Òwe on the Road, the Journey and the Traveller

Òwe on the Road, the Journey and the Traveller · Ìpilẹ̀ṣẹ̀

Ọ̀nà is the road or the way, and àjò is the journey or the sojourn away from home. Both words recur across Owomoyela's collection as vehicles for arguments that are rarely about travel itself: about carrying one's character intact, about exposure to public view, about the difference between the traveller who returns and the one who does not. This file gathers twenty-two such proverbs. A few well-known road and journey proverbs already appear fully documented elsewhere in this corpus, in owe-iwa-character and in owe-family-lineage-compound; they are cross-referenced rather than repeated, and this file's own entries are the ones not already claimed by those files.

The proverbs

1. A kì í mú oko lọ́nà ká ṣèmáǹ lẹ́; tajá tẹran ní ḿbúni.

Literal: A kì í mú oko lọ́nà one does-not take-up a-farm-plot by-the-road ká ṣèmáǹlẹ́ and neglect-its-care; tajá tẹran ní ḿbúni both-dog and-goat reproach-one.

Idiomatic: "One does not farm a plot by the road and neglect its care; every dog and goat would ridicule one."

Meaning: A plot visible from the road is a plot under public judgement; neglecting it invites open ridicule.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Never expose yourself to insult by behaving badly in public view"

Notes: The road here functions as the axis of visibility itself: what stands beside it is judged by everyone who passes, which is the underlying logic several other entries in this file (14, 18) also draw on.

Source: Owomoyela 37.

2. Àgbàrá ba ọ̀nà jẹ́, ó rò pé òún tún ọ̀nà ṣe.

Literal: Àgbàrá ba ọ̀nà jẹ́ the-flood ruins the-road, ó rò pé òún tún ọ̀nà ṣe it thinks that it has repaired the-road.

Idiomatic: "The rain flood ruins the path believing that it is repairing it."

Meaning: Ignorance or incompetence brought to a task produces damage while believing it produces improvement.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Ignorance or incompetence in tackling a task often leads to unintended results"

Notes: The road stands in for any shared, maintained thing that an incompetent actor can ruin while intending to help, and the proverb's force is in the flood's misplaced self-satisfaction.

Source: Owomoyela 130.

3. Àwúrèbeé ní òún lè yọ̀nà; ta ní jẹ tọ ọ̀nà àwúrèbe?

Literal: Àwúrèbeé ní òún lè yọ̀nà the àwúrèbe-plant says it can make-a-path; ta ní jẹ tọ ọ̀nà àwúrèbe? who would consent to-follow àwúrèbe's-path?

Idiomatic: "Àwúrebe says it can make a path; who would wish to follow a path it makes?"

Meaning: A boast of competence one does not actually have invites no takers.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One should not offer one's services where one's abilities are inadequate"

Notes: Àwúrèbe is a plant, not an agent capable of path-making, so the proverb's absurdity is built in from the start; the road is the test that immediately exposes the false claim.

Source: Owomoyela 218.

4. O kò wọ bàtà nínú gún ò ń sáré; o lágbára màlúù?

Literal: O kò wọ bàtà nínú gún you wear-no shoes on-the-thorny-path ò ń sáré yet you are-running; o lágbára màlúù? do-you-have the-strength/hoof of-a-cow?

Idiomatic: "You wear no shoes on the thorny path and yet you are running; do you have a cow's [hoof] power?"

Meaning: Courting danger without the protection it requires is asking to be hurt.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Unless one is well fortified, one should not court danger"

Notes: The proverb's rhetorical question format, comparing the unshod traveller's bare feet unfavourably to the toughness of a cow's hoof, is characteristic of the collection's habit of measuring human recklessness against an animal's natural equipment.

Source: Owomoyela 1077.

5. Ọ̀pá gbóńgbó ní ń síwájú agbọ́nà.

Literal: Ọ̀pá gbóńgbó a-small/sturdy walking-stick ní ń síwájú is-what goes-ahead-of agbọ́nà the-person-who-walks-a-path.

