EKWE JONAL

Ableism is so copious in African traditional religion that it is found in their language, pithy sayings and proverbs. Ableism, to Campbell (2009:16), is "… a doctrine that falsely treats impairments as inherently and naturally horrible and blames the impairments for the problems experienced by the people who have them. It privileges a nondisabled perspective and promotes the inferior and unequal treatment of disabled people." Ableistic expressions are found in many Igbo proverbs that it has evoked an academic research. This paper was, therefore, set to critically analyze some selected Igbo proverbs with a view to suggesting better use of language that will not paint persons with disabilities in bad light. Data for this paper was collected primarily from the contributions of a select number of blind members of the Old Students Association of Special Education center, Umuahia (OSASECU). It also made use of books, journal, magazine and newspaper articles and Internet resources. The paper was based on social theory of disability. The theory sees disability as a socially created problem and not an attribute of an individual but rather a complex collection of conditions, many of which are created by the social environment. Hence, the management of the problem requires social action and is the collective responsibility of the society at large. It concluded that all the proverbs that contain discriminatory language should be done away with.

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