A Feminist Appraisal of Oromo Proverbs with Reference to Selected Districts in Bale Zone

Abstract

The rationale behind this study was the fact that there was no former attempt to collect and analyze the Oromo proverbs of Bale area from feminist perspective. So, the main objective of this study was to collect and analyze the overall representations of females’ images in selected proverbs of Bale Oromos. Three woredas were selected for this study from the zone purposively. The proverbs were collected primarily from the elders of the woredas through unstructured interview and observation. Ten elders were selected from each woreda through snowball sampling, and availability sampling technique was used to identify informants for the observation. Proverbs were collected and written in Afan Oromo, translated into English, and analyzed qualitatively using feminist perspectives. The study has largely indicated that significant number of proverbs in Bale area depict women negatively whereby they appeared to reinforce the deep rooted patriarchal ideology. Women are depicted as compliant, less knowledgeable than men, weaker and less important than men, more troublesome, materials of their husbands, unwise, etc.