Òwe on Ojú: Eyes, Seeing and Blindness
Thirty Yorùbá proverbs on the eye as the organ of witness and judgment, and on blindness as both a literal condition and a figure for folly, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Ojú is the eye, and in these proverbs it does three kinds of work at once: it is the organ that sees, the faculty that judges what it sees, and the witness whose testimony nothing else can substitute for. A report is not the same as an eye that was there. This file collects thirty proverbs built on ojú as the seeing-organ and on afọ́jú, the blind person, leaving aside the many proverbs where ojú instead means face, presence, or social standing, which belong with the proverbs on the face.
The proverbs are given in Owomoyela's texts and translations unless another source is named. As in owe-iwa-character, Owomoyela's parenthetical usage notes are the basis of the Used when lines; where the wording is his it is quoted.
Seeing as the standard of knowledge
1. Ojú mẹ́wàá kò jọ ojú ẹni.
Literal: Ojú mẹ́wàá ten eyes kò jọ are-not like ojú ẹni one's-own eye.
Idiomatic: "Ten eyes are not like one's own."
Meaning: A first-hand look outweighs any number of secondhand reports.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Seeing something oneself is far better than hearing a report of it from ten people"
Notes: The arithmetic is deliberately lopsided: ten witnesses against one, and the one still wins, because the proverb is not counting witnesses but comparing kinds of knowledge, direct sight against relayed report.
2. Bí ojú ọmọdé ò tó ìtàn, a bá àwígbọ́.
Literal: Bí ojú ọmọdé ò tó ìtàn if a-child's eyes do-not reach a-story [were-not there-for it], a bá àwígbọ́ one settles-for hearsay.
Idiomatic: "If a youth's eyes do not witness a story, they should be good for hearsay."
Meaning: Whoever was not present must accept a secondhand account as the next-best thing.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If one does not witness something, one learns from those who did"
Notes: Àwígbọ́ is what is heard-said, a report, and the proverb ranks it explicitly beneath eyewitness knowledge while still allowing it as the available substitute, a milder position than entry 1's flat comparison.
3. Bí ojú bá rí ọ̀rọ̀, a wò ó fín.
Literal: Bí ojú bá rí ọ̀rọ̀ if the-eye comes-upon a-matter, a wò ó fín one looks-at it thoroughly.
Idiomatic: "When the eyes come upon a matter, they must look hard and well."
Meaning: A thing seen must be seen properly, not glanced at.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Imperfect understanding causes difficulties"
Notes: Fín, thoroughly or in fine detail, sets a standard beyond mere sighting: the proverb distinguishes seeing that a thing is there from seeing what it is, and holds the eye responsible for the second, harder task.
4. Bí oṣù-ú bá lé, gbogbo ojú ní ń rí i.
Literal: Bí oṣù-ú bá lé when the-moon appears, gbogbo ojú ní ń rí i all eyes see it.
Idiomatic: "When the moon appears, all eyes see it."
Meaning: A thing done in public view is seen by everyone alike; there is no selective witness to a public event.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A public event cannot be hidden from people"
Notes: The moon is chosen because its rising is involuntary and universal, unlike a rumor that spreads unevenly; the proverb is used against anyone who imagines a public act could have gone unnoticed by some.
5. Fírífírí lojú ń rí imú.
Literal: Fírífírí indistinctly, in-a-flash lojú ń rí imú is-how the-eye sees the-nose.
Idiomatic: "The eyes glimpse the nose only indistinctly."
Meaning: Something always in front of a person, precisely because it is so close and constant, is seen least clearly.
Used when: Said of a person or thing so habitually present that its true character goes unnoticed. Owomoyela's note observes it is used of someone who is seen only once in a very long while, marking a related but distinct application to rare rather than constant proximity .
Notes: The nose sits permanently in the eye's own field of view yet is the one feature the eye can never bring into focus; the proverb turns a fact of ordinary optics into a statement about the limits of familiarity.
The eye as witness and proof
6. "Wọ́n ní, 'Afọ́jú, ọmọ-ọ rẹ pa ẹran.'" Ó ní kò dá òun lójú, àfi bí òún bá tọ́ ọ wò.
Literal: They said, "Afọ́jú, blind-one, your-child killed game." Ó ní he said kò dá òun lójú it did-not convince him, àfi bí óun bá tọ́ ọ wò except if he should taste it [and] examine.
