“This study investigates the image of women as portrayed through oral literature in the Gikuyu society. Its aim is to find out whether there is a stereotypic view of women and how this view has been perpetuated through oral literature, specifically through the proverbs, narratives and songs. It will therefore concentrate on these genres of Gikuyu oral literature though they are by no means the only vehicles through which one can study the attitudes of a society towards women. Oral literature cannot be studied and analysed meaningfully outside the socio-cultural forces of the society that created it. This is because, like other vehicles of culture, they serve as carriers of a people’s culture and history.”
