Òwe on Àyànmọ́: What Is Allotted
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.
Àyànmọ́ is what has been affixed to a person, from yàn, to choose or select, and mọ́, to fasten. In Yorùbá belief a person kneels before Ọlọ́run or chooses among the heads stored in Àjàlá's workshop before coming into the world, and what is chosen there, the orí or ìpín, is understood to govern the shape of the life that follows. This file collects forty proverbs that speak from inside that belief: what the allotted lot can and cannot be changed by, how a person is meant to respond to a run of good or bad fortune, and where the proverbs themselves disagree about how fixed the fixing really is. A companion file, owe-fate-gods-responsibility, covers the wider ground of Ọlọ́run's justice and human responsibility; this file stays close to the narrower vocabulary of what is chosen, allotted and carried as one's own.
Most of the proverbs here are given in Owomoyela's texts and translations, drawn from the digitised Good Person excerpts of his collection . Owomoyela's parenthetical usage notes are the basis of the Used when lines, and where the wording of a note is his it is quoted. Two entries near the end are drawn from a peer-reviewed philosophical article on orí and destiny rather than from Owomoyela, and are marked accordingly; those two are printed in the source without tone marks, and this file reproduces them in that state rather than supplying diacritics that would settle a reading the source did not give.
A note on registers
STYLE.md requires that this corpus not blend what the tradition says of itself with what a scholar argues about it. The proverbs below are the tradition's own idiom: they assert, plainly, that a bad orí ruins a good effort, or that Ọlọ́run's judgement outranks a person's schemes. The introductory framing above, and the closing section, draw on Balogun's 2007 philosophical survey of the scholarly debate over whether Yorùbá belief in orí amounts to fatalism, hard determinism, or something softer . That debate belongs to philosophers arguing about the proverbs, not to the proverbs themselves, and the two are kept separate throughout: a Meaning line states what a proverb asserts; where a scholarly position is relevant it is named as such, not folded into the proverb's own voice.
What is allotted and cannot be evaded
1. Pípẹ́ ni yó pẹ̀ẹ́, agbọ̀n á bo adìẹ.
Literal: Pípẹ́ ni yó pẹ̀ẹ́ long it will be-long, agbọ̀n á bo adìẹ the-coop will cover the-chicken.
Idiomatic: "It may take long, but the coop will eventually cover the chicken."
Meaning: A destined outcome may be delayed but not permanently avoided.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One may put it off a while, but one cannot avoid one's fate"
Notes: The image is domestic and unforced: a chicken being penned for the night is an ordinary daily event, not a punishment, and the proverb borrows that ordinariness to make avoidance sound futile rather than tragic. Owomoyela notes it as one of a small family of proverbs beginning the same way.
2. Ibi tí a ní kí gbégbé má gbèé, ibẹ̀ ní ńgbé.
Literal: Ibi tí a ní the-place that we-say kí gbégbé má gbèé that gbégbé should-not inhabit, ibẹ̀ ní ńgbé there it inhabits.
Idiomatic: "The spot one cautions the gbégbé plant not to inhabit, there it will surely inhabit."
Meaning: Warning a thing away from its destined place has no effect on where it ends up.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One will fulfill one's destiny, whatever others might do to prevent one"
Notes: Gbégbé is a weed that colonises exactly the ground a farmer tries hardest to keep clear, so the proverb is drawn from an irritation every farmer knows firsthand rather than from abstract doctrine. Compare entry 1: both use a mundane, low-stakes image to carry a claim about the unavoidability of the allotted outcome.
3. Ajá tí yó sọnù kì í gbọ́ fèrè ọdẹ.
Literal: Ajá tí yó sọnù a-dog that will be-lost kì í gbọ́ does-not hear fèrè ọdẹ the-hunter's whistle.
Idiomatic: "A dog destined to be lost does not hear the hunter's whistle."
Meaning: A person marked for ruin will not be reached by the ordinary means that would otherwise save them.
