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PREFACE

Proverb is the wisdom of a people. It is wisdom which has been distilled from experiences made over the years, which, when taken seriously, can equip peoples to live wisely and well. It is thus, perhaps, not without significance that at a time and in a world and a continent where society is bombarded with constant bad news, scholars from different nations, sometimes divided by national ideologies and other things, are able to come together to reflect together on Proverbs-wisdom.

The assumption in all this is that true scholarship should enlighten us onto wisdom, the factor that has the capacity to bind together peoples. That is why the theme links Proverbs and Mission. For mission is more than making converts; it is concerned with building community of communities guided by wisdom, which turns out to be good news.

African Proverbs Project, Colorado Springs, especially its Co-ordinator Stan Nussbaum and Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia, USA are here mentioned with gratitude for initiating this project and this Maputo consultation in particular. The goal of the project is to promote the collection, study and use of African proverbs with particular attention to their implication for Christian mission.

By some logic, the organisation of this consultation was entrusted to me at the Ecumenical Theological Education Programme of the World Council of Churches, Geneva. We rejoice at the collaboration of and with gratitude to our Assistant Ms. Diana Chabloz-Basso who took on most of the logistical work, in spite of her heavy schedule, preparing with me a global consultation "Ecumenical Theological Education: Its Viability Today".

The processing of this volume has been undertaken by Ms. Salomey Dadieh of Ghana and Switzerland. To her we express deepest gratitude. Having to type pieces with several different African languages, complicated further by poor editor's handwriting has called for gifts of patience, charity and discernment.

John S. Pobee

July 1996

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Dalfovo, Fr. Dr. Albert. Italian, resident in Uganda. Roman Catholic; Comboni Father. Prof of Philosophy, Makerere University, Kampala. Editor of the Lugbara volume in the African Proverbs Series. Author of Lugbara Proverbs (Rome: Comboni Missionaries, 1990). Makerere University, Philosophy Department, (P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda.

Healey, Fr. Joseph. American, resident in Tanzania. Roman Catholic, Maryknoll Missioner. Social Communications Coordinator of the Maryknoll Missionaries of the Tanzania Region, based in Dar es Salaam. Co-author with Donald Sybertz of Towards an African Narrative Theology (Nairobi: Pauline Publications Africa, 1996). Editor of the Bibliography of Pastoral Use of Proverbs (forthcoming on CD; Colorado Springs, USA: GlobalMapping International, 1996)

van Heerden, Willie. South African. Assistant Professor of Old Testament, University of South Africa, Pretoria. Preparing a book of daily devotions with a proverb (often African) for each day's focus

Kalugila, Dr. Leonidas. Tanzania, resident in Kenya. Lutheran. Translator for United Bible Societies, co-leader of the Swahili Study Bible Project. Doctoral research (Uppsala, 1984) on Swahili proverbs, of which he has published two small collections. United Bible Societies, P.O. Box 21360, Nairobi.

Karnga, Rev. Abba. Liberian. President of Worldwide Missions of Liberia (an African indigenous church). Author of the Bassa volume in the Proverbs for Preaching and Teaching Series.

Kudadjie, Rev. Joshua. Ghanaian. Methodist. Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies, University of Ghana, Legon; pastor. Project committee member; general editor of the Proverbs for Preaching and Teaching Series and author of the Ga-Dangme volume in the series.

Mokitimi, Prof. (Mrs) ’Makali. Mosotho, Lesotho Evangelical Church (Presbyterian) Assistant Professor, Department of African Languages, National University of Lesotho. Editor of the Sesotho volume in the African Proverbs Series.

Nare, Fr. Dr. Laurent. Burkinabe, resident in Kenya. Roman Catholic. Head of BICAM (Biblical Centre for Africa and Madagascar). Project committee member and co-editor of the Mossi volume in the Africa Proverb Series. Author of Proverbs Salomoniens et Proverbes Mossi (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1986)

Nussbaum, Rev. Dr. Stan. American. Mennonite. Staff missiologist at Global Mapping International, Colorado Springs, Colorado. African Proverbs Project initiator and committee chair. General editor of the CD, African Proverbs: Collection, Studies, Bibliographies (Colorado Springs, USA: Global Mapping International, 1996). Editor of the Bibliography of African Proverb Collections included on the CD.

