Chewa Cultural Ideals and System of
Thought as determined from proverbs:
A Preliminary analysis
                     by D.N. Kaphagawani and H.F. Chidammodzi
Introduction
Malawian philosophies like those of any other country or nation in Africa, are still
lar~ely integrated within the culture.       Western philosophy is basically a history of
individual philosophers whose ideas have been written and preserved on paper.
Malawian philosophies have no such comparable written sources; they are mostly
dependent on orally transmitted       ideas.   A study of the cultures, particularly the
'cultural ideals', brings to light what may be considered the main indices of the
traditional systems of thought.     In other words, culture reflects the people's attitude
towards life and the world they live in; it determines what the people consider as
promotive of their sense of the meaning of human existence. "Life is the starting
pOint of philosophy". I People organise their material and social world in line with
their ethics and epistemology which are determined by their cultural ideals. That is,
the people's system of thought is reflected in their culture just as Hegel advocates
that a particular form of philosophy is contemporaneous with a particular constitution
of the people among whom it makes its appearance. Jean-Paul Sartre in an article
titled "Marxism and Existentialism" further advocated that philosophy does not exist
but philosophies do.2     He argued that a philosophy serves as a cultural milieu for its
contemporaries so long as it exists, and that, born from the movement of society, it is
Itself a movement and acts upon the future; a philosophical crisis is an expression of a
social crisis and hence a cultural crisis.
The ethics and epistemology of a people is part and parcel of their system of thought
which is indicative of their       cultural shaping. Man is always in the process of
becoming, he is therefore all that he has done and what he is doing. Culture thus
defines. man in his own environment, and ethical plus epistemological ideals are
reflectIOns of a cultural perspective.
Culture as a concept is not only ambiguous and vague, but also complex and gen~ral.
However, attempts have been made to define it, but they have mostly been either
non-starters or too general to foster fruitful discussion of issues entwined in culture.
We do not claim to have provided an adequate definition, rather we have adopted an
existing definition which, we feel, serves the purpose in this paper. Culture is defined
as "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom
an~ a.ny other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a mem~er of ~ society.,,3
ThiS IS adequate as it says, in effect, that whatever culture is, It certainly has,. as
part o~ its content,      the following essential ingredients:      ~pistem~logy, ethiCS,
aesthetiCS and language.       If this is not true of all culture, It certainly holds for
almost all African cultures one cares to mention.
This paper attempts to explore possibilities of the interplay and crossfertilisation
b~tween cultural ideals and traditional ways of thought and takes the Chewa, a Bantu
tnbe4      ~n Eastern Central Africa, as a point of departure.        Refere~e to other
culture~ IS made in contrast to or in comparison with that of .the Chewa With the ~ope
of making the paper less particular. The survival of an unwritten code of behaviour


among the Chewa throughout the centuries demonstrates the exist~nce of coordinated
mental or intellectual      concepts, and, as Hegel argued, the philosophy of an a~e
reflects the level at which man has reached in his understanding of man and his
relationship to the world.
The general trend of the argument is that the Chewa have ideals classifiable into
two broad categories, namely, epistemol:>gical and ethical. The distinction between
these two is not to be taken as rigid, for they invariably shade into each other In
many ways. Nevertheless it is argued that although these ideals feed on each other,
the epistemological is prior and serves as the basis of the ethical so that a ch'.lnge ~n
the epistemological outlook necessarily implies a change in the ethical perspective; It
is what people know that affects their behaviour.
Looking at a cross-section of the Chewa, two cultural levels may be observed:
       i.   that of the crude traditional form which may be identified with the
            purely Chewa traditional thought system.       This is mostly evident in the
            rural or village settings where traditional orientations are still strong and
            the conceptual construct of the world still reflects 'primitive' mentality •.
       ii.  The neo-traditional culture most evident in urban settings although they are
            not a rare phenomenon in village settings.        This section of the people
            attempts to mould a culture that is a synthesis of the traditonal form and
            foreign cultural values. They know what to discard and what to preserve of
            the foreign as well as of the traditional (internal) cultural values. But this
            paper mainly focuses on the first category of the Chewa culture, namely,
            the traditional form.
Language is, of course, one of the determining factors of a culture. If in a particular
tribe one language is spoken the odds are that there exists one culture. The Chewa
speak one Language, namely Chichewa; it is through it that their ideas and
conceptions of man and the world are formulated and expressed.
