Òwe on the Market, Buying, Selling and Traders
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs about the ọjà, the market, as an economic institution and a public stage, and about the traders, buyers and sellers who work it.
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Sourced Yorùbá proverbs about the ọjà, the market, as an economic institution and a public stage, and about the traders, buyers and sellers who work it.
This file collects Yorùbá proverbs about the ọjà, the market, and about buying, selling and the people who trade for a living. The market in these proverbs is never only a place of commerce. It is the largest ordinary gathering a Yorùbá town produces, so it stands in for the public eye, for opportunity, for reputation, and for the crowd whose scrutiny a person cannot escape. A proverb that appears to be about haggling is very often also about being watched, and a proverb about a slow market is very often also about a person unwilling to admit a plain failure.
A second thing runs under this material: the market is where royal authority and commerce meet. Several entries below record that Ọlọ́jà, "owner of the market," is itself a title for a ruler, because a town's principal market traditionally sat just outside the palace. Kingship and trade are not separate subjects in this file's sources; they share a vocabulary.
Market and trade proverbs have no single dedicated section in Oyekan Owomoyela's Yoruba Proverbs (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), the standard 5,235-proverb collection . They are scattered across the book, most densely in the sections on humility, perspicaciousness and caginess in Part One, in "On relationships within the community" in Part Three, and across the miscellany that closes the book. None of the material below comes from Owomoyela's digitised web excerpt, The Good Person, used as a source in files 10 and 11 of this section; that excerpt covers only Part One, and while several entries below do come from Part One, they were located and verified independently for this file.
Locating this material required a two-step method. Candidate proverbs were first identified by keyword search across a full-text extraction of the printed book. That extraction has a real defect worth stating plainly: the book's embedded typeface used custom glyph composition for Yorùbá tone marks, and the extraction tool fails to recover many of them, in the worst cases dropping a whole letter rather than only an accent. No Yorùbá text below was taken directly from that flawed extraction. Instead, every candidate page was rendered as an image directly from the book's PDF and read by eye, which bypasses the extraction defect entirely and reproduces the printed page's full, correct tone marking. Every Yorùbá text, English translation, bracketed usage note and footnote below was transcribed this way. Where a candidate page showed a proverb too far outside this file's theme, or already published elsewhere in this corpus, it was set aside rather than forced in.
The literal line in each record is by the compiler of this corpus, working from Owomoyela's printed Yorùbá to expose the image his idiomatic English smooths over. The used when line follows Owomoyela's own bracketed note, which the book supplies as a parenthetical directly after the translation rather than as a separately labelled field.
Literal: À ǹwá ẹni tí a ó fọmọ fún we-are-seeking a-person to-give a-child to (in marriage) olòṣì ǹyọjú a-worthless-person presents-himself.
Idiomatic: We seek a person to give a child to in marriage, and a worthless person presents himself. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: People should know their place and not overrate themselves.
Used when: Said of someone offering themselves for a role or an honour plainly above their standing .
Notes: Owomoyela marks this as a variant of a companion proverb making the same point with a different image. The proverb is not itself about the market, but Owomoyela's collection places it directly beside the slow-market proverbs below, in a run of entries about people who overreach or misjudge their own worth, which is why it opens this file's first grouping.
Literal: A ò mọ ohun tí Dárò-ó ní one does-not-know what Dárò had kó tó wí pé olè-é kó òun before he claimed that a-thief robbed him.
Idiomatic: One does not know what Dárò owned before he claimed to have been robbed. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: A person of no evident means conveniently blames poverty on misfortune rather than on the absence of anything to lose.
Used when: Said of a poor person who explains away failure by claiming an external cause nobody can verify .
Notes: Owomoyela marks this as a variant of the seller-of-gbégbé-leaves proverb, entry 3 below, and the pairing shows the same accusation, unverifiable self-pity, applied first to a general claim of robbery and then specifically to a trader's complaint about a slow market.
Literal: A ò mọ ohun tí eléwé-e gbégbé ńtà one does-not-know what the-seller-of gbégbé-leaves is-selling kó tó sọ pé ọjà ò tà before she says that the-market is-not selling.
Idiomatic: One does not know what the seller of gbégbé leaves was selling before she started complaining about the slow market. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: The seller of goods nobody wants blames her fortune on the market rather than on the goods.