Idiomatic: "It is a small walking stick that goes before the person who walks a path overhung with foliage that is wet with morning dew."

Meaning: One uses the tools at hand to clear the way for a difficult passage.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One uses the tools or weapons at one's disposal to tackle challenges"

Notes: The specific practical image, a stick used to clear dew-wet foliage overhanging a path before the walker's body passes through it, grounds an abstract claim about resourcefulness in an entirely ordinary act of Yorùbá bush travel.

Source: Owomoyela 1221.

6. Àjànàkú tí a gbẹ́ ọ̀fìn sílẹ̀ dè, erin-ín mojú; erin ò bá ibẹ̀ lọ.

Literal: Àjànàkú tí a gbẹ́ ọ̀fìn sílẹ̀ dè the-elephant for-which one digs a-pit and-waits, erin-ín mojú the-elephant reads-the-signs; erin ò bá ibẹ̀ lọ the-elephant does-not go there.

Idiomatic: "One digs a pit in the path of the elephant, but the elephant can read signs; the elephant does not go that way."

Meaning: The alert party detects and avoids a trap laid along their expected route.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "The alert person will thwart an enemy's machinations"

Notes: The proverb assumes the road or path as the predictable route an enemy would exploit for ambush, and credits the elephant's alertness with defeating that predictability, a recurring theme with entry 5's caution about unprotected travel.

Source: Owomoyela 1323.

7. Arọ ò násẹ̀ kan dí ọ̀nà.

Literal: Arọ ò násẹ̀ kan dí ọ̀nà a-cripple does-not stretch-a-leg to block the-road.

Idiomatic: "A cripple does not block the road with his legs."

Meaning: A person with a real disadvantage does not pick a fight with those who do not share it.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "A person with a handicap should not challenge those who are not handicapped"

Notes: The road here is the site of an implied confrontation, and the proverb uses the physical impossibility of a cripple's leg actually blocking a road as its image for overreach.

Source: Owomoyela 1352.

8. Ẹni àjò ò pé kó múra ilé.

Literal: Ẹni àjò ò pé the-one-for-whom the-journey did-not turn-out-well kó múra ilé should-prepare for-home.

Idiomatic: "The person for whom a journey has not been profitable should prepare to return home."

Meaning: When a venture away from home is not paying off, the sensible course is to return rather than persist.

Used when: Used to counsel giving up a failing course rather than continuing out of stubbornness.

Notes: This proverb states plainly the practical, unsentimental side of the traveller's calculus that entry 4 treats emotionally (the pull of an enjoyable sojourn); here the journey's failure, not its pleasantness, is what should trigger return.

Source: Owomoyela 1497.

9. "Gbà sókè" ni "Gbà síkọ̀"; ohun tá a bá sọ síwájú là ḿbá.

Literal: "Gbà sókè" "put-this-above/ashore" ni "Gbà síkọ̀" equals "put-this-in-the-boat"; ohun tá a bá sọ síwájú what-one throws ahead là ḿbá is-what-one finds.

Idiomatic: "'Put this above [ashore]' equals 'Put this in the boat'; it is what one throws ahead that one finds in one's path."

Meaning: One meets on the road ahead exactly what one has already sent or sown there.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One reaps the rewards of the good one sows"

Notes: The path here functions as a figure for the future generally, the place where one's past actions are encountered again, an idea this file shares with the fate proverbs collected in file 79.

Source: Owomoyela 1561.

10. Gbígbòòrò là ń ṣe ọ̀nà igi.

Literal: Gbígbòòrò là ń ṣe wide is-how-one-makes ọ̀nà igi the-path-for-a-log.

Idiomatic: "The path along which a log will be rolled must be made wide enough."

Meaning: Preparation for a large task must be made generously, not just adequately.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One should make provisions adequate for the task ahead"

Notes: The image is entirely practical, felling timber and rolling logs along a cleared path, and it grounds a general planning principle in a specific labour Yorùbá communities would recognise directly.