Idiomatic: "They said to the blind man, 'Blind man, your son has killed game.' He responds that he cannot believe them until he has tasted the meat."
Meaning: Belief on report alone is refused; the blind man substitutes the sense left to him, taste, for the sight he lacks, but he still insists on direct verification.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Always insist on positive proof"
Notes: The proverb does not make the blind man a figure of helplessness; he is instead the sharpest possible illustration of the proverb's real subject, which is proof, not sight, because he finds a way to verify without eyes at all.
7. "Wọ́n ní, 'Afọ́jú, o ò tanná alẹ́.'" Ó ní àtọ̀sán àtòru, èwo lòún rí níbẹ̀?
Literal: They said, "Afọ́jú, you did-not light-lamp at-night." Ó ní he said àtọ̀sán àtòru whether-by-day or-by-night, èwo lòún rí níbẹ̀ which of-them would-he see there?
Idiomatic: "People said, 'Blind man, you did not light a lamp.' He asked, night or day, which one would his eyes register?"
Meaning: A rebuke aimed at someone is pointless when the very distinction it assumes does not apply to him.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not waste efforts in procuring things one cannot use"
Notes: The blind man's retort is unanswerable on its own terms: lamplight and daylight are indistinguishable to him, so the criticism, which depends on that distinction mattering, simply does not land. Read beside entry 6, the two proverbs form a small set on the blind man as a figure of unexpectedly sound reasoning rather than of pity.
8. Afọ́jú tó dijú, tó ní òún sùn, ìgbà tí kò sùn, ta ló rí?
Literal: Afọ́jú tó dijú the-blind-person who shuts-his-eyes, tó ní òún sùn who says he is-asleep, ìgbà tí kò sùn when he is-not asleep, ta ló rí? whom did-he see [deceive]?
Idiomatic: "The blind person who shuts his eyes and says he is asleep, when he was not asleep, whom did he see [deceive]?"
Meaning: A deception aimed at concealing something already invisible to everyone deceives no one, since there was nothing to hide from a sighted observer in the first place.
Used when: Owomoyela's note, as printed, opens: "The deceiver deceives..." and the proverb is used against pointless or self-defeating pretense .
Notes: Closing already-blind eyes is a gesture with no informational content for anyone; the proverb catches the absurdity of performing concealment where there is nothing left to conceal, since a blind man's open or shut eyes tell a sighted onlooker nothing new either way.
9. Ohun tí afọ́jú fojú ẹ̀ rí kó tó fọ́ ló rí mọ́; kò tún rí òmíràn mọ́.
Literal: Ohun tí afọ́jú fojú ẹ̀ rí the-thing that the-blind-person saw-with his-eye kó tó fọ́ ló rí mọ́ before it went-blind is-what he-still sees; kò tún rí òmíràn mọ́ he does-not see another thing again.
Idiomatic: "Whatever the blind person sees before going blind is all he or she will ever see; he or she will never see another thing."
Meaning: An opportunity not taken while the means to take it existed is gone once the means is gone.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should seize all opportunities before it is too late"
Notes: The last image retained before blindness becomes, in effect, the whole visual estate a blind person will ever own; the proverb reads that biological fact as a general warning about timing and irreversible loss.
What the eye is owed and what it endures
10. Olójú kì í fojú ẹ̀ sílẹ̀ kí tàlùbọ́ kó wọ̀ ọ́.
Literal: Olójú the-owner-of-eyes kì í fojú ẹ̀ sílẹ̀ does-not neglect his-eyes kí tàlùbọ́ kó wọ̀ ọ́ and-let foreign-matter lodge in-them.
Idiomatic: "The owner of the eyes will not neglect them and watch foreign matter lodge in them."
Meaning: A person does not stand by while harm settles into the very organ they depend on most.
Used when: Owomoyela's note, as printed, begins "One does not simply look on as one's inter-..." indicating the proverb is used of a person's own vital interests, left undefended .
Notes: Tàlùbọ́ is grit or foreign matter of the kind that genuinely does lodge in an eye and must be removed at once; the proverb assumes the reader knows how urgent and involuntary that reflex is, and transfers the urgency to a non-physical interest.
