Contrastive Analysis of Kibeembe and English sexist proverbs

Social discrimination in general and sexual one in particular bears several negative social impacts whose manifestations are even observable in human being behaviours through speech acts and proverbs in particular emphasizing on sexist aspect. Knowing that African customs are the basis or the foundation of the African people’s life, women are not given the same consideration as in Western countries. Accordingly, a look on the sexist proverb both in English and Kibeembe will help to see the actual place of women provided by these two respective communities. Finally, the data has shown in some respect that there are some similarities between English and Kibeembe sexist proverbs.


Introduction
Orality characterizing life in Africa is expressed through riddles, tales, proverbs, songs and so on.
Accordingly, proverbs are part of speech acts mostly used in people's day-to-day interactions. For years, they make the social wheel turns smoothly. Since their purpose varies in different linguistic communities, it sounds interesting to find out the similarities and differences in the use of sexist proverbs in English and Kibeembe. In this respect, the question which comes in mind stands as follows: is the sexist proverb use influenced by the respective traditional values of British and Congolese communities? This problematic lies on the following hypothesis: every community has its own specificities regarding the treatment reserved to female people and their respective speech acts are closely dependent on this aspect.
The reading of the Bible (Genesis, 2, p. 23) shows that this document can be treated as the root of sexism. For instance, in the Old Testament, God takes a rib from Adam and uses it to make a woman and Adam believes Eva is bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. Then in Juge (16, p. 5) female persons are taken as treacherous because of Delila who contributed to Samson's diminution of power.
Moreover, from 1Corinthiens (14, p. 34), female persons are forbidden to preach. In addition, as a former student dealing with Sociolinguistics, my oral presentation on Language and sex also contributed to the motivation of the present work. Furthermore, I have been boosted by this topic because in our day-to-day interactions, people talk about the number of women and ladies who were raped, harassed, got precocious pregnancy than the number of men and boys in some of these situations.
Finally, the lack of scientific document made of bilingual study on a Bantu langue and an Indo European one based on proverbial sexists and working on Kibeembe increases my motivation.
I have used Inductive and comparative interdependent approaches to undertake the present work. In fact, from inductive approach, I have resorted to interview and observation as far as Kibeembe is concerned. As regard to English, my little experience on this language has been a great help. From comparative approach, I have checked if Kibeembe one of the Congolese languages spoken in Bouenza department more precisely in Mouyondzi and its surrounding villages bears the same features as English to bring out their universals and specificities To undertake this work, I have divided it into three following sections: traditional values about English and Beembe female people, presentation of proverbs and their use and analysis of proverbs. Before starting with this work, it appears interesting to define sexist proverb. Accordingly, Noor Sanaudin (2015) defines linguistic sexism as the element in language which can show sex prejudice. In broad sense, linguistic sexism refers to the sexual discrimination reflected or expressed by male to female words. « Pour maints historiens, la jeune fille se mariait très tôt bien souvent avant même qu'elle atteigne l'âge de nubilité. Ce qu'ils perdent de vue est que le mariage africain, entreprise réglée, ne pouvait être contractée par cette dernière, sans qu'elle ne remplisse les conditions d'âge qui elles -mêmes se confondaient avec l'âge de l'initiation marquant la puberté » From this assertion, it is noticeable that a young lady place was in marriage. Then, the learning of marriage matters was the fruit of herown experience for most marriages were precocious. This is the case of my own late mother; she got married at about 13 years old.
Beembe female persons are laborious in the framework of farming. They often work in cooperative "kitemu", a good farming practice which helps them to have money. Also, thanks to this strategy, they are capable to bring up their offspring themselves when their husband is dead or incapable to work due to health problem or any other situation.
As other Bantu female persons, Beembe women food diet is made of some "proscription". In fact, a woman who does not obey this custom is victim of some health problems which may be at the origin of her death. It is forbidden to them to climb up some fruitful trees such as mango tree, avocado tree, orange tree…etc.; if not these trees will become bitter. Then, they do not eat python and mutton.