Method of Investigation
An analysis of examination of the ideals and thought system(s) of the Chewa involves
certain problems; the first concerns the method of approach to the study of an
Afncan way of thought, the second is Concerned with dilemmas in translation. For the
first problem three possible approaches have been proposed; these are
       i.   interviews with genuinely "wise men",
       ii.  an examination of cultural patterns of thought and life, and
       iii. linguistic analysis.
A~proach~~ (ii) and (iii) are presumably what Kwasi Wiredu5 regards as second order
phllosophlsmg, for they are systematic scrutinies of a people's behaviour, conduct
a~d conceptual syste~s.       But due to the problem of determining who are 'genuinely
wise me':!', approach (I) .has not been employed in this paper. So that leaves us with
the second and the third.         There has been an implicit application of the second
approach with more explicit use of the third one.


 However, linguistic analysis has its problems as well, the problem of translation, in
 this case from Chichewa into English.             This problem relates to W.V.O. Quine's
 Indeterminacy thesis. (, For example,       in Chichewa the infinitive verb "to know" may
 be translated as "kudziwa".        So far so good, as far as D. Donaldson's solution of the
 Indeterminacy' issue is concerned.?            Nonetheless,   whereas the English noun
 'knowledge' is derived from the verb 'to know', no noun is derivable from the
 Chichewa verb 'kudziwa'.         Instead there is a totally different word, namely 'nzeru'
 which seems to serve two purposes, and it could be translated as 'wisdom' in English.
 The question which Nzeru raises is whether or not the Chichewa language has a
 knowledge/ wisdom distinction          as the English language has, which we attempt to
 answer when considering the Chewa epistemological ideal. This distinction sheds some
 light on the Chewa concept of knowledge as well as' their concept of ontology.
 Furthermore, what is to be analysed in the language is another problem. An analysis
an~. i~terpretation of proverbs is a starting point, although such an 'approach has been
cntlclsed by philosophers on three grounds:
       i.     that they are banal
       ii.    that thC'" are contradictory,  and
       iii.   that they have uncertain interpretations.
On these issues O'Donohue writes:
       There may be here and there a "philosophical" element in myths and
       proverbs, but it would be unrealistic to treat every traditional fable and
       every proverb as if it were a storehouse of wisdom. Fables may be no
       more than entertainments, not intended to teach anyone anything---.        As
       for proverbs, they are notoriously contradictory, and often consist of no
       more than cynical advice on how to cheat.              Could \\e construct a
       "philosophy" from banal instructions about hastening slowly and wasting
       not that we may not want?8
Most philosophers oppose linguistic analyses wholly based on proverbs but that is not
to say that analysis of proverbs is misleading, for some proverbs are useful. As
O'Donohue says, not every proverb is a storehouse of wisdom, but some proverbs ~
storehouses.      Some proverbs in Chichewa have moral and/or epistemological .messages,
and as such they can be good servants in the search for a people's conceptl,;>n,;>fthe
world. In this paper, therefore, we will employ some proverbs in our analys.ls, In the
hope of presenting          a picture as representative       of the Chewa ethIcal and
epistemological perspectives as possible.
Chichewa proverbs carry fairly definite messages which have been compiled .in sev~ral
books, for example Nzeru Zakale.9 Our analysis is based on the interpretatIons gIven
In these books.
Proverbs are in most cases metaphorically expressed and that adds to the pr~blem of
transl:'ltIon; for metaphors are meaningful within aparticular la~guage and envIronment
(or sItuation).      Presumably what is lost when a proverb IS translate~ fr~m one
language into another is the flavour and not the message. The approach In thIS paper
is first, to give the literal English translation and secondly, to explain the message
of the particular proverb.


Epistemological Ideals
Chkhewa, the language spoken by the Chewa, is littered with certain proverbs, the
messages of which are indicative of the Chewa conceptIOn of knowledge. The first and
foremost is 'Akuluakulu ndi m'dambo mozimila moto,' which is, literally, 'The elders
are rivers where fire is extinguished'.    The message of this prov~rb is: the eld7rs
have most, if not all, solutions to any kind of problems; they are, live encyclopaedias
to which reference can be made. At this stage, however, the concept of knowled&e
does not surface unless a further question is posed as to why the elders are held In
such high esteem. The answer is not far to seek. It is this: the elders have had more
experience than most of the people; they have lived through famine, war, peace and
so on. From these, it is assumed, they have learnt both from their own mistakes and
successes as well as those of others; they know that some things are the case; they
also know how to do what, what to do when and when to do what and how.
