THE FEMALE IMAGE IN SWAHILI PROVERBS

Abstract

The female image based on Swahili proverbs and sayings is depictured in the article. Frequency of using different lexicological units expressing the meaning of “woman” is analysed. Results of quantitive analyses show that the most usual of them are mke ‘wife’, mama ‘mother’, mwanamke ‘woman’. The article explains the potential objectives for these results, i.e. historically based social status of women. Using the examples of the proverbs that are found during the study levels of female image are described. They are linguosocial, linguobiological and psycholinguistics levels. The work reveals the main features of an East African woman that are reconstructed from the proverbs: charity, hard-working nature, bounceability, mercantilism, proneness to conflict. The female image depicted in modern Swahili prose is also shortly described. The main reasons of the differences between the images are listed. The issue of gender disparity is briefly lightened in terms of modern novels written by Kenyan authors.