Òwe on the Market as Place
Yorùbá proverbs in which the marketplace itself, as a physical location people enter, walk through, and disperse from, carries the argument, distinct from proverbs that use trade only as a figure of speech.
Ọjà is the market, and in Yorùbá town life it is not only where goods change hands but a public space with its own crowd, noise, geography, and rhythm, opening and closing on the four- or five-day cycle of the traditional week. Many Yorùbá proverbs use ọjà purely as a figure for trade or commerce in the abstract. This file sets those aside and collects proverbs in which the market functions as a place: somewhere a person walks into, is seen in, disperses from, or is affected by the sheer fact of being physically present in. The distinction matters because a proverb about "the market" as an image for commerce belongs with the corpus's wealth and trade material, while a proverb about the market as a location, its noise, its crowd, its comings and goings, belongs here.
The proverbs
1. Afínjú wọ ọjà ó rìn gbẹndẹkẹ; bùnbùn wọ ọjà ó rìn ṣùṣù; bùn ní ó ru ẹrù afínjú relé.
Literal: Afínjú wọ ọjà the-fashionable-person enters the-market ó rìn gbẹndẹkẹ he-walks leisurely; bùnbùn wọ ọjà the-filthy-person enters the-market ó rìn ṣùṣù he-walks sluggishly; bùn ní ó ru ẹrù afínjú relé the-filthy-person is-who carries the-fashionable-person's-load home.
Idiomatic: "The fashionable person enters the market and walks in a leisurely manner; the filthy person enters the market and walks in a sluggish manner; it is the filthy person that will carry the fashionable person's load to the house for him or her."
Meaning: Presentation at the market determines how a person is treated there, down to who ends up serving whom.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Good breeding confers great advantages"
Notes: The market here is the stage on which social rank is performed and reinforced through the manner of walking into it, a use of the location as a public arena rather than a site of exchange.
Source: Owomoyela 95.
2. Bí ọjàá bá tú tán, a kù olórí-i pàtẹpàtẹ, a kù àgbààgbà sàkòsàkò lọ́jà.
Literal: Bí ọjàá bá tú tán when-the-market has-dispersed completely, a kù olórí-i pàtẹpàtẹ the-head-of-the-mat-sellers remains, a kù àgbààgbà sàkòsàkò lọ́jà the-elders remain-scattered-about in-the-market.
Idiomatic: "When the market disperses, only the head of the market women remains; only the venerable elders remain."
Meaning: When a gathering breaks up, only those with real standing or unfinished business linger.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "When a matter is done, those involved should disperse" , the market's own dispersal used as the model of proper closure.
Notes: The proverb's second half compares this dispersal directly to the end of an Ifá consultation, tying the ordinary rhythm of market opening and closing to a much weightier ritual pattern.
Source: Owomoyela 267.
3. Aṣòroójà bí ìjà ọjà; onítìjú ò níí sá; ẹni tí ń nà án ò níí dáwọ́ dúró.
Literal: Aṣòroójà bí ìjà ọjà hard-to-fight is-the-fight of-the-market; onítìjú ò níí sá the-self-conscious-person will-not run; ẹni tí ń nà án ò níí dáwọ́ dúró the-one-beating-him will-not stop.
Idiomatic: "Difficult-to-fight is the fight of the marketplace; the self-conscious person will not run, and the person beating him up will not stop."
Meaning: A public brawl in the marketplace is especially dangerous because the crowd traps both the urge to flee and the willingness to stop.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Too much concern with appearances exposes one to occasional inconveniences"
Notes: The market's crowded openness, the very thing that makes it a public place, is what makes a fight there worse than one fought elsewhere; this proverb depends on the market's physical character, not on trade.
Source: Owomoyela 793.
4. Bí a kò ránni sọ́jà, ọjà kì í ránni sílé.
Literal: Bí a kò ránni sọ́jà if one-is-not sent to-the-market, ọjà kì í ránni sílé the-market does-not send-for-one at-home.
Idiomatic: "If one does not send a message to the market, the market does not send a message to one at home."
Meaning: Opportunity or benefit does not travel to a person who makes no move toward it.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Without making an effort, one cannot expect rewards"
Notes: The market is figured here as a place that must be actively gone to; it does not reach out to the passive person waiting at home, which is the spatial logic the proverb turns on.
Source: Owomoyela 842.
5. Bí a bá sọ̀kò sí àárín ọjà, ará ilé ẹni ní ḿbà.
Literal: Bí a bá sọ̀kò sí àárín ọjà if one throws-a-stone into the-middle of-the-market, ará ilé ẹni ní ḿbà it-is-a-member-of-one's-own-household that-it-hits.
Idiomatic: "If one throws a stone into the marketplace, it hits someone from one's household."
Meaning: In a crowd this dense and this closely tied by kinship and acquaintance, indiscriminate harm is likely to land on someone close to the person responsible.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Random acts of wickedness are likely to affect those close to one"
Notes: The image depends specifically on the market's density and its status as the one place where the whole town's population, including one's own relatives, is reliably gathered together.
Source: Owomoyela 1396.
6. Eku ò gbọdọ̀ ná ọjà tí ológìnní dá.
Literal: Eku ò gbọdọ̀ ná the-mouse must-not patronize ọjà tí ológìnní dá a-market that-a-cat established.
Idiomatic: "A mouse dares not visit a market established by a cat."
Meaning: One should not walk into a place controlled by one's natural predator, however much business might draw one there.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One should not deliberately court disaster"
Notes: The market is treated here as territory that can be "established" or controlled by a particular party, so that entering it is a matter of safety and jurisdiction, not merely of commerce.
Source: Owomoyela 1465.
7. Òkété tó bẹ ìrù-ú mọ̀ pé ìpéjú ọjà ọ̀run òun ló sún.