Now the concept of knowledge starts to come to light; it is something along the l~nes
of 'maximum cumulative experience', not for its own sake, but, rather, for practlc~l
purposes. Ideally, if this interpretation is not wrong, a Chewa would love to be In
possession of as much experience as possible to gain authority and respect from people
prepared to construct and shape their world outlooks and habits on what is asserted.
An examination of more proverbs suggests a further division of experience; 'temporal'
experience on the one hand, 'spatial' experience on the other. The foregoing proverb
emphasises the former type of experience; similarly, 'Galu wamkota sakandira
pachabe' which is, literally,    'A mother-dog never scratches/digs in an empty hole,'
and several others too. This proverb compares and contrasts old with young hunting
dogs and puts across the idea that whereas young dogs would scratch/dig in a hole in
which there are no mice, old dogs would not; they would always sniff, and attempt to
dig, in a hole which contains at least one mouse. (Note that the Chewa are a
mice-eating society). 'Temporal' experience is what determines the correct action in
such cases; for it must have taken a lot of time for the mother-dog to distinguish
rewarding from non-rewarding holes.
But the following proverb suggests a different kind of experience, namely, spatial
experience: 'Mlendo ndiye adza n'kalumo kakuthwa' which means, literally, ' A visitor
is the bringer of sharp razor blades'. The message this proverb puts across is that, as
Professor Kuhn will be glad to note, more often than not, visitors or those new to a
society are carriers and introducers of new and novel ideas, ideas which may either be
solutions to some vexing problems or phenomena or may contribute, very positively,
towards the search for solutions. What is particularly interesting about this kind of
experience is that it is not restricted to the elders; the young may also have access
to It.. And thi~ feature inevitably leads one into thinking that the two types of
expenences are m some way separable and possibly independent of each other. But
 that is not ruling out the possibility of the two occurring at the same time in a
 particular person.
 Other proverbs may apparently destroy the epistemology so far constructed.      'Mwala
 wogubuduzlko-gubuduzlka slUmela ndele,' is one such proverb which means 'A rolling
 ~tone. g~thers ~ moss:'     It could be argued that the proverb completely discourages
  spatial expenence; but such argument does not hold because it mistakes the literal
 meaning for the actual message the proverb has in store for us. Although it makes
 reference to 'rolling', that d.oes not necessarily imply change of place; it may very
 well mean ch~n~e of occu~tl~n or pr?fession, for example, from a basketmaker to a
 carver or medlcmeman; and It IS conceivable that one could change professions without
                                            32


 actually effecting a change in place. That aside, this particular proverb still stresses
 the importance of experience as knowledge. And again even if one were to take the
 proverb literally, it could still be pointed out that although the stone gathers no moss,
 It collects tremendous amounts of rolling experience. Such experience would be both
 temporal and spatial. But of course that is stretching the argument too far.
 Now if 'cumulative experience' is what the Chewa aspire to, then one cannot resist
the temptation of pointing out that such a conception of knowledge totally neglects
creativity and imagination as other possible sources of knowledge, hence is shallow
and restrictive.    In such a case the epistemological picture so far constructed would
have to undergo revision.
To the extent that experience is considered or construed as knowledge among the
Chewa, such criticisms are justified, but an examination of some aspects of the
Chewa culture, namely the aesthetic,            indicate the presence of creativity and
imagination.     Although experience is the overriding factor in the determination of the
status of a carver, potter or basket maker, creativity and imagination are also
cherished.     For example, in some initiation rituals, a variety of masks are made,
masks the construction of which demands creativity and imagination, and to that
extent Chewa epistemology takes account of non-experiential aspects, namely,
creativity, imagination and so forth, but tends to lay a lot of emphasis on experience.
This claim is further testified by such proverbs as 'M'chiuno mwamwana simufa
~khuku•.' and 'Nkh.wan~wa siyithwela pachipala'.Respectively, these t~o literally n:'e~n
  The lOinSof a child are not worth a chicken' and 'No axe gets sharp In a blacksmith s
workshop.'     The former refers to dancing and claims that no matter how well an
amateur may dance, a chicken, given in appreciation of the excellent performance,
goes to the one who taught the young person how to dance. Similarly the latter ~s~s
the analogy of an axe which, while at the blacksmith's workshop or blast furnace, IS In
general blunt, but gets sharp the more trees it fells. Clearly these two proverbs have
one. message, namely that experience and authority determine who is to get all the
praise and who is to be held in high esteem.
