Thirty-eight Yorùbá proverbs on the crown, the throne, the palace and the offices around them, on what a king owns and what he cannot forbid, and on how a person is placed on a throne or kept off one, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
This file is about the objects and places of Yorùbá kingship rather than about the person of the king. Adé is the crown, specifically the beaded conical crown with a fringe that only certain rulers may wear. Ìtẹ́ is the throne, from tẹ̀, to press or to be set down. Kọ̀bì is the palace audience chamber, ààfin the palace itself, and bàrà the royal mausoleum, which carries a chieftaincy title of its own. Around these sit the offices: the ìlàrí courtier, the agbẹ̀fọ spokesman, the Baṣọ̀run chief adviser, the Ògbóni society whose consent a would-be king needs. The proverbs collected here are about what those objects confer, what they cost, and who controls access to them. This corpus's owe-chiefs-kings-authority already covers the ọba and the olóyè as figures and the general condition of standing over other people; this file does not repeat its proverbs.
Two claims recur. The first is that the throne is a jurisdiction, and the corpus states its extent with unusual bluntness: the king owns the land, receives the customs dues, holds the right hand and the left, and his word is cut off by a razor. The second is that this jurisdiction stops at the edge of ordinary life, and that the corpus knows exactly where the edge is. A king cannot outlaw a chicken from scratching in the moonlight, cannot make a blind man's blindness a reason to stop calling out to a vegetable seller, and cannot be enthroned by himself. The strongest political statements in the file are the ones that draw the second line, and they sit two or three entries away from the ones that draw the first.
Thirty-eight proverbs are given here in four groups: the crown and the throne, what the king owns, the limits of the office, and the offices around the throne. The proverbs are given in Owomoyela's texts and translations . Owomoyela's parenthetical usage notes are the basis of the Used when lines; where the wording of a note is his, it is quoted. Anything marked as the compiler's is this corpus's own and carries lower confidence.
Owomoyela prints full standard orthography with tone marks and subdots, and his texts are reproduced here as printed . He attaches no informant to any proverb, holding that proverbs are communal property . In this file that anonymity matters less than usual, because a large number of the entries name real towns, real titles and real institutions, and those names date and place the sayings on their own. Ọ̀yọ́, Akẹ̀sán market, Ìbàrà, Ẹ̀hìn Ìgbẹ̀tì, Ìkòròdú, the Ògbóni society and the Baṣọ̀run all appear, and where Owomoyela footnotes one of them his note is reported and attributed to him.
Literal: Ọba ò ní fìlà the-king has-no cap, adé ló ní it-is-a-crown he-has.
Idiomatic: "The king has no hat; he has only crowns."
Meaning: The item on his head is not the item on anyone else's head, and the distinction is not one of quality.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The king is not to be compared with ordinary people"
Notes: Fìlà is the ordinary Yorùbá cap worn by every man, and adé is the beaded crown with a veil of strung beads over the face, restricted to rulers whose right to wear it derives from a recognised dynastic claim. The proverb is not a compliment but a statement of category: the king's head is not covered by a smaller version of what covers other heads. Compare owe-head-face-ori, where what sits on the head is the standing subject.
Literal: Ẹní dádé whoever wears-a-crown ti kúrò lọ́mọdé has left childhood.
Idiomatic: "The person who wears a crown has outgrown childhood."
Meaning: The object changes what may be expected of the wearer immediately.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A high office carries high responsibilities with it"
Notes: Dádé contracts dé adé, to put on the crown, and the verb dé is the ordinary one for covering the head, which is what makes entry 1's distinction necessary. The proverb is used of anyone newly given standing, not only of kings, and it is one of the corpus's compressed statements about how office reconstitutes a person. Compare entry 18 of owe-chiefs-kings-authority on the irreversibility of taking a title.
Literal: Bí ọba ò kú if a-king does-not die, ọba ò jẹ a-king does-not eat.
Idiomatic: "If a king does not die, a king is not crowned."
Meaning: The throne holds one occupant and the succession waits on a vacancy.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There is a certain order to events, and every event has its purpose"
Notes: Jẹ ọba, to eat the kingship, is the standard Yorùbá idiom for reigning, and it applies equally to jẹ oyè, to eat a title. The metaphor of consumption rather than occupation runs through the whole vocabulary of Yorùbá office, and it is why entry 26's proverb about the king's goat and the king's yams reads as it does. This is a variant of entry 22 of owe-chiefs-kings-authority, which Owomoyela prints separately; the texts differ and both are recorded.
