GENDER AND LANGUAGE OF THE HOLY BIBLE IN ENGLISH: IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN AFRICA

Language, an instrument of communication which “sert à analyser l’expérience humaine … dans chaque communauté …” (Martinet, 1970:20), is unique to the homo sapiens. One acquires one’s first language without conscious awareness. While growing up, one expands his linguistic horizon and develops an awareness of knowledge of events, people and phenomena in his environment. This knowledge constitutes one’s culture. Since language is a non-instinctive method of self expression and of interpreting one’s environment and world-view, there exists an inseparable relationship between language and culture. The foregoing summarizes the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which constitutes the framework of this study. Wallwork (1974:12) adds that language, a social regulator which serves in influencing people, is by that same feature also a tool for “manipulating” them. Language-use in any society therefore needs to be negotiated for mutual acceptance by its users. This study, based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and the pragmatics of Wallwork, is concerned with the gender-marked language of the Holy Bible in some of it English language versions and the implications of this for human and women’s rights in Africa. The first part of this study attempts to justify the theoretical framework of the study, and this is followed by a discussion on gender and language. The third part of the paper presents instances of gender-marked language in The Holy Bible in English, while part four examines this feature in the face of contemporary gender awareness in Africa, particularly in its feminist dimension. The study concludes by highlighting the implications of this on the mental attitude of women and the society in general towards the hitherto accepted gender-marked language of the Holy Bible in English which is now being regarded and rejected as a form of oppression and human and women’s rights violation.