Abstract:
The main purpose of the paper is to analyze the role that proverbs play as signposts for the
introduction and embedding of biblical intertextual elements in some Shona literary texts. It
does this by closely reading Patrick Chakaipa’s 1961 novel Pfumo Reropa. The paper notes
that while proverbs are oral texts that serve as behavioral and moral conductors in diverse
cultures, they are transferred to the written realm as part of the creative and literary act. The
poetic nature of proverbs makes them attractive to most narrators who use them to entrench
their main themes. This paper also proposes to read them in their function of interconnecting
among others biblical literary texts by Chakaipa as these intertextual linkages can either
appear by explicit reference to an earlier text usually known to the reader; or, implicitly, in
the form of faint echoes of biblical texts, themes, motifs, traditions or events. Hence, the
proverbs in Chakaipa’s novel resonate with biblical allusions and echoes, something he does
to subtly preach Christianity.
