The Role of Proverbs in Extension Dissemination and Technology Transfer: A Case of Ethiopia

This paper examines the use of proverbs in extension and communications in Ethiopia. The purpose of this article is to show the influence proverbs in extension and technology transfer. In Ethiopia the use in the farming community of proverb to encourage or discourage the society, to influence the weak so that to be strong, to encourage the strong farmers and appreciate the industrious. This research aims to was to assess the role and implications of proverbs with regards of the agricultural extensions and communications in Ethiopia. The paper concludes indigenous Ethiopian proverbs are rich in conveying messages, rich in knowledge and. Hence, the use of proverbs in the farming society need to be further exploited.


INTRODUCTION
Ethiopia has 83 different languages with up to 200 different dialects spoken. According to Webster dictionary proverb is a short, well-known pithy saying, stating a general truth or piece of advice. Proverb is a very short and precise reflections of human knowledge wisdom of life. It generalizes the high extent of certain social experiences and finds its linguistics realizations in a quite popular metaphorical language (Conard,1975). It usually is very well known because of its popular use in colloquial language. Ethiopia is a nation of diverse society and mainly the people of stay in agriculture and diversity culture, religious and traditions. Proverb is a simple concrete traditional saying that express truth based on common sense or experience. Some proverbs exist in more than one language because people borrow them from languages and cultures similar to theirs () Proverbs is belonging to a very old literacy tradition of mankind. They disclose in a surprising precise manner a people's philosophy of life its ideas and concepts about the world, its self -consciousness. They reflect common human knowledge and experiences, perceptions, attributes etc.
Proverb is the wit of one and wisdom of money (). It's a short generally known sentence of the folk which amethapholical fixed and memorized from the which handed from generation to generation. ()

Objectives 2.1. General Objectives
To promote the collection and research activities of oral literature in the farming community To identify how to preserve, document and disseminates the proverbs, and Identify the indigenous communication media that are often utilized by the rural dwellers in the state

Specific Objectives
The specific objectives intended • To identify the role of proverbs in extension • To examine the relative application of those proverbs and • To know the level of usage in the time of the day.

METHODOLOGY
The study was descriptive methods. The researcher was collected the proverbs from the society grass roots labels viz., By asking from the elders, by referring the Amharic proverb books, and with personal commications with farmers and language teachers/lecturers. Beside this, the researchers tried to collected the proverbs which only have motivational, inspirational and optimistic to the societal change.

A SHORT HISTORY OF PROVERB IN ETHIOPIAN HISTORY
In most instances time and places of origin of a proverb is not, its author or creator is not remains unknown and due to the long age of proverbs and growing social contracts between people of a certain process of

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
It is well known that Ethiopia is a country with a very old literary traditions dating back to seventh century, if not before. This tradition is mainly based on the writing in Ge'ez, the classical language of Ethiopia which remained the medium of written communications until its substitutions by Amharic in the middle of the nineteenth century. The Aksumites developed Ge'ez, a unique script derived from the Sabean alphabet, and it is still used by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church today. Amharigna (Amharic) a and Tigrigna are the modern languages which are derived from Ge'ez. Amharic is the official national language of Ethiopia. In the Ethiopian context, some of the proverbs that related to the technology transfer and dissemination the is encouragements and motivation in the farmers are listed below in the table 1. Which is emphasis in the specific role of the proverbs in farming society. If well protected behind the house enclosure, dogs make an uproar at the nocturnal passage of hyenas and alert the masters; but if free and face to face with them, they stay secure. In the latter proverb the dog barks too late; the danger is already passed. 8.
The coward sweats in water ፈሪ በውሃ ውስጥ ያልብዋለል If somebody's have negative attitude towards something, it will be difficult to change. 9.
Little by little, an egg will walk. Or slowly, slowly, even an egg will walk ቀስ በቀስ እንቁላል በእግሩ ይሄዳል The above proverb gives a good lesson for the hopeless person. Sometimes when a person fails in his first try, he/she wants to give up on that work and stay quit. At this time the society says be patient is good. 10 Better to work hard than to be bothered

ከማማረር ሰርቶ ማደር
The other proverb which shows the need of working hard is "Better to work hard than to be bothered". This proverb clearly shows the life of the people who arguing with the extension workers in adopting new technologies they face on their way of working. 11. The stand one is melt; the runner one is escape.

የቆመ ቀለጠ የሮጠ አመለጠ
In Ethiopian society most of the time people waiting things on the place where they are. This is because they may afraid to start new technology that thing or they may wait those things until to come towards them. At that time, they lost so many things. 12. Learning makes intelligent መማር ያደርጋል ሊቅ The society believes that the only get of wisdom is school, so they want everybody to go for learning. At that time the learners become intelligent and they can be the persons who lead and manage the country in every aspect. By thinking their final outcome, the society motivates the youngsters to go to school for getting knowledge and to being intelligent. 13. Better to work hard than to be bothered

ምከረው ምከረው እምቢ ካለ መከራ ይምከረው
The other proverb which shows the need of working hard is "Better to work hard than to be bothered". This proverb clearly shows the life of the people who arguing with the government policies and some problems they face on their way of working. Amhara society believes that losing time by complain the system doesn't bring anything. Rather they believe that engaging in work helps and show some direction for changing once life and the whole society living standard.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Proverbs in Ethiopia, which is common in aged, people that gives value to culture, and rural dwellers in peasants areas. It is becoming gradually phasing out, through time to time due to the exposures of exogenous media. In order to preserve this cultural heritage which has been handed down from generation to generation orally, great efforts are being made to collect, to write down, to translate and to publish these pieces Ethiopian proverbs previous time. But through time, these valuable proverbs didn't get an attention. This is due to luck of a strong institutions that capable of in resources and man power for the collections, use and research of this indigenous knowledge.

RECOMMENDATIONS
To use these valuable proverbs • The agricultural research institutions and agricultural higher educations need to be set up for further study and use of this proverb, • The generations must be focus on this indigenous knowledge than the foreign cultural move.
• To preserve this cultural heritage which has been handed from generation to generations orally.