’ is one. Among the Ovimbundu, to give one example, the woman’s name
Simbovala
is a shortened form of the proverb ‘While you mark out a field, Death marks you out in life’—in life you are in the midst of death’ (Ennis 1945: 3; on names in general see Ch. 16). Another connection is with bird lore, a form particularly popular among the Southern Bantu. The cries attributed to certain birds can be expressed
as a proverb or a song. The hammerkop, for instance, can be referred to as a symbol of vanity either in a brief proverb or in the full song in which he is represented as praising himself at length (Meeussen 1959: 73); the songs here are thus inextricably linked with the proverbs. Proverbs are also sometimes connected with other artistic media: they can be drummed (a characteristic form in some West African societies), sung, as with Lega judicial proverbs, or can appear on the flags of military companies, as among the Fante (Christensen 1958: 240). Most striking of all is the way the Ashanti associate a certain proverb with one or other of their many ‘gold-weights’—small brass figures and images originally used to weigh gold dust and worked with great skill and humour. Thus a snake catching a bird represents the proverb ‘The snake lies upon the ground, but God has given him the hornbill’ (that flies in the sky). Another weight depicts two crocodiles with only a single stomach between them, representing ‘Bellies mixed up, crocodiles mixed up, we have between us only one belly, but if we get anything to eat it passes down our respective gullets’—a famous proverb often cited when one individual in a family tries to seize for himself rather than sharing (Rattray 1923: 312–3; also Paulme 1941; Plass 1967).
Certain of the direct associations between proverbs and other artistic forms such as metalwork or drumming may be peculiar to certain African societies, but the general association of proverbs and other forms of literature is not after all very surprising. These close connections are perhaps particularly characteristic of an
oral
literature without a clear-cut distinction between written and unwritten forms, but the sort of way in which proverbial expression and other types of literary art (including the art of conversation) mutually enrich and act upon each other is something that is presumably a quality of most cultures. In this sense, then, proverbs in Africa are not so very different from those in any literate culture, in both of which their main impact seems, in fact, to be in an
oral
rather than a written form. In neither case should they be regarded as isolated sayings to be collected in hundreds or thousands on their own, but rather as just one aspect of artistic expression within a whole social and literary context.
The close connection of proverbs with other literary forms raises a difficulty. How, particularly in an oral culture, can we distinguish proverbs from other forms of oral art? or indeed, from ordinary clichés and idioms, and from such related but different forms as maxims and apophthegms?
Most of the published collections ignore this point of definition and by merely entitling their works ‘Proverbs’ often give the misleading impression
that these sayings are clearly differentiated from other expressions or that they are in all ways equivalent to our idea of proverbs. Some of the best collections, such as those of Hulstaert, Nyembezi, Doke, or Chatelain, specifically point out this difficulty, but most have little or no discussion of this point.
The exact definition of ‘proverb’ is no easy matter. There is, however, some general agreement as to what constitutes a proverb. It is a saying in more or less fixed form marked by ‘shortness, sense, and salt’ and distinguished by the popular acceptance of the truth tersely expressed in it. Even so general a picture as this contains some useful pointers for the analysis of African proverbs.
First, their form. They are picked out first and most obviously as being short; and secondly by the fact that even where the wording itself is not absolutely fixed, at least the main structural pattern is accepted in the society concerned as an appropriate one for this purpose. This question of form has been well noted by collectors and is pursued further in the following section. It will emerge that, in addition to terseness and relative fixity, most sayings classed as proverbs are also marked by some kind of poetic quality in style or sense, and are in this way set apart in form from more straightforward maxims.
The question of ‘popular acceptance’ is, however, a more difficult one. If one of the marks of a true proverb is its general acceptance as the popular expression of some truth, we are seldom given the data to decide how far this is indeed a characteristic of the sayings included in collections of ‘proverbs’. In many cases presumably the sayings included are proverbs in this full sense. But we have in fact no way of telling whether some of the ‘proverbs’ included are not just the sententious utterances of a single individual on a single occasion, which happened to appeal to the investigator.
The sort of terminology involved can sometimes provide a clue to the local attitude to ‘proverbs’. As we have seen, there is sometimes a specialized term, sometimes not. This is not always made clear by collectors. Even more serious is the frequent failure to consider when, how, and by or among whom common proverbs are used.
2
Even where something about the general context is given we are practically never told in detail how a given single proverb was actually used (for some exceptions see below). Yet, as will emerge, this may in fact determine its significance, the way in which it is appreciated locally, even its meaning. This aspect is often crucial,
if whether or not some attractive saying is really a ‘proverb’ depends on the local evaluation of it. This question is made more difficult because proverbs often have no specialized occasions for their use. Unlike such forms as riddles and stories they are not normally set apart as suitable for relaxation after, say, the end of the day’s work, but are closely involved with speech and action on every sort of occasion (including general conversation). Therefore to differentiate those sayings which are merely idiomatic from those that
the people concerned
consider to have that special flavour which makes it correct to call them proverbs, we need more precise information about context and attitude than we are usually given.
This said, we can in a general way accept most of the published sayings as falling, more or less, within the general category of proverb. But it is worth making these points about the difficulties inherent in differentiating proverbs if it helps to deter yet more facile collections and to encourage more consideration of their context. In the case of proverbs above all, an understanding of this is essential.
II
In discussing the style and structure of African proverbs one of the first things one notices is the poetic form in which many are expressed. This, allied to their figurative mode of expression, serves to some degree to set them apart from everyday speech. This point often does not emerge in collections of translated examples. A more detailed discussion of form in African proverbs is therefore needed here to show these two characteristics more clearly.
The general truth touched on in a proverb can be conveyed in several ways: more or less literally, through a simile, or (most commonly) through a metaphor.
The relatively literal forms of proverbs often contain some allusion or a picturesque form of speech, and among certain peoples at least are marked by some poetic quality such as rhythm. Examples of this type are fairly common. ‘The dying of the heart is a thing unshared’, ‘If the chief speaks, the people make silent their ears’, and the humorous description of a drunkard, ‘He devoured the Kaffir-beer and it devoured him’, are instances from South Africa (McLaren 1917: 343; 338; 341). Comments on what is considered to be the real nature of people or things often occur in this form, as in the Thonga ‘The White man has no kin. His kin is money’, the Xhosa description of Europeans as ‘The people who rescue and kill’
(i.e. they protect with one hand, destroy with the other) (Junod 1938: 49; Theal 1886: 199), or the witty Akan comment that ‘An ancient name cannot be cooked and eaten; after all, money is the thing’ (Rattray 1916: 118). General advice is also often tendered in this sort of form, as in the Thonga ‘Dis du mal du chef quand tu quittes son pays’ or the humorous Ila injunction to hospitality in the form of ‘The rump of a visitor is made to sit upon’ (Junod: 1931, no. 56; Smith and Dale ii, 1920: 312). It is true that several of these (and similar) proverbs may also conceal deeper meanings as well as picturesque language, but in explicit form, in contrast to the clearly figurative, they present the thought in a simple and straightforward way.
3