Jacob W. Chikuhwa
This collection of Shona Proverbs and Parables contains some of the most thought-provoking and contemporary proverbs and parables emerging from Zimbabwe. The collection links the pre-colonial Shona cultural expressions with the contemporary Shona folklore. The proverbs and parables offer penetrating questions and induce debate on the significance of the study of proverbs and parables.
As well as being universal, they reflect their cultural roots. While the proverbs and parables provide amusement, they deftly impart lessons for living. The literal translations for each proverb and parable add insights for better understanding.
There are times when "a small bird which does not search for food does not get fat", just as a person who is not willing to explore new ventures remains static. "A bird does not abandone its way of singing" like the old habits that die hard. What of "the one who recognises a path through a rock who is the only one that uses that path"! Surely, are those who are vociforous in condemning a wrong-doing not the chief culprits?
It's no exaggeration to say this collection of Shona proverbs and parables is not only a source of inspiration to the young Zimbabwean generation, but has application for those studying African folklore and behaviour, sociology and ethics.
Jacob Chikuhwa has been reseaching and writing on the socio-economic situation in Zimbabwe since the 1970s when he was the publicity secretary of the Zimbabwe African National Union in the Nordic, Austria and West Germany. Then the ZANU office in Stockholm, Sweden used to publish a monthly journal, Zimbabwe Chimurenga/Impi Yenkululeko (Zimbabwe Revolution). As the editor of the journal, Chikuhwa became interested in the political, social as well as economic developments in Zimbabwe.
Jacob Chikuhwa is an internationally trained economist and has lectured on economics, finance, and administration in Zimbabwe, Sweden and the USA. After having worked as an economist and administrator in the public and private sectors for over 30 years, Chikuhwa has turned to writing full-time. His works include Zimbabwe: The Rise to Nationhood, A Crisis of Governance: Zimbabwe, A Cheer for Sanity, Zimbabwe at the Crossroads and A Thought for the Day .
He is currently working on other titles, namely: Zimbabwe: Beyond a School Certificate, In Communication with the Deceased, The Pendulum and Venturing into the Unknown (Kumaziwandadzoka), a film script on HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe.
The book, Shona Proverbs and Parables, is a collection of some popular Shona proverbs and parables (tsumo nemadimikira) that are current today. Shona proverbs and parables probably date back to the time when wisdom and precept were transmitted by story and song.
It is easy to discern that proverbs were to a considerable degree of popular origin. Nevertheless, since most proverbs and parables cannot be traced to specific authors, they were most probably the utterances of moral precepts or conclusions by a particular member of a society. They came to be accepted by others of that society as their own, for they originated in the same experiences and observations, and were usually in agreement with the conceptions of life and conduct held by the members of the society.
The interest in proverbs and parables, and their collection goes back to the days of ancient Greece, to the paroemiographs and to Aristotle. Because of industrialisation and now globalisation, some proverbs and parables have transcended international boundaries. However, several proverbs and parables are restricted to one type of society or region.
As a culture, the Shona were lovers of tsumo nemadimikira. From the socio-economic hubs of Great Zimbabwe in Masvingo and Nyanga in Manicaland (and not to leave out Khami in Matabeleland), tsumo nemadimikira travelled around pre-colonial Zimbabwe. Some proverbs and parables have changed their form with changing habits. As these proverbs and parables spread among paramount chiefs, merchants, and subjects alike, each culture and society added a little more lore to the blend.
This book is pleasantly lucid and readable, eschewing unnecessary jargon, and holds the attention of the reader from the very beginning with the obvious depth of definition of the proverbs and parables. African cultures and folklore, sociology and ethics is rather a minority subject in American and European universities - when it is studied it is often from the viewpoint of the coloniser or focuses specifically on the relations between the European intruders and the Africans as an undifferentiated, almost monolithic entity - and this valuable exploration of Shona proverbs and parables, naturally coloured by a celebrated civilisation, will surely help to ignite interest in the study of African proverbs.
The interest in proverbs and parables has contninued to be a source of excitement to the literary man as well as to the ordinary reader. This work too should be a source of that excitement.
