Fon-Sprichwörter aus Benin über Weiße. Ein Forschungsbericht
Fon (Benin) Proverbs about White People. Research Report

Summary/Abstract: Beyond the fact that oral literature is poetry, it is the reflection of the society from which it comes or in which it originates. It is place-based and reflects, among other things, the psychology and mentality of its place of origin. In collecting West African oral literature, for example, many European explorers and colonial officials had in mind the study of the psychology, lifestyle and beliefs of West African peoples (cf. Lanmadousselo 2012: 187–190). The present study deals with the question of the image of white people in Beninese proverbs. The topic has been very little studied so far, although it is present in African proverbs. Since, in comparison to German proverbs, there are no reference works on Fon proverbs yet, field research was carried out in Fon areas with informants, so that 15 proverbs are available for this study. The processing of the corpus consists, on the one hand, of transcribing the collected proverbs to the Fon language, with the aim of preserving the original form of these proverbs. On the other hand, the aim is to translate the transcribed versions into German in order to ensure the clarity of the work. The analysis of the collected proverbs has consisted of examining the proverbs in their situational context. The choice of this methodological approach is explained by the fact that most of the collected Fon proverbs about white people refer to historical events such as slavery, colonization or start from the postcolonial context. The analysis shows to what extent the image of white people in Fon proverbs is contextual.

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