Reconsideration of Tshivenḓa Proverbs in Preserving Tshivenḓa Language and Culture

This paper aims to reconsider Tshivenḓa proverbs in preserving Tshivenḓa language and culture. Proverbs are important to any language as they connect people to their culture, assisting, amongst others, in imparting knowledge, offering advice, reinforcing morals, making arguments, consoling or inspiring others. They are thought to be intrinsic to the expression of culture as they communicate values, beliefs, and customs, have an important social function, and foster feelings of group identity and solidarity. Proverbs tell us about the culture in which they are used as they communicate shared experiences or lessons. Communities need to save proverbs as they hold their cultural identity. Proverbs must be passed on in daily language to the next generations to restore this cultural identity. Unfortunately, young Tshivenḓa parents seem to no longer know the proverbs they should impart to their children. This threatens to deprive them of cultural identity as their children will not know them. This is qualitative ethnographic research, where data was collected through interviews. Purposive sampling was used to sample young parents between 35 years to 40 years old, who are now custodians of language and culture. Their knowledge of language and proverbs determines the extent to which cultural identity can be saved. Hall’s theory of cultural identity was used as it focuses on cultural identity as a community of social, political, economic, ideological, and theoretical practices. Thematic analysis was applied to analyse data, and the results of this study recommended the encouragement of the inclusion of Tshivenḓa proverbs in school curricula at all levels to instil linguistic and cultural knowledge among younger generations.