Notions about worthy womanhood are shaped to a large extent by the cultural contexts in which they are constructed. In the global village though, shaped as it is mainly by Eurocentric cultures, it would be presumptuous to assume that one can with certainty pinpoint what may be termed ‘purely traditional African notions of womanhood’. Also, it will be an exaggeration to argue that Africa does not have its own notions on ideal womanhood. Particularly in Christian African contexts, notions about womanhood are still shaped to a large extent by both the traditional African worldviews and the received biblical interpretations about womanhood. In the preceding scenario, one wonders if women’s identities reveal their real selves or whether they are tamed, and thus artificial. In one’s attempt to unravel notions of womanhood from both the corpus, Proverbs 10:1–22:16 and in the South African context (cf. selected African proverbs), this article has sought to answer the following main question: if images of women in selected African (Northern Sotho) proverbs (cf. also selected South African narratives) and in the book of Proverbs (cf. Pr 10:1–22:16) are brought together, what kind of picture may emerge from such a comparison?
The topic on what constitutes worthy womanhood, a topic which may be deemed dated in other contexts, has arrested my attention since the early 1990s when I was first introduced to feminist and womanist literature. It continues to intrigue me even to this day. Especially informed by what happens in one’s own context even today (cf. the examples provided in the following text), a context where African cultures and some conservative, apparently static interpretations of the Christian scriptures continue to hold power on what constitutes acceptable definitions of womanhood (read: tamed female identities), I continue to grapple with this question whose answer remains elusive. The main question asked in this article is the following: if images of women in selected African (Northern Sotho) proverbs (cf. also selected South African narratives) and in the book of Proverbs (cf. Pr 10:1–22:16) are brought together, which picture may emerge from such a comparison?
Informed by gender-conscious methodologies in which the experiences of women constitute a hermeneutical lens through which a biblical text is approached, as a point of departure, I offer examples which will hopefully reveal the complexity of definitions on (affirming) notions of womanhood in present-day South Africa.
Firstly, on 20–21 April 2016, I participated in a Seminar on Women in Academic Leadership, in Sandton, Johannesburg. One of the speakers, an academic at a South African university, highlighted the challenge which is faced by career women as they juggled their roles as homemakers and as career women in the public sphere. She exhorted her audience to keep a healthy balance between the two roles. An African proverb says:
Viewed from an African gender-identified perspective, the exhortation by the female academic to career women to embark on traditional female chores upon arrival at home might be viewed with some distaste. While one does not recommend the disempowerment of interested women from household chores, the empowerment of husbands who choose to be house husbands should be encouraged (cf. Masenya [ngwan’a Mphahlele]
Secondly, a popular South African soapie titled ‘Generations’ (2016) featured a main female character by the name of Karabo Moroka. Karabo finds herself tossed between two male lovers, that is, a boyfriend named Zola and a husband named Tau. Zola appears to be Karabo’s real soulmate while her husband, Tau, seems to be what may be designated a ‘lover’ of convenience. Faced with her predicament, Karabo then proposed polyandry as a solution to her dilemma, arguing that in the new South African democratic dispensation, a man is allowed to have more than one wife. In South Africa, a more visible example of polygamy is provided by the country’s former chief executive leader, President Jacob Zuma. In a similar vein, argued Karabo, women should also be allowed to have more than one husband if they so choose. As could be expected in a culture which takes comfort not only in taming women, but also in defining what their real identities ought to be, Karabo’s proposal for polyandry was met with vehement opposition from her two male lovers, her uncles and the children involved. Such a strong male resistance makes sense in a culture where
The question that could be asked with Karabo in this regard is: In a so-called non-racist, non-sexist democratic context, why should a woman be barred from getting into a legitimate form of union such as polyandry?
Last but not least, ‘I decided I would give it up to him rather than have him take it, a slightly more dignified option with the same effect’ (Tutu van Furth as quoted by Bienne Huisman, City Press, 22 May 2016). The preceding words were reportedly said by the Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu van Furth, the daughter of Arch Bishop Emeritus, Desmond Tutu, who had married a Dutch female professor in December 2015. The words were said in the context of the pain Tutu van Furth had to endure of ‘handing over’ her ministerial credentials as a result of her marriage with a woman. Though the South African constitution legalised gay unions in 2006, the Anglican Church in South Africa recognises that marriage is a legitimate union between a man and a woman.
