PROVERBS

What is a proverb?
A proverb can be defined as a terse, pity statement containing folk wisdom

Prover bs are considered to be the mark of adu lt wisdo m and exper ience it is no wonder that themost
profound discussions and p ieces of advice in many communities are conducted anddelivered in pro verbs.
In most traditional societies, disputes and judicial decisions were carried out in proverbs.
Prover bs are a pr oduct of the experiences of the peo ple, exper iences some o f which have beenlearned the
hard way. Proverbs therefore reveal what people adore, and what they despise. Astudy of the pro verbs of a
certain co mmunity will therefo re help us appreciate the co mmunity’sbeliefs, attitudes and po ints of view.

Characteristics of proverbs
(a) Proverbs are short and to the point

(b) Proverbs reveal a peo ple’s wisdom, and philo so phy o f life. Prover bs call our attention tothe general reality
around us. The message or wisdom o f the proverb is the collective
property o f the society in which it is used. I t is rare to kno w the maker o f a particularproverb.Proverbs
o nly make sense when they directly applied to specific situations or problems.The value of a pro verb
therefore lies in its applicability to a co ncrete situation, how itassesses it and possibly suggests a solution
to it. Often we find prover bs that ca be appliedto different situatio ns with different interpretations. This
may explain the existence ofproverbs which at first, appear to contradict each o ther.
E.g. Bell should be many to make a sound &A hoard of rats do es not dig itself a hole.
Proverbs should therefore be interpreted in context .A scho lar who deals with proverbs outof context sho uld
always try as a part of his interpretation, to r econstruct the situation inwhich the proverb would be
applied.A proverb is a kind o f conversation shorthand .The meaning of a proverb is usuallyHiddenand
always has to be wo rked out.

(c)Proverbs appear in fixed patternsnearly all the time and there is limited scope on thepar t of the perfo
rmer.

(d) Proverbs are saying s thathave been accepted by and therefo re part of the society.

(e) Proverbs draw their mater ial and images from a particular envir onment or society. Henceprover bs
from the maasai fo r example, will differ in their u se of images from those o f theLu hya even though the
may be communicating the same message.

Classification of proverbs
Proverbs may be classified into the fo llowing catego ries:
Proverbs on fate.
Cautionary pro verbs
Proverbs on greed and selfishness
Proverbs warning on pride and arrogance
Proverbs on communal life
Proverbs as embellishment to speech/commu nication
Proverbs on author ity
Proverbs on cooperation
Narrative proverbs: those that that serve to reinforce what the the community
co nsiders to be desirable pattern of behaviour.
Reflective proverbs: those that mirror the community’s attitudes, tho ught
processes and world-view.
Summative pr overbs: those that are longer draw analogies between pheno mena
and consist of two parts.

FUNCTIONS OF PROVERB S
Achebe in
Things fall Apartsays “Proverbs are the palm wine with which words are eaten.” The
Yor uba have a metaphor to the effect that pro verbs are the ho rses of communicatio n. These twosayings
point out those proverbs are facilitators of ver bal commu nication. Proverbs serveseveral social fu nctio ns.
These include:

Reflective proverbs
These are proverbs that express tested truths. These truths have been arrived at through
reflectio ns of man’s thoughts.
Dher ariemba wuongo nyiedho ta ngiyo oko(Luo)
The custodian of a loaned cow milks it while lo oking out.
Eiu oltung’a ni osuuj naa olanya(Maasai)
A man’s son may be a coward but he is still his son.
Ogwang’ thon e wadgi(luo )
A mongoo se dies instead of his brother.
A chief is like dust heap wher e everyo ne comes with rubbish.
Wealth is dew.He is r ipe inside like a watermelo n.

Caution
Thingo cii matu
(Giku yu)
Walls have ears
Vutule vumanyi mwami dave
(Luhya)
Slipperiness knows no king
Ahuru ok koudh e iro
(Luo)
The dove is never backbitten in smoke.
Mpanda ngazi ushuka
(Kiswahili)
He who goes up the ladder eventually comes down.

Counsel
If you are patient yo u will see the eyes of the snail.
Eitomisimisi iropeta iloweni
(Maasai)
Corrupt gifts darken the hands o f the wise.
Ngirepe lakwa rotwa kechengji ket
(Nandi)
If you take a knife fro m a child, give him as p iece of stick instead.
Kipod in epi kik iyany nyang!
Do not abuse the crocodile while yo u are still in water.

Warning
Mugi ni mutaare
He is wise who has listened to advice (never say you were not war ned).
Asiyefunzwa na mamaye ufunzwa na ulimwengu
He who does not heed his mothers counsel will be taught by the world (the hard way)
One who excretes on the ro ad will find flies when he co mes back . (Every actio n has
consequences)
Consolation
Guturi muthenya u kiaga na ungi
No day dawns with another ; ever yday has its jo ys and pains.
Baada dhiki faraja
After sorrow there is jo y.