11. Bí a bá yọ ipin lójú, ojú la fi ń hàn.
Literal: Bí a bá yọ ipin lójú if one removes secreted-matter from-the-eye, ojú la fi ń hàn it-is to-the-eye that one shows it.
Idiomatic: "If one removes secreted matter from the eye, one shows it to the eye."
Meaning: A fault taken out of a person is shown back to that same person, not broadcast to others.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One discusses an offense with the offender, not other people. This is a variant of 4892"
Notes: The mote removed from the eye is shown to the very eye it came from, a small closed loop the proverb uses as the model for how a grievance should be handled: privately, and returned only to its source.
12. Bí ojú bá ṣọ̀bùn ojú là á fi ì hàn; bí a bá yọ ipin lójú, à fi han ojú.
Literal: Bí ojú bá ṣọ̀bùn if the-eye produces-filth ojú là á fi ì hàn it-is to-the-eye that one shows it; bí a bá yọ ipin lójú if one takes secreted-matter from-the-eye, à fi han ojú one shows it to-the-eye.
Idiomatic: "If the eyes produce filth, one shows it to the eyes; if one takes secreted matter out of the eyes, one shows it to the eyes."
Meaning: The fuller statement of the preceding entry, doubling the claim across both kinds of ocular discharge.
Used when: Same use as entry 11, of which Owomoyela marks entry 11 the variant .
Notes: Owomoyela prints the two as a matched pair; this is the longer of the two, restating the principle twice with slightly different phrasing for what the eye produces versus what is removed from it, an intensifying repetition rather than a new claim.
13. Ojú kì í pa ojú jẹ.
Literal: Ojú kì í pa an-eye does-not kill ojú jẹ an[other]-eye to-eat.
Idiomatic: "An eye does not kill an[other] eye for food."
Meaning: A hard or hostile stare, however intense, cannot itself do physical harm.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Staring eyes pose no danger"
Notes: The verb pa ... jẹ, to kill for food, treats the stare as a predator's gaze and then denies it any predator's power; the proverb reassures someone unsettled by being watched or glared at that a look, however fierce, stops at being a look.
14. Ẹ̀ẹ̀mejì lojú ahun ń pọ́n.
Literal: Ẹ̀ẹ̀mejì twice lojú ahun ń pọ́n is-when the-miser's eyes redden.
Idiomatic: "The miser's eyes redden twice."
Meaning: The stingy person suffers visible distress on two separate occasions over the same money: parting with it, and then again over any loss connected to withholding it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One is often paid back in one's own coin"
Notes: Reddened eyes are the Yorùbá sign of suppressed anguish or anger; the proverb counts the occasions precisely, which turns a general character trait, stinginess, into a specific, almost clinical observation about when the miser's distress becomes visible.
The eye as judgment, favor and blindness to fault
15. Bí ẹnú bá jẹ, ojú á tì.
Literal: Bí ẹnú bá jẹ if the-mouth has-eaten, ojú á tì the-eyes will shut.
Idiomatic: "If the mouth has eaten, the eyes shut down."
Meaning: A benefit received closes the eyes to the giver's faults.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If one has received some favor from a person, one's eyes will be closed to the person's [shortcomings]"
Notes: The mouth and the eye are put in a direct causal relation, appetite satisfied disabling judgment, which makes this proverb a companion piece to owe-iwa-character entry 41 on love suspending judgment of character, here run through gratitude rather than affection.
16. Ẹni tí ó ṣe ojú kò da bí ẹni tó ṣe ẹ̀hìn.
Literal: Ẹni tí ó ṣe ojú the-one who does [good] in-presence kò da bí is-not equal to ẹni tó ṣe ẹ̀hìn the-one who does [good] behind-one's-back.
Idiomatic: "The person who honors one in one's presence is nothing like the person who honors one in one's absence."
Meaning: Good treatment offered only to a person's face is worth less than good treatment maintained when that person cannot see or reward it.
Used when: Owomoyela's note, as printed, begins "It is what people say..." indicating this is offered as a received saying about the test of sincerity .
Notes: Ojú here sits at the edge between the eye-sense and the presence-sense this file otherwise sets aside; it is included because the proverb's whole point turns on the literal fact of being seen or not seen by the person concerned, which is the eye's own domain.