So far the Chewa could be construed as holders of the view that man accumulates
wisdom (knowledge) through experience; accumulates it not f~ its own s~e as done
by the Greeks, but for certain ends and also for the adoption of certam means to
some well defined ends.
'~ the Chewa have a concept of knowledge or of wisdom or o~ both?' is. the ~uestion
which looms large at this point.          An examination of certain words In Chlchewa,
namely 'kudziwa' and 'nzeru' as discussed above, seems to suggest an absence of ~he
knowledge/wisdom distinction.       But let us for the moment withhold from        asserting
the absence too hastily; there may be other ways round this.
The .claim that      knowledge is distinguishable from wisd~             p~esup~ses prior
acquaintance with what wisdom is as opposed to knowledge. Wisdom IS defined as
      sou nd and serene judgements regarding the conduct of life. It may be
      accompanied by a broad range of knowledge, by intellectual acuteness,
      and by speculative depth, but it is not to be identifi.ed with any of these
      and may appear in their absence.           It involves mtellectual grasp or
      insight, but is concerned not so much with the ascertainm~nt      f6 fact or
      the elaboration of theories as with the means and ends of Ide.
Wisdom has two elements namely reflection and judgement.              Ref1ecti~.    is . the
tendency to analyse or ex'amine events in terms of their      grounds and lmpl1catlon5o
And it is after all these have been apprehended and considered that. a judgement is
paSSed.


An interesting feature of wisdom is that it is always credited with authority. No
rational argument can gainsay a wise man's judgement; it is always assumed that a
wise man's judgement is more correct than anybody else's. In actual fact,
       The decisions of a wise judge may be freighted with experience and
       reflection. Experience, even when forgotten beyond recall, leaves its
       deposits, and where this is the deposit of long trial and error, of much
       reflection and of wise exposure in fact or imagination of the human lot,
       the judgement based on it may be more significant than any or all the
       judge could adduce for it. This is why age is credited with wisdomi years
       supply a means to it whether or not the means is consciously used)
 Now since age is credited with wisdom and wisdom with authority and respect, then it
 follows that age is credited with authority and respect. There is a distinction, in the
Chewa culture, between knowledge and wisdom despite a claim to the contrary which
 the analysis of kudziwa (to know) and 'Nzeru' (Wisdom) has suggested. Knowledge is
 cumulative experience, but wisdom is a product of experience making wisdom a
 second order activity and knowledge a first order one. The 'kudziwa' 'Nzeru' analysis
 is not indicative of the absence of the knowledge/wisdom distinction; it demonstrates,
 inter alia, the semantical and grammatical differences between English and Chichewa.
 Although there is no noun in Chichewa for knowledge, it is possible to say of some
 person that he knows how to do certain things but deny him wisdom. People do make
 such assertions and that indicates the existence of the knowledge/wisdom distinction
 in the Chewa language.
 In conclusion, we could say that all elders in the Chewa culture have most knowledge
 because they have more experience than anybody else; but not all are wise, some are.
 Tnc elders do have an aura of respect and authority mainly because of the knowledge,
 not the wisdom; for if the latter were the determinant for respect, some elders would
 not be respected, but they all are.
 Ethical Ideals
 It has been argued earlier on that a people's ethics and epistemology are rooted in
 their culture; 'people do what is good for themtl2, and what they 'know' greatly
 determines what they do. This is true of the Chewa.         They do not just have vague
 beliefs about casual relationships but they 'know' about the relationships with exactly
 the same subjective certainty that is attached to the word 'know' in a western
 culture. The Chewa normative behaviour is based on what they know to be the case
  about the world and their culture reflects their world view.
  This section briefly attempts to demonstrate how Chewa culture breeds Chewa ethical
  ideals, and it uses the Chichewa language for that purpose. It aims at showing that
  an analysis of the Chewa language reveals, inter alia, the ethical perspective of the
  Chewa.      The proverbial aspect of the language is perhaps the most elaborate
  dimension.
