Òwe on Chiefs, Kings and Authority

This file collects Yorùbá proverbs about the ọba, the king, and the olóyè, the holder of a chieftaincy title, and about the general condition of standing over other people. Yorùbá kingship is sacral: an installed ọba is treated as an intermediary between the town and the unseen, addressed with restrictions of speech and approach that apply to no one else, and the office is understood to exceed the individual who fills it. A chieftaincy title, oyè, is a narrower and more numerous thing: many titles exist under a king or within a lineage or guild, each carrying its own duties, and a person contests for one, wins or loses it, and can be stripped of it or die still holding it. The proverbs below track both figures, and several of them turn on the gap between the two: a chief is not a king, and pretending otherwise is a proverbial error in its own right.

A recurring claim in this set is that authority is conferred, not seized. yoruba-owe-proverbs already records the proverb that no one becomes king by calling himself king, and the proverbs here extend that logic to chieftaincy: titles are won by qualifying for them, inherited by set precedence, or granted by those with the power to grant, and a person who tries to shortcut that process is an object of ridicule rather than authority. A second recurring claim, harder-edged, is that proximity to the ọba is dangerous. The king holds the power of life and death, and several proverbs here treat royal favor the way one might treat handling something that can kill you if mishandled. This corpus's yoruba-owe-proverbs file already carries the proverb that whoever depends on the king depends on death, and the proverb that the king watches the people watching him; both belong to the same body of political realism as the entries collected here, and this file does not repeat them.

How this file is sourced

Most entries below are drawn from Oyekan Owomoyela's Yoruba Proverbs (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), the standard 5,235-proverb collection, using a full-text digital copy of the printed book rather than the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's smaller web excerpt (that excerpt, The Good Person: Excerpts from the Yorùbá Proverb Treasury, used as 1 in files 10 and 11 of this section, digitizes only the book's first part and does not cover the material on kingship and authority collected here; kingship proverbs in the book are scattered rather than gathered in one place, appearing across the sections on humility, perspicaciousness, human vulnerability, inequality, human dignity, and subservience to authority, among others).

This digital copy has a font-extraction defect that this file's compiler must flag directly: the printed book carries full tone marking throughout, but the particular digitization used here fails, for a subset of words, to preserve the grave and acute tone accents, and in a smaller number of cases drops a letter outright rather than only the accent over it. Where a candidate proverb showed this second, more serious failure, it was cut rather than guessed at, in keeping with this corpus's rule against reconstructing text. Every Yorùbá line below was checked by eye against this standard: complete words, no dropped letters, even where a tone mark could not be confirmed as present in this specific digital copy. Where a tone mark is visibly missing from a word that otherwise reads as complete and correct, this file reproduces what the digitization shows rather than supplying an accent from memory of standard orthography, per this corpus's rule that an untoned source must be marked as such rather than silently corrected. Readers should treat the diacritics below as reliable where they appear and as unconfirmed, not absent, where they do not; the underlying print edition is fully tone-marked.

The literal line in each record is by the compiler of this corpus, built from Owomoyela's Yorùbá to expose the image his idiomatic English smooths over. The used when line follows Owomoyela's own bracketed usage note, reproduced or closely paraphrased, since the note is what he offers in place of a formal usage annotation in the book's continuous-prose format (the book states the point of a proverb in parentheses immediately after the translation rather than in a separate labeled field, and this file's "meaning" and "used when" lines both draw on that single parenthetical where the book does not distinguish the two).

Kings and the sacred weight of the throne

1. A kì í jayé ọba ká ṣu sára.

Literal: A kì í jayé ọba one does-not enjoy-the-life-of a-king ká ṣu sára and defecate on-oneself.

Idiomatic: One does not so luxuriate in one's majesty that one shits on oneself. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Even the highest station does not excuse a total loss of self-control.

Used when: Said of someone whose privilege has made them careless of basic decorum 1.

Notes: Owomoyela's own gloss: lack of moderation and decorum will bring disgrace to even the most elevated person 1. The crudeness of the image is deliberate; royal status is invoked precisely so the fall looks steeper.

2. Ẹni tí kò mọ ọba ní ńfọba ṣeré.

Literal: Ẹni tí kò mọ ọba the-one who does-not know king ní ńfọba ṣeré is-who trifles-with-king.

Idiomatic: Only a person who does not know the king trifles with the king. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Familiarity with real power teaches you not to test it.

Used when: Said of someone taking a risk that anyone who understood the stakes would avoid 1.

Notes: Owomoyela reads it as recognizing potential danger and avoiding it 1. The proverb assumes the ordinary person's ignorance of the king's reach as the only thing that could explain carelessness around him.

