Images of women and gender roles in Ankole proverbs.

Abstract

This study examines the different roles that are played by different genders in the Ankole society and the images of women in the Ankole proverbs. The study is guided by two objectives: the analyzing of the images of women in the Ankole society, examining the portrayal of gender roles in the Ankole society. The study was both field and library based, employing a qualitative approach. The study used sociological and performance theories to analyze data. The major tenets of the sociological theory is that literature is a reflective mirror of society and social realities. Images of women and gender roles depicted in the proverbs are a true reflection of people's perceptions of women in Ankole society. The study notes that proverbs contain wisdom and knowledge and they are passed from one generation to another. The study findings reveal that women are portrayed as children, murders, evil, unreliable, untrustworthy and greedy. They are presented as trouble rousers not only to themselves but the entire community. The study also shows that cultural roles in Ankole are distributed according to gender. There is a clearer distinction between roles performed by men and those performed by women in Ankole society. There is no swapping of roles, everyone does the assigned role and cannot be swapped even in time of emergency. And finally, the study recommends that curriculum designers of primary and secondary schools should put emphasis on the integration of oral literature in the literature teaching syllabus to help preserve oral literature genres