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This article examines the nature, use and meanings of proverbs as both tools of discourse and for expressing the ideological outlook among the Vhavenda of South Africa and the mores of the Yorùbá of south-western Nigeria. Within the Vhavenda and Yorùbá cultures and traditions, proverbs, as a form of folklore, are verbally expressed and transmitted from one generation to another. Inherent in these elements are the cultural and ideological traits that are easily identified by both the native speakers and listeners of the two cultures. To satisfy its exegetical and hermeneutic ambitions, this article analysed a selection of Tshivenda and Yorùbá proverbs, with the analysis undergirded by ethnopragmatics and the contextual theory of meaning. The proverbs were selected on the basis of a predetermined set of themes, namely, proverbs about cooperation and interdependence, nature, trees and other plants, animals and reptiles, people, body parts, children, craftiness and consequences, ingratitude, obstinacy and pride as well as didactic, motivational and reassuring proverbs. Tshivenda and Yorùbá proverbs were found to be both direct and indirect tools that are used to bring out the Vhavenda’s and the Yorùbá’s cultural identity and the inherent traits of their ideologies. It is recommended that paroemiology be considered in the various spheres of “formal” African epistemologies and pedagogies.

Angifi Dladla’s poetry and teaching doctrines are considered tools for consciousness raising, healing and popular education for decoloniality. Through ku femba, an age-old practice that serves as a channel to cast away evil spells in a society bedevilled by violence, Dladla displays the relationship between man, ancestors and the otherworldly as a vehicle for decoloniality. His feisty narrative poems, “I Failed My Children” and “Marikana Chorus”, explore the spiritual dimension and infinite possibilities of experience rooted in oral and written tradition. Dladla’s Femba Writing Project, based on his philosophy of teaching poetry, affirms that poetry rooted in decoloniality reflects not only the poet’s political convictions, but a shared communal experience of those on the edges of existence who are capable enough to challenge the master’s voice (the voice of the Western canon) that often defines quality in poetry. Dladla is steeped in direct knowledge of the precarious life in South African townships; he draws on his accrued knowledge and on the complexities of history and memory to create and teach compelling poetry that resonates with the ordinary without falling into the trap of ghettoising his experience. Dladla’s poetry and teaching philosophy challenge the colonising practices that have shaped and continue to influence the teaching of poetry in South Africa. They form part of a wider agenda of defining African selfhood in a decolonial context.

This article analyses Vonani Bila’s selected poetry for its ability to produce an ‘air of reality’. The central argument of the article is that Bila embraces an aesthetic of realism, which essentially values unsparing, accurate and sordid representations of the psychological, social and material realities of postcolonial (and democratic) South Africa. Undergirded by the Marxist theory of Social Realism, the qualitative approach and descriptive design, this article purposively selected ten poems from some of the anthologies in which Bila published his poetry, namely; Magicstan Fires, Handsome Jita and Sweep of the Violin. Bila’s poetry can best be situated within the historical contexts that shape his texts, namely; the apartheid era, ideas about capitalism in newly democratic South Africa, the emergence of a vibrant immigrant community in South Africa and idealised notions of achieving equality and prosperity through education in South Africa. This article is mainly a critical analysis, and not a historical account of the apartheid era and democratic dispensation of South Africa. In the analysis, it was noted that Bila’s poetry generally manifests the literary categories of social and psychological realism, respectively. As a social realist, Bila explores the problems of economic inequality and captures the experience of both rural and urban life in a post- and neo-colonial context of South Africa. As a psychological realist, on the other extreme, Bila is concerned with delving beneath the surface of social life to probe the complex motivations and (un)conscious desires that shape his literary personae’s perceptions. The article concludes with the notion that, in his commitment to document the realities of everyday life in South Africa, both at social and psychological dimensions, Bila offers a penetrating insight into the repression, alienation, marginalisation, instabilities, and inequalities that structure post- and neo-colonial South Africa.

Humans are actors on the stage called earth. It was William Shakespeare, the quintessential dramatist, who asserted that the world is a stage and all the men and women are merely players who have their exits and their entrances. In some churches, drama is employed as a tool in evangelism, while in others, it is an avoidable distraction, relegated only for use by teachers who instruct Sunday school children. However, in spite of a dearth of widespread support for church drama, more churches seem to utilise theatre and drama in their worships. It is assumed that while hearers sometimes struggle to remember verbalised sermons, the same sermons might be remembered if they are dramatised with the embellishments that scenery, stage props, music, dance, lighting, costume and dialogue bring. This article reports on an investigation into the assumption that drama is one of the timeous tools used to proclaim the timeless truth of scripture. It draws on a mixed-method approach of quantitative and qualitative methods for the study conducted in four churches in three Nigerian cities. Its historical perspective attempts to sketch major empirically grounded features of Christian worship as dramaturgical model. It further reveals the inseparable fusion of religion, theatre and drama. Findings from the study indicate that theatre and drama have become prominent in Christian worship in Nigeria in the last few years. It also suggests that theatricals and dramatics are possible reasons some churches experience numerical growth.