Concerning traditional institutions, it is strictly forbidden to women to take part to palavers in "Mbongui", a place par excellence in which young men receive education from old persons. However, young ladies part of education depended on their mothers on the field road or when they went to wash clothes in the river. Furthermore, it was forbidden to Beembe women to have a speech in front of men during palavers.
In short, it can be said that the division of works in African traditional society governs the whole life of the community. Women have their responsibilities which may be different firm men's. Now, a word is going to be said about the English women.
From the present subsection, it is remarkable that in the Beembe land, marriage was precocious because its age was not determined and the males could marry their wives at around 20. Then, Beembe female persons are still laborious in farming but their diet was specific and they were not authorized to belong to traditional institutions whereas, nowadays, thanks to modernism, the situation has changed. In addition, in the framework of children caring, it is said out that in English geographical area, in the past, when the husband died the first, children were cared by the nearest member of the defunct family and were prevented from paying visit to their mother and vice versa. Also, English female people were victim of a rough oppression characterized by the secondary role in domain such as teaching, medicine, and so on.
The conclusion which can drown up from these female experiences, both English and Kibeembe is that their conditions seem to be rooted in the beginning of humanity.

Section 2: Presentation of proverbs and their use
Since my topic is concerned with sexist proverbs, it sounds interesting to point out proverbs conception by both linguistic communities under discussion. Then, considering the fact that they represent two different cultures, it is necessary to divide this section into two following subsections: English proverbs and Beembe ones. To start with, I would like first to define a proverb.
A proverb is seen as a speech act made of short sentence and containing wisdom. It fulfils different functions useful for societies. In this respect, Honeck (1977, pp. 26-29) says that a proverb has a literary and a practical function. Accordingly, proverbs pack a great deal of information into short statement and poets and song writers often have verbal economy as a goal. Furthermore, proverbs have properties that make them useful for everyday purposes. They are relatively short, poetic, typically concrete and used as indirect comment. They have the power and wisdom of many people behind them and they perform categorization and pragmatic function. These properties strongly suggest that they can be used to facilitate memory, teach and persuade. Finally, proverbs are treated as a means to analyse an individual's capacity to think and an aspect of treatment for people who suffer from psychological diseases.
In Beembe, proverbs are used during mourning and wedding ceremonies palavers and the use of proverbs is sometimes associated with code switching. Parents use them to express confidential information. For instance, "Beto na beto" is a Beembe proverb showing the geographical belonging. As a matter of fact, this proverb is used to give more advantages to people from the southern part of Congo than those of the northern one. This is comparable with "Wa yon wa yon" an expression used by the inhabitants of Gamboma, one locality of the northern of Congo namely in Plateau department.
It comes out that every community resorts to proverbs to enrich their communication and this type of speech act is used in different functions. Since they are made of wisdom, people who practice proverbs find advantages in their life. Finally, in the Beembe community, proverbs can be seen as code switching.
From this section, proverb definition and function have been pointed out. English and Beembe share some common points on proverbs. Actually, they express wisdom and are generally short. Their use differs from one function to another according to a given context. Proverbs purport to teach and persuade. However, in Beembe community, they are also seen as code switching and occur at any time and depending on social event. English. Note that this task was done with some Beembe native speakers who have also a good command of English. From this chart, the proverb (1) "Man, woman and devil are three degrees of comparison" or "Mubakala, mukyetu na mukuyu biteesu bitata bia yelekese" claims that males have higher social status than females, and that these ones are only better than devil. In fact, considered as the second role players, female people were dealing with activities such as teaching in nursery or primary schools, selling, secretary or medicine (nurse). Then, most of them were concerned with household. In Beembe community, females belong to the lower social status where the task consists in household, traditional activities and procreation. The proverb n°1 is similar to "Early history decides that men enjoy high social status.
The same proverb considers the female people better than devil. As a matter of fact, a devil is described as the top level of bad practices, and according to this proverb, since female persons are seen as the This joins the proverb" Eating with a female person means eating with a sorceress" or "Kudia na mukyeetu 'Kudia na ngaa kundu". In fact, in African geographical area, it is strictly forbidden to have sexual intercourse with any woman while preparing a match, hunting, fishing….and so on if not, there will not have success. Then, people who get fetishes are forbidden to put their fingers in the female vagina while caressing her during sexual intercourses if not their power will become weak. This proverb is related to "Women are the devil's nets".