17. Rẹ́rẹ́ ojú; ojú ni a fẹ́ ni, ṣùtì lẹ́hìn.
Literal: Rẹ́rẹ́ ojú [friendship] pleasant-to-the-eye; ojú ni a fẹ́ ni it-is in-one's-presence that one is-loved, ṣùtì lẹ́hìn one-is-despised behind [one's back].
Idiomatic: "Friendship that depends on presence offers friendship in one's presence but despises one when one is absent."
Meaning: Affection performed only under direct observation is not real affection.
Used when: Owomoyela glosses this alongside the following entry in Owomoyela's collection as a matched statement that "reciprocity is essential in friendship," with the present entry supplying the negative case .
Notes: Read against entry 16, the two proverbs make the identical argument from two different angles, one about honoring a person, one about a whole friendship, and both locate the test of sincerity in what happens outside the range of the eye rather than inside it.
Eyes trained by trade, danger and habit
18. A kì í fi ojú olójú ṣòwò ká jèrè.
Literal: A kì í fi ojú olójú one does-not use another's [the-owner-of-eyes'] eyes ṣòwò to-trade ká jèrè and profit.
Idiomatic: "One never trades with other people's eyes and profit."
Meaning: Borrowed judgment does not produce a trader's gain; only one's own watchfulness over one's own goods does.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There is nothing like attending to one's business oneself"
Notes: The market is a recurring setting for Yorùbá proverbs about vigilance, and here the eye is explicitly the trading tool, not the hand or the tongue, making inattention a matter of eyesight lent out and therefore unreliable.
19. Alákatapò ojú ò lè ta ẹran pa.
Literal: Alákatapò the-owner-of-a-crossbow ojú [with] eyes [that fail him] ò lè ta ẹran pa cannot shoot an-animal dead.
Idiomatic: "A person with crossbows in his eyes cannot kill an animal."
Meaning: A fearsome appearance or a fierce look, without the follow-through to back it, kills nothing.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Even the most vicious of looks cannot kill"
Notes: The image folds the weapon into the eye itself, "crossbows in his eyes," so that the glare becomes the weapon; the proverb then denies that weapon any actual force, a companion claim to entry 13's denial that a stare can kill outright.
20. Bí a bá fi ojú igi gbígbẹ wo tútù, tútù-ú lè wó pani.
Literal: Bí a bá fi ojú igi gbígbẹ if one uses the-look of-a-dry tree wo tútù to-regard a-green one, tútù-ú lè wó pani the-green-one may fall and-crush-one.
Idiomatic: "If one approaches a dried-up tree as one would a green one, it is likely to crash and crush one to death."
Meaning: Judging one thing by the visual habits appropriate to a different, more dangerous thing invites disaster.
Used when: Owomoyela's note, as printed, begins "One should be alive to..." the specific danger each situation actually presents, rather than a generic or misapplied caution .
Notes: A dried tree is the safer of the two to fell and a green one the more dangerous, so the proverb specifically warns against the error of applying the lower level of caution where the higher is required, a more exacting claim than simple carelessness.
21. Bí ẹrán bá bálẹ̀, ojú a yán ọdẹ.
Literal: Bí ẹrán bá bálẹ̀ when the-animal falls to-the-ground, ojú a yán ọdẹ the-eyes go slack [lose their fierceness] for-the-hunter.
Idiomatic: "When an animal falls to the ground, the hunter's eyes lose their wildness."
Meaning: The fierce concentration in the eyes during a chase belongs to the chase itself and drains away the instant the goal is achieved.
Used when: Owomoyela: "At the end of the chase, ennui sets in"
Notes: The proverb locates a psychological state, the letdown after achieving a hard goal, specifically in the eyes, treating the hunter's stare as an instrument that switches off once its purpose is spent rather than a fixed trait of the hunter's character.
22. Ọká ojú ọ̀nà tí ń lé guuru kó-kó-kó.
Literal: Ọká ojú ọ̀nà the-gaboon-viper of the-path's-face [the-viper that lies across the path] tí ń lé guuru kó-kó-kó that drives-off small-birds relentlessly.
Idiomatic: "The pathway gaboon viper defiantly occupies the whole path."