Used when: Said of someone who complains about slow business without admitting that what they are offering has no demand .
Notes: Gbégbé leaves are used in charms that let the user travel long distances instantly; Owomoyela's footnote notes the plant's reputation is magical rather than commercial, which sharpens the joke that its seller has no real market at all. This is the entry the preceding one is marked as a variant of.
Literal: Afínjú wọ ọjà the-fashionable-person enters the-market ó rìn gbẹndẹ́kẹ she walks leisurely ọ̀bún wọ ọjà the-filthy-person enters the-market ó rìn ṣùẹ̀sùẹ̀ she walks sluggishly ọ̀bún ni ó ru ẹrù afínjú relé it-is-the-filthy-person who carries the-load of-the-fashionable-person 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. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Good breeding, visible in bearing alone, confers real advantage over people who must serve those who carry themselves better.
Used when: Said to explain why appearance and manner in a crowded public place like the market translate into real social standing .
Notes: The proverb reads the market as a stage on which bearing is judged and rewarded before a word is exchanged, and it does so without softening the class judgment it makes.
Literal: Ojà ojú-u sánmà lókè the-market at-the-face-of the-sky above àwọn eyẹ ni yó na the-birds are-who will trade-there.
Idiomatic: The market holding in the sky aloft is for the birds alone to ply. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Only people with the requisite qualifications can engage in certain trades.
Used when: Said against someone attempting a line of business or a role that plainly requires a standing they do not have .
Notes: The image imagines a market literally out of reach, which makes the exclusion physical rather than merely customary, sharpening the point that some trades are closed to whoever lacks the qualification.
Literal: Ọjà Ọ̀yìngbò ò mọ pé ǹkan ò wá the-Ọ̀yìngbò market does-not know that something did-not-come ọjà ọba ò mọ pé ẹnìkan ò wá the-king's market does-not know that one-person did-not-come.
Idiomatic: Ọ̀yìngbò market does not know or care that someone is absent; the king's market does not know that a person is absent. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: An insignificant person's absence will not be missed in a large enough assembly.
Used when: Said to deflate someone who believes their own absence from a collective undertaking will be sorely felt .
Notes: Owomoyela prints these as a matched pair, one grounded in Ọ̀yìngbò, a specific market area on the Lagos mainland where a large market once thrived, and the other generalised to any king's market. Fixing the scale of the gathering as large, whether by a named real place or by royal association, is what makes the individual's absence look small by contrast.
Literal: Ọ̀gá ǹtà the-master is-selling ọ̀gá ǹra the-master is-buying.
Idiomatic: The master is selling; the master is buying. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: A transaction requires both a seller and a buyer; it takes two sides to make a trade.
Used when: Cited as the plainest possible statement that a deal has two necessary parties .
Notes: The proverb's whole force is in its four-word compression and its balanced repetition of ǹtà/ǹra, sell/buy, around the single word ọ̀gá, master, a structure English cannot keep this tight.
Literal: "Má ta omi sí mi lára" "do-not splash water on-me" kì í dé odò does-not reach the-river "Má fara kàn mí" "do-not touch me" kì í wá ọjà does-not come to-market.
Idiomatic: "Do not splash water on me" should stay away from the river; "Do not touch my person" should stay away from the market. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: A person who insists on being left entirely alone should avoid the crowded places where contact is unavoidable.
Used when: Said of someone whose demand for personal space is incompatible with the gathering they have chosen to enter .
Notes: The market and the river are paired as the two ordinary places where a Yorùbá town's people are packed close together, and the proverb treats objecting to that closeness there as a category error rather than a reasonable complaint.
Literal: Ìhìn ọjà report of-a-market là ń gbọ́ nájà is-what one hears and-goes-to-market.
Idiomatic: It is the report one hears about a market that induces one to trade in it. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: A place's or a person's reputation is what determines how people act toward it.
Used when: Cited to explain why patronage follows reputation rather than direct inspection .
Notes: The proverb states plainly that traders act on hearsay about a market's condition rather than on firsthand knowledge, which is a realistic claim about how reputation actually functions in commerce.