Used when: Owomoyela: "No matter what help one may render, one cannot save an ill-fated person"
Notes: The whistle is the one reliable instrument a hunter has for calling a dog back from danger, so the proverb specifies that the failure is not for lack of a rescue attempt. It is one of the starker statements in this set and stands in some tension with entries later in this file that credit a person's own conduct, rather than a sealed fate, for a bad outcome.
4. Ajá tó rí mọ́tò tó dúró fi ara-a ẹ̀ bọ Ògún.
Literal: Ajá tó rí mọ́tò a-dog that sees a-vehicle tó dúró that stands fi ara-a ẹ̀ bọ Ògún makes itself a-sacrifice to-Ògún.
Idiomatic: "A dog that sees a motor vehicle and stands in its way makes itself a sacrifice to Ogun."
Meaning: Needless self-endangerment amounts to volunteering for the fate that follows.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A person who needlessly endangers him/herself deserves his/her fate"
Notes: Ògún is the god of iron, war and the road, to whom the metal of the vehicle and the danger of the collision both belong, so the dog is described as making an offering to exactly the deity whose domain it has wandered into. The motor vehicle marks this proverb, or at least this phrasing of it, as no older than the automobile's arrival among the Yorùbá.
5. Ìpàṣán tí a fi na ìyálé ḿbẹ láàjà fún ìyàwó.
Literal: Ìpàṣán tí a fi na ìyálé the-whip with-which the-senior-wife was-beaten ḿbẹ láàjà is-resting on-the-rafters fún ìyàwó for the-new-wife.
Idiomatic: "The whip used on the senior wife is resting on the rafters waiting for the new wife."
Meaning: A misfortune that has already fallen on the person who occupied one's position before one is waiting, still intact, for one's own turn.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not assume that the misfortune that befell those who went before one will pass one over"
Notes: The proverb's force is in the whip's location: kept on the rafters rather than discarded, it is a household object in storage, which turns the threat from an event into a fixture of the house one has married into. Ìyálé and ìyàwó, senior wife and newly arrived wife, are successive occupants of the same structural position in a polygynous compound, so the newcomer inherits the position's liabilities along with its standing. The reasoning is the same as entry 18, on the gods taking one person of a kind and the next of that kind making ready, but stated as a domestic inheritance rather than as divine selection.
6. Àìlèfọhùn ní ńṣáájú orí burúkú.
Literal: Àìlèfọhùn inability-to-speak-out ní ńṣáájú is-what precedes orí burúkú a-bad orí.
Idiomatic: "Inability to speak out precedes misfortunes."
Meaning: A person who will not speak up for themselves opens the way for their bad lot to arrive.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A person who will not speak out on his or her own behalf suffers the consequences"
Notes: Orí burúkú, bad head or bad destiny, is treated grammatically here as an event that has a precondition, which softens the proverb's fatalism considerably: the misfortune does not simply happen, it is preceded by, and implicitly invited by, a specific failure of the person's own. That structure anticipates the soft-deterministic reading discussed in the closing section of this file.
7. Kì í ṣe gbogbo ẹni tí ńṣe "Ọlọ́rún bùn ó bùn mi" là ńfún ní nǹkan.
Literal: Kì í ṣe gbogbo ẹni it-is-not every person tí ńṣe "Ọlọ́rún bùn ó bùn mi" who says-"whoever God has-endowed should-endow me" là ńfún ní nǹkan that one gives something.
Idiomatic: "It is not to every person who says 'Whoever has received some bounty from God should give to me' that one gives alms."
Meaning: An appeal to divine bounty is not by itself grounds for charity.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should be judicious as to those to whom one shows kindness"
Notes: The proverb quotes a beggar's formula verbatim and then declines to be moved by it, which is an unusually direct piece of social commentary: it treats an appeal to Ọlọ́run's generosity as a rhetorical move that can be resisted rather than an unanswerable claim.