Source: Owomoyela 1564.

11. Ibi tí ó mọ̀ là ń pè lọ́mọ̀.

Literal: Ibi tí ó mọ̀ là ń pè lọ́mọ̀ where it stops is-what-one calls "child" (endpoint).

Idiomatic: "Where it stops, there one designates 'child.'"

Meaning: When one reaches the end of a matter, or the end of a road, one should acknowledge that end rather than pressing on past it.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "When one reaches the end of a matter, or the end of a road, one should acknowledge the end"

Notes: Owomoyela glosses this proverb with the road specifically as one of its two applications (a matter, or a road), which makes it a rare case of a proverb whose usage note names the literal, physical reading as still current alongside the metaphorical one.

Source: Owomoyela 1579, with Owomoyela's note 47.

12. "Má fi okoò mi dá ọ̀nà," ọjọ́ kan là ń kọ́.

Literal: "Má fi okoò mi dá ọ̀nà" "do-not with my-farm cut a-path," ọjọ́ kan là ń kọ́ one-day is-when-one must-teach (protest) this.

Idiomatic: "'Do not cut a path through my farm' is a protest one must make some day."

Meaning: Whoever does not eventually stand up to protest an ongoing violation will continue to have it committed against them.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Whoever does not take a stand to protest the violation of his or her rights will continue to have them violated"

Notes: The proverb depicts a specific rural grievance, a path cut carelessly through cultivated land, and uses the inevitability of eventually having to object as its general lesson about defending one's own boundaries.

Source: Owomoyela 1686.

13. "Ǹgóò wọ ọ́ kágbó" ẹ̀hìn-in rẹ̀ ni yó fi lànà.

Literal: "Ǹgóò wọ ọ́ kágbó" "I-will-drag-you into-the-bush," ẹ̀hìn-in rẹ̀ ni yó fi lànà his-own-back is-what-he-will-use to-clear-the-path.

Idiomatic: "'I will drag you through the bush' will have to clear a path with his own back."

Meaning: Whoever threatens to cause trouble for another must be prepared to bear some of that trouble himself.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Whoever is determined to make trouble for others must be prepared to take some trouble himself"

Notes: Making a path through unbroken bush is genuinely arduous, and the threatener's own back, not some other resource, is what the proverb insists must do that work, tying the threat's cost directly to the threatener.

Source: Owomoyela 1693.

14. Ọ̀nà ni yó mú olè; ahéré ni yó mú olóko.

Literal: Ọ̀nà ni yó mú olè the-road is-what-will catch the-thief; ahéré ni yó mú olóko the-farm-hut is-what-will catch the-farmer.

Idiomatic: "The road will eventually expose the thief; the farm hut will eventually expose the farmer."

Meaning: A person is eventually caught out in the very setting where their characteristic activity, honest or dishonest, takes place.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "When the habitual wrongdoer comes to grief, it will be in the course of his wrongdoing"

Notes: The road and the farm hut are paired as the respective settings proper to two different kinds of person, the thief and the farmer, each eventually revealed on their own ground.

Source: Owomoyela 1854.

15. Ọ̀nà là ń ṣì mọ̀nà; bí a ò bá ṣubú, a kì í mọ ẹrù-ú dì.

Literal: Ọ̀nà là ń ṣì mọ̀nà it-is-by-missing-the-way that-one-learns-the-way; bí a ò bá ṣubú if one does-not fall, a kì í mọ ẹrù-ú dì one does-not learn to-tie-a-load.

Idiomatic: "It is by missing one's way that one learns the way; if one does not fall, one does not learn how to tie one's load properly."

Meaning: Getting lost and stumbling are how the road, and any skill, is actually learned.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Errors and failures are opportunities to learn"

Notes: The pairing of two mistakes, losing the way and a badly tied load spilling in a fall, ties navigational error to practical craft error, treating both as the ordinary route to competence rather than as pure failure.

Source: Owomoyela 1853.

