African Proverbs
Proverbs provide wonderful nuggets of discussion-provoking wisdom. Proverbs, while arising out of and illuminating distinct cultures, also speak to widely shared, perhaps planet-spanning, truths. According to the Ghanaian researcher Kofi Asare Opoku, “The Yoruba of Nigeria emphasize the value of proverbs with a proverb, saying, ‘A proverb is the horse that can carry one swiftly to the discovery of ideas.'” (quotation from http://www2.wcoil.com/~mdecker/af-prov.htm). Like a good storyteller, proverbs can paint vivid pictures of precepts which accelerate understanding. Good proverbs are more complex than they seem at first blush — they can almost always be fruitfully examined, discussed, and even reversed.
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