Indigenised Critical Thinking and Epistemic Cognitions: An Ethnopragmatic Analysis of Tshivenda and Yorùbá Proverbs

Abstract

This article examines the nature, use and meanings of proverbs as both tools of discourse and for expressing the ideological outlook among the Vhavenda of South Africa and the mores of the Yorùbá of south-western Nigeria. Within the Vhavenda and Yorùbá cultures and traditions, proverbs, as a form of folklore, are verbally expressed and transmitted from one generation to another. Inherent in these elements are the cultural and ideological traits that are easily identified by both the native speakers and listeners of the two cultures. To satisfy its exegetical and hermeneutic ambitions, this article analysed a selection of Tshivenda and Yorùbá proverbs, with the analysis undergirded by ethnopragmatics and the contextual theory of meaning. The proverbs were selected on the basis of a predetermined set of themes, namely, proverbs about cooperation and interdependence, nature, trees and other plants, animals and reptiles, people, body parts, children, craftiness and consequences, ingratitude, obstinacy and pride as well as didactic, motivational and reassuring proverbs. Tshivenda and Yorùbá proverbs were found to be both direct and indirect tools that are used to bring out the Vhavenda’s and the Yorùbá’s cultural identity and the inherent traits of their ideologies. It is recommended that paroemiology be considered in the various spheres of “formal” African epistemologies and pedagogies.