  Among. other things, the Chewa proverbs are prescriptive of a right action; they give
  us a picture of what the people regard as the proper mode of behaviour. So, apart
  from serving as 'storehouses' of wisdom they also serve as storehouse of the code of
  mo~ality among ~he Chewa•. They turn to the grainstore to use it as guiding tool in
  their everyday hfe and activity; knowledge is worthless if it cannot serve for the
  interests or needs of the people. Like ethical terms, the Chewa proverbs are designed
  to express feelings about ce~tain o~jects or actions (and not simply making assertions
  about them'. to ~.       certam feelmgs and to stimulate certain actions.
                                              34


The fact that not all Chewa proverbs carry or convey the same messages and that
th~y cannot serve the same purpose needs no further emphasis. But it could be
pomted ~ut that the Chewa have a great sense of censorship and that whatever
proverb IS uttered in a particular social context is supposed to convey a 'right'
message fitting the situation. For instance, after realising that the uttered statement
o~ prover~ is generally unacceptable by Chewa moral standards one may try to
withdraw It, but the usual response by the audience would be in a form of a proverb
such as: 'Kalawa mkhutu kalowa', translated literally as 'What has gone in through the
ear has gone right in'. This implies that it is almost impossible to erase what has
been orally transmitted to the audience and the public moral judgement will be based
?n . ~hat one actually has stated, i.e. goes on to prove that the Chewa expect
mdlvldual members to have a sense of personal language censorship. This fact is
further testified by the proverb: 'kalulu adanya mau oyamba' translated as, 'The hare
stuck to the words uttered right at the beginning'. This proverb serves, in a way, as a
preventive mechanism against unreasonable excuses for withdrawing a statement on
second thoughts.     (Note that the denied statement does not necessarily have to be
utter",d at the beginning of one's speech). An 'obscene' proverb would not be used out
of ~ontext or without any relevance of message; the speaker would be subjected to
public censure.    In short, therefore, one would say that Chewa proverbs carry right
messages In the right situation.
~one~heless one can safely say that all Chewa proverbs trlat are epistemologically
slgmftcant are ethically significant too. This is because all those proverbs carrying a
's~nse of knowledge' are by their very nature prescriptive of action, and further the
~plstemological outlook affects their ethically conceptual world-view. Like moral
Judgements the Chewa proverbs exert or create an influence, that is, the meaning or
ess~nce of the proverbs is their disposition to cause or effect certain feelings .or
actIOns. To state the Chewa proverb X is to state that one must ipso facto acqUlr.e
~ tendency to do or not to do what X states.       The speaking of Chichewa language IS
Itsel~ an experience of Chewa life for the language is about objects, abstract or
phY~lcal, ~xperience, concepts vital to Ch~wa social and     material life ~t cetera.
Their SOCial structure is woven into their moral or ethical order; and their proverbs
serve as frames of reference for their public moral standards. Such allegations can be
elaborated by analysing and/or interpreting some of such proverbs.
The proverb: 'Akuluakulu ndi m'dambo mozimila moto' (literally translated in the
above section) implies that the elders among the Chewa are to be respected and cared
for, because they are a source of knowledge of some of the problems faced in this
world. This proverb essentially states that it is right to respect elderly people and
wrong not to; you ought to respect your elders or the elders ought to be respected.
As shown in the previous section, the elders are generally held in hilP esteem because
of th~lr co~paratively    large amount of experiential knowledge. Knowledge through
~xpertence IS the most reliable form of knowledge among the Chewa. The longer one
lives the more experienced and therefore the more knowledgeable one becomes.
The proverbs are based on empirically verifiable assertions. Through ex~rie~ce, t~e
Chewa have learnt how, when and what to do, and why. Such a~ attitu~e IS eVident m
the way the Chewa youth is brought up; they are constantly bemg remmde? that they
?ught to obey and respect the elders of the society. Related to the foregOing proverb
IS the following which emphasises the reliability of the advice from the elders: 'Mau
akulu akoma akjagonera' literal1y translated as, 'The words of th~ elders become
sweet some day'.      Essentially the proverb teaches obedience to advice from elderly
people ~cause experience will prove them right. One may be r~luctant to ~uccumb t~
t~e advice or warnings of these elders at the time, but there IS surely gomg to be.
SItuation that will make one refer to the very advice one had ignored. H~nce t~«;" m
the prescriptive sense, 'you ought to obey your elders or take heed of their advice.


