The Socio-Linguistic Analysis of Tonga Proverbs in Selected Districts in Southern Province of Zambia: A Gender Perspective

Abstract

This study looks into a number of Tonga proverbs that seem to be gender biased in the way women or men and their roles are portrayed. Data were collected from published source in Tonga entitled; Twaambyo Twa muchitonga (Proverbs in Tonga) by Nkamu ya Mukanzubo (1997) for grades 8 to 9 and 10 to 12 respectively. Other proverbs were collected from interviews from Kanchindu of Sinazongwe district and Macha and Mapanza of Choma district of Southern province in Zambia. Introspection was also used for those that were fluent and knowledgeable in Tonga proverbs The theoretical framework was drawn from the contextual and dominance theories which encompassed masculinity and femininity. The selected proverbs were grouped in eight themes, namely; (1) Man as protector of the home, (2) woman as immoral, (3) advice on marriage, (4) woman as the custodian of the home, (5) the unreliability of a woman, (6) the beauty and physical appearance of a woman, (7) woman as industrious and (8) advice on men and boys in relation to women. In this paper, the authors argued that in the selected Tonga proverbs, women are portrayed as derogated and uplifted while men are just uplifted. The findings were that most proverbs showed that Tonga women were evil, promiscuous, unreliable and a beauty for a man. The authors concluded that the changing world view of women was bringing more positive social roles of women. But the societal traditions and norms had not yet changed. In this instance, the change of attitude and expectation would require extensive education about the potential of women in order to counter the demeaning traditional views and values. The authors recommended that stake holders should be availed with financial and material resources to collect and document the Zambian proverbs to boost the knowledge of the people. Proverbs that teach tolerance, honesty hard work and individual worth should be encouraged. Future researchers should explore how gender neutral Tonga proverbs affect society beside the gender biased ones.