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This paper investigates Lubà-kasààyi folklore, particularly a folk song, in order to reveal an ethno-gendered construction of wifehood. It aims to show girls' socialization into a sexist and patriarchal discourse and how such a practice ideologically initiates them into their future subservient role of caterers for the husbands' alimentation needs. Moreover, folklore seems to perpetuate traditions, and so the gender inequality inscribed within them, a situation that is particularly apparent in villages.
Key words: anthropological linguistics, ethno-gendered discourse, Lubà folklore, folk song, wifehood
Introduction
In this study I show how wifehood is performed by examining the contribution of both gender and ethnic discourses to the construction of ethno-gendered identity in Lubä-kasääyi society (Luba for short) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. By wifehood I mean the ways in which women construct their identity through discourse and their performance of the "wife's duties", particularly their catering for the husband's alimentation needs. I address gender asymmetry as instantiated in a folk song; in fact girls perform a folk song as a game. As with any collective cultural product, a folk song plays a socializing role among community members. It expresses the experiences of the group and can be seen as setting social norms for the community (Baquedano-López, 2001).
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for instance, great efforts have been made to record and popularize folklore in order to preserve its cultural legacy. However, there is scant awareness that ideologically some of these works (songs, rhymes etc.) carry discourses of the past that oppose modern worldviews. As an illustration, I will examine how in traditional Luba society folklore is used to lead girls into their future status of wives as subservient helpers of their husbands.
Following anthropological studies on narratives (Baquedano-López, 2001; Ochs and Taylor, 2001), folk rhymes such as misambu 'songs', myanu 'tales' and manaya 'games' are a means of negotiating, maintaining, transforming, and socializing gender identi- ties according. It is argued that by performing such literary genres that assert the wife's subservience to the husband, girls (as wives-to-be) rehearse a discourse that constructs and promotes a sexist culture. Feminist studies in particular have tended to consider women's marginalisation and their low status in society as man-made conventions (Mulamba and Tshimanga 2006). However, through socialization...