SAGACIOUS SAWS

By OMOSEYE BOLAJI

“Ti bale ile bati’n fapari isu hon alejo, owe ile to lo nu”

- Yoruba Proverb

“The art of being a good guest is to know when to leave”-

- Prince Philip

The first aphorism above is an African (Yoruba) proverb, and the second quote has been made famous by an Englishman (Prince Philip). But the startling thing is that they mean more or less the same thing, eh?

Probably many of you out there are crying “foul” What is this? Though the Yorubas run into millions, there are countless millions who are not, and do not speak Yoruba. Here we can be intrigued by the one and only Ngugi wa Thiong’o who always says African languages must have primacy; and any translations would be diluted without the impact of the original.

Indeed this is often so. But since there are hundreds of languages in Africa alone, we have to make do with translations even if rather threadbare. So let us try to translate: “Ti bale ile bati’n fapari isu hon alejo, owe ile to lo nu” into English. We can say it means “When the grand host starts showing a shrivelled, truncated yam to the guest, it’s a covert way of telling the guest to depart!”

This is the same as what Prince Philip says; but the African version is more inventive and amusing. In parenthesis, the illustrious Chinua Achebe can reel out countless such inventive sayings by his own people, the Ibo (Igbo). No doubt this is the same all over Africa.

Sol Plaatje of South Africa, the first black man to produce a novel in English did all he could to highlight and preserve hundreds of Tshwana proverbs. Those in published form are also often inventive and intriguing.

But back to our proverb above, the Yoruba one. Many educated Yorubas will not be happy with the tentative translation into English. And millions of non- Nigerians too. For example the word “yam” which is referred to in the original ancestral proverb. It might sound incredible to many, but a very large number of Africans, including South Africans do not know what a yam is; have never seen one!

This might sound outrageous to Nigerians, and west Africans in general, but yam is not a staple food of countries like South Africa; it does not even grow there. But then again most Nigerians do not know good old pap (mealie meal), a staple for countless millions in southern Africa! But the problem still does not end here.

To appreciate the Yoruba proverb, one has to know what yam looks like, the stocky healthy one, its gratifying texture; its deep-seated, age-old, edifying role in many societies of yore. And even now! To be able to contrast wholesome, robust yams with the shrivelled ones. Perhaps with some imagination this can be achieved…

So back to the two “adages” quoted in the beginning of this piece. By now we can see how uncannily alike they are; from two completely different societies and cultures. “Do not over-stay your welcome!” Of course, the African (Yoruba) saying is more pithy and thought provoking. What do you think?