Celebration of African Women in Proverbs, Wise Sayings and Folktales: An Example of Akan Tradition in Ghana

Abstract

African women are sometimes discriminated against and this has made most of them to recoil and are hardly able to do things on their own. The idea that the world is a male dominated society, has made the African to institute a lot of proverbs, wise sayings and folktales which are used to support male chauvinism to describe the woman as subordinate to the man. Even though these proverbs are given a lot of prominence in the everyday communication of the African, there are still a host of these language arts that celebrate women. However, these language arts that attempt to celebrate the African woman are hardly heard. This paper therefore, attempted to bring to the fore most of these language arts that celebrate women to help change the negative perception towards the African woman. The paper is also in support of the global attempt at women empowerment and to establish women as partners of development. It is also a contribution to feminist writers in their attempt to establish the position of women.