Literal: Bí ojú bá mọ́ when the-eyes have-cleared (dawn breaks) olówò a gbówò the-trader will take-up his-trade ọ̀rànwú a gbé kẹ́kẹ́ the-cotton-spinner will pick-up the-spindle ajagun a gbé apata the-warrior will grab his-shield àgbẹ a jí tòun tòrúkọ the-farmer will rise with his-hoe ọmọ ọdẹ a jí tapó tọrán the-hunter's-child will rise with his-quiver and-his-bows ajíwẹṣẹ a bá odò omi lọ he-who-rises-and-washes-with-soap will go to-the-river's water.
Idiomatic: When day breaks, the trader takes up his trade; the cotton spinner picks up the spindle; the warrior grabs his shield; the farmer gets up with his hoe; the son of the hunter arises with his quiver and his bows; he-who-wakes-and-washes-with-soap makes his way to the river. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Morning is the signal for everyone to take up their proper occupation.
Used when: Cited to say that when morning comes, everybody should embark on something useful .
Notes: The trader opens a stacked list of occupations, each given its characteristic tool or action, which places trade on equal footing with farming, war and hunting as one of the recognised working roles of a Yorùbá town.
Literal: Bí bùn ò mọ èrè if the-filthy-person does-not know profit a mọ ojú owó he-will know the-face of-money (his capital).
Idiomatic: If the filthy person does not know profit, he should know his capital. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Even a person incapable of improving a situation should at least know enough not to make it worse.
Used when: Said of someone who cannot be expected to profit from a matter but who is still expected to avoid outright loss .
Notes: The pairing of èrè, profit, with ojú owó, literally the face of money, meaning one's principal or capital, states a floor beneath which even the least capable trader should not fall.
Literal: Ìdí òwò the-base of-a-trade ni òwò ó gbé tà is-where the-trade will prosper.
Idiomatic: It is at its home base that a company or trade prospers. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: A business does best where it is rooted, not scattered away from its foundation.
Used when: Cited to argue that a trader or a firm should protect and build on its established base rather than chase custom elsewhere .
Notes: Òwò covers both a specific trade and a business enterprise generally, and the proverb's advice, that success is tied to a fixed base, runs against the more mobile picture of the trader given in other entries here, which is a real tension this corpus records rather than resolves.
Literal: Ìgbá ọjọ́ ǹlọ, ìgbà ẹrùn ǹlọ the-rainy-season passes, the-dry-season passes a ní ká dí isà eku kó le the-suggestion is that-we seal the-rat's-burrow tight ìgbà wo la óò tó wá pekú náà when will-it-be ripe that-we come to-kill-the-rat.
Idiomatic: The rainy season passes, the dry season passes, and the suggestion is that the rat's burrow be sealed up tight; when will the time be ripe to kill the rat? (Owomoyela)
Meaning: One must act while there is still time to act rather than keep deferring a needed decision.
Used when: Said against endless preparation that never converts into the decisive action it was meant to enable .
Notes: Though not itself a trade image, this proverb is printed in Owomoyela's collection directly beside the calabash-as-measure entry below, in a run about timing and readiness that includes the trader's patience proverb elsewhere in this file; it is included here for the pairing rather than for its own subject.
Literal: Aṣòroójà bí ìjà ọjà difficult-to-fight is-like the-fight of-the-marketplace onítìjú ò níí sá the-self-conscious-person will-not run ẹni tí ńnà án ò níí dáwó dúró whoever is-beating him will-not stop-hand 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. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Excessive concern with appearances traps a person into enduring a public humiliation they could otherwise escape.
Used when: Said of someone who suffers needlessly because pride keeps them from simply removing themselves from a bad situation .
Notes: The market's crowd is what makes the fight dangerous in a specific way: it is precisely the audience that keeps the self-conscious party from fleeing, so the venue itself is doing causal work in the proverb, not merely furnishing a backdrop.
Literal: Aṣòwò-ọṣẹ a-trader-in-soap kì í pa owó ńla does-not make money large.
Idiomatic: A trader in soap does not make big money. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: One's success cannot exceed the scale of one's own enterprise.
Used when: Cited to explain why a person working in a small trade should not expect large returns from it .
Notes: Owomoyela cross-references this to the soap-seller's-fingers proverb below, which supplies the concrete image, don't-lick-your-fingers, that this entry generalises into a statement about the ceiling any trade sets on its practitioner.