3. A kì í bú ọba onígègé lójú àwọn èèyàn rẹ̀.

Literal: A kì í bú ọba onígègé one does-not insult a-king who-has-a-goiter lójú àwọn èèyàn rẹ̀ in-the-eyes-of his people.

Idiomatic: One does not insult a king with a goiter in the presence of his people. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Do not mock a vulnerability of the powerful where their loyal followers can hear you.

Used when: A warning against careless speech or indiscreet behavior that exposes the speaker to repercussions 1.

Notes: The specificity of the goiter, an ordinary physical ailment, makes the insult petty as well as dangerous, which sharpens the point: even a small jibe carries consequences once the audience includes people whose loyalty is to the target.

4. Bí a bá bu ọba tí a sẹ́, ọba a fi ni sílẹ̀.

Literal: Bí a bá bu ọba if one insults king tí a sẹ́ and one denies-it ọba a fi ni sílẹ̀ king will let one alone.

Idiomatic: If one insults a king and denies doing so, the king will let one alone. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: A denied offense against power can be survived; an admitted one cannot.

Used when: Cited alongside the proverb that one denies insulting the king or the chief minister, on the practical wisdom of never confirming an accusation of disrespecting authority 1.

Notes: Owomoyela glosses the companion proverb this one varies as counseling that one may disdain authority but should not expose oneself to punishment for doing so 1. The proverb assumes a system in which the king's redress depends on acknowledged fact, not on private suspicion, which is itself a claim about how royal justice worked.

5. Ọba tó fi iyùn bọ̀lẹ̀, ọba tó wú u, àwọn méjèèjì la ó máa sọ orúkọ wọn.

Literal: Ọba tó fi iyùn bọ̀lẹ̀ the-king who with coral-beads buried-them ọba tó wú u the-king who dug-them-up àwọn méjèèjì those two la ó máa sọ orúkọ wọn is-whom one-will keep saying their-names.

Idiomatic: The king who buries coral beads, the king who digs them up: both will have their names remembered by posterity. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: An unprecedented act, whatever its content, earns the actor lasting fame.

Used when: Said of anyone, ruler or otherwise, whose action is remarkable enough to be remembered regardless of whether it was wise 1.

Notes: Coral beads, iyùn, are a royal regalia item in Yorùbá kingship, so both the burying and the unburying are acts only a king would have occasion to perform, which is what makes either one memorable. Owomoyela prints a variant immediately after with forest and sandy plain in place of burying and digging, making the same claim 1.

6. Ọba tó sọ ẹ̀gàn di erùfù, ọba tó sọ erùfù dẹ̀gàn: àwọn méjèèjì la ó máa sọ orúkọ wọn.

Literal: Ọba tó sọ ẹ̀gàn di erùfù the-king who turned forest into sandy-plain ọba tó sọ erùfù dẹ̀gàn the-king who turned sandy-plain into-forest àwọn méjèèjì la ó máa sọ orúkọ wọn those-two is-whom one-will keep saying their-names.

Idiomatic: The king who turned a forest into a sandy plain, the king who turned a sandy plain into a forest: both their names will be remembered by posterity. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Great feats of transformation, in either direction, earn lasting renown regardless of their apparent value.

Used when: Said in praise of any decisive, large-scale action, or drily of two people who accomplished opposite things and are equally remembered for it 1.

Notes: A variant of entry 5, and Owomoyela prints them as a pair 1. The proverb does not distinguish which transformation was better; scale and permanence of the act are what secure the memory, not its direction or wisdom.

7. Ojú ọba ayé ló fọ́; Ọlọ́run là kedere, ó ńwo aṣebi.

Literal: Ojú ọba ayé ló fọ́ the-eye-of the-king-of-earth is-what is-blind Ọlọ́run là kedere God is-clear-sighted ó ńwo aṣebi he is-watching evildoers.

Idiomatic: Only the king of this earth is blind; that of heaven is wide-eyed, watching evildoers. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Human authority can be fooled; the divine authority behind it cannot.

Used when: Cited when an earthly ruler or court has failed to catch a wrongdoer, as a reminder that the failure is not final 1.

Notes: The proverb calls the ọba "king of this earth," ọba ayé, deliberately setting him beside Ọlọ́run as a lesser instance of the same office, kingship, rather than a different kind of authority altogether. That framing is doing real work: it grants the ọba real royal status while still ranking him under a higher court.

8. Ojú ìkà la ti ńfi ọmọ olóore jọba.

Literal: Ojú ìkà in-the-presence-of the-wicked-person la ti ńfi ọmọ olóore jọba is-where one crowns the-child-of the-good-person as-king.

