Philosophy of Ìbọ̀lọ́ -Yorùbá of South-West Nigeria on Women-related Proverbs

Abstract

Oral traditions of any society are like mirror to see their interpersonal relationships and their daily activities. Proverbs in Yorùbá nation cannot be over-emphasised in every aspect of their lives. The aim of this work is to analyse some selected women-related proverbs in the bids to actualize the philosophy of Yorùbá people on the position of Ìbọ̀lọ́ women in the Yorùbá nation from a pragmatic perspective. The cultural influence on Yorùbá women is very great. Women are mysterious, naturally and vastly different from men in appearance, characters and behaviour. They are everywhere seen physically in dreams, at work, at play, at workshop, at home, on the farms and marketplaces; yet, as conspicuous as they are, people’s views about them differ from place to place, especially culturally (Ilésanmí 2013). All these are represented in the Yorùbá proverbs related to female or womanhood. This is because, the daily activities and societal relationships of people give birth to proverbs. As a native speaker of Yorùbá language, we used some data from our knowledge of Yorùbá proverbs, personal observations, consultations and interactions with elders and some published texts on Yorùbá proverbs. The theoretical framework adopted is the Sociological theory of literature. The findings of the research show that, women in Yorùbá societies are of great importance and can never be over-emphasized in all human endeavours as there are multitudes of proverbs on them as a mirror to see the nature of womanhood.