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The Book of African Proverbs collects over 1,200 of the best, most profound and illuminating proverbs from Africa, its nations and its people. Back in the 19th century, Africa was often referred to as "the Dark Continent" in the sense that Africa's culture and people were largely mysterious and unknown to Europeans. Even today with all the information we have at our disposal, Africa is still viewed by many as a monolithic entity instead of a great continent with a myriad of diverse nations, cultures, and inhabitants. The Book of African Proverbs seek to illuminate these different cultures by highlighting the wisdom, humor, and character of people from all over Africa. The insights within The Book of African Proverbs are simultaneously unique and universal making it a wonderful starter collection for anyone interested in Africa's rich culture.
Our ancestors have thrived on the use of proverbs to educate, provide clarity and help us understand life for centuries. These proverbs have been passed down in our generations and are still widely used all over Africa today as an integral part of our culture. In this book, I compile some commonly used West African Proverbs and some of my favorite Liberian sayings. There are millions of African proverbs and other wise sayings, but my intention was to create a short list that is easy to read, remember and pass on. I hope you enjoy reading this short book.
Proverbs, parables and wise sayings are life experiences. In actual fact, these are wisdoms, truths, warnings, morals, experiences and traditional views passed down from generation to generation. These proverbs, parables and wise sayings express the wisdom of African people and are also the resources that are used to understand the Africans past and present lives. In Sierra Leone each ethnic group used proverbs, parables and wise sayings in their conversations as a way of life. The role and importance of proverbs, parables and wise sayings in each ethnic groups conversations provide a colorful and poetic picture of the culture and its characteristics.
This volume focuses on analysing the meaning of proverbs within Africa. The context in which a proverb is uttered, determines meaning, so this increases the difficulty of explaining proverbs exhaustively.
African proverbs, like the morning star, seem to radiate with a simple wisdom and truth. They have been used for centuries to teach the young about the meaning of life. With this book the author hopes to immerse the reader into the heart and soul of the black continent with a taste of culture, humor, philosophy and wisdom of the local people. Herein lies an opportunity to learn some new catchwords or sayings from the history of a very different culture with interpretations from someone who heard them firsthand from a loving Grandmother who like to teach a lesson in a sometimes perplexing language. So, dear reader- put your seat belt on and have a nice trip to Africa! -God is like the air we breath so if you have a message for God, talk to the wind. -You can not stop the bird from flying over your head but you can stop it from having a nest on your head. -We can not stop progress. We can not stop stupidity either. Enjoy!
this collection, readers will discover a wide range of wisdom through stories and sayings, including new phrases to pepper daily language and Swahili love poetry. African Proverbs and Wisdom serves as a historical calendar and a highly browsable reference. Woodcut illustrations.
Proverbs are abbreviated but complete statements which convey our thought with dignity and precision. They are principles of life and provide guidance to our daily walk in areas of relationships with other human beings, physical nature such as animals and plants, spiritual phenomena and other non-spiritual elements in the universe. Proverbs give us some encouragement and hope when we are weak and in despair and feel hopeless. They give us words of admonition, warning and redirection when we fall or derail as we journey through life. In the face of threatening life encounter, we can invoke appropriate proverb to recharge our courage, energy and strength so as to squarely confront a given situation. We can also apply a proverb and act it out to get the best out of a pleasant or ugly situation. Even when we are ambivalent about a certain experience, there is always a word of wisdom to invoke and act accordingly to achieve the expected outcome. We can confidently use these wise sayings only if we know and understand their meanings. It is even better if we know their origins. Otherwise, the proverb can confuse us the more and understanding the message they intended to convey can also elude us. These African-Ibibio proverbs depict how observant our ancestors were about nature, and their knowledge of and closeness to it. Our great grandparents used the proverbs effectively and appropriately because they knew their meanings. Using them did not only save their energy but provided vividness, brevity and force to the idea or thought they attempted to articulate. They were able to