Idiomatic: It is in the presence of the wicked person that the son of the good person is crowned king. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: The wicked live to see their victims' children succeed, which is its own justice.

Used when: Said as consolation to someone who has suffered at another's hands, promising that the wrongdoer will witness the eventual vindication 1.

Notes: Owomoyela's own gloss: the wicked will live long enough to see the good prosper 1. The coronation is public and the wicked person's presence at it is the point; the proverb assumes the wrongdoer survives specifically to watch.

9. Àgbà ló tó Orò-ó lù; ọba ló tó ehín erin-ín fun.

Literal: Àgbà ló tó Orò-ó lù an-elder is-who is-fit the-Orò to-beat ọba ló tó ehín erin-ín fun a-king is-who is-fit tusk-of elephant to-blow.

Idiomatic: Only a [male] elder is qualified to invoke Orò; only a king is qualified to blow a horn carved out of elephant tusk. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Certain instruments and rites belong to certain offices, and using them without standing to do so is not simply bold, it is a category error.

Used when: Said of someone attempting a task or claiming a privilege that belongs only to a specific rank 1.

Notes: Orò is a masked cult whose rites, including its distinctive bullroarer sound, are restricted to initiated men and typically to elders among them. Pairing a religious restriction with a royal one in a single proverb treats them as the same kind of boundary, which is itself evidence for how thoroughly kingship in Yorùbá thought sits inside the sacred rather than beside it.

10. Ayésanmí ò ṣe gbedu; èèyàn lásán ò ní làárì; ọba ni làárì ẹni.

Literal: Ayésanmí ò ṣe gbedu [a-name] cannot use gbedu-drums èèyàn lásán ò ní làárì an-ordinary-person has-no regality ọba ni làárì ẹni a-king is where regality resides.

Idiomatic: Being prosperous does not entitle one to gbedu drums; an ordinary person has no regality; it is in a king that regality resides. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Some marks of status are not for sale or achievement; they belong to the office, not to whoever can afford the trappings.

Used when: Said against a wealthy commoner adopting royal-only symbols or manner 1.

Notes: The gbedu is a large state drum played only for a ruling ọba; Owomoyela's gloss states plainly that certain qualities are congenital to the office, not to be acquired in life 1. The proverb draws a line money cannot cross, which is a notable claim in a corpus otherwise full of proverbs about what wealth can buy.

11. Ọba kì í kọ obìnrin sílẹ̀ kí tálákà lọ gbé e sílé.

Literal: Ọba kì í kọ obìnrin sílẹ̀ a-king does-not divorce a-woman kí tálákà lọ gbé e sílé for a-poor-person to go take her home.

Idiomatic: A king does not divorce a woman, only for a commoner to go and marry her. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: What the powerful discard should not become the ordinary person's gain; the disparity in standing carries risk for whoever tries to claim it.

Used when: Said as a caution against taking up what someone far more powerful has cast off 1.

Notes: The proverb assumes the king's rejection contaminates rather than frees, so the commoner inherits the disfavor along with the woman, not a clean second chance. It sits beside other proverbs in this file, entries 3 and 4 especially, that treat any dealing touching the king as carrying risk disproportionate to the apparent stakes.

12. Owó tí kò sí, ọba ò lè gbà á.

Literal: Owó tí kò sí money that does-not exist ọba ò lè gbà á king cannot take it.

Idiomatic: Money that does not exist, no king can take from you. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: You cannot be made to forfeit what you never had.

Used when: Said to someone anxious about a demand or a tax they genuinely cannot meet 1.

Notes: The proverb takes for granted the king's power to seize wealth, treating that power as a background fact and finding its only limit in arithmetic, not in restraint. It is a rare instance in this set of a proverb finding comfort in royal power rather than warning against it.

13. Òrìṣà ní ńṣọlà; ọba ní ńṣọlá.

Literal: Òrìṣà ní ńṣọlà the-gods are-who confer-greatness ọba ní ńṣọlá a-king is-who enjoys-greatness.

Idiomatic: It is for the gods to confer greatness; it is for the king to enjoy greatness. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Royal grandeur is granted from above and simply worn by the king; it is not self-generated.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: the king's greatness is at the behest of the gods 1.

Notes: The proverb draws its force from the near-rhyme of ṣọlà and ṣọlá, conferring and enjoying, built on the same root, ọlá, greatness or honor, so the grammar itself enacts the hierarchy: the gods act on the noun, the king simply holds it. This corpus's note on entry 7 above, that Yorùbá kingship proverbs consistently rank the ọba under a higher court, applies here directly.