Literal: Ògbójú ò tẹ ara ẹ̀ nÍfá the-bold-one does-not press Ifá for himself; ọ̀mọ̀ràn ò fara ẹ̀ joyè the-sage does-not use-himself to-eat-a-title; ọ̀bẹ tó mú ò gbẹ́ ẹ̀kù ara ẹ̀ the-sharp knife does-not carve its-own hilt.
Idiomatic: "The intrepid person does not consult the Ifá oracle on his own behalf; the sagacious person does not enthrone himself; the sharpest knife does not carve its own hilt."
Meaning: Three competences that cannot be turned on their own possessor.
Used when: Owomoyela: "No matter how powerful and accomplished one might be, one will need other people for some things"
Notes: The three clauses are not decoration, they are a graded argument, and the middle one is the political claim: enthronement is something done to a person by others. This is the corpus's own statement of the kingmakers' function even though no kingmaker is named, and it matches the constitutional fact that a Yorùbá ruler is selected and installed by a body of titled electors. Tẹ Ifá, to press Ifá, is the technical phrase for divining; see owe-ifa-babalawo-divination. The knife that cannot carve its own hilt belongs with owe-weapons-defence-vulnerability.
Literal: Ojú ìkà in-the-face-of the-wicked-one la ti ń fi ọmọ olóore jọba is-where we make the-good-person's child eat-the-kingship.
Idiomatic: "It is in the presence of the wicked person that the son of the good person is crowned king."
Meaning: The enemy is made to watch the elevation rather than being removed before it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The wicked will live long enough to see the good prosper"
Notes: Ojú, face or presence, is the operative word: the proverb requires an audience and specifies who it is. Yorùbá installation is a public sequence of rites conducted before the town, so being present at a rival's coronation is not hypothetical. This entry has a near-twin at entry 8 of owe-chiefs-kings-authority with the same opening; Owomoyela prints both texts and the corpus records both.
Literal: Àti dádé Olókun the-crowning of-Olókun ò ṣẹ̀hìn òkun is-not behind-the-back-of the-sea; àti dádé Ọlọ́sà ò ṣẹ̀hìn ọ̀sà the-crowning of-Ọlọ́sà is-not without the-lagoon; àti dádé ekìnnìún ò ṣẹ̀hìn Olú igbó the-crowning of-the-lion is-not without the-Lord-of-the-forest.
Idiomatic: "The crowning of the Olókun, goddess of the sea, will not be in the absence of the sea; the crowning of the Ọlọ́sà, goddess of the lagoon, will not be in the absence of the lagoon; the crowning of the lion will not be in the absence of the deity of the forests."
Meaning: No one is crowned apart from the domain the crown is over.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Nothing can be accomplished without God's help"
Notes: Ṣẹ̀hìn, to be behind the back of, means to happen without someone's knowledge or consent, so each clause says the domain must be a party to the enthronement of its ruler. Owomoyela's gloss generalises this into a claim about God, which is a reading rather than a translation, and it does not obviously follow from the text; the Yorùbá is about jurisdiction. Olókun and Ọlọ́sà are the òrìṣà of sea and lagoon; see owe-orisa-tradition-speech. Read with entry 4, the file has two independent statements that a crown is conferred and not assumed.
Literal: Èṣì error ò rọ́ba dádé does-not wait-for-the-king to-wear-a-crown.
Idiomatic: "Error does not await the king before it dons a crown."
Meaning: Some things do not need to be authorised before they take office.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Native genius needs no external cultivation"
Notes: Owomoyela's full text continues with three further clauses, on Ògúnṣọṣẹ́ not waiting for the sun before donning a bloody cloak, on the flower not waiting for the sun before it brightens, and on brightness coming with the child from its house . His footnote glosses the name Ògúnṣọṣẹ́ as "Ògún [the god of iron] has caused a disaster" The first clause alone is quoted here because it is the one that bears on kingship, and readers should note the fuller proverb. The image is precise: error crowns itself, which is exactly what entries 4 and 6 say a king cannot do.
Literal: Àjẹkù lóko àgbẹ̀ the-leavings from-the-farmer's-farm lọba ń jẹ lórí ìtẹ́ is-what the-king eats on the-throne.
Idiomatic: "It is the leavings from the farmer's farm table that the king eats on his throne."
Meaning: What arrives at the throne is what someone else grew and did not eat.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Each profession fills a unique need" Owomoyela cross-references 738 .
