Congruent proverbs: The concept and roles in conflict resolution

Abstract

Over the years, the Yorùbá has successfully employed proverbs to manage conflicts and discords among her populace. Many of these proverbs are conceptually and contextually congruent. The goal of this work is to draw attention to, and improve the knowledge of congruent proverbs using the proverbs of conflict resolution as the subject markers. The elders perceived by the Yorùbá to be the custodians of indigenous proverbs were consulted for conflict-resolving proverbs, their interpretation and implications. The interpretations and implications were. subjected to simple statistical analysis. Thirty proverbs that met the inclusion criteria were selected for the study. The analysis showed that two or more proverbs may be semantically congruent. The paper concluded that knowledge of the congruent proverbs could facilitate a recall of proverbial expressions, allows flexibility of use, enables complementary usage, provides a substitution, prevents monotony, allows smooth expression of thoughts, reinforces ideas, improves potency of speech and in effect, achieves the desired goal of peacemaking in African setting.

Key Words: Congruent proverbs; Concept; Conflict resolution; Knowledge of