Oduyoye, Mr. Modupe. Nigerian. The Project's publishing consultant. Founder/director of Sefer Publications; retired president of Day Star Press Publishing. Author of Where Angels Fear To Tread: The Book of Proverbs (forthcoming, Sefer Books, 1996) and The Sons of the Gods and the Daughters of Men: An Afroasiatic Interpretation of Genesis 1-11 (New York: Orbis Books, 1984).

Pobee, Prof. John. Ghanaian, resident in Switzerland. Project committee member and chair of the project's consultation on the theological and pastoral importance of proverbs (Maputo, Mozambique, March 1995). Head of the Ecumenical Theological Education Unit of the World Council Churches. Past president of International Association of Mission Studies. Author of Toward the African Theology. Abingdon 1979.

Sybertz, Fr. Donald. American, resident in Tanzania. Roman Catholic, Maryknoll Missioner. Researcher for Sukuma Culture Research Center; parish priest. Co-author with Joseph Healey of Towards an African Narrative Theology (Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa, 1996).

1. AFRICAN PROVERBS AND CHRISTIAN MISSION

John S. Pobee

The religious book of the Christian, the Bible, contains a genus labelled as Wisdom Literature. It includes such books as Proverbs, Psalms, Job and Ecclesiastes. These works prove to be extra-biblical in origin. Such writings, often based on experience, warn against, seek to cure stupidity and naivety (cf Proverbs 8:5, 22:3). Jesus also made use of proverbs in his style of teaching. Proverbs are not just information or news; they are profound knowledge. As such experience and initiation into them are crucial for decoding their message.

In African societies too a cultivated person is identified by the fact that he/she spruces his/her utterances with appropriate proverbs at the appropriate time and place. That is because homo africanus’ wisdom is distilled in proverbs. They have a place, a serious one, in legal as in clan proceedings, in political as in social structure, in entertainment, in behaviour and values of the society. A proverb in African societies is a good conversational weapon, and is employed with great effect to make discreet allusion or point a morale in a delicate and inoffensive way.[1] Thus proverbs are a most important and effective style of communication among Africans. A priori proverbs can be a powerful instrument in communication of gospel to African peoples, which is what missions seek to do.

However, proverbs do not exist in isolation; they are located and should be located in the context of African cultures, African mind, African history, African custom, African religion. The Journals of Ramseyer and Kühne in the 19th century Gold Coast (Ghana) had considerable material on African anthropology which was seen as a crucial element in the work in Africa. Though the African proverbs have a social and cultural context, nevertheless, they are relevant to the new context with its marks of modernity and secularisation

In 1853 and 1854 H.N. Riis and A. Riis, two Basel Mission missionaries published in German and English respectively A Grammatical Outline and Vocabulary of the Oji-Language with Special Reference to the Akwapim Dialect together with a Collection of Proverbs of the Natives. Similarly, 1857 J.B. Schlegel produced in German Key to the Ewe Language, based on the Anlo Dialect, Together with a Vocabulary, Proverbs and some stories in Ewe.

One more study was the work of another Basel Mission missionary to Gold Coast, J.G. Christaller: Twi Mbebusem Mpensa-Ahansia Mmoano. A Collection of 3600 Tshi Proverbs in Use Among Negroes of the Gold Coast Speaking the Asante and Fante Language. Basel 1879.

Christaller's preface to that publication includes the following: "in their public assemblies and transactions, political and judicial, the arguments of speakers, the statements of the plaintiff and the defendant, the questions and decisions of judges are interwoven with proverbs set out and reviewed as convincing proofs of the soundness of opinions set forth by the speakers."

The conclusion in unavoidable: the earliest missionaries in the Gold Coast identified proverbs as a vital and important mode of communication of the peoples and with that, key to penetrating the world-view of the Africans. They have authority. They belong to oral tradition of the people and are community sayings. Thus they must always be understood in their social and cultural context.