In (2), "A man is as old as he feels, a woman as old as she looks" or "Mubakala kubuuka na bitsimu, mukyeetu na kynatu" expresses the advantages of male over female in marriage. Accordingly, all the decisions such as naming children, having the number of children, daily food are taken by husbands. In a worker couple for instance, when a wife and husband comes back home, this one often takes a rest in front of television or read newspapers while the wife deals with kitchen matters and looks after children at the same time. Then, at evening, she also has responsibility to wash them. Nevertheless, this English practice seems to disappear nowadays thanks to feminist movement.
In parallel to the preceding paragraph, in Beembe community living in the rural area, early in the morning, the wife goes to the field and comes back late at evening. At home, she must cook the food and take care of children washing them, whereas, the husband who often comes back before sits down on a long chair with his kola nut in the mouth and a recipient of local wine between feet waiting for food. Sometimes, knowing that he did not give money for buying the food, he can oblige the wife to feed him correctly. This situation seems general in African rural areas. For instance, in Kenya, in 1985, one woman got her ears chopped by her husband because the food lacked meet. Then in the same year and in the same country, Puis Njoki's eyes have been gorged out by her husband because she only gave birth to girls. Finally, in the same country boys raped and killed a number of girls at Saint Kizito without being jugged. The proverb (2) is synonymous with the proverb (3) "Marry your son when you will, your daughter when you can "or "Mubakala mubangu nzo kumakweele".
The proverb (4) "Long hair, short wit "or"Mukyetu kuyabal mubiyiriki "claims that female is doomed not to be as wise as male. From this proverb, females are considered as people with spontaneous reactions. It is compared to "Female is the 7 th beast after the toad". Nevertheless, this viewpoint is not consistent because nowadays, because in the framework of international relationships, it is observable that female people through the world play an important role in different domains.
In (5), "Words are women, deeds are men" or "Babaakala batunga; bakyeetu batunga koo", females are seen as people incapable to make turn the social wheel smoothly. Indeed, females are responsible for slander, liar, instability, and lack of serenity and pragmatic. This attitude cannot help them to build society.
The proverb (6) "Beauty and folly are often companions" or "Bubwebwa lolo, kukati nsaangi "reflects female appearance. In fact, the physical aspect of a female is meaningless; what is important is rather her interior beauty or her behaviour. Accordingly, this proverb is in relationship with the Biblical proverb" Who finds a good wife, find good fortune" (Proverb 18: 22). It comes out that a beautiful female person is the one who is characterized by humility, tenderness, kindness…etc. That is why, in African geographical area in general, in Beembe in particular, parents could make a choice of their son's future wife. This choice was mostly based on virtues and not on the physical appearance. The example I am going to take is the concern of myself since Koyo and Beembe are part of Bantu family. So, my late mother Suzanne Ossissou, regarding the laborious aspect and good behaviour of her neighbour's daughter, she used to pray so that she becomes my wife. My mother prayers are concretized because with that lady, we got marriage several years ago and have many offspring and seeing her behaviour and laborious attitude, I never regret my mother's prayer. This proverb is synonymous with "Beauty is power; a smile is its sword" and "A nice wife and a back door rob the house" and "When the candles are out, all women are fair". We should not trust appearances.
The proverb (7) "Maids want nothing but husband, but when they have them, they want everything "or "Mukyeetu tondo dia musiete" refers to ingratitude". In fact, female persons are considered as persons who never recognize good acts made by males. They are the expression of cupidity and selfishness, greedy and skittish.
