BY PETER SESAY

The late Nigerian acclaimed author Chinua Achebe wrote in his famous novel Things Fall Apart that “proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.” Palm oil is the main companion of yam, a common food staple in Achebe’s Igbo society and in other parts of Africa. By equating palm oil with proverbs, the artist points out the important part that proverbs play in conversations among his people, indeed throughout Africa. Proverbs are not the same in all African societies. Usually, members of the same ethnic group, especially among the elders who practice the oratory arts more than younger generations, use proverbs among themselves to convey messages that would otherwise take longer to get across.

For example, among the Fons of southern Benin, in West Africa, if a speaker says in the middle of a conversation, a man saw a snake but it was a woman who killed it, the audience knows that he wants them to get to the bottom line and leave details aside. Indeed, in most African societies, the man is considered braver than the woman, and one expects him, not the woman, to kill a snake. For the Fons, it does not matter who kills the snake, so long as it is dead!

Proverbs are not used as much in urban areas in Africa because of the increasing dominance of European languages. In order to make a modest contribution to African linguists’ effort to rehabilitate African languages, The African has this regular feature on African proverbs, bringing each month a number of proverbs from different African societies. Unfortunately, we have to get the message across to our readers in a European language.

Proverbs are very hard to translate. Ideally, one should find equivalent in the other language, but that seems impossible in our case, leaving us with no choice but to translate. Some flavor will inevitably evaporate in the translation process. But, after all, a man saw a snake but it was a woman who killed it.

African Proverbs

If you don’t know where you are going, go back to where you came from (Always have something to fall back on)

He who spits in the air gets it all over his face (Your bad acts will come back and bite you)

You hear a tree fall, but the forest grows in silence (Good works come to light gradually)

If you travel on the road to “I don’t care,” you will end up in the village of “had I known” (Your acts in the present will determine your future)

The animal that goes early to drink in the backwater always drinks clear water (It’s better to act early)

Only mountains never meet (People always meet again)

You kill a snake with the stick you have (Rely on yourself)

You don’t leave the hidden snake and kill the dead leaves (Waste no time to solve your problems)

When the chameleon sets out in a direction, he does not change course (Stay focused)

He who is drowning is not scared of the water being cold (Try to get out of trouble, don’t complain)

If the blind man threatens to stone-break your luggage, know he already has his foot on the stone (Count on what’s in your hands)

Compiled by Thiani Segni Capo-Chichi