In contrast to that, one is struck by the fact that missions did not make more of proverbs in evangelism. Sermons by Africans use them, but I am not aware of a conscientious and concerted systematic effort at the use of proverbs to explicate the gospel. But I know of two attempts.

1. Dr. Elizabeth Amoah - Ethical Concepts from Akan Proverbs - MA thesis c. 1974, University of Ghana.

2. Dr. Noah Dzobo - Proverbs and African Theology - Mlava Theology.

In 1979 I published Toward an African Theology. Nashville: Abingdon. In it I make considerable use of Akan proverbs to explicate burning issues in Africa - Sin, Power, Marriage. The Biblical Theology Bulletin, January 1980 carried a review of it by David P. Sheridan as follows:

"The juxtaposition of biblical texts and Akan proverbs attempts a mutual illumination, I sense here an inadequate contextualization in which a text-centred approach to the New Testament encounters the particularity of the Akan proverb. Can two world-views, which have become local views in the global village, truly be the basis for a theology whose dynamite is to function not as a regional ontology, but as a meaningful statement to the whole world? I think not. Pobee's book is valuable as an attempt at translation. Yet its limitation is the lack of an intercultural hermeneutic which encompasses both the biblical and African world views."

I do not here seek to defend myself. But this review seems to me to point to the issues at stake in the task ahead of us.

1. The North has lost the dynamism of proverbs in their society and, therefore, cannot fully appreciate the critical role in African societies.

2. Particularity of Akan proverbs - here we come upon an issue in ecumenical debates often put as the local and the universal or as I prefer Contextuality and Catholicity. His comments mask a captivity to the Enlightenment culture which thought it possible and necessary to write a universal grammar. This figment of the imagination regarding universal grammar was reinforced by the ideology of modernity. I do not see contextuality and Catholicity as two ends of a straight line, rather the particular is in the Catholic and the Catholic in the particular

3. Not unrelated to this are Enlightenment commitment to rationality and the consequent propositional style of expounding reality. Proverbs, of course, do no conform to the propositional style and were consequently not appropriated. As if that were not enough, there was also the ideology of Social-Darwinism which was Eurocentric and negative about things African and, indeed, the Tropics.

4. However, the comment of Sheridan points to the task ahead of us - inter-cultural hermeneutics. What hermeneutics do we need for translating the biblical material, which is not a-cultural and the wisdom of homo-africanus distilled in the proverbs? In this the model I propose is that Christianity is Africanized and not Africans Christianized. Saaymann in a communication writes: "Intercultural education and communication concern educative interaction between at least two autonomous subjects, in which I learn about the other, but also about myself in the light of the presence of the other". Such an exercise involves a redemption of mission, discerning the motifs for mission e.g. God's ownership of creation; all people as God's children; the desire to bring salvation to all peoples. Could these be some of the topics we can garner from proverbs?

5. Translating across cultures is interpreting ideas. The Akan have a proverb that koto nnwo anoma, ie the crab cannot beget a bird. The Bible has a saying that is a corresponding interpretation of it "can grapes bear forth figs?" When I use the Akan proverb it captures the essence of the biblical text. But what does this mean for my conviction that the Bible is the common patrimony of those who believe in Jesus Christ. The test is relating the proverb to a reality and a context.

6. Collections do exist of proverbs both in African cultures and the Bible. Where collections of proverbs do exist in African cultures, the need is not so much to collect them as to introduce peoples to them.

2. The Proverbs and the Gospel

from Experience to Allegory

A.T. Dalfovo

This Paper relates the allegorical language of proverbs to that of the gospel and it refers this language to experience as to its sources. The conclusion will be that paremiology helps the use of the gospel. The paremic frame of reference of this Paper is the Lugbara culture.

1. The Allegory in Proverbs

Proverbial sayings appear in various forms. They may consist, for instance, of a play of words (Alaka piri alaka, "Alaka grass is all alaka grass"), a rhyme (Otako amboro, efi kokoro, "A large termite hill, without content"), or an antithesis (Abe yo, inya yo, No hoe, no food"). But the prevailing form is, at least within Lugbara culture, the allegorical language that frames them.

