Description
African proverbs use metaphors for practical living and for dissemination of wisdom
intricately woven in conversations to accomplish acts which cannot be realized by ordinary
words. Believed as handed down from the ancestors African proverbs are highly esteemed.
Meseron therapy draws on African belief in the potency of the spoken words, affirming that
people have psychological problems because of faulty speaking. That what we say or what is
said about us affects our thought and behaviour. To correct the psychopathology, Meseron
theorizes “saying it right” (rejecting wrong unwholesome words) taking covert actions at the
level of thought and overt actions in form of words and deeds. To motivate clients Meseron
therapists can incorporate some salient attributes of African proverbs such as their
embedded expression of conventional truth which clients easily identify with without doubt
when used by therapists, their brevity and easy to remember and understand nature which
can influence clients perceptive capacity, appeal to their reasoning, and make them see self
defeatist words as abnormal and pathological. Qualities such as availability, strong tool of
persuasion, having a base of practical experience, common sense, intellectual richness worth
listening to and obeying, make African proverbs a veritable tool in Meseron approach.