8. Kò sí ẹni tí Ọlọ́run ò ṣe fún, àfi ẹni tó bá ní tòun ò tó.
Literal: Kò sí ẹni there-is no-one tí Ọlọ́run ò ṣe fún whom God has-not done for, àfi ẹni tó bá ní except one-who says tòun ò tó that-his is-not-enough.
Idiomatic: "There is no one to whom God has not been generous, only those who will say he has not been generous enough."
Meaning: Every allotment contains something to be thankful for, and complaint is a choice, not a report of fact.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Everyone has something to be thankful for"
Notes: The grammar denies the existence of an unprovided-for person altogether and relocates the entire question of insufficiency into the complainer's attitude, which makes this one of the more theologically confident proverbs in the set: it treats the allotment as adequate by definition.
9. Màrìwò ò wojú ẹnìkan, àfi Ọlọ́run.
Literal: Màrìwò palm-fronds ò wojú ẹnìkan do-not look-to-the-face of-anyone, àfi Ọlọ́run except God.
Idiomatic: "Palm fronds look up to no one except God."
Meaning: Ultimate reliance rests with Ọlọ́run alone, not with any human patron.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One's trust is in God only"
Notes: Young palm fronds, used to mark sacred or forbidden ground, are strongly associated with divine and ancestral authority in Yorùbá ritual practice, so the image already carries religious weight before the proverb states its point outright.
10. Ọlọ́run yó pèsè; kì í ṣe bí èsè oríta.
Literal: Ọlọ́run yó pèsè God will provide; kì í ṣe bí èsè oríta it-is-not like the-leavings of-a-crossroads.
Idiomatic: "The Lord will give alms, but not the type one comes upon at crossroads."
Meaning: What Ọlọ́run allots is a real gift, not the scraps of a sacrifice left for spirits at a crossroads.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One wishes for good gifts from God, not just any sort of leavings"
Notes: Crossroads offerings, left there for Èṣù and other spirits rather than for the living, are a known image in Yorùbá religious practice and are treated in owe-esu-in-proverb and owe-doorway-threshold-boundary; here the image is used only for contrast, to distinguish a genuine allotment from a discard.
What follows from the lot one has
11. Ohun tó ní òun óò bẹ́ni lórí, bó bá ṣíni ní fìlà, ká dúpẹ́.
Literal: Ohun tó ní a-thing that says òun óò bẹ́ni lórí it-will decapitate-one, bó bá ṣíni ní fìlà if it-only knocks-off one's cap, ká dúpẹ́ let-one give-thanks.
Idiomatic: "If a thing that vows to decapitate one only knocks off one's hat, one should be thankful."
Meaning: When a threatened disaster turns out milder than feared, gratitude rather than complaint is the fitting response.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If the misfortune that befalls one turns out to be far milder than one expected, one should give thanks"
Notes: The escalation from decapitation to a knocked-off cap is deliberately extreme, and Owomoyela pairs this proverb directly with the next in his collection, both drawn from the same rhetorical pattern of a fate narrowly and gratefully escaped.
12. Ohun tó ní òun óò ṣeni lẹ́rú, tó wá ṣeni níwọ̀fà, ká gbà á.
Literal: Ohun tó ní a-thing that says òun óò ṣeni lẹ́rú it-will make-one a-slave, tó wá ṣeni níwọ̀fà that-then makes-one a-pawn, ká gbà á let-one accept it.
Idiomatic: "If whatever promised to make one a slave only makes one a pawn, one should accept one's fate."
Meaning: A milder-than-threatened fate should be accepted rather than resented.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should gratefully accept a fate that turns out more merciful than what could have been"
Notes: Pawnship, ìwọ̀fà, was a real and recognised status distinct from slavery, in which labour serviced a debt rather than transferring a person permanently, so the comparison is not rhetorical exaggeration but a distinction the original audience would have understood precisely. Owomoyela pairs this with the preceding entry explicitly.
