An African oral literature and the socialization of the youth: the case of Igbo child-proverbs

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Periodical article

Title:	An African oral literature and the socialization of the youth: the case of Igbo child-proverbs
Author:	Nwachukwu-Agbada, J.O.J.
Year:	1990
Periodical:	Frankfurter afrikanistische Blätter
Issue:	2
Pages:	107-119
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	Igbo traditional education proverbs
Abstract:	This article shows the way in which the Igbo of Nigeria use proverbs, especially 'child-proverbs', meant to advance the social and intellectual enrichment of the growing child. The child-proverb originally must have been a product of the effort by an elder person to relate to a younger person with the purpose of instructing, advising and admonishing him. A child-proverb is a proverb in which the child is a character, either as the addresser or the addressee or both. Child-proverbs are advisory in nature, brisk, perceptual and highly informative to a little boy or girl who is preoccupied with understanding the complexity of the cosmos and the events in it. This paper examines three kinds of child-proverbs: proverbs that have to do with child-parent relationships, with child-peer relationships and with child-elder relationships. Ref.