VULGAR TYPOLOGIES, SOCIAL EQUILIBRIUM, AND MORAL ETHICS IN YORUBA PROVERBS
Article Sidebar
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Main Article Content
Аннотация
Proverbs are essential tools of elucidating and expounding social issues. They express the innate principles and ethics of any given society. Among the Yoruba of south-western Nigeria, proverbs occupy a strategic place among other orature forms, as the warehouse of indigenous knowledge. This paper examines the representation of vulgarism in Yoruba culture by analyzing twenty-five purposively selected proverbs sourced mainly from the researcher’s collections as a paremiographer and as a member of the Yoruba ethnic and linguistic group, as well as from existing secondary sources. The selected proverbs are chosen because they harp on the act of sex and direct reference to coition or the sexual organs. Hence, vulgar archetypes are examples of didactic aesthetics, moral education and sexuality consciousness among the Yoruba, in a unique way.
Article Details
Библиографические ссылки
Amuyunzu-Nyamongo, M. et al. Qualitative Evidence on Adolescents’ Views on Sexual and Reproductive Health in Sub-Saharan Africa, Occasional Report. 16. New York: The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2005.
Ajibade, Olusola. “Is There No Man with Penis in this Land? Eroticism and Performance in Yoruba Nuptial Songs”. Africa Study Monographs, 26.2 (2005). 99-113.
Alaba, Adegboyega. “Understanding Sexuality in the Yoruba Culture” Understanding Human Sexuality Seminar Series. Lagos: Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Centre, 2004.
Asiyanbola, Akinola. “A Syntactic and Semiotic Analysis of Some Yoruba Sexist Proverbs in English Translation: Need for Gender Balance”. Nebula, 4.3 (2007). 70-83.
Barber, Karin. “Popular Arts in Africa”. African Studies Review, 30.3 (1987). 1-78.
Berry, Spoken Art in West Africa. London: School of Oriented and African Studies, University of London, 1961.
Caldwell, J.C., Caldwell P., and Quiggin. “The Social Context of AIDS in SubSaharan Africa”. Population and Development Review, 15 (1989). 185-234.
Chege, J. The Politics of Gender and Fertility Regulation in Kenya: A Case Study of the Igembe. Diss. Lancaster University, 1993.
Dare, Samson “Sexual Discourse in Niyi Osundare’s Poetry: A Sociolinguistic Reading”. African Study Monographs, 26.2 (2005). 89-97.
Egblewogbe, Eustace Yawo. “The Structure and Functions of Proverbs in African Societies”. Social Education, 44 (1980). 516-518.
Haram, L. “Prostitutes‟ or Modern Women? Negotiating Respectability in Northern Tanzania”. Rethinking Sexualities in Africa, edited by S. Arnfred. Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute, 2004. 211-232.
Helle-Valle, Jo. “Understanding Sexuality in Africa: Diversity and Contextualised Dividuality”. Rethinking Sexualities in Africa, edited by S. Arnfred. Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute, 2004. 195-210.
Ilesanmi, T.M. Yoruba Orature and Literature: A Cultural Analysis. Ile-Ife: Obafemi Awolowo University Press, 2004.
Fakoya, Adeleke. “Sexually-grounded Proverbs and Discourse Relevance: Insights from Yorùbá”. California Linguistic Notes, 32.2 (2007). 1-29.
Lawuyi. Olatunde. “Ethnic Identity and Sex: Stereotyping as Adaptive Strategy among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria”. Anthropos, 82.1-3 (1987). 226-232.
Makinde, Olu. “Cultural Resources for Integrated Counseling in Nigeria”. Paper presented at a Conference in University of Ilorin, Nigeria, 1986.
Mieder, Wolfgang. Love: Proverbs of the Heart. Shelburne, Vermont: The New England Press, 1989.
Murray, S.O. Homosexualities. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Ojoade, J. “African Sexual Proverbs. Some Yoruba Examples”. Folklore, 94.2 (1983). 201-213.
Olatunji, Olatunde. Features of Yoruba Oral Poetry. Ibadan, UPL, 1984.
Olajubu Oludare. “References to Sex in Yoruba Oral Literature”. The Journal of American Folklore, 85.336 (1972). 152-166.
Olayinka, Bolaji Olukemi. “Proverbs: Issues of Yoruba Femininity from a Feminist Hermeneutical Perspective”. Embracing the Baobab Tree: The African Proverb in the 21st Century, edited by Willem Saayman. Pretoria: University of South Africa, 1997. 214-224.
Oloruntoba-Oju, Taiwo. “A Name My Mother did not Call Me: Queer Contestations in African Sexualities”. ECAS 4, Uppsala, Sweden, June 14-18, 2011. Accessed July 13, 2014 from http://www.nai.uu.se/ecas-4/.../Taiwo%20 Oloruntoba-Oju%2020Fullpaper.pdf
Osofisan, Femi. “Wounded Eros and Scintillated Cupid: Sensuality and the Future of Nigerian Literature in the Post-military Era”. African Literature and Development in the Twenty-first century: Proceedings of Ezenwa-Ohaeto International Memorial Conference. Owerri: Living Flames Resources, 2009.
Owomoyela, Oyekan. “The Sociology of Sex and Crudity in Yoruba Proverbs”. Proverbium, 20 (1972). 751-758.
Owomoyela, Oyekan. A Ki i. Yoruba Proscriptive and Prescriptive Proverbs. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1988.
Owomoyela, Oyekan. Yoruba Proverbs. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.
Salawu, Abiodun. “Breaking the Culture of Mute Sensation: Female Expression of Power in Sexual Contest with Men in Yoruba Newspapers”. Journal of Social Science, 23.1 (2011). 39-51.
Sheba, Olaide. Yoruba Proverbs with Feminine Lexis. Ibadan:Spectrum, 2009.
Yusuf, Yisa. “English and Yoruba Proverbs and the Spiritual Denigration of Women” Research in Yoruba Language and Literature, 8 (1996). 1-8.
Yusuf, Yisa. “The Sexist Correlation of Women with the Non-Human in English and Yoruba Proverbs”. De Proverbio, 3.1, (1997).
Yusuf, Yisa. “Rape-Related English and Yoruba Proverbs.” Women and Language, 21.2 (1998). 39-42.
Yusuf, Yisa, and Methangwane, Joyce. “Proverbs and HIV / AIDS”. Proverbium, 20 (2003). 407-422.