14. Gbogbo ọdún ni tọba; gbogbo ẹ̀sìn ni tìjòyè.

Literal: Gbogbo ọdún ni tọba every festival is the-king's gbogbo ẹ̀sìn ni tìjòyè every [regular] worship is the-chief's.

Idiomatic: All festivals belong to the king; all weekly worship belongs to the chief. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Rank determines the scale of occasion a person is responsible for; the higher the rank, the larger and rarer the duty.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: the more important one's stature, the more important one's responsibility 1.

Notes: The proverb pairs the ọba with the great, infrequent town festivals and the lesser olóyè with the smaller, recurring acts of worship, mapping frequency and scale directly onto rank; this is one of the few entries in this file that states the ọba/olóyè distinction as an explicit, named contrast rather than leaving it implicit.

15. Òbò ò jọba, ìlú ò dàrú.

Literal: Òbò ò jọba the-vagina does-not reign-as-king ìlú ò dàrú the-town does-not fall-into-chaos.

Idiomatic: If the vagina does not become king, the town does not descend into chaos. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: As printed and translated, the proverb asserts that keeping women out of kingship keeps the town orderly.

Used when: Owomoyela's own gloss states plainly that affairs in the hands of women inevitably become chaotic 1; the proverb was used to argue against female rule.

Notes: This entry is reproduced because it is directly attested in the source and because a corpus aiming at completeness should not silently exclude proverbs that are unflattering or that record a historical exclusion. It should be read as evidence of a documented strand of Yorùbá political thought restricting kingship to men, not as this corpus's endorsement of that restriction; Yorùbá history in fact includes women who held real political and ritual power, including the Ìyálóde title discussed in scholarship on Yorùbá women's authority, which sits in some tension with the proverb's blanket claim. The crude synecdoche, òbò standing for women as a class, is Owomoyela's own printed text, not a euphemism supplied by this corpus.

16. Ọmọ Aláké ní ńjọba lÁké, ọmọ olóko ní ńjọba lóko, àkọ́bí Onjo ní ńjọba nÍjẹ̀bú Òde.

Literal: Ọmọ Aláké ní ńjọba lÁké the-child-of the-Aláké is-who reigns-as-king at-Aké ọmọ olóko ní ńjọba lóko the-child-of the-farmer is-who rules on-the-farm àkọ́bí Onjo ní ńjọba nÍjẹ̀bú Òde the-firstborn-of Onjo is-who reigns-as-king at-Ìjẹ̀bú Òde.

Idiomatic: It is the firstborn of the Aláké that inherits the throne of Aké; it is the firstborn of the farmer who rules on the farm; it is the firstborn of Onjo who inherits the throne at Ìjẹ̀bú Òde. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Succession follows a fixed line of precedence, in a kingdom as in a household, and that fixed order is not open to improvisation.

Used when: Cited to explain or defend why a particular heir, and not another qualified candidate, has the claim 1.

Notes: Owomoyela's own gloss: the right to certain privileges is determined by set precedence, not at random 1. The Aláké is the traditional ruler of Abẹ́òkúta and Onjo a ruling title at Ìjẹ̀bú Òde; naming two real, specific royal lines rather than speaking abstractly grounds the proverb in actual succession practice rather than a general sentiment about order.

17. Ọmọ ọba tó kú lỌ̀yọ́ ò lẹ́jọ́; ọmọ ọba tó kú níbòmíràn lo ní aápọn.

Literal: Ọmọ ọba tó kú lỌ̀yọ́ a-prince who dies at-Ọ̀yọ́ ò lẹ́jọ́ has-no case-to-answer ọmọ ọba tó kú níbòmíràn a-prince who dies elsewhere lo ní aápọn is-who has anxiety.

Idiomatic: The prince's death in Ọ̀yọ́ entails no difficulty; it is the prince's death elsewhere that demands explanations. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: The same event carries different weight depending on where it happens and who is answerable for the place.

Used when: Said when assigning responsibility for an outcome that depends on jurisdiction as much as on cause 1.

Notes: Owomoyela's endnote explains that the Aláàfin of Ọ̀yọ́ was preeminent among Yorùbá rulers, so a prince's death away from home implicates the local ruler of wherever it happened, who then owes an explanation to the greater throne 1. The proverb is direct evidence of a hierarchy among Yorùbá kingships, not a flat set of equals.

18. A kì í já lórí ọpẹ́ ká tún jọba nísàlẹ̀.

Literal: A kì í já lórí ọpẹ́ one does-not fall from-atop palm-tree ká tún jọba nísàlẹ̀ and then reign-as-king below.

Idiomatic: One does not fall from atop a palm tree and then reign as king at the bottom. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: A disaster does not convert into a triumph just because you land somewhere.

Used when: Said against someone trying to spin a plain misfortune as a good outcome 1.