13. Fi ìjà fún Ọlọ́run jà, fọwọ́ lérán.
Literal: Fi ìjà fún Ọlọ́run jà give the-fight to-God to-fight, fọwọ́ lérán fold-hands and-watch.
Idiomatic: "Leave the fighting to God, sit back and watch."
Meaning: Vengeance against a wrongdoer is properly left to divine judgement rather than personal retaliation.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should leave those who have injured one to God's judgement and punishment"
Notes: Fọwọ́ lérán literally describes the posture of a spectator at a fight or a performance, folding the hands and watching, so the proverb reframes withheld retaliation not as passivity but as the deliberate posture of someone who has handed the matter to a more capable party.
14. Ẹni èèyàn ò kí kó yọ̀; ẹni Ọlọ́run ò kí kó ṣọ́ra.
Literal: Ẹni èèyàn ò kí whoever people do-not greet kó yọ̀ let-him rejoice; ẹni Ọlọ́run ò kí whoever God does-not greet kó ṣọ́ra let-him beware.
Idiomatic: "Whoever is shunned by people should rejoice; whoever is shunned by God should look out."
Meaning: Human disfavour is a small matter next to divine disfavour, which is the one exclusion truly worth fearing.
Used when: Owomoyela: "God's favor is preferable to people's"
Notes: The parallel structure sets up an expected equivalence between the two clauses and then breaks it: being shunned by people is grounds for relief, not alarm, which reorders the ordinary social hierarchy of what counts as a serious exclusion.
15. Bí ẹnìkan ò kíni "Kú-ù-jokòó," kíkí Ọlọ́run-ún ju ti igba èèyàn lọ.
Literal: Bí ẹnìkan ò kíni "Kú-ù-jokòó," if a-person does-not greet-one with-"well done at-sitting", kíkí Ọlọ́run-ún God's greeting ju ti igba èèyàn lọ exceeds that of-two-hundred people.
Idiomatic: "If a person does not extend greetings to one, God's greetings are worth more than two hundred peoples'."
Meaning: Being overlooked by people is outweighed many times over by standing well with Ọlọ́run.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Being snubbed by people matters nothing, as long as God does not snub one"
Notes: Kú-ù-jokòó, "well done at sitting," is one of the many situational greetings Yorùbá etiquette requires for a person found at a particular task, and its withholding is a real, noticeable social slight. The proverb concedes the slight and then dismisses its importance by comparison, using the round number two hundred the way Yorùbá proverbs often do, as an emphatic "many" rather than a literal count.
16. Bí Ọlọ́run-ún bá ti fọ̀tá ẹni hanni, kò lè pani mọ́.
Literal: Bí Ọlọ́run-ún bá ti fọ̀tá ẹni hanni once God has shown-one one's-enemy, kò lè pani mọ́ he cannot kill-one any-longer.
Idiomatic: "Once God has revealed one's enemy to one, he can no longer kill one."
Meaning: Ọlọ́run's disclosure of hidden danger is itself the protection against it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Knowledge neutralizes dangers"
Notes: The proverb makes revelation and safety causally identical rather than merely correlated: once the enemy is known, the danger is treated as already defused, which credits divine disclosure with doing the actual protective work rather than merely warning of a threat still to be managed.
17. Bí ilú bá dá sí méjì, tọba ọ̀rún là ńṣe.
Literal: Bí ilú bá dá sí méjì if the-town splits into two, tọba ọ̀rún là ńṣe it-is-the-heavenly-king's-side that one takes.
Idiomatic: "If the town is split into two, one does the will of the heavenly king."
Meaning: When human allegiances divide, the tie-breaking loyalty is to Ọlọ́run's side.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If there is a division in one's group, one takes the side God would favor"
Notes: Ọba ọ̀run, king of heaven, is a common epithet for Ọlọ́run built on the same royal vocabulary used for earthly rulers, so the proverb frames a factional dispute in the town as answerable to a higher throne rather than to either earthly faction.