Yet Pressler (
It (the sketch) does, however, challenge claims that there is a single biblical view of marriage, and highlights how little biblical basis there is for the view of marriage as a religiously sanctioned, unchanging institution defined by the private relationship between two individuals, one woman and one man to whom the woman must submit. (p. 206)
What may be concluded about the women (read: female selves) whose brief narratives were presented in the preceding examples? What may we make of the career woman who
A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband, but she who brings shame is as rottenness in his bones. (Pr 12:4; MEV)
Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor of the Lord. (Pr 18:22; MEV)
Houses and riches are the inheritance of fathers, and a prudent wife is from the Lord. (Pr 19:14; MEV)
A foolish son is the calamity of his father, and the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping of water. (Pr 19:13; MEV)
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house. (Pr 21:9; MEV)
The preceding texts from the corpus, Proverbs 10:1–22:16, that is, Proverbs 12:4; Proverbs 18:22; Proverbs 19:14; Proverbs 19:13 and Proverbs 21:9; MEV, will be engaged with in the present article, in one’s continued search for affirming definitions of womanhood.
In the book of Proverbs, more than in any book of the Hebrew Bible, female imagery abounds. It was during the post-exilic period, in the absence of the monarchy and the Jerusalem temple, that the family regained significance as the locus of divine authority (Camp
An outsider to the biblical world and its conception of marriage (if any) might be surprised by the apparently neutral word used for woman in the preceding texts. The word, ‘
The Older Testament does not offer a single view of marriage, much less a single view of the family. Biblical Hebrew does not have a noun ‘marriage’ or a verb ‘to marry’; it rarely uses terms that explicitly refer to marital status (‘husband’
In specific Hebrew Bible texts, the textual context as well as intertextual readings will reveal whether the institution of marriage is in view or not. From the texts being investigated in this article and the context that is provided by the book of Proverbs, the family appears to form the framework within which these proverbs are written. Words such as ‘fathers’, ‘heritage/inheritance’, ‘sons’, ‘man’ (
As in the Northern Sotho (African) language and culture, for example, it appears as though each
Celebrated here for the first time in Proverbs, a ‘woman of substance’ (cf. 31:10–31) is said to promote her husband, whereas a ‘shameful wife’ destroys him like ‘rot in the bones’ (12:4). (p. 237)
Also, if the texts being discussed in this essay are read in the context of the whole book of Proverbs (cf. in particular the last chapter on the qualities of the
In a more or less similar vein, Brenner argues:
The virtuous wife who closes Proverbs is a paragon of virtue: no wonder that Jewish husbands still recite the poem to their wives today, either at their wedding or on Shabbath evening, according to their community’s customs. (Brenner
However, one needs to problematise the applicability of the
Many women, both then and now, may thus never match the socio-economic class of the
An important question we ask at this point is: Which female identities feature in the preceding proverbial texts? Which notions of womanhood are revealed by the texts?
Firstly, as it is almost always the case in the Hebrew Bible, women do not get to talk about what their real identities are or should be, men usually talk about women.