Notes: Àjẹkù, leftovers, is a deliberately deflating word to put in the same sentence as ìtẹ́, the throne, and Owomoyela's gloss about professions is considerably milder than the text. What the Yorùbá says is that the king's food is the farmer's surplus, which is a statement about tribute and dependency. Read against entry 3 of owe-victory-defeat-surrender, where the warrior eats kola and the farmer eats bitter nuts, the corpus argues the hierarchy of eating from both ends.
Literal: Ọba mẹ́wàá ten kings, ìgbà mẹ́wàá ten eras.
Idiomatic: "Ten kings, ten eras."
Meaning: A reign is a unit of time as well as a unit of authority.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Each generation has its peculiar fashions and tastes"
Notes: Four words in Yorùbá and four in English, which is unusually close, and the parallelism is the whole device. Ìgbà is a period or an occasion rather than a numbered year, and dating by reigns is how Yorùbá dynastic history is actually kept, in the king lists recited at Ọ̀yọ́, Ifẹ̀ and elsewhere. The proverb is therefore a piece of chronological practice as much as a saying about taste.
Literal: Ó kù dẹ̀dẹ̀ it remained just-a-little ká kó iwì wọ Akẹ̀sán for-us to-carry chanting into Akẹ̀sán, ọba tí à ó yìn-ín the-king whom we-would praise tẹ́rí gba ṣọ bowed-the-head and-received the-cloth.
Idiomatic: "We were just about to enter Akẹ̀sán market with our praise-singing performance when the king we would honor gave up the ghost."
Meaning: The gift arrives after the recipient has stopped being able to receive it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One's gifts or services may be too late to be of any use to the recipient"
Notes: Tẹ́rí gba ṣọ, to bow the head and take the cloth, is a euphemism for dying, and the English "gave up the ghost" replaces one euphemism with another rather than translating. Owomoyela's note on a related entry identifies Akẹ̀sán as "the king's market in Ọ̀yọ́", traditionally at the edge of the city and "the focus of important events in the life of the city" The proverb therefore places the whole scene in Ọ̀yọ́, and iwì is the chanted praise poetry performed for a ruler; see owe-market-as-place and owe-prayer-blessing-curse.
Literal: Ọba lóni lẹ̀ the-king is-the-owner-of the-land.
Idiomatic: "The king is the owner of the land."
Meaning: Title in land rests finally with the throne.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There is no higher authority on earth than the king"
Notes: Four words that state the constitutional position: land in a Yorùbá town is held of the ọba, and lineages hold use rights under him rather than freehold. Owomoyela's gloss adds "on earth", which the Yorùbá does not say and which entries 22 and 23 supply elsewhere. This proverb is the base of the group and entries 12 through 14 extend it into revenue and territory. Compare owe-land-soil-inheritance-of-place.
Literal: Ọba ní ń gba owó ibodè it-is-the-king who receives the-money of-the-town-gate.
Idiomatic: "It is the king who receives customs dues."
Meaning: Revenue at the boundary belongs to the throne.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The wealth of the community belongs to the king"
Notes: Ibodè is the gate in the town wall where goods entering were assessed, a real institution of the walled Yorùbá town and one of the main sources of royal income. The proverb is a statement of fiscal fact rather than a metaphor, and it is one of the entries in this file whose evidentiary value is historical. See owe-town-city-village and owe-doorway-threshold-boundary.
Literal: Ọba ní ń jẹ ọrọ̀ it-is-the-king who eats prosperity.
Idiomatic: "It is the king who enjoys all prosperity."
Meaning: Wealth accrues to the throne as a matter of course.
Used when: Owomoyela: "It is the king's lot to prosper"
Notes: The verb is again jẹ, to eat, which is the same verb as in jẹ ọba at entry 3, so the king eats the kingship and eats the prosperity in the same word. Owomoyela's "enjoys" is a smoothing; the Yorùbá keeps the metaphor of consumption throughout and does not distinguish holding office from consuming its yield.
Literal: Ọba tó ni apá ọ̀tún the-king who owns the-right side ló ni apá òsì is-who owns the-left side.
Idiomatic: "The king who owns the area to the right also owns the area to the left."
Meaning: The jurisdiction has no partition inside it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The lord of all has authority over all"
Notes: Ọ̀tún and òsì are not merely directions in Yorùbá political vocabulary but the names of paired chieftaincy divisions, so a town's titled offices are commonly ranked as right-hand and left-hand sets. The proverb therefore says the king holds both wings of his own chieftaincy structure, which is sharper than a claim about geography. Owomoyela prints entries 11 through 14 consecutively and they should be read as a block.