Notes: The image trades on a fall from height, ordinarily degrading, being reframed with the elevated language of kingship, which is the joke: the word jọba, to reign, is comically wrong for what has just happened to the person on the ground.

19. Àjànàkú ò lè kàn; ọba tí yó mú u erin so ò tí ì jẹ́.

Literal: Àjànàkú ò lè kàn the-elephant cannot be-staked ọba tí yó mú u erin so the-king who will tie the-elephant ò tí ì jẹ́ has-not-yet been-crowned.

Idiomatic: The elephant tolerates no stakes; the king that will tether the elephant has not been crowned. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Some people or forces are beyond any authority's control, however great that authority is.

Used when: Said of a person, problem, or power that has proven itself uncontainable by any figure who has yet tried 1.

Notes: The proverb takes the largest land animal known to Yorùbá experience and the highest human office and sets them against each other, with the office losing, which is a striking admission of the limits of kingship inside a body of proverbs that elsewhere takes royal power as close to absolute.

20. Arúgbó ẹrú ò jẹ́ fẹ́; òtòṣì ọba ò singbà; ìwọ̀fà kan ò dàgbà dàgbà kó ní òun ò sin olówó mọ́.

Literal: Arúgbó ẹrú ò jẹ́ fẹ́ an-old slave is-not for-nothing òtòṣì ọba ò singbà a-poor king does-not pawn-himself ìwọ̀fà kan ò dàgbà dàgbà kó ní òun ò sin olówó mọ́ a-pawn does-not grow-old grow-old and-say he no-longer serves the-creditor.

Idiomatic: An old slave does not go for nothing; a poor king does not pawn himself; however old a pawn may be, he may not refuse to serve the creditor. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Certain obligations attach permanently to a station and cannot be aged out of or renegotiated by claiming exemption.

Used when: Said against someone who claims that time or hardship has released them from a standing duty 1.

Notes: Ìwọ̀fà, the pawn, is a person working off a debt through labor, a real institution in Yorùbá economic life, and the proverb's middle clause admits without flinching that a king himself is not exempt from the logic of debt: even a poor king does not pawn away the kingship. This is one of the plainer statements in the set that royal status does not lift a person out of ordinary obligation.

21. Bí a bá ńṣe gègé ìjà, ká mú ti ológbò kúrò; ọba lọba ńjẹ́.

Literal: Bí a bá ńṣe gègé ìjà if one is drawing-lots-for fighting ká mú ti ológbò kúrò let-us take the-cat's out ọba lọba ńjẹ́ a-king is-what a-king remains.

Idiomatic: If people cast lots to determine the best fighter, a cat should be set aside; a king is a king. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Some competitors are so obviously superior that including them in an open contest defeats the purpose of the contest.

Used when: Said when a clearly dominant party should be excluded from, rather than pitted against, weaker rivals 1.

Notes: The closing clause, ọba lọba ńjẹ́, "a king remains a king," is used here as a stock intensifier for uncontested supremacy in an entirely secular, even comic context, wrestling among animals, which shows how far the vocabulary of kingship had become general currency for describing any settled hierarchy, not only political ones.

22. Bí ọba ò kú, ọba ò jẹ.

Literal: Bí ọba ò kú if a-king does-not die ọba ò jẹ a-king is-not crowned.

Idiomatic: If a king does not die, a king is not crowned. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: One event's ending is the necessary condition for the next one's beginning; there is a fixed order things must follow.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: there is a certain order to events, and every event has its purpose 1. Used generally of any process that cannot begin until its predecessor has properly concluded.

Notes: Jẹ here is used in its extended sense of assuming or occupying an office (as in jẹ ọba, to reign), not eating, and the proverb depends on treating the king's death and the successor's accession as two sides of a single, indivisible event, since a Yorùbá kingship cannot in principle stand empty and occupied at once.

23. Ẹran ọba ló fi ṣu ọba jẹ.

Literal: Ẹran ọba the-king's animal ló fi ṣu ọba jẹ is-what ate the-king's yam.

Idiomatic: It is the king's goat that has eaten the king's yams. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: When offender and victim both belong to the same person or party, punishment serves no purpose.

Used when: Said to defuse a dispute where both sides of the harm trace back to one interested party 1.

Notes: Owomoyela's gloss makes this explicit: the offender and the offended are virtually one and the same, so there is no need for punishment 1. The king is doubly present in the proverb, as owner of both the damage and the loss, which is what makes the case for leniency automatic rather than argued.

24. Ilé ọba tó jó, ẹwà ló bù sí i.

Literal: Ilé ọba tó jó the-house-of king that burned ẹwà ló bù sí i beauty is-what added to-it.

