Twelve Yorùbá proverbs built on èèwọ̀ (taboo) and related concepts of the forbidden, showing how proverb-speech treats prohibition as binding, socially variable, and in at least one case, lethal to violate.
Èèwọ̀ is the standard Yorùbá term for taboo or prohibition, a thing that is not done, whether by custom, by household rule, or by the requirement of a specific cult. The proverbs collected here use èèwọ̀ both in a light, general sense (a personal dislike, a family custom) and in a heavier sense tied to specific religious institutions, most strikingly Orò, whose taboo against women carries a documented penalty of death for violation, per Owomoyela's own footnote. This file keeps both registers together because Owomoyela's texts do not separate them; the proverb form treats "what is forbidden" as a single grammatical category even where the social stakes of forbidding vary enormously.
Literal: Ẹni tí a bá ń dáṣọ fún the-person for-whom one is-sewing-clothes kì í ka èèwọ̀ does-not list taboos.
Idiomatic: "The person who is clothed by others does not list what he will not wear."
Meaning: A dependent on others' charity is not entitled to be particular.
Used when: Owomoyela's note refers the reader to a comparable entry (81) on accepting charity without complaint .
Notes: Here èèwọ̀ is used in its lightest sense, a personal preference or dislike elevated rhetorically to the register of taboo, which shows the word's range: from binding religious prohibition to a mere list of things one would rather not wear.
Source: Owomoyela 318.
Literal: "Báyìí là ń ṣe" "this-is-how-we-do-it" níbìkan in-one-place, èèwọ̀ ibòmíràn [is] taboo in-another-place.
Idiomatic: "'This is what we do' in one place is taboo in another."
Meaning: Prohibition is local and variable, not universal; a practice normal in one community can be forbidden in the next.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Different people, different ways"
Notes: This proverb states directly, as a general principle, what the fuller collection also shows in practice: that specific taboos (Orò's exclusion of women, discussed below, or a household's particular restrictions) are tied to particular communities and institutions rather than forming one uniform Yorùbá code.
Source: Owomoyela 821.
Literal: Ohun tí a ò rí rí a-thing one has-never seen-before lèèwọ̀ ojú is-taboo for-the-eyes.
Idiomatic: "It is something one has never seen before that is taboo for the eyes."
Meaning: Novel or unprecedented things provoke the strongest reaction; the familiar, however large, is easily accommodated.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Whatever one has encountered before cannot be too much to accommodate"
Notes: This proverb uses èèwọ̀ metaphorically, applied to the eye's reaction rather than to a formal social rule, extending the taboo vocabulary to ordinary psychological response.
Source: Owomoyela 1102.
Literal: Ìkóèruku the-gathering-of-dust èèwọ̀ Ifẹ̀ is-taboo in-Ifẹ̀; ajá kì í gbó a-dog does-not bark níbòji ẹkùn in-the-shadow of-a-leopard.
Idiomatic: "Carrying dust is taboo in Ifẹ; no dog dares bark in the shadow of the leopard."
Meaning: One does not engage in forbidden or provocative acts in a place or in the presence of a power where the danger of doing so is well established.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One should not engage in forbidden or dangerous acts"
Notes: This proverb ties a specific local taboo to a specific town, Ifẹ̀, the historic centre of Yorùbá sacral kingship, which is consistent with the general pattern that taboos are geographically and institutionally located rather than uniform across Yorùbá country generally.
Source: Owomoyela 1607.
Literal: Ọlẹ mọ èèwọ̀ ìjà the-lazy-person knows the-taboo of-fighting: ó ní bàbá òun ní kóun má jà he says his-father told-him not-to-fight lọ́nà oko on-the-way-to-the-farm.
Idiomatic: "The coward knows the preventive for fighting: he says his father has ordered him not to fight on the way to the farm."
Meaning: A person invents or exaggerates a prohibition as a pretext to avoid an unwanted confrontation.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "The coward will use every excuse to get out of a fight"
Notes: This proverb shows èèwọ̀ being invoked strategically and possibly falsely, evidence that the proverb tradition recognised prohibition-claims could be manufactured for self-serving reasons, not only genuinely held.
