Fifty Yorùbá proverbs on ọ̀run-àpáàdì, orí and àyànmọ́ (fate and destiny), drawn from Owomoyela's dedicated section "On fate (and reciprocity)," showing destiny as chosen before birth, unappealable, yet compatible with real human effort.
Owomoyela's collection gives fate its own dedicated section, "On fate (and reciprocity)," fifty-nine proverbs running from page 345 to 356 . This file reproduces fifty of them, the fullest single-theme file in this corpus's sacred proverbs. The vocabulary is dominated by orí, literally "head," the term this proverb tradition uses almost interchangeably for the physical head and for the destiny chosen before birth, discussed doctrinally at 04-cosmology/03-ori.md and 04-cosmology/04-ayanmo-kadara-ipin.md . The proverbs converge on a claim stated dozens of ways: destiny, once chosen, cannot be altered by sacrifice, medicine, curse, or another person's ill will, yet the same body of proverb-speech elsewhere in this corpus (files 74 and 76) insists that sacrifice and medicine are real and effective within their own domain. The tension is not resolved here; it is reported, because the sources do not resolve it either.
Literal: À báà ṣẹbọ even-if one makes-sacrifice; à báà ṣoògùn even-if one procures-charms; bí a ti pé a ó rí láyé là ń rí however-one-is-covenanted-to-turn-out on-earth is-how-one turns-out.
Idiomatic: "Even though one makes sacrifices, and even though one procures charms, however one is covenanted to turn out on earth is how one will turn out."
Meaning: Neither sacrifice nor charm alters the destiny sworn to before birth.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Neither sacrifices nor charms will alter a person's destiny"
Notes: This is the opening proverb of Owomoyela's fate section and the clearest single statement of the tension noted in this file's introduction: it flatly denies to ẹbọ and oògùn the efficacy that files 74 and 76 document those same practices having in other contexts. Read together, the corpus's position is that sacrifice and medicine work within the space destiny allows, not against destiny itself.
Source: Owomoyela 3474.
Literal: A kúnlẹ̀ we kneel a yànpín we choose our-portion (destiny); a dáyé tán having arrived-on-earth ojú ń yánni the-eyes become disillusioned.
Idiomatic: "We kneel and choose our destiny, but on reaching earth we are disillusioned."
Meaning: Destiny is chosen by the person themselves, before birth, in a kneeling posture before the Creator, but its consequences can still disappoint the very person who chose it.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "However unfortunate, one's destiny is one's own choice"
Notes: Owomoyela's footnote states the underlying belief directly: "before incarnation, each person kneels before the Creator to choose his or her destiny on earth" [S1, note 3]. This is the clearest statement in the collection of the doctrine documented at 04-cosmology/04-ayanmo-kadara-ipin.md, and its appearance in ordinary proverb form is evidence of how thoroughly the doctrine had become common knowledge rather than specialist teaching.
Source: Owomoyela 3481, with note 3; compare 3496.
Literal: "A ò mọ eyí tí Ọlọ́run ó ṣe" "we do-not know what God will do" ò jẹ́ á bínú kú prevents-us from angrily dying (from suicide).
Idiomatic: "'We know not what God will do' stops one from committing suicide."
Meaning: Uncertainty about the future, framed as God's unrevealed plan, is a reason to keep living rather than despair.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "As long as one lives, one may hope"
Notes: This proverb documents a specific, practical function of fatalistic speech: not resignation, but its opposite, a reason for continued hope precisely because the outcome is not yet known.
Source: Owomoyela 3482.
Literal: A kì í rí ọmọ ọba one never sees a-prince/princess ká má rí àmì ọba lára rẹ̀ and not see the-mark of-royalty on-them.
Idiomatic: "One never sees a prince or princess without seeing his or her mark of royalty."
Meaning: Illustrious origin shows itself in bearing and comportment; it cannot be entirely concealed.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "People show their worth and breeding by their comportment. Also, a person from an illustrious lineage should not be seen going about in rags or in bad company"
Notes: This proverb links destiny to visible bearing rather than to hidden inner fact, an idea about how orí and lineage together are supposed to manifest publicly, which connects it to file 71's proverbs on how divine favour or disfavour is read from outward signs.
Source: Owomoyela 3479.
Literal: Àìdé ikú it-is-when-death-has-not-come là ń so ààjà mọ́rùn that-one ties charms-around-the-neck; bíkú bá dé when death comes a já ààjà sílẹ̀ it rips-the-charm off a gbé aláàjà lọ and carries-the-wearer off.