transmit this wisdom from generation to generation through oral history, that is, by words of mouth, until recently. The oral method sustained us for so long partly because in the past, children and grandchildren stuck around their parents and grandparents long enough to learn from them. Another reason is that the younger generations were also interested in learning them. At the time, using a lot of proverbs in one's speeches in social meetings and in private conversations was an index of high intelligence and wisdom, and the speaker was held in high esteem in the community. It was a source of pride and honor for and conferred dignity on the speaker as well. This work comes out of my concern that this oral method may at some point in history cease to be as effective as before in passing these words of wisdom on to future generations of Ibibio sons and daughters. If these wise sayings continue to remain unwritten, the possibility of losing this aspect of our knowledge history is imminent. Here are some of my reasons for thinking this way: (1) Present day youth leave their parent's home to pursue their education and then to employment in cities. By so doing, the amount of time for the youth to maintain regular contact with their parents and extended family elders from whom they could have learned these wise sayings is reduced. (2) Some of them leave their country of origin at tender ages to countries with different culture, while others are born in foreign countries. In some cases, both parents and children are born outside their cultural environments. (3) If parents themselves do not know much of these wise sayings, let alone use them, they cannot offer nor transmit to their children what they do not have or know, even if the children are around them up to adulthood. (4) Many, especially among the learned, tend to lack interest in preserving even the positive aspects of their ethnic cultures, partly because they do not know or suffer from what A. J. A. Esen describes in his Ibibio Profile as "Ours-Is-Bad" and the "Foreign Is Good" syndrome. This is a psychological feeling which demeans anything pertaining to one's ethnic culture and hails what is foreign, no matter how filthy and obnoxious the latter is. Unlike many Ibibio persons of my age or older, I was blessed with parents who had a mastery of these proverbs and used them lavishly when admonishing us and t
It has been said that a proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.Whether you're young or old, proverbs can open your mind to new ways of seeing the world. We underestimate children, assuming they are incapable of understanding metaphor and deeper meaning. Children learn in multiple ways, but for each method by which they learn, they need engaged imagination and ignited visual sensibilities. And as adults, we underestimate ourselves when we allow our lives to be about practical matters only. Proverbs can stir our soul and spark our imagination.In African Proverbs for All Ages, noted anthropologist and educator Dr. Johnetta Betsch Cole and award-winning illustrator Nelda La Teef invite children and adults to explore and reflect on complex notions about relationships, identity, society, and the human condition.
Packed out with words of wisdom, wise sayings, old saying, sages philosophy and ancient culture, find in the cover that this collection of African proverbs is appropriately titled. The book and it's contents is different from the storm of proverbs in Orient wisdom works. The anthology array here is wide to accommodate saying for women and men, children and parents, bridal wedding palms, plant and animal, reality and abstract, essential and trivia and bride and groom. The pharaonic Africa's cradle of civilization and the continents clever myth and legend are highlighted with cultural colors. And the work flings aside the curtain of this oral traditional jewels, thus going as missionaries in the land of foreign cultures. As a reader, you will see more in the book, painted in vivid word picture, the African identity and history art that is often present in clothing, comforter, pillow, plaque, earrings, bracelets, necklace and gifts, along with funny quotes and rhythms. Proverbs and riddles are a major part of the African traditional life. They seek to bring out a range of thoughtful advice, understanding, truth, morals and warning in both serious and humorous fashion. They evoke meanings out of daily experiences, show community unity and link to biblical spirituality. The beauty of this collection is the generous latitude towards many possible meanings as no attempt is made to suggest one. Unless otherwise indicated, all the proverbs here are credited to the Ishans, a small minority tribe in Edo, Nigeria. Still, most are known in other tribes and their messages are true of people everywhere. This book will gain audience among families and readers who seek to find the wisdom of words. So discover why" The room of a small child is not enough for a masquerade to dress up." And why "A man needs to hold his organ in his hand in gesture when making advances to a woman who is deaf and dumb."