Kasena women's critique of gender roles and gender justice through proverbial jesting

Abstract

This article analyzes proverbs used by Kasena women from northern Ghana in their effort to critique gendered perceptions of justice in their society. This critique takes place within the socially approved medium of the joking relationship that pertains between a Kasena woman and her husband's kin. The joking relationship permits joking partners to give their views free reign and therefore provides a safe avenue for women to express their own attitudes and values pertaining to justice. They subvert and contradict Kasem proverbs in order to protest the use of gender as a basis for defining women's roles and rights in the home and in marriage. However, gender justice, as it can be gleaned from the proverbs the women deploy, is not limited to demanding freedom from traditional dependencies and addressing gender inequities. It is broadened to include calls for the recognition of women's self worth and of their contribution to culture – a conception of justice that has been the subject of recent debates on the definition of justice which have moved the focus from issues of distribution to questions of recognition.

Tono konto ni Kasena kaana memanga mo, Ghana banga tiina kateri dem wone. Kaana bam mange memanga yam se ba bere ba sam tiina na bonge te baara de kaana seeni to mo. Ba mae Kasena kaane de o banna kweera sena mo ba jange de memanga ba di bonga. Bonga dim na ye te to, ko pae se balo na kweere daane to wae ba ngoona ba bobonga taam, delo ba yaa na baa wane bat a to. Konto nwaane me pea se kaana bam wae ba tea baara yaa na gyege se ba taa ke kaana lamyirane te to. Kaana bam leri memanga yam mo, ba gya ya ba tulimi, se ba bere we noono na ye kaane, ko wo mange se ba taa ke o ne baaro gare o to, songo de baro-zure wone. Kaana de baara sena yam ban a bere ba memanga yam ne to, dae yalo na tea yizura sena yirane, ko foge ko dae fanga kikea seeni to. Memanga yam yadonna bere ko na mange se noona taa nige kaana tei ye ba bonga ba sige kaana na ke kolo ba wole logo kom to mo – yanto bobonga yam mo noona badonna de gyege ba lara, ye ba bere we kem manga doe ka ke komara komara; be ngwaane, se n'nii n'dong n'nige, de ye kem manga mo.

Keywords:

• proverbs
• subversion
• gender justice
• joking relationships
• Ghana

Notes

Personal conversation, December 27, 2008.

In Kasem culture where cows are an important source of wealth and the method of rearing them is free-range, cow dung is so common that it is taken for granted. Thus, although cow dung serves some useful purposes (it is the preferred means for breeding termites to feed chickens and a fastening agent for plastering houses), collecting it is considered a casual activity that does not deserve much thought or attention. This perception often seeps into everyday speech, so that it is typical for a visitor who feels ignored to say, ‘I didn't come here to collect cow dung’, meaning ‘I deserve some regard or attention’.