Idiomatic: The conflagration that destroyed the king's palace only makes it more palatial. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Disaster can leave something better in its place than what it destroyed.

Used when: Said as consolation after a loss, when the rebuilding or replacement stands to improve on the original 1.

Notes: Owomoyela's gloss: there are blessings hidden in every disaster 1. The proverb specifically chooses the king's palace, the most consequential possible loss to the town, to make the claim about hidden benefit as forceful as the genre allows.

25. Iyì lọba fi orí bíbẹ́ ṣe; ọba kì í mu ẹ̀jẹ̀.

Literal: Iyì lọba fi orí bíbẹ́ ṣe awe is-what king with head-cutting does ọba kì í mu ẹ̀jẹ̀ king does-not drink blood.

Idiomatic: A king derives only awe from beheading people; the king does not drink blood. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: The exercise of a harsh power should serve its formal purpose alone, not appetite.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: one does certain things out of duty and not from desire 1. Used of anyone carrying out a severe duty who is expected to do so without relish.

Notes: The proverb assumes capital punishment as a real function of Yorùbá kingship, part of the office's authority to enforce order, and uses the image of drinking blood, which the king emphatically does not do, to draw a line between lawful severity and personal cruelty.

26. Ọjà ọba ò mọ̀ pé ẹnìkan ò wá.

Literal: Ọjà ọba the-king's market ò mọ̀ pé does-not know that ẹnìkan ò wá one-person did-not come.

Idiomatic: The king's market does not know that a person is absent. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: A single missing contributor will not derail a large, established undertaking.

Used when: Said to console or deflate someone who believes their absence from a collective project will be sorely felt 1.

Notes: Owomoyela's gloss: an individual's input, if withheld, will not disrupt the project of the community 1. Fixing the market as the king's, rather than an ordinary town market, sets the scale of the enterprise deliberately large, so the individual's absence looks smaller by contrast.

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Chieftaincy titles: winning them, wearing them, losing them

27. A kì í fi ni joyè àwòdì ká má lè gbá adìẹ.

Literal: A kì í fi ni joyè àwòdì one does-not give one the-title-of hawk ká má lè gbá adìẹ and one-be-unable-to snatch chicken.

Idiomatic: One cannot be given the title "eagle" and yet be incapable of snatching chickens. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: A title carries an expectation of the performance that earned it, and holding the name without the substance is a contradiction.

Used when: Said of someone enjoying the prestige of a position while failing at the function it names 1.

Notes: Owomoyela's gloss: one should be able to live up to expectations 1. Chieftaincy and honorific titles in Yorùbá are frequently drawn from praise-names for formidable animals or qualities, so the proverb's logic, that the name is a claim the holder must make good on, applies well beyond this one example.

28. A kì í jẹ oyè ẹnu ọ̀nà kalẹ̀.

Literal: A kì í jẹ oyè one does-not hold the-title-of ẹnu ọ̀nà gatekeeper kalẹ̀ until-nightfall.

Idiomatic: One does not bear the title of gatekeeper even until nighttime. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: As a person's rank rises, their responsibilities should rise with it rather than lighten.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: as one advances in age, so should one's responsibilities advance in gravity and importance 1. Said against treating an advancement as license to slacken.

Notes: The gatekeeper's title is deliberately chosen as a minor, entry-level post; the proverb's force depends on the reader supplying that this is the lowest rung, so holding even it briefly, let alone longer, is already too casual a relationship to responsibility.

29. Àì-kúkú-joyè, ó sàn ju, "Ẹnu mi ò ká ìlú" lọ.

Literal: Àì-kúkú-joyè not-at-all-holding-a-title ó sàn ju is-better than "Ẹnu mi ò ká ìlú" "my-mouth does-not encompass the-town" lọ than.

Idiomatic: Not-assuming-the-position-of-ruler-at-all is far better than, "My word is not heeded by the people." (Owomoyela)

Meaning: It is better to have never held authority than to hold it and be ignored.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: a person who does not assume a responsibility is better off than a person who takes it on and fails to fulfill it 1.

Notes: The compressed negated-nominal construction Àì-kúkú-joyè packs "not even having gone so far as to take a title" into one word, a device this corpus has already noted in file 10 with forms like À-bí-ì-kọ́, and it is common in Owomoyela's transcriptions of this proverb type.

30. A kì í fi owó du oyè-e alágbára.

Literal: A kì í fi owó du one does-not with money contest oyè-e alágbára the-title-of the-powerful.

Idiomatic: One does not rely on money to contest a chieftaincy reserved for the strong. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Some positions are decided by a qualification wealth cannot substitute for.