Idiomatic: "It is when death has not come calling that one ties charms around one's neck; when death comes calling, it rips the charm away and carries its wearer off."
Meaning: Protective charms function only in death's absence; they offer no resistance once death has actually arrived.
Used when: Owomoyela cross-references entry 3982 (this corpus's file 75, entry 4), essentially the same proverb applied to sacrifice to Ògún .
Notes: This proverb states, for protective charms specifically, the same limit file 75 documents for sacrifice: the remedy works as prevention, never as reversal, once death itself has arrived.
Source: Owomoyela 3492; compare 3982.
Literal: Àkúnlẹ́yàn what-was-chosen-kneeling làdáyébá is-what-is-found-on-reaching-earth; a kúnlẹ̀ a yan ìpín we kneel and choose our-portion; a dáyé tán ojú ń roni having-reached-earth, one's-eyes ache (one is disconsolate).
Idiomatic: "What-was-chosen-on-the-knees is what-is-encountered-on-earth; one kneels and chooses a destiny, but on reaching earth one is disconsolate."
Meaning: A person's earthly fortunes are the direct result of choices made at the moment of creation; however much one might lament them, they remain one's own choice and responsibility.
Used when: Owomoyela's note makes explicit the responsibility this places on the individual: the fortunes "result from the person's choices at his or her creation"
Notes: This is a fuller variant of entry 2, and Owomoyela cross-references the two directly . Together they are the strongest statement in the collection that fate, however fixed once chosen, is not imposed from outside; it is self-authored, which reframes "fatalism" in this tradition as closer to an argument about accountability than about passive submission.
Source: Owomoyela 3496; compare 3481.
Literal: Àyànmọ́ destiny ò gbọ́ oògùn does-not heed medicine.
Idiomatic: "Destiny does not respond to medicine."
Meaning: No medicine can cure or alter one's fated portion.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "No medicine can cure fate"
Notes: Àyànmọ́ is one of three closely related Yorùbá terms for destiny alongside kádàrá and ìpín, all of which appear across this file's proverbs; the doctrinal distinctions among the three, where they exist, are treated at 04-cosmology/04-ayanmo-kadara-ipin.md. This proverb is cross-referenced from file 76, entry 20, where a fuller proverb makes the identical claim about medicine's subordination to destiny.
Source: Owomoyela 3505.
Literal: Ayọ̀ happiness ò rúbọ does-not offer-sacrifice.
Idiomatic: "Happiness offers no sacrifices."
Meaning: A person who is genuinely happy and content has no need of ritual recourse to secure that state.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "When one is happy and contented, one has no need of sacrifice"
Notes: Two words carry the whole claim, another instance of the extreme compression this corpus notes as characteristic of the genre; the proverb implies, without stating, that sacrifice is normally a response to lack, so its absence signals sufficiency.
Source: Owomoyela 3507.
(Cross-referenced from file 76, entry 8; not repeated here in full. See that file for the complete text and notes on wizard, witch, and hunger.)
Source: Owomoyela 3509.
(Cross-referenced from file 70, entry 17. See that file for the complete text and notes on the difficulty of reading divine action.)
Source: Owomoyela 3516.
(Cross-referenced from file 70, entry 18. See that file for the complete text and the king-variant Owomoyela records alongside it.)
Source: Owomoyela 3517.
Literal: Bí yó balẹ̀, bí yó balẹ̀ as-though it-would land, as-though it-would land, ni labalábá ń wọgbó lọ is-how the-butterfly enters-the-bush; àìbalẹ̀ ni tàwòdì restlessness is the-hawk's.
Idiomatic: "As though it would land, as though it would land is the way a butterfly enters into the bush; restlessness is the lot of the eagle."
Meaning: A person headed for disaster will not escape it, however much the approach seems tentative or reversible.
Used when: Owomoyela's note, appended with an added remark that this proverb is among those primarily used in incantations, this specific one designed to make it impossible for a person to avoid disaster [S1, note 10].
Notes: Owomoyela's footnote is significant here: it is one of the few places in the collection where a proverb is flagged as functioning specifically as an incantation, a spoken formula intended to bring about the outcome it describes, rather than only as commentary on an existing situation. This distinguishes it from most proverbs in this corpus, which describe rather than effect.
Source: Owomoyela 3518, with note 10.
Literal: Ẹni tí yó bàjẹ́ the-one-who will-be-ruined ti bàjẹ́ tán is-already ruined; ẹni tí yó bàlùmọ̀ ló kù the-one-who will-rot is-what-remains-to-be-seen.