Secondly, talk about women reveals their significance and their preciousness in men’s world then, and dare one say even today. Virtuous, prudent or wise wives could apparently not be picked up randomly because, ‘Whoever finds a
An insertion of the word ‘thing’ after ‘good’ in English translations is noteworthy. I read the Masoretic Text (MT) (מצא אשה מצא טוב) (Kittel
Interestingly, in the first
Thirdly, and related to the preceding point, as the content of the proverbs depicts male talk about women, the perspective presented in these texts is also male (cf. Meyers
Fourthly, the preceding positive qualities from a good wife are contrasted with those of the one ‘who brings shame’. The latter wife degrades rather than enhances her husband’s reputation (Pr 12:4). Her contentiousness, her revelling at quarrelling and her restlessness, are compared with a leaking roof, a continual dripping of rain: ‘A foolish son is the calamity of his father, and the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping of water’ (Pr 19:13 MEV). Just like a
As already noted, the words about women or female identities reach present-day readers through a man, one who may not necessarily do justice to the object of his discourse. The following questions are in order: If indeed the specific wife was contentious, what might have been the cause of such a trait? May her husband have been the main source of her contentiousness? What if what the sage presents as contentiousness is in fact female counsel? Claudia Camp (
All female figures in the book of Proverbs give advice of some sort, whether it is the nagging of the contentious wife, the seduction of the strange woman, the wisdom of the woman of worth or the truth and justice of personified Wisdom. (p. 90)
Fifthly, missing female identities and/or unusual silences on womanhood are notable in the texts under investigation (cf. also in the paean of the
Related to the preceding observation is the relatively conspicuous absence
… that only man pursues Wisdom like a lover, and it is a woman who seduces him away from her. How does one mitigate such imagery when it touches a person at the most elemental and symbolic level, for instance the sexual? (p. 126)
May it be that such negative portrayals of female sexuality or women as seductresses and adulterers are psychic portrayals (fantasies?) pointing to male weakness in controlling their strong sexual passions towards women? Even within the most overt text on female sexuality as positive (cf. Pr 5:15–19), one still finds traces of negative female sexuality as in, ‘Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?’ (Pr 5:16).
The androcentricity of the text of Proverbs and its negative portrayal of female beauty and sexuality is revealed even from the rare instruction by a woman. According to King Lemuel’s mother, Lemuel the son, needs to be careful about the objects which may destroy royalty; ironically, such objects are one of her own kind, the daughters of her womb.
What, my son? And what the son of my womb? And what, the son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings. (Pr 31:2–3)
So, a woman’s womb has the capacity not only to produce the perpetuators of royalty, as in ‘the son of her (read: my) womb’ (Pr 31:2), the wombs can also produce those who are capable of destroying royalty, that is, the daughters of the wombs!
From the preceding examples, we might agree with Bird (
In one’s attempt to unravel notions of womanhood from both the corpus, Proverbs 10:1–22:16 and the South African context, this article has sought to answer the following main question: If images of women in selected African (Northern Sotho) proverbs (cf. also selected South African narratives) and in the book of Proverbs (cf. Pr 10:1–22:16) are brought together, which picture may emerge from such a comparison?
In patriarchal contexts like those engaged with in this essay, the power dynamics involved in the taming or un-taming of female identities need to be scrutinised and deconstructed in our search for that which might be found to be affirming and transformative by those on the margins. Notions of womanhood gleaned from both the African proverbs and the biblical ones highlight the role of a woman as a wife (cf. also Masenya [ngwan’a Mphahlele]
The author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article.
A woman is a baboon, her hands are eaten (Rakoma
If a bird-ling is not yours, you remove its feathers even if it cries bitterly (Rakoma
If they (cattle) are led by a female one, they are bound to fall into a donga (Rakoma
Though, continues Pressler (
‘The grave of a woman will be found at her husband’s place’ and ‘A woman is a baboon, her hands are eaten’, respectively.
See a similar designation, that is,
‘At any rate, during her lifetime, such a wife is convenient to have, since she has everything, apart from beauty (31:30)’ (Brenner
Would it be far-fetched to speculate that though the ‘
Although Carol A. Newsom (
MEV: ‘Whoever finds a
In the context of Yehud, when the family had gained power as the locus of divine authority, it would make sense that finding a wife of substance would have been viewed as indeed tantamount to finding favour from the Lord.
The following Northern Sotho proverb is a fitting counterpart because it depicts the trait of quarrelsomeness or contentiousness as being typically female,
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. The following proverb reveals the sage’s apparent preference for inner rather than outer beauty, ‘As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman who is without discretion’ (Pr 11:16, 22 MEV). Its Northern Sotho counterpart:
In Proverbs 1–9, the beauty of ‘woman’ is depicted, albeit in a negative way. The sons (read: younger men) are exhorted to guard against the seductions of Woman Stranger, and whatever she stood for in the mind of the sage.
The only text in the Hebrew Bible that exhorts men (read: the young man) to monogamous sexuality is found in the book of Proverbs (cf. Pr 5:15–19). The young man is exhorted to drink water from his own cistern. He must delight in his own fountains only and rejoice in the wife of his youth.