Meaning: A dangerous presence that refuses to yield ground dominates the space it occupies entirely.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Said of a tough person who defies all would-be opponents"
Notes: Ojú ọ̀nà here means the path's own visible line or face rather than an eye, but the proverb is included for its dense use of ojú as extended-surface vocabulary immediately adjacent to the eye-sense proper, and because Owomoyela files it among the collection's proverbs on fearsome bearing, a natural companion to entries 13 and 19.
23. Ojú ẹrú ò gbé ìpàkọ́; a-bojú-níwájú bí ọmọ.
Literal: Ojú ẹrú the-slave's eyes ò gbé ìpàkọ́ are-not set at-the-back-of-the-head; a-bojú-níwájú one-whose-eyes-are-in-front bí ọmọ like a-freeborn-child.
Idiomatic: "The slave's eyes are not at the back of his head; his eyes are in front just like a freeborn child's."
Meaning: A slave sees the world exactly as anyone else does, front-facing and undiminished.
Used when: Owomoyela's note, as printed, argues that "a slave is just as human as the [freeborn]," using the shared placement of the eyes as the proof .
Notes: The proverb makes an anatomical fact, that no human eyes are set backward, carry an argument for the common humanity of the enslaved and the free, which is worth reading alongside the corpus's other proverbs on slavery and personhood.
Sight, order and the limits of concealment
24. Ilé kì í jó kí oorun kun ojú.
Literal: Ilé kì í jó a-house does-not burn kí oorun kun ojú and sleep fill the-eyes.
Idiomatic: "A house does not burn and fill the eyes with sleep."
Meaning: A crisis in progress will not let its witnesses drift into inattention.
Used when: Owomoyela's note, as printed, closes "one must not ignore grave matters," and cross-references the preceding entry in his collection .
Notes: The image trusts an involuntary reflex, that alarm keeps the eyes open, and uses it as a moral claim: whatever genuinely threatens will not, in fact, permit the negligence the proverb warns against, which makes the proverb double as a rebuke to anyone who claims not to have noticed.
25. Ọ̀rọ̀ tí ò sunwọ̀n, konko ń ṣojú.
Literal: Ọ̀rọ̀ tí ò sunwọ̀n a-matter that is-not good [unpalatable], konko ń ṣojú hardens the-eyes.
Idiomatic: "A matter that is unpalatable hardens the eyes."
Meaning: Being in the wrong produces a defiant, unyielding stare rather than a softened one.
Used when: Owomoyela: "When one is in the wrong, one hides behind braggadocio"
Notes: The proverb notices a specific behavioral tell, the eyes hardening rather than dropping in shame, and reads it correctly as bravado rather than as confidence, a small piece of practical psychology embedded in ordinary speech.
26. Òkùtù ọ̀pẹ kì í wo ojú ẹlòmíràn bí kò ṣe ojú Ọlọ́run.
Literal: Òkùtù ọ̀pẹ young palm-shoots kì í wo ojú ẹlòmíràn do-not look-to the-face of-anyone-else bí kò ṣe ojú Ọlọ́run except the-face of-God.
Idiomatic: "Young palm leaves do not raise their eyes to anyone other than God."
Meaning: For its growth and survival, the young palm depends on nothing but rain and sun, which Yorùbá proverb attributes to God alone.
Used when: Owomoyela's note, as printed, extends this to human affairs: "all affairs are best" left finally to God rather than to an unreliable human patron, and pairs it with an instruction that when [a supposed savior consistently fails you], one should discard it and find another .
Notes: The palm shoot is chosen because, unlike a domesticated crop, it grows wild and unattended, needing no human hand, which makes it the natural vehicle for a proverb about ultimate rather than proximate dependence.
27. Nítorí adití lòjó fi ń ṣú; nítorí afọ́jú ló ṣe ń kù.
Literal: Nítorí adití because-of the-deaf lòjó fi ń ṣú is-why the-sky darkens [thunderclouds gather]; nítorí afọ́jú because-of the-blind ló ṣe ń kù is-why thunder rumbles.
Idiomatic: "It is for the benefit of deaf people that rain clouds gather; it is for the benefit of the blind that thunder rumbles."
Meaning: Nature supplies each kind of person with the warning suited to the sense left to them: a visible sign for the deaf, an audible one for the blind.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The wise person should be able to read portents and take precautions"
Notes: The proverb pairs deafness with a visual warning and blindness with an audible one, precisely crossing each disability with the sense that remains, which is a more exact construction than a general statement about caution would need, and marks this as a carefully made proverb rather than a loose saying.