Idiomatic: "The person whose lot it is to be spoiled is spoiled already; only the person whose lot is to rot remains to be seen."
Meaning: Trying to reform a person already destined for ruin is wasted effort; the outcome is settled.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One wastes one's effort in attempting to improve an incorrigible person"
Notes: This proverb is one of the harder-edged fatalistic statements in the set, treating a person's ruin as already accomplished in principle even before it is visible in practice.
Source: Owomoyela 3523.
Literal: Ẹni tó ń rínni whoever laughs-at-one ò ní ìbáwí bears-no blame; orí ẹni ní ń pé ká rínni it-is-one's-own-head that calls-for one-to-be-laughed-at.
Idiomatic: "Those who laugh at one have no blame; it is destiny that places one in a position of being laughed at."
Meaning: Responsibility for humiliation rests with one's own destiny, not with the person who laughs.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One should blame not others but one's own fortune for whatever fate one suffers"
Notes: This proverb absolves the mocker of blame entirely, redirecting all responsibility to the mocked person's orí, an unusually complete transfer of accountability that other proverbs in this file (see entry 6) complicate by making that same orí a matter of one's own prior choice.
Source: Owomoyela 3524.
Literal: Aṣọ pupa purple/red cloth kì í bá òkú rọ̀run does-not accompany the-dead to-heaven.
Idiomatic: "Purple cloth never accompanies the dead to heaven."
Meaning: One individual's fate or possessions have no bearing on another individual's fate.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One individual has no part in another individual's fate"
Notes: This proverb connects directly to file 75, entry 23 (Owomoyela 4024), which makes the parallel claim that only cloth, not brass or beads, accompanies the dead; here the emphasis shifts from what travels with the dead to the sharper point that fates themselves do not transfer between people.
Source: Owomoyela 3502.
Literal: Bí a bá ń gúnyán nínú ewé even-if one pounds-yam in-a-leaf, tí à ń seb nínú èèpo pá and cooks-stew in-a-peanut-shell, ẹní máa yó á yó whoever-will-be-satisfied will-be-satisfied.
Idiomatic: "Even though one makes pounded yams in a leaf and cooks stew in a peanut shell, who will be full will be full."
Meaning: Destined prosperity manifests even under conditions of apparent scarcity.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Even in the midst of dearth, those destined to prosper will prosper" A near-duplicate, entry 3510, makes the identical point with wine sold by the peanut-shell measure: "those who will be intoxicated will be intoxicated"
Notes: Both versions use an absurdly inadequate container, a leaf, a peanut shell, as the vehicle for a serving that nonetheless satisfies, arguing that destined outcomes overpower even severe material constraint.
Source: Owomoyela 3511; compare 3510.
Literal: Bí adìẹ bá ṣe ogún whether chickens number twenty, tó ṣe ọgbọ̀n or number thirty, àgò ni yó dè é the-coop is-what-will confine-them.
Idiomatic: "Whether chickens number twenty or thirty, they will yield to being covered by the coop."
Meaning: Sheer numbers do not overcome a fate that applies regardless of scale.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Certain fates cannot be averted by numbers alone"
Notes: This proverb extends the fatalism of the set from the individual to the group: even collective strength in numbers does not exempt a group from a shared, structural fate, here figured as confinement.
Source: Owomoyela 3512.
Literal: Bí alẹ́ ẹni yó ti rí how one's-night will turn-out, òwúrọ̀ ẹni ni yó fi hàn one's-morning is-what-will reveal-it.
Idiomatic: "How a person's night will be is revealed by the person's morning."
Meaning: A person's later character or fortune is foreshadowed early, in youth.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "A person's nature reveals itself from youth"
Notes: This proverb treats fate as legible in advance from early signs, a claim that sits alongside the "mark of royalty" idea in entry 4: destiny in this proverb tradition is repeatedly described as something that can be read, not only endured.
Source: Owomoyela 3513.
Literal: Bí inú ti rí as the-inner-self/heart is, lobì ń yàn is-how the-kola-nut divines/selects.
Idiomatic: "The omen revealed by the divinatory kola is determined by the nature of one's heart."
Meaning: The outcome of kola-nut divination reflects the inner disposition of the person for whom it is cast, not an arbitrary external message.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "The gods respond to one according to the goodness of one's heart"
Notes: Owomoyela's footnote explains the practice directly: kola nuts are used in divination, and the way they land after being cast reveals the omen or message given to the questioner [S1, note 9]. This proverb ties divinatory outcome to inner moral state, connecting the fate proverbs of this file to the divination material of file 72.