Normative proverbs
These are pro verbs that prescribe the mode of behaviour expected o f a person in a particularsociety.
- The satisfied child has burned the granar y.
- Kinship is k inship.

Summative proverbs
These are proverbs that are used to summarize a situation. While giving ad vice, instead of
telling a perso n that if he co ntinues in his belliger ence he might end up being hurt. One can
simply use the pro verb:
“A strong man’s head is full of scars.” To summarize the lesso n.

Proverbs used as embellishment t o speech

STYLE IN PROVERBS
Proverbs like other for ms o f o ral literature can be analysed in terms of style.

Alliteration
Jaber jaulo
All that glitters is not gold.
Hasira hasara
Anger brings loss
Liandikwalo ndilo liwalo
What is written canno t be changed.
Chema chajiuza,kibaya chajitembeza
.
Good quality goods need no advertising, bad merchandise do es.

Assonance
Kurri ukuu utatumwa taw a nyungu
There are things like ear then pot which if broken cannot be repaired.
Alidhaniye amesimama aangalie asianguke
He who thinks is high up should be carefu l lest he falls o ver.
Idiophone
Bandu bandu huisha gogo
Chip chip! Fin ishes the lo g.
Churururu- si ndo!ndo!ndo!
A gush is not the same as a drip.

Repetition
Wat en wat
Kinship is k inship
Haraka karaka haina baraka
Hurry hurry has no blessings.
Chovya chovya yamaliza buyu la asali
Constant dipp ing will empty a gourd of honey.

Allusion
Ciakore wacu mugunda
(The foo d found Wacu in the garden.
The pro verb alludes to a sto ry attributed to the oral tradition o f the Agikuyu in which we find acharacter
called Wacu. Wac., is despised by her husband .Once, she is sent to the shamba so thatthe husband cou ld ho
ld a feast for his favo ured wife at ho me.The cho ice meat being roasted b ythe husband is snatched by a
hawk.The hawk coincidentaly drops the meat in Wacu’sgrden.Wacu benefits from what was denied her.
This pro verb is used to encourage har d wor k.
The meat did not find her at home but in the shamba. It also warns against mistreating o thers asgod has a way
of taking care of them.
Metaphor
Wealth is dew.
Kukamwo ni kura
To be praised is to be lost.(One might allow the pr aises to get into his head and might eventually
turn out worse)
Mugeni ni Ruwi
A guest is a river. (We should be hospitable to guests since they will be with us for o nly a while).
Simile
He is ripe inside like a watermelon. (A water-melo n looks raw fro m the outside but ripe fro m
the inside. At times just like water-melo n, it is d ifficu lt to tell what is in the mind o f a person.
A fool is like a beehive. (Potential fo r danger)

Personification
Kanua weiire!
Mouth yo u ate your self!
The worm in the cattle Kraal says: I am an ox.”
The mo uth that ate the grain is the same o ne that asks,” What shall we eat?”
Eneke the bird says,”Since men have learned to shoot without missing their target, I have
lear ned to fly without perching on a twig”

Hyperbole
-Yo u will not see the elephant moving on your own head only the louse moving on another’s.
-He who waits to see a crab blink will wait long along the sho re. (Yo ruba)
-If you are patient you will see the eyes o f a snail.

Humour
Uthuri wa Gitonga ndununganga
-The fart of a rich man do es not stink.
Nyathi mioro ema chiethne duong
.
-It is the child that runs errands that has bigger excrement.
-A per son who never saw the mother in her youth might say the father wasted his dowry.

Examples of proverbs
Luo proverbs
1. The har e might be small but it begets twins
2. It is with a light basket that the o wner elides the rain. (You are to blame for self imposedburdens).
3. The drum is heavier on the return journey.
4. Now you are oil-shinny; may you one day be dry!
5.Even Fulu send Tilapia. (Fulu is a type of fish smaller than tilapia. The pro verb stresses thenecessity o f
co-existence between the mighty and the less mighty).
6. A mighty man is never greeted. (He may under stand the greeting to be an invasio n)
7. it’s only a mad man who shaves his own hair.
8. The detractor has ho les in the buttocks. (The reference to buttocks here is not literal. Rather itrefers to trousers.
The detractors spend lo ng hours sitting to defame his victims. This over settingleaves its marks on the buttocks
and the trousers.)
9. The beautifu l one’s garden is small.
10. The mediator has two mouths.
11. The gossip never ages.
12. Do not abuse the crocodile while still in water.
13The elephant is backbitten once it has turned its back.
14The fly that loves yo u is the one that perches o n you.
15It is he who eats with a blind man that kno ws the delicacy of the fat
16. He who has a child do es not sleep in the wilderness.
17. Sleep is so strong that it even overcomes the lunatic.
18Tyhe satisfied child has burned the granary.
19. The same plate you have served in is the same plate that will be used to serve yo u.
20. The beasts stays in the sugar p lantation but does no t know the sweetness o f the sugarcane
21. Even though the ant is tiny it canno t be ro bbed of its termites.

