Bu Me Bε: Akan Proverbs
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The genius, wit and spirit of a Nation are discovered by their proverbs. So wrote Francis Bacon in 1594. But, whereas Westerners no longer seem to consider proverbs as words of wisdom, but rather as commonplaces, to be used in everyday conversation, in many countries of Africa, and, in particular, amongst the Akan, a truly educated and cultured person is one who can make use of proverbs and whose speech is full of the imagery and the innuendo that they make possible. Proverbs contain the philosophy, humor, symbolism and religion of the peoples who use them. They are imbued with a deep knowledge of the surrounding world, physical and spiritual, and of social realities. No one can appreciate the philosophy and beliefs of the Akan without studying their proverbs. Even today the use of an appropriate proverb in public oratory is deeply appreciated and is often the final word in an argument. One short proverb can provide the equivalent of pages of philosophical discussion. The Proverb Though we carry gunpowder, we smoke tobacco (No. 5699) is a good example of this. Even in a dangerous situation, you must enjoy the good things of life, or, as a friend once explained to me: Even if things are very, very bade, we must enjoy fufuo Thus, if people need money to pay debts, it is better, an elder will tell you, to pay the debt for them than to give them the money: for the money they might be tempted to use for every day enjoyment. Risks must be taken to enjoy life, whatever the theoretical priorities may be. The famous symbol of the crocodiles, with a single central stomach but two heads and tails, which illustrates the proverb Stomachs mixed up, crocodiles’ stomachs mixed up, they both have one stomach but when they eat they fight because of the sweetness of the swallowing (No. 2402) reflects the dilemmas and the complexities of the family system. All individual actions affect the family in general (that is, all food goes in one stomach;) but, as the crocodiles reply, the taste is in the throat—enjoyment is an individual not a group experience. Education in traditional society involved oral and not written communication; and proverbs were a way of reinforcing moral and social precepts. They teach the philosophy and way of life of the community, its customs and its prejudices. Before a person can become well versed in customary behavior, they must have a broad knowledge of proverbs to illustrate and emphasize their statements. This knowledge is, and was, learnt by listening to the elders. It is in the village context, where the elders gather together to discuss village and state affairs, to reminisce and to pass on their wisdom to the young that the richness of the proverbs is most manifest. In Chieftancy or Stool affairs, above all, knowledge of the provers is essential. It is one of the main qualifications of the Stool linguists. An aspiring Akan orator is expected to know many proverbs and to be able to cite to provide points of comparison, illustrating general truths about human behavior, during legal proceedings and on deliberative occasions. Provers can be used to summarize what would otherwise be a long and tedious disquisition. They can, also, like the folk tales, be used as a polite—and oblique—form of criticism, when direct speech would cause offence, and they are thus a way of avoiding quarrels or conflict. The Akan do not always favor clear and direct statement, and proverbs are used when people do not want to be immediately and directly understood, or where a double meaning or a prevarication is required. Proverbs can also be used to emphasize a statement or argument, especially where it is desired to show that there is precedent for a certain action. Present actions are interpreted in terms of the past, and given the aura of the conventional by their association with familiar forms of words. This collection of proverbs has been made over many years and has been obtained in many different ways. The greatest debt is owed to Christaller, whose collection of 3,600 proverbs in Fanti and Akuapem-Twi, made in the mid-nineteenth century, has formed the basis of every collection since published in Europe. His dictionary, from Twi into English, is still the only good one available, and he cross-referenced it with the proverbs, making their translation substantially easier. This collection of 7,000 is, however, in the Asante-Twi dialect, which is slightly different from Akuapem-Twi. Most of proverbs are common to the two dialects, but we have always used the Asante-Twi version in this collection. Mr. C. E. Osei, one of the elders of the last generation, generously gave his written collection of proverbs, some of which confirmed those already collected, some of which were new. Almost all the translation and some of the collection has been done in collaboration with Yaw Adusi-Poku, whose book, in part, this is. He has spent patient hours chewing over the translations of the written Asante-Twi versions. Mr. K. Nsiah, who is a gifted recorder of the old oral traditions and whose own proverbs are indistinguishable from the main tradition, has given us his own collection, and, by consulting the elders in his family, has helped to explain some of the difficulties and, in particular, the historical allusions. Mr. A. C. Denteh, the Twi scholar, provided us with invaluable advice and criticism. A list of other sources, including some of the individuals who have helped, appear at the end of the book. (Appendix B.) My own individual contribution has been the proverbs collected while doing research on the Asante gold-weights, in Asante, Brong-Ahafo and other Twi-speaking areas. Sitting in village compounds and in the houses of their chiefs, I was able to record many proverbs not actually needed for their association with the weights. Wandering conversations on objects and artifacts used in the village, the farm and the forest, produced many stories which later allowed me to understand some of the more difficult proverbs. Amongst the aged there is a nostalgia for the past, for a time in which, as imaginative memory has it, the boundaries between fiction and reality were blurred. As one old man told me sadly: In the old days if I had told you this stone was a tortoise, you would have seen it get up and walk! Village life changes slowly and the proverbs and spider stories of the Ananseasém—often seem, as one sits in the village, more real than modern life. Since so few books have been published in Asante-Twi, some of the words, such as the names of plants, birds, insects and animals, have been hard to verify, and we have probably made some mistakes in translation. In addition, just as in the English language, words have changed through the years, and one image has sometimes take the place of another, making the meaning difficult to recover. There are many very local varieties of the same proverbs (and words) and the ones I have recorded may not be the favorite versions in all Akan areas. After listening to hour-long conversations as to exactly what certain proverbs mean or as to whether the wording is one way or another, in the end I have had to make a personal choice. One difficulty in translating or explaining a proverb is the number of different contexts within which a single proverb may be used. It is impossible to explain all the uses, even if one is aware of them; it is the occasions that brings a proverb to mind and a skilled user will exploit the subtleties of a proverb to the maximum. Finally, the proverbs provide a richness of poetic imagery and vision which makes them a distillation of the best of Akan languages and oral literature. They give inspiration to drum and horn language, give depth to the funeral dirges and the appellations of the chiefs, and are used symbolically in many items of stool paraphernalia, where visual designs have associated proverbial meanings. To those who use them and to us who collect them alike, the proverbs are a treasure beyond price. For me, the gathering of them has been a great joy; and I have spent many hours immersed in their study and arrangement. They should be preserved and cherished in all their richness profound or punning, profane or philosophical, obvious (occasionally) and, (more often illuminatingly obscure. They are, in sum, the verbal shrine for the soul of a nation. Those mistakes in recording and vocabulary that remain I must regret. Such a collection should be a challenge to Akan scholars—to correct, add to and adapt accordion to their own knowledge and vision. This is only a first effort to publish a portion of this rich tradition with accompanying translations and glosses, so that it shall not be lost to the world in general and to the future generations of the Akan in particular.
Publication Date
2002
Edition
1
Recommended Citation
Appiah, Peggy; Appiah, Kwame Anthony; and Agyeman-Duah, Ivor, "Bu Me Bε: Akan Proverbs" (2002). Faculty Books & Edited Works. 35.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-books-edited-works/35