18. Bí òrìṣá bá mú ẹlẹ́hìn, kí abuké máa múra sílẹ̀.
Literal: Bí òrìṣá bá mú ẹlẹ́hìn if the-gods take one-with-a-protruding-back, kí abuké máa múra sílẹ̀ let the-humpback prepare himself.
Idiomatic: "If the gods take a person with a protruding back, the humpback should make ready."
Meaning: A fate that has already struck someone of one's own kind is a warning that one is next in line.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If a person like one suffers a certain fate, one is at risk"
Notes: The distinction drawn between "protruding back" and "humpback," two degrees of the same condition, mirrors the distinction between a milder and a more severe case, and the proverb argues that the gods' pattern of selection does not respect that distinction once it has started.
19. Ìṣẹ́ kì í pani; ayọ̀ ní ńpani.
Literal: Ìṣẹ́ kì í pani poverty does-not kill-one; ayọ̀ ní ńpani indulgence is-what kills-one.
Idiomatic: "Misfortune does not kill; it is indulgent happiness that kills."
Meaning: Deprivation is survivable in a way that unchecked indulgence is not.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Indulgence kills more surely than want"
Notes: The proverb reverses the expected moral of a set otherwise concerned with hardship and misfortune, and Owomoyela's placement of it among proverbs on caution and moderation, rather than on poverty, signals that its real target is excess rather than want.
20. Iyán àmọ́dún bá ọbẹ̀.
Literal: Iyán àmọ́dún next-year's pounded-yam bá ọbẹ̀ will-find stew.
Idiomatic: "Next year's pounded yam will still find some stew."
Meaning: A future good fortune will meet the means to enjoy it when its time comes.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Whenever one's good fortune comes, then will be time enough to enjoy it"
Notes: The proverb is spoken against impatience for a benefit not yet due, reassuring that the enjoyment of a delayed good fortune is not thereby diminished, in contrast to the urgency found in the time-related entries collected in owe-time-delay-opportunity.
21. Ẹ̀rù kọ́ ní ḿba ọ̀pẹ tó ní ká dá òun sí, nítorí ẹmu ọ̀la ni.
Literal: Ẹ̀rù kọ́ ní ḿba ọ̀pẹ it-is-not fear that seizes the-palm-tree tó ní ká dá òun sí that says one-should leave it standing, nítorí ẹmu ọ̀la ni it-is on-account-of tomorrow's palm-wine.
Idiomatic: "It is not out of fear that the palm-tree pleads to be allowed to stand; it is on account of tomorrow's palm-wine."
Meaning: What is spared today is spared because of what it will still be yielding tomorrow, not out of timidity about cutting it down.
Used when: Owomoyela: "What we have the good sense to preserve today will yield benefits for us in the future"
Notes: Palm-wine is tapped from an incision at the top of a living palm and ferments in the gourd as it collects [S1, note 43], so the tree is an asset that pays out repeatedly as long as it is left standing, and felling it converts a recurring yield into a single harvest. The proverb corrects a misreading of the plea, insisting the request comes from calculation rather than fear, which places it with entry 22 as advice about husbanding an allotted good rather than consuming it at once.
22. Bí ológbò-ó bá pa eku, a fi ìrù-u rẹ̀ dẹlé.
Literal: Bí ológbò-ó bá pa eku if a-cat kills a-mouse, a fi ìrù-u rẹ̀ dẹlé it uses its-tail to-guard-the-house.
Idiomatic: "When a cat kills a mouse, it uses the tail as a sentry."
Meaning: A portion of good fortune should be kept back and put to future use rather than consumed entirely at once.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should save something of one's fortune for the future"
Notes: A cat is commonly observed leaving a caught mouse's tail near its resting place, which country households in Yorùbá tradition took as a sign the cat had been active and the household was safer for it. The proverb reads a genuine piece of household observation as advice about thrift with an allotted good.
