Book contents
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword Beyond the Printed Word
- Introduction Finding the African Voice
- Part One Remembering Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Part Two The Verbal Arts and Everyday Objects
- 9 Introduction:
- 10 Singing Songs and Performing Dances with Embedded Historical Meanings in Somalia
- 11 Song Lyrics as Pathways to Historical Interpretation in Northwestern Côte d’IvoireThe Case of Kabasarana
- 12 Slave Voices from the Cameroon Grassfields
- 13 Silent Testimonies, Public Memory
- 14 In Remembrance of Slavery
- Part Three Documenting Our Own Histories and Cultural Practices
- Part Four Slavery Observed: European Travelers’ Accounts
- Part Five Administrative Records
- Part Six Legal Records
- Part Seven Recorded Encounters with the Enslaved: Christian Workers in Africa
- Part Eight Documents from Muslim Africa
- Part Nine Living with the Past
- Index
13 - Silent Testimonies, Public Memory
Slavery in Yoruba Proverbs
from Part Two - The Verbal Arts and Everyday Objects
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
By
Book contents
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword Beyond the Printed Word
- Introduction Finding the African Voice
- Part One Remembering Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Part Two The Verbal Arts and Everyday Objects
- 9 Introduction:
- 10 Singing Songs and Performing Dances with Embedded Historical Meanings in Somalia
- 11 Song Lyrics as Pathways to Historical Interpretation in Northwestern Côte d’IvoireThe Case of Kabasarana
- 12 Slave Voices from the Cameroon Grassfields
- 13 Silent Testimonies, Public Memory
- 14 In Remembrance of Slavery
- Part Three Documenting Our Own Histories and Cultural Practices
- Part Four Slavery Observed: European Travelers’ Accounts
- Part Five Administrative Records
- Part Six Legal Records
- Part Seven Recorded Encounters with the Enslaved: Christian Workers in Africa
- Part Eight Documents from Muslim Africa
- Part Nine Living with the Past
- Index
Summary
This chapter focuses on slave proverbs and has three goals. First, it seeks to validate proverbs as a source of data on slavery. Second, the chapter considers how slavery is memorialized across generations. Third, given that slave proverbs remain popular several decades after the legal abolition of slavery, it establishes the continued salience of slave origins and uses this to modify certain received ideas about the institution. The chapter provides an overview of slave-related conflicts in Yorubaland, and examines some slave proverbs and their (possible) origins, use, and meaning. Owe (proverb) is a Yoruba oral literal and figurative tradition whose full meaning is subject to translation and unpacking. Slavery in Yorubaland played an important role in Yoruba state formation and administration. Slaves functioned as administrators in the Oyo kingdom and were a powerful force in supervising provincial chiefs.
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- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade , pp. 149 - 163Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013