'Linda madzi apite ndipo udziti ndadala', translated as, 'It is only when the flood is
gone that you can claim to be lucky' is another proverb that supoorts the primacy of
cumulative experiential knowledge. More observation or experience will adequately
prove the truth of a statement. It is not right therefore to make hasty statements. or
decisions before one has gathered more or enough experiential evidence. Prescrip-
tively, then, 'you ought to take your time or be reasonably sure before making or
taking any decisive steps'. It is normally older people who have had more 'existential'
time and therefore the elderly are bound to be more knowledgeable about things.
'Wakwata kwa mphezi saopa kunR 'anima' - The person-in-Iaw of the lightenin~ does
not fear thunder'. This proverb advises that it is right to proceed with a project or
commitment up to the very end and not to be put off by concomitant problems. It is
one of encouragement and teaches consistency. 'Once you make up your mind, stick
to it'. This proverb could be used to encourage an army; once you are a soldier, you
ought to fight or act like a soldier. -In a broad sense, the proverb teaches members
of "the tribe to act in accordance with the expectations of the community at large -
'be moral'. '
'Chaona mnzako chapita mawa chili paiwe.'             'Your neighbour's misfortune today
may be yours tomorrow'. The Chewa emphasise helping one another in times of need
or trouble. This proverb is similar to the English, namely, 'A friend in need is a
friend indeed'. The moral message is that it is right to help those who are in need of
our help.     It could be shortened to such religious ethics as 'Love or help thy
neighbour', or 'Do unto others what you want them to do unto you'. and so on. A
whole catalogue of similar proverbs could be analysed to show how Chewa moral
principles are entwined in them. However, what one ought to bear in mind is that
the Chewa epistemological basis concretises the ethical basis and that their proverbs,
among other things, serve not only as 'storehouses' of wisdom, but also of ethics.
When investigating Chewa ethical ideals by analysing the Chichewa language one
should bear in mind that there is no human community in which everyone clearly
agrees with everyone else; naturally there are going to be divergencies of ethical
convictions at the individual level.         The Chewa are not strictly a consensus
community, but the tendency has been to subordinate personal ethics to public
morality. The Chewa must have had philosophers, mystics and eccentrics trying out
new ideas, but orally transmitted information is mostly capable of unveiling the
publicly accepted social principles.     Ethical radicalism never got public respect let
alone. the blessing of (ora!) transmission from generation to generation.           Public
morality IS stronger than personal ethics in the Chewa culture.
Footnotes
 I.    Dilthey W., Selected WritinRs edited with an introduction       by   H.P. Rickman
       C.U.P., 1976, p.139.
 2.    Sartre J.P., Existentialism and Humanism, translated with    an introdLiction    by
       Philip Mairet, Metheun, London, 1948.
 3.    Tylor, E.B., Dictionary of SocioloRYedited by G.D. Mitchell, Routledgeand Kegan
       Paul, London, 1968, p.47.
                                             36


4,. The use of the phrase 'Bantu tribe', though not yet extinct in the literature,
    seems to be on the wane among African scholars these days. Use is made of this
    phrase in this paper simply for lack of a better phrase. The word 'tribe' is not
    intended to mean 'natives' nor 'primitives' as it has ever since been understood,
    it is rather intended to mean 'community'.
5.  Wiredu Kwasi, 'On Defining African Philosphy' in Into the '80s: Proceedings of
    the II th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of African Studies, I.
    Ray, P. Shinnie and D. Williams (eds.) Vancouver, Tantalus Research ltd, 1981.
6.  Quine W.V.O., 'On the Reasons for the Indeterminacy of Translation', Journal of
    Philosophy, Vol. lXIV, 1867, pp 179-83.
7.  Donaldson D., 'Radical Interpretation', Dialectica Vol. XXVII,pp. 313-217.
8.  O'Donohue J., 'African Philosophy: the Problem of Definition', a paper presented
    at the Nigerian Philosophical Association Conference (N.P.A.C.) 20-23 March,
    1975, Univ. of Ife, Nigeria, p.ll.
9.  Kumakanga L., Nzeru Zakale, Dziko Publishing Co., Blantyre (Malawi), 197.5and
    several others.
10. Blanshard B.,     'Wisdom' in Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, Vol.7, (ed.) P. Edwards,
    MacmiHan, london, 1967, p.322.
11. Ibid., p.324,.
12. Plato, The Republic, translated with an introduction by H.P. Wee, Penguin, 1955.