23. Bí a kò bá gbé ọ̀pọ̀lọ́ sọ sínú omi gbígbóná, ká tún gbé e sọ sí tútù, kì í mọ èyí tó sàn.
Literal: Bí a kò bá gbé ọ̀pọ̀lọ́ sọ sínú omi gbígbóná if one does-not throw a-toad into hot water, ká tún gbé e sọ sí tútù and then throw it into cold, kì í mọ èyí tó sàn it does-not know which is-better.
Idiomatic: "If one does not throw a toad into hot water, and then throw it into cold water, it does not know which is better."
Meaning: Appreciation of a good lot requires the contrast of having known a bad one.
Used when: Owomoyela: "It takes a change in circumstances to make one appreciate one's good fortune"
Notes: The comparison is drawn without cruelty as its point; the proverb is interested only in the epistemic claim that value is relative to contrast, a claim it makes with an image sharp enough that the hearer will not forget it.
What is not fate but the person's own doing
24. Ìṣeǹṣe ewúrẹ́, kágùntàn fiyè síi.
Literal: Ìṣeǹṣe ewúrẹ́ what-has-happened to-the-goat, kágùntàn fiyè síi let-the-sheep pay-attention to-it.
Idiomatic: "The fate that has befallen the goat, the sheep should bear in mind."
Meaning: Another creature's fate is instructive for one's own conduct, not merely a spectacle.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should learn from the fates of others"
Notes: Goat and sheep are functionally interchangeable as livestock destined for the same market and the same table, which is precisely what makes the goat's fate relevant instruction for the sheep rather than a separate case; the proverb assumes a shared vulnerability, not mere resemblance.
25. Alágẹmọ-ọ́ ti bímọ-ọ rẹ̀ ná; àìmọ̀-ọ́jó kù sọ́wọ́-ọ rẹ̀.
Literal: Alágẹmọ-ọ́ ti bímọ-ọ rẹ̀ ná the-chameleon has already given-birth-to its-young; àìmọ̀-ọ́jó kù sọ́wọ́-ọ rẹ̀ the-inability-to-dance remains its-own responsibility.
Idiomatic: "The chameleon has given birth to its young; inability to dance is the responsibility of the child."
Meaning: A parent's part in a child's fortune ends at bringing the child into the world; what the child then does with its own capacities is the child's own affair.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A parent has done his/her part by having a child; the child's fortunes are the child's responsibility"
Notes: The image plays on the chameleon's proverbially slow and careful movement, so "inability to dance" reads as a joke about a creature whose whole nature makes it an unlikely dancer; the proverb nonetheless refuses to let that inherited nature excuse the failing, and locates responsibility squarely with the offspring rather than with the parent or with fate.
26. Ọmọ inú ayò ò ṣé-é bá bínú.
Literal: Ọmọ inú ayò the-seeds inside the-ayò-board ò ṣé-é bá bínú are-not things-to-be-angry-with.
Idiomatic: "The seeds in an ayò game are not things to be angry at."
Meaning: The counters a losing player blames are not the cause of the loss, and misfortune should not be charged to whatever happens to be at hand when it lands.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not blame one's misfortune on innocent people"
Notes: Ayò is the Yorùbá mancala board game, played with seeds moved between pits, in which the outcome follows from the players' own moves and the seeds are inert throughout. That makes the image an argument rather than an illustration: the proverb picks the one setting where the innocence of the blamed object is beyond dispute, then applies it to the human habit of finding a target for a reverse. It states from the other direction what entry 25 states about the chameleon's young, that the accounting for an outcome belongs with the party who actually acted.
Warnings against boasting and presumption
27. Ẹnu ẹyẹ ní ńpẹyẹ; ẹnu òrofó ní ńpòrofó; òrofó bímọ mẹ́fà, ó ní ilé òun-ún kún ṣọ́ṣọ́ṣọ́.