Literal: Ọ̀rọ̀ tí ọbá bá sọ a-word that the-king speaks, a bẹ́ gé e it-is severed-by-a-razor.
Idiomatic: "Whatever the king says is severed by a razor."
Meaning: There is no appeal and no continuation after the king has spoken.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The king's word is final"
Notes: Owomoyela's footnote is the entry's substance: a bẹ́ gé e, "it is severed by a razor," is a general expression indicating finality, and here "the proverb plays on the idea that the circumciser uses a sharp razor to ply his trade" So the finality is a surgical one, and it is borrowed from a procedure that cannot be reversed. English "final" carries the sense and loses the instrument.
Literal: Àjọ ni tìlú the-consultative-gathering belongs-to the-town; ọba ló lagbo the-king owns the-assembly-circle.
Idiomatic: "The assembly is for the people; to the king belongs the crowd."
Meaning: The people may convene, and only the throne convenes them as one body.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The populace may gather, but only the king can unite them"
Notes: Owomoyela's footnote draws the distinction the translation cannot: "Àjọ suggests a gathering of individuals for consultation; agbo suggests a coming-together for a ceremony or celebration in common" The proverb is therefore about two different kinds of assembly and assigns the ceremonial one to the king, which is precisely the Yorùbá constitutional division between deliberation and ritual convocation. This is the most institutionally exact proverb in the file.
Literal: Ọba ní ń gba a-láì-lárá it-is-the-king who defends the-one-without-kin.
Idiomatic: "The king is the defense of the person who has no kin."
Meaning: Where lineage protection fails, the throne is the remaining recourse.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The king is the ultimate protector of his people"
Notes: Ará here is kin or relations rather than body, and the compound a-láì-lárá names a person with no lineage behind them, which in a society organised by ìdílé is a description of total exposure. The proverb states the throne's obligation rather than its power, and it is the counterweight in this file to entries 11 through 15. Compare owe-family-lineage-compound and owe-stranger-guest-hospitality.
Literal: Ọba kì í dọ̀bálẹ̀ the-king does-not prostrate fólórí abúlé for the-head-of-a-hamlet.
Idiomatic: "The king does not prostrate before the head of a village."
Meaning: Obeisance runs one way and the direction is fixed by rank, not by circumstance.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The person of superior rank does not pay obeisance to a person in an inferior position"
Notes: Dọ̀bálẹ̀ is the full prone prostration performed by men in greeting a senior, distinct from kúnlẹ̀, kneeling, performed by women, and the choice of verb makes the proverb specific about the gesture withheld. Abúlé is a hamlet or farm settlement dependent on a town, so the pairing is deliberately lopsided. Compare entry 24 below, where a hierarchy is inverted in the superior's absence.
Literal: Ọbá lè ṣòfin olè can the-king make-a-law against theft kí adìẹ má jẹ̀ lóṣùpá so-that a-chicken does-not feed in-moonlight?
Idiomatic: "Can the king interdict stealing and thus stop a chicken from scratching for food in the moonlight?"
Meaning: The law reaches conduct that is chosen and not conduct that is constitutive.
Used when: Owomoyela: "No law or authority has the right to stop people from conducting their normal lives"
Notes: Ṣòfin, to make law, is the specific verb for royal legislation, so the proverb is about the reach of statute rather than about power generally. Owomoyela's gloss says "has the right", which is stronger than the Yorùbá, since the text is delivered as a rhetorical question about capacity. That gap between the text and his own gloss is worth noting: the Yorùbá asks whether the king can, and Owomoyela answers whether he may. The proverb is the sharpest limit-setting statement in the file.
Literal: A kì í pé ojú ọbá fọ́ one does-not say the-king's eyes are-blind ká má pe ẹlẹ́fọ̀ọ́ mọ́ and-therefore stop calling the-vegetable-seller.
Idiomatic: "One cannot, simply because the king is blind, stop hailing the vegetable seller."
Meaning: Ordinary transactions do not stop because a great person might take offence at them.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Fear of a touchy authority figure should not rule one's life"
Notes: Owomoyela's footnote reports the mechanism: the proverb "plays on the syllable fọ́, the verb that means 'to go blind' when it refers to eyes" and that also appears in ẹlẹ́fọ̀ọ́, the seller of ẹ̀fọ́, greens . The whole proverb is therefore a pun and its point is that a sound resembling the king's affliction cannot be banned from the market. English can render either the pun or the sense, and Owomoyela chooses the sense. This is one of the corpus's clearest cases for owe-tonal-wordplay.
