Dholuo Proverbs and Sayings: A Gendered Leadership Lens

• In Event: Indigenous Knowledge of Social Justice Education: Lessons on Decolonization From Luo Language and Literature

Abstract

Culture, socialization, gender and leadership development are intertwined concepts, language being the vehicle of transport. Socialization provides tantalizing evidence that leaders are shaped by their cultures. This chapter will examine the imageries and concepts of women and men emanating from dholuo proverbs and sayings, in addition to their implications in leadership development. It will identify the expressions and phrases used in Luo proverbs and sayings, describing the gender-biased phrases in these linguistic items and analyzing how they develop, reflect and structure leadership between both genders in the luo community. The chapter is premised on Gender schema theory (Bem 1981) which emphasizes the role of cognitive organization and socialization. The theoretical framework conjectures that children learn how their cultures and/or societies structure gender roles and internalize this knowledge as a gender schema, or absolute core belief. As highlighted in Bem (1993) the gender schema is then used to define subsequent experiences in life. As such, the children's outlook on male and females results from the interaction between their gender schemas and their experiences. Gender roles are, therefore, closely related with gender stereotypes. Anselmi and Law (1998, p. 195) define stereotypes as, "overgeneralized beliefs about people based on their membership in one of many social categories". The gender stereotypes are exemplified in the physical characteristics, traits, occupations and role behaviors of men and women (Deaux and Lewis 1983). In this light, therefore, the article will also examine the association between language and gender by offering linguistic evidence of gendered ideology depicted in dholuo vocabulary and phrases relating to both men and women. Specifically, the paper seeks to illustrate the interplay between language and social categorization and cultural evaluation of leadership development in the Luo community, and the degree to which language patterns mirror Luo social structures, cultural inequality and subjugation, and maintenance of the historical gender arrangements. The paper will realize this through literature review by scrutinizing the imagery in the language used in dholuo proverbs and sayings. The analysis is based on the hypothesis that language has historically been used to depict gender stereotypes sustain a patriarchal society. This paper will provide information on gender blindness in language and how language indicates social patterns and structures within the society that develop and structure leadership. It will show how language impacts the society and discuss how it can not only promote discrimination but also mirror social injustices. Overall, it will illuminate on how language in literature is critical in structuring patterns within the society and socializing their member into the structure and the implications in leadership development.

Author

• Edna Asesa-Aluoch, Maseno University
  Presenting Author