Lice Know Well the Duty of a Finger Nail (and Other Gambian Proverbs)

When I speak Mandinka with Gambians, they commonly say “Nancy, you are a Gambian now.” (For the record, no French person has ever told me that I am now French.) In response to this generous gesture on the part of Gambians, I occasionally use the only Mandinka proverb that I know: A log in the river resembles a crocodile, but it’s still a log. I actually never have to say the whole proverb because they always finish it for me while howling with laughter. Hilarity aside, the proper response to this particular proverb is: Yes, but it can still scare an old lady.

Chris Haynes, a fellow volunteer in Gambia, had a considerably larger collection of proverbs that never failed to slay his audience. (It is a well-kept secret, but the real job of Peace Corps Volunteers is to provide entertainment to the locals.) Always envious of Chris’s proverb collection, I jumped at the opportunity to pick up a booklet on Mandinka proverbs during our recent visit to Gambia. This booklet was produced by the Gambian National Council for Arts and Culture out of concern that the tradition of using proverbs, as well as other cultural practices, has diminished as a result of colonialism, globalization, migration from the villages to urban areas, the migration of Africans to Europe and North America, and high mortality rates. I gave a copy of the booklet to our Senegalese guide at Niokolo Koba National Park, and the guide, who was a Mandinka, assured me that he knew all the proverbs and that they are genuine.

In any case, below are the literal translations of some of my favorite proverbs. The book also provides interpretations of the proverbs, but I think you may find it more interesting to come up with your own interpretations. (For the editors among you, I copied the translations exactly; the punctuation is not mine.):

If you want to get honey from an old person, you must let them spit in your mouth.

It is the responsibility of the person who owns goats to build a house for them but, to show black goats and white goats where they should sleep should be left with the goats.

People ignorant of a donkey catch it by its hind legs.

You are standing on an anthill and, you insult the ground.

Through discussions you can get something from under someone’s bed.

An old person sitting down sees further than a young person standing.

However hot water in the well may be, it cannot boil rice.

You do not forget easily if you are denied meat though the person who killed the animal easily forgets.

Surely “A knife cannot shave its own head”.

You cured some one’s toothache and thereafter they ate all your seeds”.

If you have an agreement with somebody to travel very early in the morning, when he asks ‘who is it’ at the knock on the door that early morning, just leave; you have been betrayed.

If they ask us to crawl, snakes are not referred to.

If you trample on a blind man’s testicles, next time he hears your foot steps, he would close his legs.

Not only white goats get fat, black goats also get fat.

When you see a hen following drawers of water, you know she can’t find those pounding the coos.

The best time to buy children from insane people is when they sell them.

The goat owner worried when the goat is lost, but when the goat’s head is boiling, it is the goat who gets worried.

Quiet people are usually bad people.

Only the mother of a one-legged baby knows how to carry it.

A tortoise likes to dance though it has no waist.

Lice know well the duty of a finger nail.

Don’t put a raw fish in a nauseous man’s mouth.

Tortoises know where to bite each other.

You need to be flat, if you would like to be a scaly fish.

You may fool each other into circumcision at night, but by the morning things get clearer.

Dusty legs are better than dusty buttocks.

Beans don’t grow for those with finger nails.

A frog and all what is inside of the frog belong to the bird.

You do not give your eye to your in-law and you walk in darkness.

If you make a bet with a locust to find out who can shit more, it will be you whose arse will get swollen.

When God claps for you, you should dance.

Here’s one with its interpretation because I found the interpretation rather intriguing:

The leaves of the mango tree are too many for a small goat to finish.

Interpretation: Do not get involved in the business of the elderly.

Finally, in recognition of Valentine’s Day:

It is the head that dances to the drum beats of the heart.

It is hard to find a lover, especially those with one eye.