Used when: Said against someone attempting to buy their way into a role that in fact requires a different kind of fitness 1.

Notes: This proverb runs parallel to entry 10 above, on the gbedu drums no ordinary wealth can license, and together they mark out a category of Yorùbá titles and honors this corpus's proverb-collection treats as genuinely closed to purchase, against the far larger set of proverbs elsewhere praising what money can do.

31. Arìngbèrè ni yó mú oyè délé; asáré tete ò róyè jẹ.

Literal: Arìngbèrè the-one-who-walks-unhurried ni yó mú oyè délé is-who-will bring title home asáré tete the-one-who-runs early ò róyè jẹ does-not get-to-hold title.

Idiomatic: The person who walks casually is the one who walks off with the title; the person who rushes gets no title to hold. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Patience and unhurried conduct, not haste, are what actually secure a contested position.

Used when: Said to counsel calm to someone competing anxiously for an appointment or honor 1.

Notes: The proverb inverts the ordinary expectation that speed wins a contest, and applies the inversion specifically to the deliberative, patronage-dependent process of winning a chieftaincy, where visible eagerness could easily read as presumption to the people who confer the title.

32. O fẹ́ joyè o ní o-ò ní-í jà.

Literal: O fẹ́ joyè you want to-hold-title o ní o-ò ní-í jà you say you-will-not fight.

Idiomatic: You aspire to taking a chieftaincy title, and you say you will not get into a fight. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Wanting a position of standing while refusing the contest that comes with it is self-deception.

Used when: Said to someone who wants the reward of a struggle without accepting the struggle itself 1.

Notes: Owomoyela's gloss: it is self-deceit to wish for something without being prepared for the struggle that getting it demands 1. Chieftaincy succession in Yorùbá polities was frequently genuinely contested among rival candidates or lineage branches, so "fight" is not purely figurative here.

33. Adékànmbí ò du oyè; ó bèèrè ni.

Literal: Adékànmbí [a-name] ò du oyè does-not contest title ó bèèrè ni he is-only-asking.

Idiomatic: Adékànmbí is not contesting a title; he is merely asking a question. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Stating a plain entitlement is not the same act as an ambitious bid, whatever it might look like to onlookers.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: one should not be coy in demanding one's rights 1.

Notes: Owomoyela's endnote glosses this as referring to a legitimate heir simply confirming what is already his by right, so the proverb's point is that asking after your own due should not be mistaken for the aggressive act of contesting someone else's 1.

34. Orúkọ lẹ̀gbọ́n oyè.

Literal: Orúkọ a-name lẹ̀gbọ́n is-the-senior-of oyè a-title.

Idiomatic: A name is the elder of a chieftaincy title. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: A good personal reputation outranks even an important office.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: a good name is better than an important position 1.

Notes: Using the sibling-seniority frame, ẹ̀gbọ́n, to rank an abstract quality above an institutional one is the same rhetorical move this corpus's file 10 documents in the proverb ranking intention above deliberation above method; Yorùbá proverbs reach for kinship rank readily whenever they need to state that one thing precedes or outweighs another.

35. Olóyè-é kú fóyè sílẹ̀ lọ.

Literal: Olóyè-é kú the-titleholder dies fóyè sílẹ̀ lọ leaving-the-title behind.

Idiomatic: A chief dies and leaves his title behind. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: A title outlives whoever currently holds it, and passes on regardless of the individual.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: when a person dies, survivors inherit his or her place and property 1. Said at a succession, or of any office understood to continue past its current occupant.

Notes: Owomoyela pairs this with two other images of continuity past death, the fire that dies but leaves ashes and the banana plant that dies but leaves a shoot 1, placing chieftaincy in the same natural category as processes that renew themselves rather than simply ending.

36. Ilé sanmí dùn ju oyè lọ.

Literal: Ilé sanmí dùn [a-name, "home-benefits-me-well"] ju oyè lọ exceeds a-title.

Idiomatic: The-home-is-blissful-for-me is far better than a chieftaincy title. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: A peaceful domestic life is worth more than public honor.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: it is better to have a peaceful home than to be a chief 1.

Notes: The subject is a personal name built as a full sentence, "home is sweet to me," a common Yorùbá naming practice, and the proverb turns the name itself into the argument: simply pronouncing it states the preference the proverb is making.

37. Ọmọdé ò jobì, àgbà ò joyè.

Literal: Ọmọdé ò jobì a-youth does-not eat-kola-nut àgbà ò joyè an-elder does-not hold-title.

Idiomatic: The youth does not eat kola nuts; the elder does not win the chieftaincy title. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Neglecting those beneath you in standing costs you their support when you need it, whatever your own rank.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: if you do not cultivate others, even those lesser than yourself, then you cannot expect any consideration from them 1.