16. Àgbàká lẹsẹ̀ ń gba ọ̀nà.

Literal: Àgbàká lẹsẹ̀ ń gba ọ̀nà it-is-completely that-the-feet take-over the-path.

Idiomatic: "It is completely that the feet take over a path."

Meaning: Whatever one does on a path, or in any undertaking, should be done fully, not by half measures.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Indulge not in half measures" Owomoyela cross-references two companion proverbs on the identical theme, entries 1946 and 1950 .

Notes: Àgbàká, completely or thoroughly, is the operative word repeated across the small cluster of proverbs Owomoyela groups together here, of which the road-and-feet image is one instance among several natural images making the identical point about thoroughness.

Source: Owomoyela 1947; compare 1946, 1950.

17. Ẹní bá yẹ ọ̀nà Ìjẹ̀bú tì ni yó yẹ tán.

Literal: Ẹní bá yẹ ọ̀nà Ìjẹ̀bú tì whoever begins-weeding the-road-to-Ìjẹ̀bú ni yó yẹ tán is-who-will finish-weeding-it.

Idiomatic: "The same person who weeds the road to Ìjẹ̀bú without carrying off the weeds will eventually remove them."

Meaning: The shirker of a task will, sooner or later, still be the one left to finish it.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "The shirker will [in the end have to complete a task delayed]"

Notes: Ìjẹ̀bú names a real Yorùbá region, and the road maintained toward it is a genuine communal-labour obligation, road-clearing being a real, recurring task in Yorùbá town life; the proverb roots its general point about shirking in that specific civic duty.

Source: Owomoyela 2065.

18. Ọ̀nà kì í dí mọ́ aládàá.

Literal: Ọ̀nà kì í dí mọ́ the-path does-not close-off against aládàá the-one-who-carries-a-machete.

Idiomatic: "The path does not close on a man carrying a machete."

Meaning: No obstacle is insurmountable for a person equipped with the right tool.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "No problem is insoluble for a resourceful person"

Notes: The àdá (machete) is the standard bush-clearing tool, so the proverb states a literal fact of Yorùbá path travel, an overgrown path is no obstacle to a machete-carrier, and generalises it directly to resourcefulness under any obstacle.

Source: Owomoyela 2368.

19. Ọ̀nà irọ́ kì í pẹ́ pin.

Literal: Ọ̀nà irọ́ the-path of-a-lie kì í pẹ́ pin does-not take-long to-end.

Idiomatic: "The path of deceit soon ends."

Meaning: Deception, unlike an honest course, has a short road; it is exposed quickly.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Deceit is soon exposed"

Notes: The road-as-duration metaphor lets this proverb make a claim about the durability of lies specifically through the length of the path they can travel before running out.

Source: Owomoyela 2593.

20. Idà kì í lọ kídà má bọ̀.

Literal: Idà kì í lọ kídà má bọ̀ the-sword never departs and-does-not return.

Idiomatic: "The sword never departs without returning."

Meaning: A prayer or wish that a departing traveller will safely return, framed through the reliable image of a sword always sheathed again after use.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Said in the context of a prayer that a person departing on a journey might return safely"

Notes: This is the collection's clearest example of a road/journey proverb functioning as a benedictory formula rather than as commentary; it belongs alongside the small set of blessing-adjacent proverbs this corpus documents at file 78.

Source: Owomoyela 2112.

21. Ká rìn ká pọ̀, yíyẹ ní ń yẹni [bí-i tọ̀nà ọ̀run kọ́].

Literal: Ká rìn ká pọ̀ let-us walk together, yíyẹ ní ń yẹni becomingness is-what-becomes-one [bí-i tọ̀nà ọ̀run kọ́] unless it-is-the-road-to-heaven.

Idiomatic: "Traveling in the company of others shows people in a good light [but not if the journey is to heaven]."

Meaning: Company on a journey is generally admirable, with the single, grim exception of the journey to the afterlife, which each person makes alone.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "People are best in association with others, and not as loners" , with the bracketed exception his own.

