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Our Elders Never Lie: The Metaphor Power Base of Proverbs among the Tonga Speaking People of Zambia And Zimbabwe

This article seeks to explore ways through and extent to which the use 
of proverbs inspires confidence in the youth towards their elders in the 
African society in general and the Valley Tonga of Zambia and Zimbabwe 
in particular. The Achebean saying that ‘proverbs are the palm oil with 
which words are eaten,’ does not only point to the fact that proverbs make 
ordinary speech aesthetically pleasant to the ear but also that the wisdom 
contained therein is culturally/socially accepted. The effective and efficient 
deployment of proverbs in this regard earns the user respect from targets 
of his address. The article analyses various ways in which proverbs are 
incorporated in everyday speech and how these in turn, enhance chances 
of delivering the intended message successfully among the Valley Tonga 
communicators. In most cases, when a Tonga speaker wishes to delegate 
presentation of a complex matter to the proverb, they attribute the wisdom 
to the Tonga society of yester years. This tendency, the article concludes, 
removes personalities from the proverb while promoting objective analysis 
of the situation by those addressed. The article examines selected proverbs 
in terms of structure, pattern of usage, types of images/metaphors used 
and their expected impact. The article applies a triangulation theoretical 
framework of Appraisal, Ethnopoetics and Afrocentricity theories to 
delineate the communicative intent of the proverber. Together, the theories 
look at social functions of the language rendered by performers of the oral 
arts.