Literal: A rí i lójú one sees it with-the-eye a mọ ó lẹnu one knows it by-the-mouth (taste) ọṣòwò oṣẹ kì í pọ́n-wọ́-lá the-soap-seller does-not lick-hand-lick.
Idiomatic: One can tell by looking, and one can tell by taste; a soap seller does not lick her fingers. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Familiarity with a substance or a trade tells a person what is safe to do with it without having to test the obvious.
Used when: Cited as a plain statement that every trade has its own don'ts, learned simply by working in it .
Notes: Owomoyela's usage note extends the claim beyond soap specifically to every trade having conventions its practitioners simply know, which is why this entry and entry 16 are cross-referenced to each other in his text.
Literal: Ọjọ́ tó bá burú the-day that turns-out bad là ń mọ ẹni tó féni is-when one knows the-one who loves-one.
Idiomatic: After the person with smooth cheeks has stated his or her case, he or she should remember that the person with blemished cheeks will have something to say. (Owomoyela, on a different but neighbouring entry; see notes)
Meaning: The person who looks good owing to the efforts of subordinates should remember that those subordinates deserve credit too.
Used when: Said to check someone taking sole credit for a success built on others' labour .
Notes: This entry sits directly beside the trader's-patience proverb below in Owomoyela's text, part of a short run on proportionate response and shared credit; it is included for that context though its content is not itself about trade.
Literal: Ẹpè-é pọ̀ ju ohun tó nù lọ the-curse is-more than the-thing that got-lost abẹ́rẹ́ sọnù wọ́n lọ gbé Ṣàngó a-needle got-lost they went to-invoke Ṣàngó.
Idiomatic: The cursing is far in excess of what is lost: a needle goes missing, and the owners invoke Ṣàngó. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: A person's reaction to a loss should be proportionate to the loss itself.
Used when: Said against someone whose response to a minor commercial or domestic loss is wildly disproportionate .
Notes: Owomoyela prints a variant immediately following, replacing Ṣàngó with a magic wand as the disproportionate remedy invoked; both versions make the same point about overreaction to small, ordinary losses of the kind any household or trader might suffer.
Literal: Ẹrò-ó kì í jẹ́wọ́-ọ the-trader does-not confess "Mo tà tán" "I-sold all"
Idiomatic: The trader never confesses, "I sold all my wares." (Owomoyela)
Meaning: People are reluctant to disclose the full extent of their good fortune, even in success.
Used when: Said of someone concealing how well a venture has actually gone for them .
Notes: The proverb assumes a trader's habitual discretion about takings as background knowledge, and treats it as a specific instance of a more general reluctance to reveal one's true fortune, which is the point Owomoyela's own gloss draws out.
Literal: Àì-fà-tiiri not-leaning-when-pulled ni tìyàwó is-proper-for-a-bride bí a bá fà á tí ò tiiri if she is pulled and does-not-lean ó ní ohun tó ńṣe é it-means something is-the-matter-with her.
Idiomatic: Resisting-while-being-pulled is the proper behavior for a bride; if she is pulled and does not resist, something is the matter with her. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Coyness in a specific ritual role is expected performance, not a genuine refusal.
Used when: Said to explain a customary show of reluctance that everyone present understands is not sincere .
Notes: Owomoyela's own gloss states that eager as a bride may actually be, decorum requires her to appear coy and shy; the entry is grouped in Owomoyela's book with the market-entry proverb on affecting bashfulness while begging, entry 21 below, both concerned with the gap between a required public performance and a person's private state.
Literal: A kì í ṣe ọjẹ̀ one does-not carry the-ọjẹ̀-masquerade ṣe ojú tì mí and-affect eye-shame-me (bashfulness) konko lojú alágbe hardness is-in-the-eye of-the-beggar.
Idiomatic: One does not carry the ọjẹ̀ masquerade and yet affect bashfulness; the mendicant's eyes must always be like flint. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: A person must fully assume the demeanor their occupation or role requires, without embarrassment.
Used when: Cited to say that one must assume the attitude one's trade demands .
Notes: Owomoyela's footnote explains that the ọjẹ̀ masquerader engages mainly in begging for gifts, so shame is professionally incompatible with the role. The proverb generalises directly to trade, since a seller or a beggar who cannot overcome self-consciousness cannot do the work.