Notes: The kola nut is offered first to elders as a mark of respect and hospitality in Yorùbá custom, so refusing it to a youth is a small, ordinary slight; the proverb scales that small slight up to explain a large political failure, an elder's loss of a title, treating the two as the same kind of debt going unpaid.

38. Màkàn-màkàn loyè ńkàn.

Literal: Màkàn-màkàn by-turns loyè ńkàn is-how title comes-round.

Idiomatic: Chieftaincy titles go around in turns. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Whatever position is currently out of reach will come to you in its proper order.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: one's good fortune will come one's way in due time 1. Said to console someone passed over, or to explain a rotating succession.

Notes: The reduplicated ideophone màkàn-màkàn names the rotating, turn-by-turn pattern directly, a form this corpus's other files have repeatedly flagged as resistant to English, which here can only manage the flat "in turns."

39. Kàkà ká fi ọmọ oyè joyè, wọ́n ńwá ọmọ aṣọ́ẹwé.

Literal: Kàkà ká fi ọmọ oyè joyè rather-than one place the-child-of-the-title-holder to-hold-title wọ́n ńwá ọmọ aṣọ́ẹwé they seek the-child-of a-leaf-seller.

Idiomatic: Instead of placing the legitimate heir on the throne, they go in search of the son of a seller of leaves. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: A community or a decision-making body passing over the obvious, rightful candidate for someone with no claim at all.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: said of people who bypass gems in preference for pebbles 1.

Notes: The contrast between a title-holder's heir and a leaf-seller's son sets legitimate succession against an arbitrary, low-status alternative as starkly as the language allows; the proverb does not entertain the possibility that the substitute might be qualified, only that the choice was perverse.

40. Atètèdélé ní ńjoyè ẹrú.

Literal: Atètèdélé the-one-who-arrives-home-early ní ńjoyè ẹrú is-who assumes-ownership-of slaves.

Idiomatic: The-first-to-arrive-home assumes the ownership of slaves. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: Whoever gets to a claim first secures it, whatever the underlying merits.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: the race is to the swift 1.

Notes: The proverb uses the historical institution of slaveholding as its illustrative image without comment; this corpus does not endorse the institution it records, and reproduces the proverb here as an artifact of the source material and of the historical economy the proverb corpus as a whole repeatedly assumes.

41. Ikú ò jẹ́ kí ẹni ó lọ sógun; ìjà ò jẹ́ kí ẹni ó foyè sílẹ̀.

Literal: Ikú ò jẹ́ death does-not allow kí ẹni ó lọ sógun that one go to-war ìjà ò jẹ́ fighting/spoils does-not allow kí ẹni ó foyè sílẹ̀ that one abandon title.

Idiomatic: Death keeps one from going to war; spoils keep one from giving up one's chieftaincy. (Owomoyela)

Meaning: The fear of loss and the appeal of gain are equally strong reasons for keeping people bound to their positions.

Used when: Owomoyela's gloss: thoughts of the advantages of a position make one reluctant to contemplate giving it up 1.

Notes: The proverb pairs two very different holds on a person, mortal fear on the one hand, appetite for reward on the other, and treats them as functionally identical brakes on a person's willingness to walk away from a commitment.

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Reading these proverbs

Three observations specific to this theme.

The proverbs are more willing to state limits on the ọba than a reader might expect from a sacral kingship. Entries 19 and 20 both put a hard boundary on royal power, one in the shape of an animal no king can tame, the other in the admission that even a poor king cannot pawn away his office. Read beside yoruba-owe-proverbs, which already records that whoever depends on the king depends on death, the corpus as a whole treats the ọba as formidable rather than infallible, and treats getting too close to that power as the real danger, more often than it treats the power itself as benign.

Chieftaincy titles, oyè, get a distinct and more mundane treatment than kingship. Where the ọba proverbs deal in coral beads, elephant tusks and the power of life and death, the oyè proverbs deal in patience, timing, favoritism, and the ordinary jealousy of being passed over, entries 31, 37 and 39 especially. The gap between the two registers is itself evidence that Yorùbá speakers experienced kingship and chieftaincy as different in kind, not merely in degree, a numerous rank of offices below a singular sacred one.

Several entries assume that authority is inherently entangled with obligation rather than simple privilege, and this file's proverbs on that point should be read together with file 10's proverbs on the household head, particularly its observation that seniority in the compound is a burden of duty as much as a claim to deference. Entry 25 here, that the king derives only awe and not appetite from a beheading, makes the same claim about the largest scale of authority this corpus records: even the harshest power is bound to serve a function rather than a desire.