Thematic Analysis of Oromo Proverbs Said About Women

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to look at the representation of women in the Oromo proverbs and to evaluate the awareness of the society about the effects of these proverbs on women. To achieve this goal, an attempt was made to collect proverbs that refer to women. The data was collected from pre documented books because of the inconvenience of data collection in the field due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The collected data was translated from the original language ‘Afaan Oromoo` to the target language `English` and finally analyzed and interpreted qualitatively. From the result, women are portrayed both positively and negatively in Oromo proverbs, and the image of a mother and wives are positive. They are represented as excellent house makers and obedient servants of their family. This study, also found out that women are perceived negatively and disrespected in Oromo proverbs. Male dominance and the inferior position and the low status of women are clearly observed. In these proverbs, women are perceived as ignorant, dependent, weak, irresponsible, unpredictable, and as inferior members of their community. In general, the actual characteristics of women are considered as nothing and ideal behaviors are disseminated in proverbs and in cultural trends. The transmission of these proverbs has a contribution to the perpetuation of the negative images of women and this causes women’s negative self-image and their low participation in different social affairs in their community. Therefore, educating women, giving awareness creation training about women’s equality to the society, increasing women’s participation, and discouraging the use of the proverbs that socialize the inferior status of women may be a solution to create a better positive image of women in the society.