Source: Owomoyela 3514, with note 9.
Literal: Bí ológbò-ó bá pámi pámi if a-cat skirts-the-water repeatedly, yó wọ̀ it-will [eventually] enter.
Idiomatic: "A cat may skirt the water for a long time, but in the end it will enter the water."
Meaning: An inevitability may be delayed but not permanently avoided.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "An inevitability may be delayed but will not be avoided"
Notes: Cats' documented reluctance to enter water supplies the image; the proverb generalises from that specific animal behaviour to any postponed but unavoidable outcome, a category this file treats as coextensive with destiny.
Source: Owomoyela 3515.
Literal: Ẹṣú á jẹ the-locusts will-eat, ẹṣú á mu the-locusts will-drink, ẹṣú á lọ the-locusts will-depart; níbo ni alátampoko ó wọ̀? where will-the-grasshopper hide?
Idiomatic: "The locusts will eat, the locusts will drink, and the locusts will depart; where will the grasshopper hide?"
Meaning: After the despoiler has done damage and moved on, those left behind must still reckon with the consequences.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "After the despoiler has done his or her damage, will the heirs not reap the consequences?"
Notes: This proverb applies the fate logic of the file to a social rather than a purely personal situation, the aftermath a group is left to face once a more powerful, mobile actor has moved on.
Source: Owomoyela 3519.
Literal: Ọ̀dá ń lùlù ìbàjẹ́ the-drought-spirit/malicious-force is-beating the-drum of-ruin; Ọlọ́run ni ò jẹ́ kó dún God is-who prevents-it from-sounding.
Idiomatic: "Humans beat the drum of disgrace, but God prevents it from making a sound."
Meaning: Human schemes toward another's ruin can be actively silenced by divine intervention.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Others seek one's disgrace, but God has foiled their plan"
Notes: A near-identical proverb appears later in Owomoyela's collection, entry 3593, Ọ̀tá ń lùlù ìbàjẹ́, Ọlọ́run ò jẹ́ kó dún, "One's enemy is beating the drum of defamation, but God won't let it make a sound," with the added gloss that God has frustrated the schemes of one's enemies . Both proverbs place God as an active counter-force to human malice specifically, which distinguishes this file's fatalism from pure determinism: destiny is fixed, but malicious interference with another's destiny is shown here being actively blocked.
Source: Owomoyela 3521; compare 3593.
Literal: Ẹsẹ̀ tí yó bù a-foot that will-fester, pẹ̀lẹ́ ò ràn án "easy-does-it" does-not help-it.
Idiomatic: "A gashed foot that will fester is not helped by 'Easy does it!'"
Meaning: Mere sympathy or gentle words are of no use to a person in a genuinely desperate, destined-to-worsen condition.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Mere expression of sympathy is of little use to a person in desperate straits"
Notes: Pẹ̀lẹ́, an expression of sympathy or condolence offered to someone in difficulty, is a real and common Yorùbá social gesture; the proverb's force depends on the hearer recognising that gesture and being told, bluntly, that it will not be sufficient here.
Source: Owomoyela 3527.
Literal: Ẹṣin kì í wó a-horse does-not fall kó mú kàn-an rẹ̀ rọ̀run and take its-tethering-post to-heaven.
Idiomatic: "A horse does not fall and take its tethering post to heaven with it."
Meaning: One suffers one's own fate alone; it cannot be shared with anything or anyone attached to one.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One suffers one's fate alone; one cannot share it with others" Owomoyela's footnote clarifies that falling here is a euphemism for dying [S1, note 12].
Notes: The tethering post stands for whatever a person is bound to, possessions, dependents, position, and the proverb states that none of these accompanies a person into death, a claim consistent with file 75's fuller treatment of what does and does not travel with the dead.
Source: Owomoyela 3528, with note 12.
(This entry is withheld as a near-duplicate already fully covered at entry 9 above; not counted separately.)
Literal: Ìpín jẹun the-destiny of-the-one-who-will-eat kì í jẹ́ kíná kú does-not let the-fire die.
Idiomatic: "The destiny of the person who will eat will keep the fire from going out."
Meaning: Providence sustains the resources a destined outcome requires.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Providence will take care of one's needs"
Notes: Ìpín, portion or destiny, functions here as a near-synonym for orí and àyànmọ́; the proverb envisions destiny as actively maintaining the practical conditions (in this case, cooking fire) needed for its own fulfilment, rather than as a passive endpoint.
Source: Owomoyela 3546.
Literal: Ire ẹni one's own good-fortune kì í kọjá ẹni does-not pass-by one.
