International records / OpenAlex research

PROVERBS AS KNOWLEDGE BEARERS: TOWARDS A RECONSTRUCTION OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AMONG PRELITERATE IGBO SOCIETY OF NIGERIA

The literary icon, Prof. Chinua Achebe observed in his work, Things Fall Apart, that among the Igbo, proverbs are the palm oil with which words were eaten. Implicit in this statement is the notion that the Igbo attach a lot of importance to proverbs and that proverbs serve as a lubricant to their “rusting” memories. One of such importance is noticed in their use of proverbs to keep alive their traditional medical practices which is at the verge of extinction consequent on the introduction of orthodox medicine by the western world. For instance, there is this Igbo proverb that says that when th…