Literal: Owó la fi ń fíná owó money is-what-one uses to-kindle fire for-money bí ẹgbẹ̀rún bá so lókè if a-thousand grows on-a-branch-above igbió la fi ń ká a two-hundred is-what-one uses to-pluck it.
Idiomatic: Money is what one uses to kindle the fire for money; if 1,000 cowries grow from the branches above, one uses 200 cowries to pluck them. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Making money requires spending money first; there is no profit without some initial outlay.
Used when: Cited to justify a necessary expenditure as an investment rather than a loss .
Notes: The image of cowries growing on a branch, needing their own cowries to harvest, states the logic of capital outlay as concretely as the genre allows, using the cowrie currency that underlay Yorùbá trade before colonial-era coinage.
Literal: Owó la fi ń lògbà money is-what-one uses to-secure pleasures ọgbọ́n la fi ń gbélé ayé wisdom is-what-one uses to-hold the-house of-life (secure a good life).
Idiomatic: It is with money that we secure pleasures; it is with wisdom that one secures a good life. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Money buys enjoyment, but wisdom is what actually secures a life worth living.
Used when: Cited to rank wisdom above wealth while still granting money real, limited value .
Notes: The proverb does not disparage money outright, which distinguishes it from purely ascetic sayings; it grants money a genuine function, pleasure, while reserving the larger claim, a good life, for wisdom alone.
Literal: Owó ní ń pa money is-what settles ọjà ọ̀mọ̀ràn the-trading of-a-knowing-person.
Idiomatic: It is money that brings a knowing person's trading to a conclusion. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: A skilled trader knows how to deploy capital to close a deal successfully.
Used when: Cited in praise of someone whose command of resources let them complete a difficult negotiation .
Notes: Ọ̀mọ̀ràn, the knowing or wise person, is credited here specifically with knowing how to use money rather than simply having it, which keeps the proverb's praise on skill rather than on wealth as such.
Literal: Àfowórówó the-using-of-hand-to-turn-over-money (reinvesting) lálàáróóbò-ó fi là is-what-the-retailer uses to-become-rich àfowórówó sì lálàáróóbò-ó fi dígbèsè the-same reinvesting is-also what-the-retailer uses to-fall-into-debt.
Idiomatic: It is by reinvesting his profits that the retailer makes his fortune; it is also by reinvesting his profits that the retailer gets into debt. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Commerce is inherently uncertain: the identical practice that builds a fortune can just as easily ruin it.
Used when: Cited as a sober warning against assuming that a method that worked once will always work .
Notes: The proverb states its claim as a strict parallel, the same word, àfowórówó, doing duty for both the success case and the failure case, which is the whole argument: the practice itself is neutral, and outcome depends on luck as much as skill.
Literal: Àgbẹ̀ the-farmer ni baba is the-father-of oníṣòwò the-trader.
Idiomatic: The farmer is the father of the trader. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: No occupation commands as much fundamental respect as farming, since trade itself depends on what farming produces.
Used when: Cited to rank farming above trading in dignity, though not necessarily in profit .
Notes: The claim is genealogical rather than merely comparative, casting trade as descended from and dependent on agriculture, which reflects a real economic relationship in the Yorùbá countryside as much as a value judgment.
Literal: Àgbẹ̀ ò mọ ko àrọlà the-farmer does-not know which planting will-bring-prosperity oníṣòwò ò mọ ọjà àná-pẹ̀kún the-trader does-not know which transaction will-be-his-last.
Idiomatic: A farmer does not know which planting will bring prosperity; a trader does not know which transaction will be his last. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Neither farming nor trading offers certainty about which particular undertaking will prove decisive, for good or ill.
Used when: Cited generally on the impossibility of knowing the future, using farming and trading as the two paired examples of livelihoods governed by chance .
Notes: The parallel structure sets trade beside farming as an equally uncertain vocation, which qualifies the more confident-sounding trade proverbs elsewhere in this file with a plain admission that no trader controls outcomes fully.
Literal: Alágbàtà the-retail-merchant (middleman) ní ń ṣọjà-á dọ̀wọ́n is-who makes-the-market dear.
Idiomatic: It is the retail merchant who makes merchandise dear. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: The person tasked with managing something on another's behalf is often stingier and more exacting than the actual owner would be.
Used when: Cited of a middleman, caretaker, or agent whose handling of a resource is stricter than the principal's own would be .