Source: Owomoyela 2355.
Literal: Ka èèwọ̀ fún mi list your-taboos for-me kí n ka èèwọ̀ fún ẹ so-I-can list mine for-you.
Idiomatic: "Tell me your taboos and I will tell you my taboos."
Meaning: Mutual disclosure and observance of what each friend avoids is what sustains a friendship.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "When friends know and avoid what friends dislike, the friendship will last"
Notes: Compare this to owe-iwa-character entry 29 (Owomoyela 3086, "knowing and accepting each person's character... is the medicine for friendship"); this proverb makes the identical structural claim specifically about personal taboos rather than character generally, again showing èèwọ̀ operating at the scale of individual preference as much as institutional rule.
Source: Owomoyela 3406.
Literal: A kì í gbèjà èèwọ̀ one does-not defend a-taboo; èèwọ̀ ní yó gbèjà ara-a rẹ̀ the-taboo is-what-will defend itself.
Idiomatic: "One does not fight on behalf of a taboo; the taboo will fight its own fight."
Meaning: It is unnecessary to personally police a prohibition; the system that enforces taboos will catch violators on its own.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "It is unnecessary to try to keep people from committing crimes; the system will seek out offenders"
Notes: This proverb states a working theory of how taboo enforcement functions: not through individual vigilantism, but through some larger mechanism, social, ritual, or supernatural, that the proverb trusts to operate on its own.
Source: Owomoyela 4473.
Literal: Àìfárí the-lack-of-a-shave kì í ṣe bọ́ ní túúlu is-no headache to-the-monkey; àìjẹun lèèwọ́ rẹ̀ the-lack-of-food is-its-taboo (what-it-cannot-abide).
Idiomatic: "Want of a shave is no headache to the monkey; it is want of food that it cannot abide."
Meaning: Different privations matter differently to different creatures or people; what is a mere inconvenience to one is intolerable to another.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Certain things are luxuries; certain things are essentials"
Notes: Èèwọ̀ here is stretched furthest from its core sense, functioning as "what cannot be borne" rather than "what is ritually or socially prohibited," confirming the word's genuine semantic range from formal taboo to bare intolerance.
Source: Owomoyela 4679.
Literal: A kì í dájọ́ Orò one does-not set-the-day for-an-Orò-rite ká yẹ̀ and-then let-it-slip/ignore-it.
Idiomatic: "One does not set the day for an orò rite and then ignore it."
Meaning: Once a date is fixed for an important, binding matter, it must not be allowed to lapse.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One must not let important matters slide"
Notes: This proverb carries the corpus's single most important documentary footnote on institutionalised taboo. Owomoyela's note reads: "Orò is a secret divinity connected with the secret supreme political and juridical council known as Ògbóni or Òṣùgbó. His cult is forbidden to women; at the sound of the bull-roarer announcing his public outings, women must go into hiding. A man who is not a member of the cult also runs the risk of being killed if he intrudes into its rites even accidentally" [S1, note 46]. This is not a proverb about a mild social preference; it documents a taboo carrying a real and stated penalty of death for accidental violation, and the corpus's fuller account of Orò and the associated cult societies is at 06-orisa/22-oro-agemo-and-cult-societies.md . The proverb itself is used generically, about keeping any commitment, but its source institution is this specific and this consequential.
Source: Owomoyela, note 12 (untitled proverb list, "A kì í..." series), with note 46.
Literal: N/A: this entry is Owomoyela's footnote, not a proverb text.
Meaning: Owomoyela's note to the masquerade proverb Eégún ò na obìnrin lágẹ records: "Women are forbidden to approach masqueraders, on pain of being whipped, and are supposed to run into hiding whenever masqueraders are about" [S1, note 42].
Used when: Cited here as documentary background, not as a proverb in its own right, because the corpus's rule against inventing proverb texts means a footnote cannot be presented as an òwe. It is included because it corroborates, from a second, independent institutional source (the eégún masquerade cult rather than Orò), the pattern seen in entry 9: a specific taboo restricting women's presence, enforced with a stated physical penalty.