Literal: Ẹní bá rí kun ní mú ọlọ́jà whoever sees mucus in the-nose of-the-market-lord ní ń fọn ọ́n is-who blows it.
Idiomatic: "Whoever sees mucus in the nose of the king is the one who cleans it."
Meaning: Noticing an exalted person's defect makes you responsible for it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Tactless or indiscreet people usually rue their bad judgment" Owomoyela cross-references 962 .
Notes: Ọlọ́jà, owner of the market, is a title of the ọba and the word Owomoyela translates as "king" here; the market's royal ownership is treated at entries 2 through 5 of owe-palace-shrine-grove. The proverb is a rule about looking rather than about speaking, which is the harder version: the offence is already complete at the moment of observation. Compare entries 3 and 4 of owe-chiefs-kings-authority on insulting a king with a visible affliction.
Literal: A-mòòkùn-ṣolè one-who-goes-under-cover-to-steal, bí ọba ayé ò rí ọ if the-king of-the-world does-not see you, tọ̀run ń wò ọ́ the-one-of-heaven is-watching you.
Idiomatic: "Person-who-lies-low-to-do-evil: if the king on earth does not see you, the king of heaven is looking at you."
Meaning: Escaping the visible jurisdiction does not clear the case.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Nothing one does is hidden from God"
Notes: The proverb assumes an ọba in heaven parallel to the ọba on earth, and the parallel is structural rather than metaphorical: Yorùbá thought describes Ọlọ́run and Ọlọ́dùmarè in the vocabulary of kingship. The construction limits the earthly king's reach in the same movement in which it affirms his office, which is the file's characteristic move. Compare owe-olodumare-supreme-being and entry 7 of owe-chiefs-kings-authority.
Literal: Àwòdì ò sí ńlé the-hawk is-not at-home, kan-na-kán-ná ń ṣebí ọba lóko the-crow behaves-like a-king on-the-farm.
Idiomatic: "The hawk is away, and the crow behaves like a king on the farm."
Meaning: Precedence is asserted by whoever is present when the real holder is not.
Used when: Owomoyela: "In the absence of the hawk, the crow is king"
Notes: Kan-na-kán-ná is an onomatopoeic name for the crow, imitating its call, so the bird is named by the noise it makes, which suits a proverb about a creature whose claim rests on being audible. The hawk, àwòdì, is the corpus's standard predator of the farmyard; see owe-farm-bush-wild. The proverb is used of deputies and stand-ins, and it is the ironic counterpart of entry 18.
Literal: Ìlú là ḿbá ọba gbé it-is-a-town we share with the-king, kí ìjòyè má tẹ̀wá mọ́lẹ̀ pa let-the-chief not stomp-us into-the-ground and-kill-us.
Idiomatic: "One is able to live in the same town with the king; the chief should not stomp us to death."
Meaning: If the greater authority is bearable, the lesser one has no excuse.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The minor official should not impose on people more than the important officials do" Owomoyela cross-references the preceding entry .
Notes: The argument is a fortiori and the corpus uses this form often: the greater case is conceded in order to make the lesser one indefensible. Tẹ̀ ... mọ́lẹ̀, to press into the ground, is built on the same root tẹ̀ that gives ìtẹ́, the throne, and ẹ̀tẹ́, disgrace, so the chief pressing people down and the king seated on a thing that presses are the same verb. That is not audible in English at all. See owe-victory-defeat-surrender on the same root.
Literal: Ká jà ká re Ọ̀yọ́ let-us fight and-go to Ọ̀yọ́, ká mọ ẹni tó lọba that-we-may-know whose the-king is.
Idiomatic: "Let us quarrel and go to Ọ̀yọ́, and we will see on whose side the king is."
Meaning: The dispute will be settled by whose patron the throne turns out to be.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Boast that one would have the powers-that-be on one's side in any quarrel"
Notes: The proverb names Ọ̀yọ́ specifically, which places it in the political geography of the Ọ̀yọ́ empire, when the Aláàfin's court was the appellate authority for a wide area and travelling there to have a case decided was a real procedure. It records not a principle but a practice, and its confidence is somebody's rather than the corpus's: Owomoyela labels it a boast. Compare entry 27 for the same court seen from a distance.
Literal: Ẹran ọba the-king's animal ló fi ṣu ọba jẹ is-what ate the-king's yams.
Idiomatic: "It is the king's goat that has eaten the king's yams."