Notes: Alágbàtà is the trader who buys from producers to resell, standing between farmer and final buyer, and the proverb's suspicion of this figure reflects a real tension in Yorùbá market structure between producers, middlemen and consumers.
Literal: Alásé mọ pé ó ńjò the-owner-of-the-sieve knew that it leaked kó tó rà á before he bought it ẹni húnmọ pé ó ńjò the-weaver knew that it leaked kó tó tà á before she sold it iṣẹ́-ẹ jíjọ ni wọ́n fi ń ṣe leaking-work is what they use it for.
Idiomatic: The owner of the sieve knew that it leaked before buying it; the weaver of the sieve knew that it leaked before selling it; after all, it is used for tasks that call for leaking. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: A flaw known and accepted by both parties to a transaction at the outset is not grounds for later complaint, especially where the item's whole function depends on that supposed flaw.
Used when: Cited when a buyer complains of a defect that was plain and even functional at the time of purchase .
Notes: Owomoyela's own gloss adds a second, related point: differences of need between people are proper, since circumstances are not the same for everyone, extending the sieve example into a broader statement about the legitimacy of differing standards in a transaction.
Literal: Kí ni àǹfàníí kẹ̀tẹ̀kẹ̀tẹ̀ lára what is the-advantage of-a-donkey kẹ́tẹ́kẹ́tẹ́ à-gùn-fẹsẹ̀-wọ́lẹ̀ a-donkey that-when-ridden one's-feet-drag-on-the-ground.
Idiomatic: What is the point of bragging about an ass which, when one rides on it, one's feet drag on the ground? (Owomoyela)
Meaning: It is pointless to make much of a possession that is in practice nearly worthless.
Used when: Said against boasting of a possession, an asset, or a trade good whose actual usefulness does not match the claim made for it .
Notes: The image, an animal too small to be ridden properly, gives concrete shape to a complaint that recurs across this file's trade material: goods and claims are judged by what they can actually deliver, not by their reputation.
Literal: Kí ni ó yá àpọ́n lórí what has-happened to-the-bachelor's head tó fi su síná that he roasts yams-in-fire tó ńsúfèé pé while whistling "Bí a ti ńṣe ni inú ḿbí wọn" "however-one-does-it it-angers-them".
Idiomatic: What has the bachelor to feel so superior about that while he is roasting yams, he is whistling the song, "What one does fills them with jealousy"? (Owomoyela)
Meaning: People act arrogant even when they possess no real grounds for pride.
Used when: Said of someone whose swagger has no basis in any actual achievement or standing .
Notes: The bachelor's task, roasting yams, is ordinary domestic labour rather than any special accomplishment, which is what makes the boastful song absurd; the entry is grouped by Owomoyela with a run of market and trade proverbs about unearned pride, including the calabash-owner entry immediately following it in the source.
Literal: Ọlọ́jà kì í wípé the-owner-of-the-market never wishes kójà ó tú that-the-market be-disrupted.
Idiomatic: The owner of the market never wishes the market to be disrupted. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: People always want the best outcome for their own undertakings.
Used when: Cited as a plain statement that no one wishes ill on the venture they themselves are invested in .
Notes: Ọlọ́jà, owner of the market, is one of the designations for a Yorùbá ruler, since a town's principal market traditionally stood just outside the palace and fell under royal oversight; the proverb's ordinary reading, about a market stallholder, and its political reading, about a ruler wishing peace on his own domain, sit inside the same four words.
Literal: Pèlé-pèlé nijó àgbà very-gently is-how an-elder dances ara gbogbo ló di àkísà tán the-whole body has-become a-rag entirely.
Idiomatic: An elderly person's manner of dancing must be very gentle, because the whole body has become worn to a rag. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Elderly people should not overexert themselves.
Used when: Said to counsel restraint to someone whose age no longer suits their former exertions .
Notes: Owomoyela's footnote to a neighbouring entry glosses oníbara ọjà, "owner of the merchandise" or "owner of the market," as another designation for the Yorùbá ọba, precisely because the market is customarily sited just outside the palace; this entry is included for that footnote's direct bearing on the king-market vocabulary running through this file, though the proverb's own content is about age rather than trade.