Idiomatic: "The good fortune destined for one will not pass one by."
Meaning: Destined good fortune reliably reaches the person it belongs to.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One's destined good fortune will not be deflected"
Notes: This is the positive counterpart to the file's many statements about unavoidable misfortune; the same logic of inescapability is applied here to good outcomes rather than bad ones.
Source: Owomoyela 3547.
Literal: Ìrìn Àṣàké ò papọ̀ mọ́ ti Ọ̀wọ́lú Àṣàké's path does-not merge with Ọ̀wọ́lú's; Àṣàké ń lọ ilé ọkọ Àṣàké is-going to-her-husband's-home, Ọ̀wọ́lú ń re ọ̀run Ọ̀wọ́lú is-heading to-heaven.
Idiomatic: "Àṣàké's path is not the same as Ọ̀wọ́lú's path; Àṣàké is bound for her spouse's home, whereas Ọ̀wọ́lú is bound for heaven."
Meaning: Different people, even close companions, have different destinies, and one's marriage may coincide with another's death.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Different people have different destinies"
Notes: This proverb uses two named individuals rather than generic figures, a stark juxtaposition, marriage against death, that makes vivid the claim that destiny is individually assigned rather than shared even among those whose lives run in close parallel.
Source: Owomoyela 3548.
Literal: Irù tó bà lé ẹni nípàkó the-gadfly that alights on-one's-occiput ò ní òun ò ní gbéni mì does-not-say it-will-not swallow-one; Ọlọ́run ọba ni ò jẹ́ kí ipá ẹ̀ ká a it-is-God-the-king who prevents its-power from-being-enough.
Idiomatic: "The gadfly that alighted on one's occiput is not reticent about swallowing one; only God Almighty denied it the power to do so."
Meaning: One's enemies would harm one fully if they could; only God's limit on their power prevents it.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One's enemies are unrelenting in their effort to do harm; only God has thwarted them"
Notes: This proverb is close in structure to entry 22: both credit God specifically with actively blocking harm that human or animal malice would otherwise complete, again showing the tradition's fatalism as compatible with an interventionist God rather than a purely mechanical one.
Source: Owomoyela 3549.
Literal: Ìṣe tí fúùfù-lọ̀lọ́ ń ṣe ọ̀run what the-strong-wind does to-the-sky, bí kò wó, bí kò ya that it-does-not collapse or tear, Ọlọ́run ọba ni kò jẹ́ is-because God-the-king does-not-allow-it.
Idiomatic: "The way the wind belabors the sky, that the sky does not collapse or tear into pieces is thanks to God Almighty."
Meaning: Cosmic forces, however violent, are held within bounds only by divine restraint.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Only the gods have kept one from falling into the hands of one's enemies"
Notes: This proverb scales the same claim as entries 22 and 29 up to a cosmic image, the sky itself withstanding a battering wind, showing the range across which this file's proverbs apply the single underlying claim: harm is real and constant, and only divine limit keeps it from being total.
Source: Owomoyela 3550.
Literal: Ìṣẹ́ ò mojú poverty does-not know faces; ìyà ò màwọ̀ suffering does-not know skin-colour; ebí pa àlejò hunger seizes the-stranger, ojú tó ilé, ojú á tóko the-eyes that-sufficed-for-home will-suffice-for-the-farm.
Idiomatic: "Poverty cares not who owns which eyes; suffering does not pay attention to skin complexion; when hunger grips the stranger, the eyes that have seen the house will see the farm."
Meaning: Hard times spare no one on the basis of identity; every person must adapt and gird themselves regardless of former status.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Hard times do not spare anyone; every person must gird himself or herself"
Notes: This proverb universalises suffering across status categories explicitly, a claim of impartiality that pairs with entry 15's claim about the impartiality of fate between individuals, extended here to poverty and suffering specifically.
Source: Owomoyela 3551.
Literal: Kò sí ìgbà there-is-no time tí ọmọ awo ò níí ṣawo when-the-child-of-a-cult-member will-not become-initiated.
Idiomatic: "There is no escaping the time when a person born into a cult must become initiated into its mysteries."
Meaning: A calling determined by birth into a particular lineage or cult cannot ultimately be avoided.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One cannot avoid one's ordained calling"
Notes: This proverb applies the destiny logic of the whole file specifically to religious vocation, connecting fate directly to the institutional world of Ifá initiation documented in 05-ifa/06-becoming-a-babalawo.md and this corpus's file 72.
Source: Owomoyela 3557.
(Cross-referenced from file 70, entry 14. See that file for the complete text.)