28. Afọ́jú onílù; atiro àrìnjó; bàtá gèdè; ṣaworo òkòtó.
Literal: Afọ́jú onílù a-blind drummer; atiro àrìnjó a-lame dancer; bàtá gèdè a-bàtá-drum [made] of-banana-stem; ṣaworo òkòtó ankle-bells of-snail-shell.
Idiomatic: "A blind drummer; a lame dancer; bàtá drum made from banana stem; bells made of snail shells."
Meaning: A gathering of mismatched, unfit things and people, none of them equal to the performance they are assembling for.
Used when: Owomoyela's note reads simply, "All of a kind" , said of an ill-assorted or generally hopeless collection of people or things brought together for a task.
Notes: The proverb is a list rather than a sentence with a verb, four images of unsuitability stacked without comment, and it depends on the hearer supplying the judgment the proverb itself withholds; the blind drummer opens the list and sets its logic, since rhythm without sight of the dancers is the first and sharpest mismatch named.
29. Afọ́jú àjànàkú, kò mọ igi, kò mọ èèyàn.
Literal: Afọ́jú àjànàkú a-blind elephant, kò mọ igi does-not know a-tree, kò mọ èèyàn does-not know a-person.
Idiomatic: "A blind elephant does not know a man from a tree."
Meaning: Something enormously powerful, deprived of sight, becomes indiscriminately dangerous rather than harmless.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Fate is no respecter of persons"
Notes: The proverb is not really about elephants or blindness as physical facts; it borrows an animal whose size makes its lack of discrimination catastrophic rather than merely unfortunate, and applies that image to impersonal disaster, which strikes without regard to who stands in its way.
30. Tàlùbọ́ ni iyèkan afọ́jú.
Literal: Tàlùbọ́ grit, [foreign matter in the eye] ni iyèkan afọ́jú is the-blood-relative of-the-blind.
Idiomatic: "Tàlùbọ́ is the blood sibling of the blind."
Meaning: Two things or misfortunes are so constantly found together that they might as well be kin.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Said of things that are always to be found in the company of one another"
Notes: Tàlùbọ́ is the same grit named in entries 10 and 12, here made kin to blindness itself on the logic that eye trouble of every kind tends to accompany a person whose sight is already failing; the proverb uses kinship vocabulary, not causation, to describe a pattern of co-occurrence.
Reading this set
The eye is Yorùbá proverb's standard of proof, and hearsay is consistently ranked beneath it. Entries 1 and 2 state this directly; entries 6 and 7, built around a blind man, do something more interesting, using the absence of sight to isolate what the proverb tradition actually values, which turns out to be verification itself rather than the organ of sight in particular. A blind man who insists on tasting the meat before he believes the report of it is, by this logic, behaving exactly as a sighted person should.
Blindness in this set is almost never used as a figure for stupidity. Of the ten entries built on afọ́jú, most (6, 7, 8, 9, 23, 27, 30) show the blind person reasoning soundly from the senses available, or use blindness as a neutral, non-moralized condition. The exceptions that treat blindness as loss or danger (9, 29) are about the condition itself, not about intelligence. This is worth stating plainly because it cuts against a casual assumption that a proverb tradition built on sight-language would use blindness as a ready-made insult; on this evidence, it mostly does not.
A working eye is treated as something owed active defense, not passive possession. Entries 10 through 14 all show the eye either being protected, tended, or made to answer for what it produces, extending the same logic owe-iwa-character applies to character generally: a faculty a person has is also a faculty that person is responsible for maintaining.
Fontes
- [1]Owomoyela, Oyekan, Yoruba Proverbs (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005). 5,235 proverbs with Yorùbá texts in full standard orthography, English translations, and parenthetical usage annotations, arranged thematically; collected over some forty years. Proverbs cited here by Owomoyela's entry number: 100, 372, 865, 866, 1066, 1231, 1270, 1271, 1384, 1916, 1976, 2264, 2286, 2421, 2465, 2511, 3009, 3300, 3396, 3449, 3872, 4327, 4410, 4512, 4866, 4879, 4892, 4897, 5161, 5231. Publisher record: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska-paperback/9780803218437/yoruba-proverbs/