Perception of Women as depicted in Setswana Proverbs and its Societal Impact

Authors

  • Kehumile Molotsane

    Department of African Languages, Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, P. O. Box 524, Johannesburg 2092, South Africa
  • Maishiko Doreen Mojapelo

    Department of African Languages, Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, P. O. Box 524, Johannesburg 2092, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v8i1.11416

Abstract

This article presents a linguistic and cultural analysis of the representation of women in selected Setswana proverbs, utilizing Womanism as the theoretical lens. The study explores whether these proverbial expressions function to reinforce patriarchal ideologies or alternatively reflect empowering constructions of womanhood rooted in African cultural contexts. Grounded in the principles of Womanism—as articulated by Alice Walker—the framework situates African women lived experiences at the center of analysis, with emphasis on community perception, marriage and motherhood, and strength and leadership. Employing a qualitative content analysis methodology, the article undertakes a close linguistic examination of Setswana proverbs, paying attention to lexical choices, metaphorical constructions, and pragmatic functions. The analysis seeks to uncover how gendered meanings are encoded, transmitted, and maintained through proverbial discourse within Setswana speech communities. Findings indicate that while many proverbs reflect entrenched patriarchal ideologies and linguistic marginalization of women, others encode ambivalent or subversive meanings that gesture toward female agency and resilience. The study argues that Womanism provides a culturally grounded and linguistically sensitive framework for deconstructing gender ideologies embedded in African oral traditions. It further contributes to the broader discourse on the intersection of language, gender, and culture in African linguistic contexts.

Keywords:

Womanism, Setswana proverbs, gender representation, African linguistics, language and culture, feminist theory, oral literature, sociolinguistics

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How to Cite

Molotsane, K., & Mojapelo, M. D. (2026). Perception of Women as depicted in Setswana Proverbs and its Societal Impact. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 8(1), 84–96. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v8i1.11416

Issue

Vol. 8, Iss. 1 (January 2026 in progress)

Article Type

Article

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Copyright © 2026 Kehumile Molotsane, Maishiko Doreen Mojapelo

Creative Commons License

This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.