Sweet Talk: How Proverbs Open Ears to the Gospel
“Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten,” Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
As a new missionary living among the Builsa people in a rural village in Ghana, West Africa, my goal was to learn the language. I also wrestled with understanding a culture that was vastly different from the American suburban culture with which I was familiar. I often observed the Builsa people engaging in lively, entertaining and seemingly effective forms of communication. They were using traditional proverbs, which made the conversation “sweet,” meaning pleasant to listen to and easier to digest or understand. I wondered, “Could this be an effective vehicle for communicating the gospel in a way that was sweet to the listeners’ ears and also sweet to their hearts?” After ten years of exploring this question, I suggest three reasons that missionaries (both expatriates and nationals) in predominantly oral cultures should actively incorporate the use of traditional proverbs in their ministry: 1) proverbs open ears to hear the gospel; 2) proverbs clear away the fog in theological communication; 3) proverbs root the gospel in vernacular soil.
Anything that can help achieve these goals deserves our attention. This is sweet talk that we need to hear.
This blog post will focus on the first statement with two other blog posts to follow.
Proverbs Open Ears to Hear the Gospel
How many times have you tried to share the gospel message with someone but it appeared that their ears were not open to hear it? Proverbs help to open those ears. When 108 Builsa were asked why they speak in proverbs, more than one quarter responded, “This is the type of speech we like. It brings laughter and enjoyment into the conversation” (Moon 2000). Communication in Africa is an art form: how you speak is just as important as what you say. Ong observed, “Oral cultures indeed produce powerful and beautiful verbal performances of high artistic value and human worth” (1982, 14). This artistic value can easily be overlooked by missionaries. A Nigerian pastor once told me, “If one does not speak in proverbs, he will not carry people with him for long. They will walk for only a short way and then leave him. If he speaks in proverbs, however, the people will not be able to close their ears!” The use of proverbs can open ears that may otherwise be closed, thereby allowing the gospel to become appreciated and enjoyed as a beautiful artistic expression from God.
I participated in a meeting in Ghana where proverbs were being discussed and a government official was present. A Builsa pastor told the proverb, “Ba kan gering wusum kpalinsa ale kingkanga” (They cannot separate the fighting of horses with millet stalks).
The government official had never heard that proverb before and he sat there trying to understand it. He was smiling while enjoying the metaphor and the challenge of discovering its meaning. Finally, the pastor explained how a fight between two horses is a serious matter that cannot be solved by using weak things like millet stalks (similar to long corn stalks). We must not rely on weak means to solve difficult or weighty issues. The government official smiled and enjoyed the whole process tremendously. Everyone could tell that the communication was sweet to him.
Then, the pastor went on to explain that this reminds him of how we tend to be in a fight with God because of our bad deeds and thoughts. We try to resolve the fight by using animal sacrifices or good works, but God’s word says that all of our works will one day be tested in the fire. All of the things we do will be like millet stalks that will be burned (incidentally, millet stalks are commonly used to start fires since they ignite easily). That is why God sent his Son from heaven to separate the fighting between humankind and God. He is the only one who can solve a weighty issue like this.
At this point, the government official started to ponder deeply the meaning of what was being said. People had witnessed to him before, but this time the communication went deep into his heart. The proverb had plowed the ground of his heart so that the seed of the word could find readily-prepared soil. He understood the gospel that day in a way that he never had before. It reached both his head and his heart.
This type of communication can be a powerful tool for the indigenous understanding of the gospel since it involves both cognitive and emotive elements. It could also plow fresh ground in Muslim areas where ears are closed to the gospel but wide open to proverbs.
This blog is slightly revised from the original article printed in 2004 by W. Jay Moon "Sweet Talk in Africa: Using Proverbs in Ministry." Evangelical Missions Quarterly 40(2):162-169. See: http://www.emisdirect.com/emq/issue-125/422