Of all the verbal art forms employed by the Tiv, such as singing, story-telling, and proverbs, the last are the most consistently used in everyday situations. Elders today often converse by means of proverbs to prevent young listeners from understanding what they are talking about, for many youngsters have not learned the use of proverbs because they have been to school or away from home for extended periods and have thus lost touch with ‘archaic’ usages.
Proverbs are employed in a variety of situations: to control activities without the use of force, as devices for shaming, for getting out of difficult situations without losing face, as a means of praise, in prophetic utterances, and as general explanations for that sphere of Tiv environment which is beyond comprehension, especially illness or ‘acts of God’.