Proverbs operate allegorically, namely, they refer to a subject under the guise of another subject of aptly suggestive resemblance. A proverb develops a metaphor, namely a meaning that differs from the literal meaning of the words used. Some proverbs appear to be literal. Even then, they ultimately relate to a meaning that goes beyond their material expression. For instance, A'api ko ri, nya ko, "No digging, no eating," has its final significance in food and life requiring exertion. Abe lo nga ceni ko, "The handle alone does not dig," fundamentally suggests that it is not the tool but the handling of it that is effective. Abi ondi 'i ceni ko, "A wall does not crumble by itself," eventually means that events have a cause.

The allegorical characteristic of Lugbara proverbs emerges or also from the term used to designate them, which is e'yo obeza or also, more rarely, bibila.[2] E'yo is a very expressive term referring to "word," "speech," "reason," "issue," and similar meanings. Obeza derives from the verb obe that the suffix za adjectives. Obe means "to mix," "to twist." The combined expression e'yo obeza literally means "mixed words," "twisted speech" or "indirect talk." A person who speaks in a way he is not understood, may be told, E'yo mini yoleri ni e'yo obezaro, "What you are saying is mysterious." An elder explained: "A person talks e'yo obeza when, for instance, he backbites, but in a way in which he does not seem to be doing it. The person uses words that do not reveal what he is really saying." E'yo obeza is an expression proper of "upper" Lugbara, although it has now spread to the rest of Lugbaraland. The corresponding expression in "lower" Lugbara is bibila, which also means "indirect talk."[3] Here too, the statement Mi bibila to would mean, "Would mean, "Your words are very mysterious."[4]

The preference for the allegorical aspect of proverbs emerged also when compiling my collection of Lugbara proverbs. Several persons supplied mere allegorical utterances as if they were proverbs. For instance, Aci ve mi ra, "The fire has burnt you," a compliment to one who has prepared good food. 'Ba ndre ma ocoo ni taba ndre ri le, "people looked at me like a dog looks at tobacco," namely a person was disregarded. Asked why these idioms were considered proverbs, the answer was that "they were not direct." The allegory was taken as the essential component of proverbs. Also riddles were sometimes supplied as proverbs because of their allegorical language.

2. The Objectivity of Allegories

Allegory is one of several terms, like metaphor, symbol and analogy, closely related among themselves, such that they are sometimes used synonymously. Simply defined, an allegory is a narrative or a text that expresses a concept different from the literal one. Aristotle describes it as an extended metaphor. A metaphor is a term describing one thing by stating another. An analogy is a similarity of relations among different things. A symbol is something standing in for something else.

The common element in all these terms is the dualism of meaning they are built on. There is in them a primary or literal meaning and a derivative or figurative meaning. In other words, there is in them an established image with an idea to it; for instance, the image of the occiput with the idea of blindness.

The disputed issue in the relation between primary and derivative meanings or between image and idea concerns the objectivity or subjectivity of this relation, namely whether the relation originates from within the primary meaning or whether it is applied by the speaker. Is this relation created or merely discovered?

There are reasons favouring both sides of the dilemma. In fact, the prevailing solution ascribes to one or to the other of the terms mentioned (metaphor, allegory, symbol,....) either a subjective or an objective relation as their specific characteristic. But there is no general agreement on such definitions, and authors tend to clarify their specific understanding of the terms on this point.

Practically, however, the relation between primary and derivative meanings may be considered objective in the sense that a person lives in a specific culture and he uses the language and meaning established in that culture, including the way in which primary and derivative meanings relate. For instance, also such apparently subjective exercise as that of devising a national flag is ultimately founded on existing paradigms related to the need of having instruments to cater for social cohesion and national identity. Concerning proverbs in particular, the relation between handle, hoe,field, granary, food and ideas bearing on the basic needs of life, or the relation between cattle, bride-wealth, marriage, children, descendants and ideas concerning the need to perpetuate life, are present in culture as the objective material from which the allegorical language of proverbs is drawn in an exercise that may be described as modelling rather than inventing.