Notes: The bracketed qualification is unusual in this collection for stating an explicit exception within the proverb text itself rather than only in the gloss, and it links the road of ordinary travel directly to the "road to heaven" theme this corpus treats at length in file 75 on death.

Source: Owomoyela 2976. Also attested at .

22. Ìgbín ń ràjò ó fi ilé ẹ̀ ṣẹ̀rù.

Literal: Ìgbín ń ràjò the-snail sets-out on-a-journey, ó fi ilé ẹ̀ ṣẹ̀rù it makes its-house into-its-load.

Idiomatic: "The snail sets out on a journey and makes a load of its house."

Meaning: Said of a person who insists on carrying possessions or claims of territory with them wherever they go, unwilling to leave anything behind.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Said of people who are overly possessive of their goods or turf"

Notes: A closely related proverb, Ahún ń re àjò, ó gbé ilé-e rẹ̀ dání ("Tortoise embarks on a journey and takes his house along," Owomoyela 715), makes the identical point with the tortoise's carapace standing in for the snail's shell; that proverb is already documented in owe-family-lineage-compound and is not repeated here.

Source: Owomoyela 1599.

23. Kùtù-kùtù kì í jíni lẹ́mejì; kùtù-kùtù ní ń jẹ́ ọ̀wúrọ̀; biri ní ń jẹ́ alẹ́.

Literal: Kùtù-kùtù kì í jíni lẹ́mejì early-dawn does-not wake-one twice; kùtù-kùtù ní ń jẹ́ ọ̀wúrọ̀ early-dawn is-what-constitutes morning; biri ní ń jẹ́ alẹ́ deep-darkness is-what-constitutes night.

Idiomatic: "Early dawn does not wake one twice; early dawn is the morning; deep darkness is night."

Meaning: The morning comes only once in a day; whoever wastes it will find, too late, that night has fallen, a warning against delaying the start of any journey or undertaking.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "The morning comes only once; whoever wastes it will discover too late that night has fallen"

Notes: This proverb concerns the timing of setting out rather than the road itself, but it belongs to the same body of travel-timed wisdom that governs when a Yorùbá traveller would customarily depart, before the heat of the day, and it is included here for that reason.

Source: Owomoyela 2203.

A note on cross-referenced proverbs

Several well-known road and journey proverbs already appear fully documented elsewhere in this corpus and are not repeated here to avoid duplication: Tìwà tìwà là ń ràjò ("It is in the company of one's character that one goes on a journey," Owomoyela 2778) and Oníṣe kì í fi ìṣe ẹ̀ sílẹ̀ re ibi ("The owner of a habit will not go on a journey and leave his habit at home"), both in owe-iwa-character; and, in owe-family-lineage-compound, Àjò kì í dùn kódídẹ má rèWó ("The journey is never so pleasant that the parrot does not return to Ìwó," Owomoyela 742) and Ahún ń re àjò, ó gbé ilé-e rẹ̀ dání ("Tortoise embarks on a journey and takes his house along," Owomoyela 715). These use the journey as the vehicle for a claim about character or about the household rather than about the road itself, and this file's own twenty-three entries are reserved for proverbs in which the road or the journey itself is the operative image.

Reading this set

The road is the axis of exposure. Entries 1, 7, 14, and 18 all treat the road as the place where a person's true condition, whether a neglected farm, a physical limitation, a habitual crime, or a lack of resources, becomes visible to everyone who passes. This is consistent with this corpus's broader observation, made in owe-iwa-character, that Yorùbá proverbs about hiddenness and disclosure repeatedly choose public, well-trafficked settings as their stage.

Return is the unstated norm against which every journey is measured. Entries 8 and 21 both assume that a journey's proper completion is the traveller's return, and departure without eventual return, most starkly the journey to heaven in entry 21's bracketed exception, is marked as categorically different from ordinary travel. File 75, on death, treats that specific irreversible journey at length.