Meaning: Both the offender and the injured party are inside the same household, so there is nothing to recover.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The offender and the offended are virtually one and the same; there is no need for punishment" Owomoyela cross-references 3187 .
Notes: The proverb is a jurisdictional joke: royal justice has no purchase where the king is both parties, and the loss simply stays where it is. This is a variant of entry 23 of owe-chiefs-kings-authority, which Owomoyela prints separately with a different text; both are recorded here. The proverb is used of families and firms as often as of palaces.
Literal: Oṣùpá gbókè mỌ̀yọ́ the-moon stays-on-high and-knows Ọ̀yọ́; ọbá gbélé mọ ará oko the-king stays-at-home and-knows the-farm-dweller.
Idiomatic: "The moon remains on the firmament and knows all about Ọ̀yọ́; the king remains at home but knows all about the farm dweller."
Meaning: The throne is informed without moving because information comes to it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "An influential person does not have to be present at a place to know what goes on there" Owomoyela cross-references 2958 .
Notes: The proverb describes a working intelligence apparatus without naming it, and the Yorùbá institution behind it is the corps of royal messengers, the ìlàrí, who are the subject of entry 30 below. Setting the king beside the moon assigns him an elevated and continuous vantage, which is the same image owe-eyes-seeing-blindness uses for surveillance generally. Ọ̀yọ́ is named again, as at entry 25.
Literal: Èèyàn lásán an-ordinary person ò ní gọ̀bì has-no audience-chamber; olówó a-rich-man ò ní ìlàrí has-no royal-messengers.
Idiomatic: "An ordinary person does not have a throne room; a wealthy man does not have royal courtiers."
Meaning: Money does not buy the apparatus of a court, because the apparatus belongs to the office.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Each position has its proper privileges"
Notes: The second clause is the political one: it says explicitly that wealth and royal office are different things and that the ìlàrí, the king's messengers with their distinctive half-shaved heads, attach to the throne and not to the purse. Kọ̀bì, the same word as gọ̀bì here, is glossed by Owomoyela elsewhere as "an extension of the palace used for audiences, or for other purposes of state, or as a veranda", with approaches that are "necessarily mazelike" Compare entry 30 of owe-chiefs-kings-authority on money and titles, and owe-wealth-poverty-money.
Literal: Ẹni a pé kó wá á wo kọ̀bì one whom we invited to-come and-see the-audience-chamber: ó ní kín ìyí kọ́bi-kọ̀bi he says what is this maze-of-apartments?
Idiomatic: "The person invited to take a look at the throne-room extension exclaims, 'What a maze of apartments!'"
Meaning: Stating the property that the thing was named for adds nothing.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not waste one's breath expressing the obvious"
Notes: Owomoyela's footnote carries the whole joke: the kọ̀bì's "approaches are necessarily mazelike, a fact to be taken for granted" , and the visitor's exclamation kọ́bi-kọ̀bi is an echo of the building's own name. The proverb is architectural evidence as well as a joke, since it attests that a palace audience chamber was expected to be approached through a deliberately complicated sequence of courts. See owe-palace-shrine-grove.
Literal: ‘‘Ọba, èmi lẹrú ẹ "King, I am your slave; Baṣọ̀run, èmi lẹrú ẹ’’ Baṣọ̀run, I am your slave"; àtọba àti Baṣọ̀run both-the-king and the-Baṣọ̀run, wọn ò mọ iye ẹrú tí wọ́n rà do-they-not know the-number of-slaves they bought?
Idiomatic: "'Oh King, I am your slave; Oh Chief Adviser of the king, I am your slave'; king and chief adviser, don't they know how many slaves they bought?"
Meaning: Claiming a connection to the great fails because the great keep an exact record of who belongs to them.
Used when: Owomoyela: "It is devious to manufacture kinship to illustrious people; illustrious people know their own kin"
Notes: The Baṣọ̀run is the head of the Ọ̀yọ̀ Mèsì, the council of state at Ọ̀yọ́ and the office historically capable of compelling an Aláàfin to take his own life, so naming him alongside the ọba is a precise piece of constitutional information rather than a general reference to a courtier. The proverb also assumes slaveholding by both offices as an ordinary fact. Ẹrú ẹ, your slave, is here a formula of self-abasement in greeting rather than a statement of status, and the proverb's joke is that the formula is being taken literally.
Literal: Agbèfọ́ba the-king's spokesman kì í jẹ̀bi fún un does-not bear-guilt for him.
