Ẹni à ńbá rìn là ńfìwà jọ.
Character and other people
Original
Ẹni à ńbá rìn là ńfìwà jọ.
Literal gloss
- Ẹni à ńbá rìn the-one we walk with là ńfìwà jọ is-whom we resemble in-character.
Idiomatic English
"It is the person whose company one keeps that one emulates."
No translator is named in the source.
What it means
People take their character from those they move with.
Used when
Owomoyela: "One should match one's comportment to one's company"
Notes on the translation
Bá rìn, to walk with, is the ordinary Yorùbá expression for keeping company, and the proverb is literal about the mechanism: character is transmitted by proximity and repetition, not by instruction. Compare entry 26, which states the same process as damage.