In (8) "Husband and wife "or "Mulumi ngaa mukasi", expresses the inferiority aspect of female persons. In fact, most of time, they feel themselves inferior to males and agree that in the framework of works, some labours such as lifting up water recipients, gaze bottles, driving in the father's absence in the case of emergency, making palm wine, canoes, cutting big trees are males' specificities. Contrary to females, males have capacity to face social problems at any time and they are supposed to be more cold-wooded, serenity and spirit stability. In the day-to-day life, in Beembe socio-culture, a gentleman can play the role of the father when this one is no longer alive. This is even possible if he is the youngest of a family made of several sisters. During mourning palavers or wedding ceremonies, he represents the late father.This proverb joins (10) "Boys will be boys" or "Mubakala wuna kwa; mukyeetu kwape". It is in connection with Shakespeare's thought "Frailty, the name is woman" meaning that female persons themselves believe to be inferior males.
(9) "To wear the trousers in relationship "or "Mukyeetu mbwata bubakala munzo" symbolizes an obligation of females to be submitted to males. In fact, since for years, a trouser is considered as male clothes, when a female wears it, this act appears as a kind of equality between males and females.
Knowing that society is male-oriented, it is strictly forbidden to females to feel equal males. Of course, the situation may happen in the professional life and not in the marital home. The lack of wife's submission is at the origin of several couples dissolution. This proverb is related to "It is sad house when the hen crows for louder than the cock" The proverb (11) "To be a sissy" or "Mubakala wu muboboomo" describes female persons as people characterized by laziness, lack of courage, and weak in every domain of life. So, a male who is qualified by female is the prey of critics by the other members of community for a real man must be courageous and dynamic and should not be a vulnerable power. The proverb (12) "A female person is a chameleon" purports to bring out the unfaithfulness and instability characteristic of female people. Indeed, they are always in the search of advantages in relationship in spite of agreement taken with their partners. This situation is often remarkable in the marital union. Accordingly, most wives leave their husband when this one becomes moneyless or very sick. However, they are capable to join once more their same partner if his social or health situation changes positively. They do not have sincerity in relationships.
In (13), "Don't show your fortune to your wife" expresses the fact that one should trust female people in financial matters. As a matter of, they are supposed to be capable to kill their husband in order to inherit their wealth. In the Bible, the history of Delila and Samson shows that this one's strong was based on his hair whereas, his relationship with Delila pushed him to reveal his confidence to his partner, consequently, he has been wined by his enemies. In addition, in Africa, most of female workers think that their salary is made for their parents and relatives however; the husband salaries should be managed by wives.
The proverb (14) "The leaf covers the couple's matters" or "Mya kumakweel mya fuk' lukaya "is the expression of confidence crisis due to the lack of female self-control. Accordingly, the wife and husband are the ones who constitute a couple and both of them should be confident and manage their marital matters in common for their interest and this of their offspring without using a third person.
However, the wife is seen as the one capable to reveal couple's matters to the other members of community. This may be in relationship with couple's intimacy related to sexual matters or husband salaries to their closest friends. Nevertheless, few are husbands who behave like this. Then, most of Beembe wives make appeal to their parents to arrange their couple's misunderstanding. However, this attitude is to be condemned because of witchcraft. In fact, in Beembe community as in other parts of Bantu area, the sorcererenjoysopportunity inside couple in order to throw a bad fate or kill family members. That is why, the fact of making intervene ones parents to the marital home appears like a risk.
This proverb is similar to "In a couple's life, people eat together "or "Kumakweel kya yoko".
Indeed, each married couple tests its own realities be there positive or negative and relative do not have the right to intervene when for instance a couple is quarrelling. Accordingly, if in English culture, justice is considered as an institution from which wives expound their marital problems, in Beembe geographical area however, most of the time, sisters-in-law are capable to chase their brother's wife from her marital home when a couple crosses some misunderstanding which make them quarrel and beat from time to time. If they do not succeed to put her outside, later, they will wait for the day their brother will not be alive to express openly their revenge through traditional rites imposed to the widow during the mourning period. For instance, she may be authorized to eat in a lying down position" and are capable to rob her late husband's wealth. Most of aunts are sadly famous in this practice.
The proverb (16), "The husband's anger early in the morning is the result ofnot having sex with his www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 2, No. 4, 2020 74 Published by SCHOLINK INC. wife at night "or "Mulumi bus bwa kanga mu minkya, mudzumb ngambulu ba mu dikiri "considers the wife as the husband's tool of pleasure. In fact, as any human being, sometimes, after a hard labour, a wife can feel tired at night and refuse to have sexual intercourse with her partner; this situation is often badly interpreted by husbands who can be anger along the day. Some husbands may express this anger attitude in their work place towards their collaborators or their own children at home.
