African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African Americans 753
Rasmussen, Susan. 1996. The Tent as Cultural Symbol and Field Site: Social and Symbolic Space,
Topos, and Authority in a Tuareg Community. Anthropological Quarterly 69:1:14–27.
——. 1997. The Poetics and Politics of Tuareg Aging Life Course and Personal Destiny in Niger.
De Kalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press.
——. 2001. Healing in Community: Medicine, Contested Terrains, and Cultural Encounter Among
the Tuareg. Westport Ct., Bergin and Garvey.
SUSAN J.RASMUSSEN
See also Maghrib
PROVERBS
Pithy and terse sayings are very much appreciated in Africa. These gnomic utterances are
recognized as a distinct genre with a specific name in the local taxonomies of the written
and spoken word. The closest English equivalent is the proverb. While similar to the
genre in Europe, African proverbs emanate from a repertory preserved by the community
of speakers. Their form is elliptical and figurative, which easily allows for their
recognition in discourse.
The characteristic traits of the genre may vary from one society to the next, yet the
proverbs share a certain degree of similarity because of shared properties that confer a
relative homogeneity among them throughout the continent. There are similar properties
of content, which is understandable given the task of the proverb to express general truths
that are the fruits of experience of the society as a whole. In Africa, as elsewhere, these
universal “truths” can be of a practical, ethical, social, or philosophical nature.
What is nevertheless striking is the remarkable resemblance of themes and points of
view in collections of African proverbs, not only throughout the continent, but also with
respect to other civilizations. The same subjects are discussed, often in the same terms,
and despite certain specific tendencies, the homogeneity of the discourse is quite
remarkable. Africa hardly deviates from the rest of the world on this point, even if the
proverb sometimes refers to customs unfamiliar to other continents, such as polygyny.
The other properties that characterize the African proverb are likewise inherent in
what is universal in the genre. However, they sometimes display specific traits that allow
one to identify them as African.
Their stylistic properties conform more or less to their homologues from other
continents. In Africa, as elsewhere, the proverb can be recognized by its formulaic turn of
phrase, which is characterized by notable expressions. In many communities, the
giveaway of a terse and pithy utterance as belonging to the genre of proverb is
established straightaway by a formulaic introduction: “Our ancestors said that…” or “In
the past, it was said that…”
From a rhetorical perspective, the genre is identified by the frequency of binary
constructions, which creates a logical relationship between two statements, such as:
“Struck forehead, prudent neck.” Here the Dyula intend that the neck will learn to be
careful from the wound suffered by the head. This example also demonstrates that, like
its European homologue, the African proverb favors the ellipsis.