Source: Owomoyela 3555.
Literal: Kò sí alábàárò there-is-no commiserator tó ju orí ẹni that exceeds one's-own-head.
Idiomatic: "There is no commiserator that surpasses one's head."
Meaning: One's own destiny is the most reliable support available, more so than any sympathiser.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "The best support one has is one's own head, one's protective spirit"
Notes: This proverb makes orí not merely a fixed fate but an active, supportive presence, "commiserator" implying something closer to a companion than an abstract principle, which is consistent with orí's doctrinal status as an entity that can be prayed to and fed, documented at 04-cosmology/03-ori.md.
Source: Owomoyela 3552.
(This entry, on complementary capacity between young and old, was already fully documented in 02-language/05-owe-proverbs.md entry 14 and is not repeated here; noted only to record it was checked and correctly excluded from this file.)
Literal: Ka fi ẹfun tọ́ ilé aje let-us whitewash the-house-of-riches, ka fọ̀sùn tọ́lé ìlẹ̀kẹ̀ let-us paint-with-camwood the-house-of-beads; àkọ́dá orí kì í gbé ìsàlẹ̀ ọjà the-head created-at-the-beginning-of-time does-not languish at-the-bottom-of-the-market.
Idiomatic: "Let us whitewash the house of riches and paint that of beads with camwood; the head created at the beginning of time does not languish at the marketplace."
Meaning: Whoever is destined to prosper will not fail to do so, however humble their present circumstances appear.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Whoever is destined to prosper will not fail to do so"
Notes: Àkọ́dá orí, "the head created at the beginning," is a striking phrase locating the origin of individual destiny at the moment of cosmic creation itself, not merely at each person's individual birth, which pushes the doctrine documented at 04-cosmology/04-ayanmo-kadara-ipin.md to its furthest chronological point.
Source: Owomoyela 3553.
Literal: Màkàn-màkàn by-turns loyè ń kàn is-how chieftaincy-titles arrive.
Idiomatic: "Chieftaincy titles go around in turns."
Meaning: Good fortune, like a rotating title, comes to each person in its own due time.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One's good fortune will come one's way in due time"
Notes: This proverb frames destined fortune using the specific social institution of rotating chieftaincy title-holding, grounding an abstract claim about fate in a concrete and recognisable Yorùbá political practice.
Source: Owomoyela 3560.
(Cross-referenced from owe-iwa-character entry 50, where this identical proverb is treated in full, with its notes on the slide between orí as destiny and orí read as character. Not repeated here.)
Source: Owomoyela 3561.
Literal: Níní owó having money kàdárà ni is destiny; àìní owó not-having money kàdárà ni is destiny.
Idiomatic: "Being blessed with money is a matter of destiny; not having money is also a matter of destiny."
Meaning: Both wealth and poverty are equally matters of kádàrá, destiny, not of merit or effort alone.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One's earthly fortune is a matter of destiny beyond one's control"
Notes: Kádàrá is the third of the three near-synonymous destiny terms in this file, alongside orí and àyànmọ́; this proverb's balanced structure, applying the same word symmetrically to both wealth and its absence, denies any implied moral hierarchy between rich and poor based on the fact of their wealth alone.
Source: Owomoyela 3563.
Literal: Ó wu àgùàlà the-planet-Venus wishes kó mọ́lẹ̀ bí òṣùpá to-shine like-the-moon, Ọlọ́run ọba ni ò jẹ́ God-the-king does-not-allow-it.
Idiomatic: "The planet Venus would like to be as bright as the moon, but God the King would not permit it to be."
Meaning: Every individual's destined station is fixed by God, however much a lesser figure might wish to rival a greater one.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Everyone wishes to be as great as the greatest person, but each individual's destiny is decisive" Owomoyela records this as the first of a set of four variants (entries 3565, 3566, 3567) all using the same structure with different creatures wishing for a status denied them .
Notes: The four-variant set (this entry plus the goat wishing its kid a buck, the ewe wishing its lamb a ram, the hen wishing its chick a cock, and the antelope wishing to live twenty years against the trapper's wish for tomorrow) is one of the clearest demonstrations in the collection of formulaic proverb-generation: a single argumentative template populated with different, culturally resonant image-pairs.
Source: Owomoyela 3564; variants 3565, 3566, 3567.
Literal: Olóríburúkú the-ill-fated-person kì í re oko ikàn does-not go-to a-locust-bean-farm; bó bá re oko ikàn if-he-should go-to-a-locust-bean-farm, ilá ní ń ká wálé okra is-what-he-brings-home.