Thus it may be said that the relation between image and idea or between primary and derivative meanings is founded on the objective gives of culture. These relations are not established but elaborated upon through a kind of maieutic process which brings forth what is, at least embryonically, already present in the womb of culture. A proverbialist already knows, for instance, about the stubbornness of the goat, the anger of the buffalo, the unconcern of the elephant. Such analogical references and metaphorical figures cannot be guessed or invented. They need to be drawn from each culture. In some cultures, in fact, a donkey could mean peace, in others dullness. A tortoise could suggest wisdom to some, backwardness to others.

This practical objectivity of allegories shows how versatile one must be in one's culture. One needs to be steeped in it to be able to detect the network of meanings that establish allegorical language, to be able to find similarities in seemingly dissimilar things and to communicate truths that would not be communicable by other means.

3. Religious Language

Religious language is allegorical. It needs to be so, as the transcendental cannot be expressed within the literal meaning of human language. Biblical revelation has adapted itself to this human requirement. The books of the Song of Songs and of Revelation, for instance, as well as the prophetic writings are highly allegorical.

St. Paul underlined that the Old Testament prefigured the New Testament (1 Cor 9,9 Rom 4:23f, 5:14, 15:4). "Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were described in writing to be a lesson for us, to whom it has fallen to live in the last days of the ages" (1 Cor 10:11). The allegorical interpretation of the bible gradually leads, as St. Paul envisaged, to transcend the letter, attaining the spirit (Rom 7,6 2 Cor 3:6) until one day, perfect knowledge is achieved. "Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face. Now, I can know only imperfectly; but then I shall know just as fully as I am myself known" (1 Cor 13,12).

The attention to the allegorical aspect of the Bible became an exegetical procedure vastly practised by the early Fathers of the Church, which contributed to a unitary vision of the history of salvation embracing both Old and New Testaments. Today, the allegorically approach is practised particularly in applying the Bible to everyday life.

Two authors could exemplify the enduring issue of religious language in its allegorical dimension and the purpose and the limit of this language: Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) and Paul Tillich (1886-1965).

Taking the word "good" as an example, Thomas Aquinas explains that this word is applied to the Creator and to the creatures, neither univocally, namely with the same meaning in both cases, nor equivocally, namely with different meanings, but analogically in the sense that it is used in two different contexts, yet keeping a similarity.[5] The analogical language does not take us into the actual nature of God's perfect goodness. It only indicates the relation between the different meanings of this word when it is applied to human beings and to God. Analogy does not give us full knowledge of the divine being, but at the same time it does not leave us in agnosticism. It lets us have a glimpse of the transcendental, not a full view of it.

Paul Tillich develops the "symbolic" nature of religious language. He distinguishes between a sign and a symbol. Both point to something beyond themselves. A sign does so by arbitrary convention. A symbol instead participates in that to which it points; it grows out of the individual or collective unconscious. A symbol unlocks dimensions in our soul corresponding to then new aspects of the world that it reveals. Whatever we say about religious reality has a symbolic meaning. It points beyond itself while participating in that to which it points. Faith cannot express itself in other ways. The language of faith is the language of symbols.[6]

4. The Gospel

In the gospel, the allegorical language is found, above all, in the parables. The gospel has about 65 parables. Forty of these are repeated more than once; if such repetitions were to be considered, the parables would amount to over 100. There is an insistence about Jesus talking in parables. (Mt 13:3, Mk 4:2-3, LK 8:4-5, Mt 13:10f, Mk 4:10, Lk 8:9, Mt 13:13, Mt 21:45, Lk 20:19, Mt 22:1). His disciples were impressed by such abundance and they asked an explanation. Jesus replied, "To you is granted the secret of the Kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables" (Mk 4:11). "In all this Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables; indeed, he would never speak to them except in parables" (Mt 13,34). The parables were at the core of Christ's methodology, namely meta, "following" and odos, "the way"; thus, at the core of the way followed by him to convey his message.