Notes: The proverb this footnote actually explains, Eégún ò na obìnrin lágẹ; obìnrín tú kíjìpá ìdí-i rẹ̀, ó fi na eégún, "The masquerader did not hit a woman with his shroud, but the woman unwraps her home-woven wrapper and hits the masquerader with it," is itself about provoking trouble one has been spared, and is catalogued properly under a different theme; it is referenced here only for its footnote's documentary value on masquerade taboo. See 06-orisa/20-egungun.md for the fuller account.
Source: Owomoyela, note 42 to entry 280.
Literal: Ọníṣàngó tó jó the-Ṣàngó-worshiper who dances tí kò gbọn yẹrì who does-not shake his-skirt: àbùkù-u Ṣàngó kọ́ it-is-not a-disgrace-to Ṣàngó, àbùkù ara-a rẹ̀ ni it-is his-own disgrace.
Idiomatic: "The Ṣango worshiper who dances and does not shake his skirt: he does not disgrace Ṣango but himself."
Meaning: Failure to observe the expected form of devotional performance reflects on the worshiper personally, not on the god.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "A person who does not live up to his potential disgraces only himself" A companion proverb states the same rule for a different expected element of the dance: Ọníṣàngó tó jó tí kò tàpá, àbùkù ara-a rẹ̀, "The Ṣango worshiper who dances and does not kick his legs disgraces himself"
Notes: Àbùkù, blemish or disgrace, is the operative word here rather than èèwọ̀, and the pair of proverbs documents specific, named expected elements of Ṣàngó devotional dance (the skirt-shake, the leg-kick), failure in which is a matter of personal shame rather than religious violation; this is a useful contrast case to entry 9, where the stakes of violation are institutional and severe.
Source: Owomoyela 502; companion 503.
Literal: Èèmọ̀ ní Ìmọ̀ unspeakable-abomination in-Ìmọ̀: Onímọ̀-ọ́ sọ̀pá the-ruler-of-Ìmọ̀ contracts-hydroceles, aya-a rẹ̀ dégbò his-wife develops-a-sore.
Idiomatic: "Unspeakable abomination: the ruler of Imọ contracts hydroceles, and his wife develops a sore."
Meaning: Even those to whom a community looks up are subject to affliction; nothing, however elevated, is exempt.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Even those people to whom one would look up are blighted"
Notes: Èèmọ̀, unspeakable abomination, is a stronger term than èèwọ̀ and marks the affliction itself, rather than any act, as the abomination, a distinct use from the other entries in this file, where èèwọ̀ names a prohibited act or thing rather than an intrinsically abominable condition.
Source: Owomoyela 3720.
The word èèwọ̀ covers a wide range, from binding institutional prohibition to personal dislike. Entries 1, 3, and 8 use it loosely; entries 4, 9, and the documentary note at entry 10 use it for taboos with real institutional weight and, in Orò's case, a documented lethal penalty for violation. This range is a fact about the word, not an inconsistency in the corpus's sourcing, and a reader should not assume every proverb using èèwọ̀ carries the gravity of the Orò example.
The Orò material (entries 9 and its footnote) is the single most consequential documentary finding in this file. It corroborates, from Owomoyela's own scholarly apparatus rather than from any outside claim, that Yorùbá religious practice included at least one institution, connected to the Ògbóni/Òṣùgbó council, whose taboo against women's presence carried a stated death penalty for violation. This is reported here as documented fact about a specific historical institution, following the corpus's rule of describing rather than either sanitising or sensationalising what the sources record; readers seeking the fuller account should consult 06-orisa/22-oro-agemo-and-cult-societies.md .
06-orisa/22-oro-agemo-and-cult-societies.md and 06-orisa/20-egungun.md, for the institutional account of Orò, Ògbóni/Òṣùgbó, and masquerade taboo.The restricted societies that sit alongside orisa worship: Oro and its night curfew, the Ijebu Agemo, the Ogboni earth society and its judicial role, described soberly and with the limits of public knowledge stated.
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