Idiomatic: "An ill-fated person does not go to a locust-bean farm; if he should go to a locust-bean farm, he will return home with okra."
Meaning: A person destined for failure will find a way to fail even in favourable circumstances.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "A person destined to fail will always find a way to fail"
Notes: This is the negative mirror of entry 16 and entry 27: where those show destined success overcoming scarcity, this shows destined failure defeating abundance, confirming that the file's fatalism cuts in both directions symmetrically.
Source: Owomoyela 3570.
Literal: Omi lèèyàn humans are-streams; bó bá ṣàn wá if-it-flows this-way a tún ṣàn padà it-also flows back.
Idiomatic: "Humans are streams; they flow forth and flow back."
Meaning: People are not permanently fixed in one place or condition; no one knows for certain where they will find themselves in the future.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "People are not fixed in one location; no one knows where he or she will find himself or herself in the future"
Notes: Water imagery for human fate recurs across this file (compare entry 20's cat and water, and this file's frequent use of natural forces as figures for destiny); here it specifically emphasises unpredictability of direction rather than inevitability of outcome, a slightly different register from most of the file's harder fatalism.
Source: Owomoyela 3571.
Literal: Omi tí a máa mu the-water one is-destined-to-drink kì í ṣàn kọjá ẹni does-not flow past one.
Idiomatic: "The water one is destined to drink will not flow past one."
Meaning: One's destiny will reliably reach and not bypass the person to whom it belongs.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One's destiny will not pass one by"
Notes: This is a close structural twin of entry 27 (good fortune will not pass one by), using water rather than abstract "good fortune" as the destined resource, and it works as a direct pair with entry 42's water-as-unpredictability image, showing the same natural element used for two distinct points within a few proverbs of each other.
Source: Owomoyela 3572.
Literal: Òní la rí today is-what-we-see, kò sẹ́ni tó mọ̀ ọ̀la there-is-no-one who knows tomorrow.
Idiomatic: "Today is all we see; nobody knows tomorrow."
Meaning: Only the present is known; the future is categorically hidden.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "No one knows what the future will bring"
Notes: This proverb states the epistemic condition, radical uncertainty about the future, that makes the whole apparatus of divination (file 72) and sacrifice (file 74) socially necessary in the first place: people consult Ifá and offer sacrifice precisely because "today is all we see."
Source: Owomoyela 3574.
Literal: Orí burúkú lẹbọ ní the-monkey has bad-luck; ọ̀bọ ò lẹnu bí ẹṣin the-monkey does-not have-a-mouth like a-horse's.
Idiomatic: "What the monkey has is ill luck; the monkey does not have a mouth like a horse's."
Meaning: Ill luck accounts for otherwise inexplicable or unnatural misfortunes.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "It is ill luck that brings unusual or unnatural misfortunes"
Notes: The proverb references the specific practice of restraining or saddling a monkey as a pet, a use it is physically unsuited for, unlike a horse [S1, note 17], and treats that unsuitedness as itself evidence of bad orí rather than of simple biological mismatch.
Source: Owomoyela 3575, with note 17.
Literal: Orí inú the-inner/hidden head kì í jẹ́ kí tòde sunwọ̀n does-not allow the-outer-one to-prosper.
Idiomatic: "The unseen head prevents the visible head from prospering."
Meaning: A person's inwardly chosen, hidden destiny governs and can override their outward efforts toward prosperity.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "A person's chosen [evil] destiny will always keep him from prospering"
Notes: This proverb draws a distinction, unusual in its explicitness, between an inner orí (the true, chosen destiny) and an outer one (visible circumstance or effort), which corresponds to a documented feature of Yorùbá thought about orí inú versus orí òde discussed at 04-cosmology/03-ori.md.
Source: Owomoyela 3577.
Literal: Orí la fi mọ̀ ẹran láwo it-is-one's-luck/head that-is-used-to-know one's-portion of-meat on-the-plate.
Idiomatic: "It is one's luck that determines the piece of meat one takes from a plate."
Meaning: Outcomes in situations of shared, undivided distribution (a communal dish, where no one controls what portion falls to them) are governed by luck or destiny.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "How one fares in life depends on luck," with the added clarification that when people eat from a communal dish, no one can be sure what piece of meat will fall to his or her lot [S1, note 19].
Notes: The communal-dish image is precise and practical: it names a real, everyday situation of chance distribution and uses it as the vehicle for an abstract claim about how life's larger allocations work.
Source: Owomoyela 3578, with note 19.