Jesus Christ privileged the allegorical language of parables such that, today, as Ian Crombie writes,

"what we do is in essence to think of God in parables. The things we say about god are said on the authority of the words and acts of Christ, who spoke in human language, using parables; and so we too speak of God in parable - authoritative parable, authorized parable; knowing that the truth is not literally that which our parables represent, knowing therefore that now we see in a glass darkly, but trusting, because we trust the source of the parables, that in believing them and interpreting them in the light of each other we shall not be misled, that we shall have such knowledge as we need to possess for the foundation of the religious life."[7]

The gospel, however, has only three or four expressions that could be called proverbs.[8] Without indulging in surmises, one could infer from the extension use of allegorical language in the gospel that were also proverbs, most probably, used by Jesus Christ. The proverbs that were not in tune with the novelty of his teaching, could have been utilised by Jesus as elements of contrast to better highlight his message, as he did, for instance, in the six contrasting statements in the Sermon of the Mount, "You have heard how it was said to our ancestors.......But I say this to you...." (Mt 5, 20-48). One could also add that, in recording the words of Jesus, proverbs must have proved, as it is in their nature to do, particularly difficult to render within a new cultural context. Therefore, the evangelists were not perhaps interested in passing on proverbial expressions that would be properly appraised and understood only in their original culture.

At the same time, though proverbial statements in the gospel are few, the allegorical language they draw from and they are made of is abundant, particularly through the parables. It may be worth noting that, often, the definitions of a parable and of a proverb refer to each other as if the two terms were synonymous.[9] In Lugbara culture, the close relationship between parables and proverbs emerges from the fact that most Lugbara stories or apologues end with a proverb.[10] The story constitutes the premises and the proverb the conclusion of syllogistic wisdom.

5. Experiental Origin

Emphasising the allegorical dimension of the proverbs and of the gospel should not lead one to loose sight of the primary or literal meaning on which the allegory is built. Meaning is primary before being derivate, literal before being figurative. In other words, one needs to know the experience from which the allegory draws in order to appraise the latter.[11]

The proverbs themselves help in this, as they originate inductively from experience. They are, as some authors summarized, "short sentences drawn from long experience",[12] "the echoes of experience",[13] "the mind of one and the experience of all".[14]" The type of experience that generates the Lugbara proverbs is mostly the ordinary one that people meet in their daily life. In my collection of Lugbara proverbs, 14 per cent of them refer to the home, 10 per cent to the community, 8 per cent to work, and 5 per cent to food, which amounts to over one third of the proverbs.

Proverbs, however, are not just mere account of experience. They report experience that has been pondered upon and appraised. Sixteen Lugbara proverbs encourage to go beyond appearance and to recognize substance or value, as "the potato mound covered with lush leaves may have nothing under it," and "a big termitehill may be empty." A proverb advises to consider all sides of an issue as "it is the machet that is used only on one side," namely that of its edge. Such discernment helps to appraise, for instance, that "millet chaff generates millet" from the grains left in it, or that "an old hoe is ever a friend," namely useful. In other words, one learns where true values lie. This consideration of experience is necessary particularly when it is problematic. I found 92 12%) Lugbara proverbs referring directly to problematic situation and many others doing so indirectly.

The experiential origin of proverbs contributes to their credibility more than any other aspect. People accept a proverb because they recognize in it their own individual and social experiences. Generally, no controversy arises over a proverbial assertion as there could be, for instance, over a theoretical enunciation, because a proverb is not a deduction from abstract principles but an induction from concrete experiences, namely from the common aspects of life that every person shares.

Concerning the issue of experience, it may be worth noticing that religious experience in particular contributes little to the formation of proverbs among Lugbara.[15] Though religion permeates all aspects of Lugbara life, there is a mixture of fear and respect for it that prompts resorting to it only in case of need.[16] In line with it, no mention of religion is made unless strictly required.

Table 1 shows that proverbs referring to religion are 37 out of 773, representing 4.79 per cent. If one were to narrow down the religious topics to the first four, as suggested by some discussants, the proverbs bearing on religion would be reduced to 1.27 per cent. The religious topics most mentioned are poison, divination and the traditional doctor that together make up 3.08 per cent, namely 75 per cent of the topics in Table 1. Poison has been included here as its nature and effects transcend its material semblance.