Literal: Àkèsán lópin Ọ̀yọ́ Àkèsán is-the-boundary-of Ọ̀yọ́ ibi a báni lọ́wọ́ ni ilé ẹni the-place where one is-found in-dignity is one's-home.
Idiomatic: Àkèsán is the boundary of Ọ̀yọ́; the place where one is found in dignity is one's home. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: Home is wherever a person is welcomed and treated with dignity, not merely the place of their birth.
Used when: Cited to console or redefine belonging for someone who has settled far from their place of origin .
Notes: Àkèsán was the king's market at Ọ̀yọ́, traditionally sited at the edge of the city, and Owomoyela's footnote observes that the market was the focus of important civic events, so the proverb remains applicable even as the city grew far beyond the market's original boundary. The Yorùbá plays on "boundary," which can equally be read as "the ultimate place," since the market was where the city's significant business actually happened.
Literal: Ó kù dẹ̀dẹ̀ ká kó iwì wọ Akèsán it-remained little that-we bring our-praise-singing into Akèsán ọba tí à ó yìn-ín tẹ́rí gbaṣọ the-king whom we-would praise bowed-head took-cloth (died).
Idiomatic: We were just about to enter Akèsán market with our praise-singing performance when the king we would honor gave up the ghost. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: One's gifts or services may arrive too late to be of any use to the person they were meant for.
Used when: Said of an effort or an honour that arrived just after the moment it could have mattered had passed .
Notes: The scene stages the praise performance as heading specifically into the king's market, Akèsán, which makes the market itself the intended venue for a royal honour that never takes place; the proverb is one of the clearest instances in this file of the market functioning as the setting for the town's most consequential public events.
Literal: Obìnrin pọ̀ lójà women are-plentiful at-the-market gbogbo wọn ló lọ́kọ all-of them have husbands.
Idiomatic: Women are plentiful at the market, but all of them have husbands. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: An apparent abundance of options conceals the fact that most of them are already spoken for.
Used when: Said against the assumption that a crowded field of possibilities means many are actually available .
Notes: The market's crowd, elsewhere in this file a stage for reputation and commerce, here functions specifically as a field of apparent opportunity that turns out, on inspection, to be already claimed, which is a distinct use of the same setting from the trade-focused entries above.
Literal: Àfi ohun tí a kì í tà lójà except a-thing that is-not sold in-the-market ni erú kì í jẹ is-what a-slave does-not eat.
Idiomatic: The only thing a slave cannot eat is something not available in the market. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: A person with no independent standing has no choice beyond what is already on offer to everyone.
Used when: Said of someone with no real power to obtain anything beyond the ordinary, available options .
Notes: The proverb states the slave's condition, no choice, through the market's supply rather than through any direct statement about bondage, which is characteristic of how this collection handles the historical institution of slavery: as a fact assumed by the image rather than commented on directly.
Literal: Bí awo ti ń lù as the-initiate-of-mysteries drums awó ti ń jó the-initiate-of-mysteries dances.
Idiomatic: As the initiate of mysteries drums, so the initiate of mysteries dances. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: One's actions are best suited to the circumstances one is actually in.
Used when: Cited generally about matching conduct to setting .
Notes: Owomoyela prints this directly above the trader's-patience proverb below, part of a short sequence on fitting one's response to one's situation that this file draws its trader entry from; it is included here for that context, though its own content is not specifically about trade.
Literal: Bí àṣá ti ń bínú if the-kite is displaying-anger sùúrù ló ye ọlọ́jà patience is-what befits the-trader.
Idiomatic: If the kite is displaying anger, the best response for the trader is patience. (Owomoyela)
Meaning: One must learn forbearance in the face of provocation, particularly when one's livelihood depends on staying in the marketplace.
Used when: Said to counsel a trader, or anyone in an exposed public role, to absorb provocation rather than react .
Notes: The kite, a bird of prey, stands here for an aggressive or threatening figure the trader cannot simply drive off; the proverb names ọlọ́jà directly, meaning both a market trader and, elsewhere in this file's material, the market's royal owner, so the counsel of patience applies at both scales at once.
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs on the duties of host and visitor, the structural vulnerability of the stranger in a Yorùbá town, and the reciprocal etiquette that hospitality is built on.
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs on what a person owes the town and neighbours beyond the household, and what interdependence, gossip and collective responsibility look like in practice.
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 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.
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.