Literal: Orí ló mọ only-the-head knows ibi ẹsẹ̀ ń rè where the-feet are-going.
Idiomatic: "The head alone knows where the feet will go."
Meaning: One never knows in advance where one's destiny will lead.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One never knows where one's destiny will lead"
Notes: This proverb plays on the double sense of orí, physical head guiding physical feet, and destiny guiding a life's course, without needing to state which sense is primary; both readings work simultaneously, a compression this corpus notes as typical of the genre.
Source: Owomoyela 3579.
Literal: Orí tó máa dádé the-head that will-wear-a-crown, nínú agoroodẹ ní ń ti-í yọ jáde is-from-before-the-birth-of-the-gods that-it emerges; ọrùn tí yó lọ èjìgbà ìlẹ̀kẹ̀ the-neck that will-wear beaded-necklaces, nínú agoroodẹ ní ń ti-í yọ jáde likewise is-from-before-the-birth-of-the-gods.
Idiomatic: "The head that will wear a crown is so destined from before the birth of the gods; the neck that will be adorned with beads is so destined from before the birth of the gods." The fuller proverb continues with a third clause about the waist that will wear royal cloth, all destined "from before the birth of the gods," with the note: "One only lives a course that was predetermined before one's birth"
Meaning: Royal destiny is fixed at a point in cosmic time prior even to the gods' own origin.
Notes: Agoroodẹ, rendered "before the birth of the gods," pushes the chronological origin of destiny back even further than entry 36's "beginning of time" phrasing, to a point that precedes the òrìṣà themselves, which is the most extreme statement in this file of how deeply prior to any individual life destiny is held to be fixed.
Source: Owomoyela 3583.
Literal: Ọpọ̀ èèyàn many people ló wù kó kọwọ́ bàpò wish to-dip-their-hand into-the-pocket, kádàrá ni ò jẹ́ destiny is-what does-not-allow-it.
Idiomatic: "Many people would wish to dip their hands into their pockets, but destiny prevents their doing so."
Meaning: The wish to be wealthy enough to spend freely is universal, but destiny, not desire, determines who actually can.
Used when: Owomoyela's note: "Everybody wishes to be rich, but destiny says otherwise"
Notes: The gesture of dipping the hand into the pocket signifies the act of pulling out money to spend [S1, note 22]; this proverb closes the file's main run on the same note it began with, that wish, effort, and even the sacrifices and charms of entry 1, cannot substitute for what kádàrá alone determines.
Source: Owomoyela 3592, with note 22.
Destiny is chosen, not merely imposed. Entries 2 and 6, the file's clearest doctrinal statements, describe a person kneeling before the Creator to choose their own portion before birth. This makes the proverb tradition's fatalism, on close reading, closer to a doctrine of prior self-authorship than to blind imposition, though the practical experience it describes, disillusionment on arrival at earth (entries 2, 6), is identical to what an imposed fate would produce.
God actively intervenes to check human malice, even within a fatalistic framework. Entries 22, 29, and 30 all show God specifically blocking harm that other agents, human enemies or natural forces, would otherwise complete. This complicates any reading of these proverbs as describing a closed, mechanical system; destiny is fixed, but its unfolding is still subject to protective intervention against interference from other people.
The file's fatalism about sacrifice and medicine (entries 1, 5, 7) sits in real tension with files 74 and 76, which document those same practices as effective within their own domain. This corpus does not resolve that tension because the source material does not resolve it: proverbs are, as this whole section repeatedly notes, tools selected for occasions, not clauses in one settled system.
04-cosmology/03-ori.md and 04-cosmology/04-ayanmo-kadara-ipin.md, for the doctrinal account of orí, àyànmọ́, and kádàrá against which these proverbs' claims can be checked.Twenty-six Yorùbá proverbs on mortality, ìkú (death), and ọ̀run (the beyond), drawn from Owomoyela's dedicated section on the subject, showing how ordinary speech treats death as certain, undodgeable, and impartial.
Thirteen Yorùbá proverbs about ẹbọ, sacrifice and offering, showing how ordinary speech treats the exchange between humans and the unseen as a transaction with real limits and real risks of interception.
Forty Yorùbá proverbs on destiny, the allotted orí, and what a person can and cannot change about their lot, each with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation it is spoken in.
Forty-two Yorùbá proverbs on the head as body part and as destiny, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Twenty-two Yorùbá proverbs in which òrìṣà appear as the vehicle of an argument about human affairs, showing how ordinary speech treats the gods as present, particular, and sometimes named individually.
Fifty-eight Yorùbá proverbs on character, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.