TABLE 1 Religious Topics in Proverbs

Topics Proverbs percentage

Adro (God)                                                  3                        0.38%
Ori (Ancestral Spirits
        Sacrifices, Shrines)                                3                        0.38%
Nyuka (Curse)                                             1                        0.13%
Adra (Spiritual Power)                                  3                        0.38%
Acife (Divination Stick)                                 6                        0.78%
Ojoo (Traditional Doctor)                              7                        0.92%
Oleeo (Sorcerer)                                          4                        0.53%
Enyata (Poison)                                          10                        1.29%

TOTAL                                                     37                        4.79%

6. Incarnation

The Incarnation of Jesus Christ implies the incarnation of the gospel into humanity. The gospel remains relevant in as far as it remains true to that Incarnation. This entails keeping the allegorical language of the gospel fresh or, in other words, keeping the experience that supports such language, alive by translating that experience of the past into the experience of present cultures. Repeating the allegories of the gospel without a reference to contemporary experience weakens, and perhaps nullifies, the allegorical foundation on which they stand.

Paremiology helps the continuous incarnation of the gospel as proverbs offer a unique example of allegorical language in living cultures today. It is a language distilled in short, pithy, fixed and popular form, making proverbs condensed works of art, precious stones mounted in the linguistic heritage of a people.[17]

Paremiology, however, should be considered a discipline, namely a branch of learning requiring a systematic approach. It is part of education. Traditional education had its way to transmit paremic knowledge. School education has undermined traditional education in several ways, one of them being the paremic aspect of culture. Our societies have been gradually missing, not only proverbs requires a reappraisal of traditional vis-a-vis contemporary education.

Considering the scope of this conference, the attention to paremic education could be made to bear on church training institutions. Drawing from evidence in Uganda and some surrounding countries, I found that the interest in proverbs in church institutions is very limited. It is generally restricted to being the subject of a few essays and of the limited research that goes into writing them up.[18] Proverbs are topics for study on the part of students rather than instruments for teaching on the part of lecturers. Consequently, the study of proverbs in these institutions is undertaken by relatively young persons. It is carried out during vacations, namely for a rather limited time, and the proverbs collected and analyzed are comparatively few. Such research is undertaken without convenient training in proverbial language and wisdom. Their authors do not seem to follow up their research by nourishing a particular interest in paremiology vis-a-vis Christian mission.

To conclude, education in paremiology could contribute to what every Christian would like to be, namely an image with an added meaning, an image pointing to an idea beyond itself, the image of Jesus Christ. Etymologically, the term "proverb" derives from pro "instead of" and verbum "word". A proverb is what stands in place of another word, of another meaning. Could not that word be ultimately THE WORD that has been from the beginning? In which case we would be the "proverbs" to that word.

3. Proverbs and African Christian Identity

Willie van Heerden

1. Introduction

Proverbs are expressions of wisdom. Wisdom is filled with paradox. In a paradoxical way wisdom, which is primarily concerned with order, can facilitate change. This feature of wisdom could serve as backdrop for a discussion on possible reactions to religious pluralism - an issue which christian mission has to face. Metaphorical proverbs are ideally suited for the paradoxical task of preserving 'order' and bringing about 'change' in intercultural communication. And this, I contend, is one of the reasons why proverbs might play a significant role in the establishment of an African christian identity.

2. Wisdom and proverbs

All wisdom is not taught in your school (Hawaiian proverb)

'Wisdom' is not a homogeneous entity. Any discussion of wisdom, or certain expressions of wisdom, needs to be clear about the aspects of wisdom under consideration. Briefly, I wish to identify four typical expressions of wisdom (cf Winton 1990:28)

* Speculation about the figure of Wisdom/personified Wisdom. This is an important theme in the wisdom traditions of many cultures. Personified wisdom is also an important theme in Old Testament wisdom literature. Some scholars claim that the so-called "Wisdom Christology" should be seen against this background (cf Winton 1990:28).

* Wisdom as a human attribute. The designation of someone as 'wise' is a common feature of most cultures, but the range of meanings for such a comment is fairly broad (cf Wilckens 1971: 465-526), and may not always be very closely related to the use of proverbial sayings.

