Selected Ika proverbs: their aesthetics and contexts of usage

Education, Summer, 2007 by Canon Benji Egede

   Two things about proverbs render them less reliable than the themes
   of folktale, as a consistent documentation of a people's laws. The
   first is that some proverbs essentially contradict each other. The
   second is that proverbs depend heavily on context for their
   meaning. Consequently, they are easily misappropriated by the
   unskilled and mischievous" (271).

Finally, it is our hope that greater attention should be paid to the study of Ika proverbs by future scholars with a view to enlarging the frontiers of studies on Ika orature.

WORKS CITED

Abraham, R. D. "Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions", In Folklore and Folklife, ed. R. M. Dorson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972.

Achebe, Chinua, Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann, 1958.

Afigbo, Adiele. The Igbo and their Neighbours. Ibadan: University Press, 1987.

Akporobaro, F. B. O. Introduction to African Oral Literature. Lagos: William Wilberforce Institute for African Research and Development and Princeton Publishing Corporation, 2001; 2nd edn. 2004.

Alagoa, E. J. "The use of Oral Literary Data for History: Examples from Niger Delta Proverbs". Journal of American Folklore 81: 235-242.

Awoonor, Kofi. Night of my Blood. New York: Doubleday and Co. Inc; 1971.

Browne, R. B. "The Wisdom of Many: Proverbs and Proverbial Genres". In American Folklore. ed. Tristram Coffin III. Washington: Voice of America Forum Lectures.

Echenim, Kester. "Language and the Dynamics of Development: Ika in Perspective". In Ben Nwanne, ed. Ika: The Land and Its People. Lagos: Ika group Publication, 2004:227-247

Manfredis, Victor. "Centre and Periphery in Ika Literacy". Journal of Linguistics Association of Nigeria, Vol. 1, 1982,

Mieder, W. "Popular views of the Proverb". Proverbium 2: 109-143.

Nwanne, Ben, ed. Ika: The Land and Its People, Place and Natural Resources of Ika in Delta State. Lagos: Ika Group Publications, 2000.

--. Ika: The Land and its People. Lagos: Ika Group Publications, 2004.

Okpewho, Isidore, African Oral Literature: Background, Character and Continuity. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1992.

Olatunji, O. Yoruba Oral Poetry. Ibadan: University Press Ltd., 1984.

Onwuejeogwu, M.A. An Igbo Civilisation: Nri Kingdom and Hegemony. Benin City: Ethiope Publishing Company, 1981.

Seitel, P. "Proverbs: The Social Use of Metaphor". In Folklore Genres. ed. D. Ben Amos. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press, 1976.

Ukala, Sam, "Performance of the Ika Folktale: The Aesthetic Enactment and Propagation of Ika Folklaw. In Ben Nwanne, ed. Ika: The land and its People. Lagos: Ika Group Publication, 2004. 265-292

Yankah, Kwesi. Proverbs: The Aesthetics of Traditional Communication" RAL 20, 3 (1989): 325-346.

REV. CANON BENJI EGEDE, PH.D.

Department of English

Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria

COPYRIGHT 2007 Project Innovation (Alabama)
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
 

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