Gikuyu proverbs
1. A man is poor not because he sco rns possessions but because he po ssesses no thing
2.
Eating too much leaves yo u with a swollen stomach.
3.
A slaug hter house is not without a little blo od.
4.
On the way to one’s belo ved there are no hills.
5.
A parent does not mind her child’s mucous
6.
The scent of roasted meat broke the hyena’s leg.
7.
He who steals with a bo y will live in fear until the boy is circumcised.
8.
He who steals with a woman will live in fear until the woman d ies.
9.
The woman who has a sore dances on the outskirts.
10.
Both he that chases and he that is chased beco me tired.
11.
You do not seek informatio n fro m a hungry man.
12.
Another man’s ornament tires the neck.
13.
From the same wo mb come a thief and a witch.
14.
One who cannot ju mp claims that the field is stony
15.
The tooth laug hs at the sight of a spear.
16.
One who never travels thinks that it is only his mother who is a good coo k.
17.
There is no difference between growing old and living.
18.
The potter may use pieces of a pot fo r her cooking.
19.
The restless mo ngoose misses the slaughter ing ceremony
20.
A fool’s staff is used by the wise man to support his own walk.
21. The warr io r may be tripped by a maize comb.
22. A disunited battalion is beaten with one club.
23. He is clever who has listened to advice.
24. Too much sharp ness cuts the sharpener.
25.
No barber shaves himself
.
Yoruba proverbs
1. One who wants to drink porridge will play with the child whose mother is preparing it.
2. The strong man’s head is full of scars.
3. Let me taste, let me taste finishes the seeds.
4. Not all eggs laid in the dr y season hatches out.
5. The mo nkey laug hs at the long tail of the one in fro nt of it.
6. The sweetness of stolen things shouts.
7. He who comes last drinks muddy water.
8. He who has diarrhea k no ws the direction of the door without being told.
9. By stumbling o n it, the stump has pushed forward the runner.
10. A rat bites and so oths yo u at the same time.

Kalenjin proverbs
1. While waiting to eat the head o f a bull, we continue eating the head of a grasshopper .
2. We do not look after out cro ps until they have been eaten by mo nkeys.
3. A hyena canno t smell its own stench.
4. An elephant is big yet it do es no t give birth to twins
5.We blind fold a cow when milk ing it.
6.A co w’s horns do not kill it calf.
7.We do not annoy the midwives when we are still bearing children.
8.Nobody can use another’s teeth to smile.

Luhyia proverbs
1. Where you are guest, breakfast is not right.
2. Whatever ate the dogs ate the bell too.
3. Whatever you deny and old man he may well have eaten it before.
4. Whatever you deny a child he may gro w to eat it.
5. What yo u hide, you may eat with rats.
6. A person who is feeling co ld does not need to be shown the fir e.
7. That which runs alone claims to be a good runner.
8. The hen that scratches the ground may find something to eat.
9. If you eat mushroo ms, you are sure to , eat maggots.
10. When a clean perso n breaks the wind, people o ften blame the dirty person. In their
midst.
11. He who waits fo r his dish to cool shares it with visitors.
12. A bride’s eyes pretend not to have seen.
13. The per son who cannot climb a tree eats the raw fruits nearer the gro und.

Additional proverbs
1. Wealth is dew.
2. Kingship is dew.
3. To marr y is to put a snake into one’s handbag.
4. Family names are like flowers: they blosso m in clusters.
5. A wife is like a blanket; when you cover yourself with it; it irr itates you, when you cast nit aside you
feel cold.
6. He is ripe inside like a water melo n. (Describes a person who has come to a resolutionwithout making
it public).
7. The worm in the kraal says,” I am an ox”.
8. No fly catches for another.
9. The maker of a song does not spoil it.
10. Metal that is already welded together, how o ne can unweld it.
11. The man with the deepest eyes cannot see the moon until it is fifteen days o ld.
12. He ate food and it killed him.
13. The won’t –be –old man sees by the bloo dstain.
14. You will not the elephant moving on your head, only the louse moving on another’s.
15. The want fo r work to do makes a man get up early to salute the enemy.
16. Littler by little the tortoise arr ived at the Ind ian Ocean.
17. One who excretes on the road will find flies when he comes back.
18. No o ne teaches the leopard’s cubs how to spring.
19. The eye crosses a big river.