* Wisdom as insight (mantic wisdom). In this case, wisdom is associated with the interpretation of dreams, knowledge of the future, and special understanding. For example, Daniel's wisdom concerns the understanding of secret things (especially chapter 2), and in Dan 2:27 the wise man is linked with the 'encounter, magician, and diviner...' in the task of explaining the meaning of a mystery.

* Proverbial (experiential) wisdom. Wise utterance and instruction overlaps in some respects with the preceding two categories. One feature of proverbial wisdom is to encapsulate different aspects of wise behaviour: to describe the way things are, or to give advice about the wise choice.

It is the latter form of wisdom with which I am most concerned in this study, although I am convinced that African cultures also reflect the other expression of wisdom.

What is 'wisdom' all about? Typically, wisdom teachers are intent on gaining a sound, practical grasp of reality based on insight and understanding, and to live accordingly (i.e. to make good judgements) (cf Spangenberg 1991:228). It is often stated that consciousness of a certain order underlies wisdom. Wisdom traditions, however, are not static. The wisdom of Israel, despite difference in time, developed through the same phases that Egyptian and Mesopotamian wisdom, for example, did (cf Loader 1986:9).

According to the early stages of these wisdom traditions wise people are they who in their everyday activities seek to integrate themselves harmoniously into divine order underlying reality. This is achieved by doing the right thing at the right time. Examples of this phase are plentiful in Proverbs 10:29: A word must be timely (15:23; 25:11), a loud greeting at an inappropriate occasion becomes a curse (27:14) and correct actions are prescribed for specifically described circumstances (10:5; 14:35; 16:11; 23:1-3).

In the following phase there is a process of fossilization. Apart from examples in Proverbs there are the three friends of Job who are exponents of a systematic, or dogmatic sort of wisdom. Rigid wisdom is a result of writing down wisdom utterances. In the process its actual relation to reality is weakened and wisdom petrifies into an abstract, rock-hard system. When scripturally encoded wisdom can no longer be brought into relationship with the realities of situation and time. Reality is compressed into dogma or doctrine (cf Loader 1986:9).

Soon a crisis ensues. The Preacher of the book of Ecclesiastes, for example, reacted to this rigidity by appreciating the idea of relativity. He never comes to a final happy ending. One element is repeatedly placed in opposition to another, and the frustration resulting from the tension is accentuated. Prof. Jimmie Loader, in his book Polar structures in the Book of Qohelet, emphasized the role played by polarization in this book. The Preacher eventually refuses to resolve the tension. He remains involved in his traditions and detached from it. He offers vehement criticism of the mainstream wisdom of his day and yet uses and appropriates for himself all the typical forms of expression that characterized wisdom.

In a situation of religious pluralism (eg. the practice of christian missions) wisdom's actual relation to reality is weakened by another factor: cultural differences. People from different cultures to a certain degree live in different realities/worlds. The right thing at the right time in one cultural context might be inappropriate in another. Qoheleth's approach provides an 'answer' to this problem: Keep the different traditions in tension, or in balance, with each other.

A modern psychiatrist, Dr. M. Scott Peck, recommends a remarkably similar approach to life. "Wisdom is filled with paradox... In part wisdom is the understanding of paradox. But, as if it were not enough, the acquisition of wisdom is itself paradoxical". (peck 1985:117). Peck compares the acquiring of wisdom with a dance. Wisdom is born from a dance that often requires two partners (cf Peck 1985:118).

In similar vein the New Testament scholar, Klyne Snodgrass (1990:190-191) reminds us of the tensions and paradoxes inherent to the Bible and people's lives: "To live biblically is to live in the midst of tension... Tension allows us to live as whole persons and to do justice to all the gospel... The truth is not in the middle, and not in one extreme, but in both extremes. The grace of God, which provides the coherence to our lives, is the power by which we live out our tensions. We live between truths."

This section on wisdom is intended to provide a framework for the discussion of an issue which is most relevant to the practice of christian missions: people's possible reactions to religious pluralism. In the section that follows, I use two pivotal concepts in wisdom traditions, namely 'order' and 'change', to serve as sort of a grid for explaining these different reactions to religious pluralism.

3. Reactions to religious pluralism

Man is no palm nut, self-contained (Twi proverb)