Image of women in African oral literature : a case of Ateso marriage songs

Abstract

This study is to examine the portrayal of women in the selected Ateso marriage songs . The aim is to describe the image of women as seen in the Ateso marriage songs. The findings of the study will shed light on the societies' attitude towards women in African oral literature through the use of the marriage songs in Teso region. A content analysis of six to eight marriage songs will be used to reveal that women have diverse roles and duties as well. The study will show women as mothers in the Teso region hence the duties of being teachers and role models to their children will as well be brought out. The image of women as mother's also rotates on the fact that they act as idols to their children. However, women in general are also wives to their husbands and sometimes portrayed negatively in the Ateso marriage songs especially in regard to their personalities as they are depicted as being unreliable, less intelligent and lack vision and wisdom. Songs especially the Ateso marriage songs in my culture are a very important aspect of oral tradition because they play and serve different roles especially the educational and entertainment purposes. To be more specific, marriage songs serve a very great role in the preservation of culture especially In the Teso region and Africa in general. This study seeks to examine the image of women in African oral literature through the use of Ateso marriage songs. The study mostly focuses on how these Ateso songs portray the image of women in the African oral literature or the way women were looked at. The study was conducted in Teso region using the various different research methods.