Official Review: Philosophie Bantoue en Proverbes

[LinaMueller]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Philosophie Bantoue en Proverbes" by Mbangu'A Mangala.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Philosophie Bantoue en Proverbes by Mbangu Mangala is a set of African proverbs. According to the author, these proverbs were taught by parents to their children. His main objective is to remind Africans of the "Philosophical Culture of Africa" lost after the European colonization. According to his own words: "the set of proverbs make up the whole of Bantu Philosophy." In short, the book contains over 300 proverbs that discuss ideas ranging from polygamy to virtues that Africans should cultivate.

First things first: Mbangu Mangala should have followed the example of Nietzsche in On the Genealogy of Morality and explained the origin of the concepts. Although the proverbs of the book do not form a philosophy book as we understand it in the Western world, some contain much wisdom. Other sayings, however, without explanation of the cultural context, seem foolish and self-evident. I'll give you an example: "Koweshe mayi ne Kakole" means "one child each time the family grows big" or "it's the number of children that makes the family grow."

Besides, it is most evident that the book is poorly edited. A book of proverbs, in theory, does not need much attention for obvious reasons. In the first three pages, however, where the author introduces the central thesis of the book, one can find more than ten grammatical errors. The examples are plenty: comma misuse, inconsistent capitalization, verbs that do not agree with the subject, missing determiners, and so forth. Another downside (and arguably the book's worst flaw) is that the author demonstrates that he has a derogatory view of Europeans. What is the purpose of attacking other cultures when you want to show the world your own?

Despite some evident flaws, it is clear that Philosophie Bantoue en Proverbes has some proverbs that are full of wisdom. The adage "The ignorant is a dead man who ignores himself" is my personal favorite. It is quite right that there are some examples of sexism in the book, as in a quote that says everyone should beware of the woman because she can poison the food. Oh really? We all know that a man is incapable of murdering someone, don't you think? In any case, it would be unfair to analyze these ancient African proverbs without understanding the context of the time. That's the main reason why even sexist sayings are valuable and help to understand the African culture of the period.

On the whole, Philosophie Bantoue en Proverbes deserves two out of four stars. I took one star away because it is not professionally edited and the other due to the reasons mentioned earlier. When someone wants to show their culture to the world, calling other peoples "uninitiated Western barbarians" is counterproductive. Overall, it is a captivating and easy-to-read book. Learning more about African culture was what I liked the most about it. I recommend the book to anyone who wants to understand the African continent and its culture.

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Philosophie Bantoue en Proverbes
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[Kanda_theGreat]

Well, the sited proverbs on children making the family grow could be denotatively intepreted to mean that every child in a family associates with different other people and though not biologically related, our African social constructions automatically make all our acquintances to be family.
I'm glad that you found the African culture fascinating.
Thank you for the review.

[LinaMueller]

Well, the sited proverbs on children making the family grow could be denotatively intepreted to mean that every child in a family associates with different other people and though not biologically related, our African social constructions automatically make all our acquintances to be family.
I'm glad that you found the African culture fascinating.
Thank you for the review.

That's very interesting. Thanks for sharing it with us. Do you live in Africa, my friend?

[Kanda_theGreat]

Well, the sited proverbs on children making the family grow could be denotatively intepreted to mean that every child in a family associates with different other people and though not biologically related, our African social constructions automatically make all our acquintances to be family.
I'm glad that you found the African culture fascinating.
Thank you for the review.

That's very interesting. Thanks for sharing it with us. Do you live in Africa, my friend?

That's right; specifically East Africa.