(17) "That wife is a wood "or "Mukyeet'wu kitsootso kya kanya "is in connection with sexual intercourse matters. As a matter of fact, an attracted woman should demonstrate her sexual performance on bed. If not she will be covered by critics. Knowing that a wood does not move, the wife who does not make love correctly is so called. This attitude can be considered as the way from which a husband can become unfaithful. That is why, teaching daughters and boys sexual matters in general and how to behave sexually on bed is not taboo in English culture for it will help them to maintain their marital home in stability. However, this practice seems new in African culture in general, in Beembe in particular for such a topic seems shameful between parents and children.
In (18) "Grown up grasses should be burnt out "or "Leenge di bukaa, kiyenne na mbwa wu" is a condemnation of some non-natural sexual practices. In fact, this proverb is against lesbian and homo sexual phenomenon for naturally, two ladies or gentlemen cannot be married. Since, we are concerned with critics towards female people; it appears that the practice of lesbian phenomenon is remarkable in Western culture in general, English in particular. This proverb is a piece of advice in Beembe community because such a practice disobeys this people culture.
(19) "Wives infertility makes more noise than this of the husband" or "…Bakyeetu 'bar'babu taako babvur'lusuku na babakala"raises the health state of the husband than a wife in procreation matters.
Accordingly, in most of marital homes, wives are considered as bringer of unhappiness. That is why, in the framework of procreation they are considered to be at the origin of this situation. However, thanks to science, responsibilities are shared in a couple. If in English culture, a married couple may support to live together without offspring because of infertilities of one or both partners, in Beembe culture, this situation is at the origin of marriages dislocation because in Africa, one of the first purposes of marriage is having children. That is why, to avoid the loss of her marriage, an infertile wife may permit her single little sister to be pregnant from her husband to have a child with her husband so that she feeds the new born.
(20) "One wife means the statue's leg" or "Mukasi mosi kulu kwa kiteki" implies wives faithfulness in marriage. Indeed, a wife should have only one husband. This situation differs from one country to another because in Western culture, there is the existence of polyandry. In Beembe land, a wife should have only one husband if not she will be outside her marital home. However, the husband may have a great number of sexual partners. This practice is considered as an act of honour, richness and proud. In the framework of human rights both man and woman enjoy the same rights but in the marital home, the situation changes. As soon as a wife has two has two sexual partners, she is seen as a prostitute. But the contrary seems normal because in Africa, polygamy is seen as a sign of richness, honour and dignity. This last section has been based on the Beembe and English sexist proverbs functions. Indeed, in both languages, female people are taken as inferior to males in various domain for instance at the office. In the marital home, more advantages are given to husbands than wives and in day-to-day interaction, these ones are supposed to be victim of moral crisis characterized by ingratitude, selfishness, lack of submission, prostitution, treacherous…and so on. However, in sexual matters, the distinction between some Beembe and English female people is that these ones often practice polyandry and are lesbians.
Then, in Western culture, a sterile wife cannot accept her single step sister to give birth with her husband to protect her marriage and the practice of marriage by legacy does not exist. Finally, in English culture, the intrusion in marriage affairs by other members of family is not admissible as in Beembe culture.

Conclusion
The foregoing analysis and discussion of sexist proverbs of English and Kibeembe proverbs provides an insight into a society with males and females day-to-day interactions. The analysis has pointed out that a sexist proverb is a normal sociolinguistic routine meant for the establishment of interpersonal relationship based on males and females. In fact, it has demonstrated that in both communities, taking into account their respective sociocultural values, sexist proverbs use influences female people everyday life and this situation obeys profound historical origins. However, with the development of society and history, sexist proverbs must be gradually improved in the framework of modernity.
Whatever changes which could occur in both societies, sexist proverbs will always prevail because the notion of equality between men and women is still ambiguous. Equality right is possible but man and woman are biologically different.