Idiomatic: "The king's spokesman does not bear the king's guilt."
Meaning: Speaking on behalf of authority does not transfer liability for what is said.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The servant is not liable for the master's misdeeds"
Notes: A Yorùbá ọba is customarily not addressed directly and speaks through an intermediary, so this office is a constitutional necessity rather than a convenience. The proverb resolves the obvious question that arrangement raises, which is who answers for the words, and it answers it in the spokesman's favour. Compare the Akan okyeame treated in Yankah's work on royal oratory, which Owomoyela lists in his own bibliography .
Literal: Apá ọmọdé a-youth's arms ò ká oyè-e bàrà do-not encompass the-title of-the-bàrà.
Idiomatic: "A youth's resources are not adequate for the chieftaincy of the royal mausoleum."
Meaning: Some offices require a capacity that youth has not accumulated.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A youth cannot take on the responsibilities of an elder"
Notes: Owomoyela's footnote identifies the institution: "Bàrà is the royal mausoleum of Ọ̀yọ́ kings, and important coronation ceremonies take place there" The title in question therefore has custody of the place where dead kings lie and where living ones are made, which is why it is the example chosen. Apá ò ká, the arms do not encompass, is the standard Yorùbá idiom for insufficiency, discussed at owe-hands-feet-working-body.
Literal: A kì í dun i lóyè one does-not contest-a-title against-someone ká fọ̀nà ilé-e Baálẹ̀ han ni and-show them the-way to the-Baálẹ̀'s house.
Idiomatic: "One does not compete with another for a chieftaincy title and also show the competitor the way to the king's house."
Meaning: You cannot be a rival and a guide in the same matter.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A person should be treated either as an adversary or as an ally, not as both"
Notes: Baálẹ̀, literally father of the land, is the head of a town or quarter subordinate to an ọba, and Owomoyela renders it "king" here, which flattens a real distinction in rank. The proverb assumes the physical fact that a candidate must present himself at the house of the person who decides, so knowing the way is a material advantage. It is the file's most concrete image of kingmaking as a process with an address.
Literal: Má fìkánjú jayé do-not with-haste enjoy-life, awo ilé Alárá the-mystery of the-Alárá's household; má fi wàà-wàà joyè do-not with-scrambling eat-a-title, awo Òkè Ìjerò the-mystery of Òkè Ìjerò.
Idiomatic: "Do not go impatiently about enjoying life: the oracle delivered to the [royal] Alárá household; do not rush into chieftaincy: the oracle for the people of Òkè Ìjerò."
Meaning: Both the enjoyment of life and the taking of office are spoiled by hurry.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Whoever goes about life with patience will reap untold enjoyment from it"
Notes: The proverb is cast in the form of an Ifá verse, with each clause attached to a named client, and awo here is the divination and its client rather than a mystery in the abstract. Alárá is the ruler of Àrá and Ìjerò is an Èkìtì town with its own ruler, so the addressees are royal houses being told not to hurry. Owomoyela's third clause, on a life to come that is as sweet as licking honey, is omitted here for length and readers should note it . See owe-quoted-in-ese-ifa on this form and owe-patience-suuru-restraint-temper.
Literal: O fẹ́ẹ́ joyè you want to-eat-a-title o ní o-ò ní-í jà and-you say you-will-not fight.
Idiomatic: "You aspire to taking a chieftaincy title, and you say you will not get into a fight."
Meaning: Contested offices are contested, and wanting one without the contest is wanting nothing.
Used when: Owomoyela: "It is self-deceit to wish for something without being prepared for the struggle that getting it demands"
Notes: Du oyè, to contest a title, is the ordinary Yorùbá verb for candidacy, and it is the same verb used for competing for anything, which tells the reader that Yorùbá chieftaincy selection was expected to be adversarial. Owomoyela prints a closely related text at entry 32 of owe-chiefs-kings-authority; the two differ in wording and both are recorded. Compare entry 33 above, which describes the conduct of the same contest.
Literal: Olè tó gbé fèrè ọba the-thief who took the-king's trumpet ò ró hun gbé found nothing to-take.
Idiomatic: "The thief who stole the king's bugle could find nothing to steal."
Meaning: Taking a thing you can never use is not theft, it is confusion.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There can be no rational explanation for acts of utter senselessness"
Notes: Owomoyela's note on the neighbouring entry supplies what the proverb assumes: "A kàkàkí bugle was used exclusively to announce the presence of a king" The instrument is therefore unsoundable by anyone else without immediately identifying the sounder as a thief, which is why the theft is self-defeating. The proverb documents a real regalia item of the Ọ̀yọ́ court, the long metal trumpet, and belongs with owe-drums-music-in-proverb material in owe-town-city-village.