Literal: Òkété tó bẹ ìrù-ú the-giant-bush-rat whose tail-was-severed mọ̀ pé knows that ìpéjú ọjà ọ̀run òun ló sún its trip to-the-market-of-heaven has-been-postponed.
Idiomatic: "The giant bush rat that has its tail stripped by a trap knows that it is its visit to the fifth-day market that was postponed."
Meaning: A near-disaster should be read as a warning and, at the same time, as evidence that a worse fate, here glossed by Owomoyela as death, "the market of heaven", was narrowly avoided.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One should take a near-disaster as a warning"
Notes: The proverb pairs the ordinary periodic market, held on a fixed day in the local market cycle, with a euphemistic "market" that stands for death or the beyond, an extension of market vocabulary into figurative territory that still depends on the market's identity as a scheduled, recurring place one is due to visit.
Source: Owomoyela 1758.
8. A kì í sọ pé ọjà-á nígbà; bó bá nígbà, kíníṣe tí wọ́n tún ń ná a?
Literal: A kì í sọ pé ọjà-á nígbà one does-not say the-market has-a-fixed-time; bó bá nígbà if-it-had-a-fixed-time, kíníṣe tí wọ́n tún ń ná a? why would-people keep-patronizing it?
Idiomatic: "One does not say there is a time for the market; if it were so, why would people continuously patronize it?"
Meaning: The market's availability is constant enough that no one thinks of it as bound to a single occasion.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Any time is a good time to trade"
Notes: This proverb argues from the market's observed pattern of continuous use, its standing as an always-available place, to a general claim about timeliness.
Source: Owomoyela 1920.
9. Ẹnìkejì tère, ẹẹ̀kejì tère lọ́jà-á fi ń kún.
Literal: Ẹnìkejì tère, ẹẹ̀kejì tère the-first solitary-one, the-second solitary-one, lọ́jà-á fi ń kún is-how the-market fills-up.
Idiomatic: "The first solitary person, then the second solitary person: thus is the market filled."
Meaning: A crowded place is built up one arrival at a time; the market's fullness is the sum of many separate, individually unremarkable entrances.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "A collection of solitary individuals makes a multitude"
Notes: The proverb takes the market's characteristic crowdedness as an observed fact and reasons backward to how any large gathering necessarily forms.
Source: Owomoyela 3180.
10. A kì í mọ ilẹ̀ ọjà-á gbá.
Literal: A kì í mọ ilẹ̀ ọjà-á gbá one never knows the-ground of-the-market to-sweep-it.
Idiomatic: "One never knows how to sweep a market."
Meaning: No single approach can leave a large, mixed multitude uniformly satisfied.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "If there is a multitude to please, one will always leave some people disgruntled"
Notes: The market's ground, its physical extent and the diversity of people who occupy it, is the basis of the image; sweeping it evenly is impossible precisely because the market as a place resists uniform treatment.
Source: Owomoyela 3605.
11. Ọ̀nà kan ò wọ ọjà.
Literal: Ọ̀nà kan ò wọ ọjà one road only does-not lead-into the-market.
Idiomatic: "It is not one road only that leads to the market."
Meaning: Many different routes converge on the same destination, so no single approach to a problem is the only valid one.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "There are many different ways to approach a problem"
Notes: This proverb depends on a real, physical fact about Yorùbá towns, that a market is normally reachable by more than one road, and it belongs here rather than with wealth proverbs because its logic is entirely about approach and geography, not about the goods traded once one arrives.
Source: Owomoyela 4379. Also attested at .
12. Ìhìn ọjà là ḿgbọ́ nájà.
Literal: Ìhìn ọjà the-report of-a-market là ḿgbọ́ nájà is-what-one-hears about-the-market.
Idiomatic: "It is the report one hears about a market that induces one to trade in it."
Meaning: A place's reputation, not direct inspection, is usually what draws people to it in the first place.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "A person's or a thing's reputation determines how people will act toward it"
Notes: The proverb captures a real feature of market geography in a region with many periodic markets: a trader chooses which market to attend largely on the strength of what is said about it, since direct comparison of every market is impractical.
Source: Owomoyela 5042.
13. "Gba wèrè," "Ǹgò gba wèrè" lọ́jà-á fi ń hó.
Literal: "Gba wèrè," "Ǹgò gba wèrè" "accept the-charge-of-madness," "I-will-not accept the-charge-of-madness" lọ́jà-á fi ń hó is-what-the-market uses to-be-noisy.
Idiomatic: "'Accept imputation of imbecility'; 'I will accept no imputation of imbecility' is the explanation for market noise."
Meaning: The market's characteristic din is made up of exactly this kind of running, reciprocal dispute, people refusing insults thrown at them.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One may have no means of avoiding insult from others, but it is always in one's power to reject insults"
Notes: This proverb offers a small piece of documentary ethnography in its own right: it explains market noise itself as a recognisable social pattern, exchanges of insult and refusal, rather than treating the noise as unremarkable background.
Source: Owomoyela 346.
Reading this set
Thirteen proverbs verified here treat the market specifically as a place: somewhere with a ground to sweep (10), roads that lead to it (11), a crowd that forms and disperses (2, 9), a reputation that precedes a visitor's arrival (12), a characteristic noise (13), and a density that makes both fighting (3) and indiscriminate harm (5) worse than they would be elsewhere. A larger number of proverbs in Owomoyela's collection use ọjà purely as shorthand for trade or commerce and were excluded as belonging to this corpus's wealth and money material rather than to a file about the market as a physical location. Thirteen is a modest yield for a single file in the 40 to 70 range the section brief describes, and it is reported as such rather than padded: Owomoyela's collection, searched for every occurrence of ọjà, simply does not contain many more proverbs whose argument depends on the market as place rather than as commerce.