Literal: Ẹní fi ìpọ́njú rojọ́ whoever with desperation states-a-case á jẹ̀bi ọba will-be-found-guilty-by the-king.
Idiomatic: "Whoever states his or her case in desperation will be adjudged at fault by the king."
Meaning: The manner of pleading determines the verdict as much as the facts do.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Nothing turns out well if done in desperation. Easy does it"
Notes: This is the middle clause of a three-part proverb whose other clauses concern gathering palm fruit and digging a hole in desperation ; only the clause bearing on the royal court is quoted here and readers should note the fuller text. The observation is about a real forum: cases were heard by the ọba in council, and the proverb says the court reads composure as a proxy for merit. Compare entry 1086 in Owomoyela, where a litigant who lost in the morning asks the king to hear the same words again at nightfall.
Literal: Bí a kò bá ṣe bí ẹlẹ́dẹ̀ lọ́nà Ìkòròdú if we do-not behave like a-pig on-the-road-to Ìkòròdú, a ò lè ṣe bí Adégbọrọ̀ lọ́jà ọba we cannot behave like Adégbọrọ̀ at-the-king's-market.
Idiomatic: "If one does not act like a pig on the way to Ikòròdú, one cannot act like Adégbọrọ̀ at the king's market."
Meaning: The dirt comes before the display.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Before one can live in luxury, one must soil one's hands with work"
Notes: Owomoyela's footnote supplies both halves: "Ìkòròdú is a town a few miles from Lagos (the reference is to a farm on the way to the town)", and "the name Adégbọrọ̀ means 'The crown[ed head] receives riches'" The proverb therefore turns on a name that is itself about a crown taking wealth, set against a pig on a farm road, and the king's market is where the two meet. It is the file's most compact statement of where royal display comes from, and it closes the argument entries 8 and 12 open.
Three observations across these thirty-eight proverbs.
The corpus states royal jurisdiction in the flattest language it has and then draws its boundary just as flatly. Entries 11 through 15 run four words at a time: the king owns the land, receives the gate money, eats the prosperity, holds right and left, and his word is severed by a razor. Entries 19 and 20 are longer, and they are longer because setting a limit takes an argument where asserting a power does not. What the pairing shows is that Yorùbá political thought did not treat sovereignty and its limits as opposed positions held by different parties. Both are in the same collection, in the same register, and a speaker chooses between them by situation.
Enthronement is consistently described as something done to a person. Entry 4 says the sage does not enthrone himself, entry 6 says no deity is crowned behind the back of its own domain, entry 33 assumes the candidate must be shown the way to the decider's house, and entry 7 makes error the only thing that crowns itself. Against this, entry 3 makes the vacancy the precondition. Taken together the file describes a constitutional sequence, death then selection then installation, without ever naming a kingmaker, and the absence of the word is itself evidence about the register: proverbs argue from the shape of the process, not from its offices.
Named towns and titles make this the most datable file in the section. Ọ̀yọ́ appears at entries 25 and 27, Akẹ̀sán market at entry 10, the bàrà mausoleum of the Ọ̀yọ́ kings at entry 32, the Baṣọ̀run at entry 30, Ìkòròdú near Lagos at entry 38, Alárá and Òkè Ìjerò at entry 34, and the kàkàkí trumpet at entry 36. These place a substantial part of the file in and around the Ọ̀yọ́ political system rather than in Yorùbá kingship generally, and anyone using these proverbs as evidence should treat them as testimony about that system's institutions, with the ìlàrí, the kọ̀bì, the customs gate and the royal mausoleum all attested as ordinary background rather than as ceremony.
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs on the ọba (king), the olóyè (titled chief), and the obligations, dangers and limits that come with holding power over others.
Yorùbá proverbs built on the king's palace, cult shrines, and the secret groves of Orò and the egúngún masquerade cult, showing these as real, bounded, and differently governed places within the Yorùbá town.
Sixteen Yorùbá proverbs on ìlú, the town, showing it as the site of public reputation, of collective liability for disruptive individuals, and of the deference owed to place.
Fifty-eight Yorùbá proverbs on character, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Forty-eight Yorùbá proverbs on the ọmọlúàbí ideal, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs about telling the truth, the mechanics of lying and self-deception, and the value placed on a person whose word is reliable.