Literal: Ẹnu ẹyẹ ní ńpẹyẹ the-bird's mouth is-what kills-the-bird; ẹnu òrofó ní ńpòrofó the-green-fruit-pigeon's mouth is-what kills-the-pigeon; òrofó bímọ mẹ́fà the-pigeon bore six-chicks, ó ní ilé òun-ún kún ṣọ́ṣọ́ṣọ́ it-said its-house was-bursting-full.
Idiomatic: "The bird's mouth is its death; the green fruit pigeon's mouth is its death; the pigeon hatches six chicks and boasts that its house is bursting at the seams."
Meaning: Boasting aloud about a run of good fortune summons the predator that ends it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "To boast about one's good fortune is to invite predators"
Notes: Owomoyela cross-references this text with two close variants built on the same opening formula, "the mouth is what kills," applied respectively to the partridge and the squirrel ; all three make the identical claim that a creature's own vocal self-satisfaction, not an external agent, is the proximate cause of its ruin.
28. Ẹnu ni àparò-ó fi ńpe ọ̀rá; a ní "Kìkì ọ̀rá, kìkì ọ̀rá!"
Literal: Ẹnu ni àparò-ó fi ńpe ọ̀rá it-is with-its-mouth that the-partridge summons its-fatness; a ní "Kìkì ọ̀rá, kìkì ọ̀rá!" it says "Nothing but fat, nothing but fat!"
Idiomatic: "With its own mouth the partridge invites its own ruin; it cries, 'Nothing but fat, nothing but fat!'"
Meaning: Conspicuous display of one's own prosperity is itself the invitation to whatever will take it away.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Conspicuous display of one's good fortune invites predators"
Notes: The onomatopoeic cry attributed to the partridge is one of a set of bird-cries the corpus reads as boastful speech, a device visible across all three related entries Owomoyela groups together, and one that depends on knowing the birds' actual calls to appreciate fully.
29. Ẹnu òfòrò ní ńpa òfòrò; òfòrò-ó bímọ méjì, ó kó wọn wá sẹ́bàá ọ̀nà, ó ní "Ọmọ-ọ̀ mí yè koro-koro."
Literal: Ẹnu òfòrò ní ńpa òfòrò the-squirrel's mouth is-what kills-the-squirrel; òfòrò-ó bímọ méjì the-squirrel bore two-young, ó kó wọn wá sẹ́bàá ọ̀nà it brought them to-the-edge-of-the-path, ó ní "Ọmọ-ọ̀ mí yè koro-koro." it said "My children are thoroughly hale."
Idiomatic: "The squirrel's mouth summons its death; the squirrel has two children, takes them to the edge of the path, and says, 'My children are hale and well indeed.'"
Meaning: Bringing one's good fortune out into the open to be admired is what exposes it to loss.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Excessive boasting about one's good fortune invites predators"
Notes: The path's edge, where passers-by will see and hear the boast, is the specific point of exposure the proverb identifies; the danger is located not in having healthy children but in bringing them to where the boast can be overheard.
30. "Ọlá ò jẹ́ kí nríran"; ọmọ Èwí Adó tí ńtanná rìn lọ́sàn-án.
Literal: "Ọlá ò jẹ́ kí nríran" "greatness does-not let-me see"; ọmọ Èwí Adó the-child of-the-Èwí of-Adó tí ńtanná rìn lọ́sàn-án who lights-a-lamp to-walk with in-broad-daylight.
Idiomatic: "'Greatness won't let me see'; the son of the Èwí, king of Adó, who lights a lamp to walk with in broad daylight."
Meaning: Excessive prosperity can produce a display so ostentatious it becomes senseless.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not allow one's good fortune to go to one's head"
Notes: The Èwí is the traditional title of the ruler of Adó-Ekiti, so the proverb names an identifiable royal office rather than an anonymous rich man, which sharpens the satire: even a prince's household is not exempt from the folly of display for its own sake.
31. Onígẹ̀gẹ̀ ìṣájú ba tìkẹhìn jẹ́.
Literal: Onígẹ̀gẹ̀ ìṣájú the-goitered-one in-front ba tìkẹhìn jẹ́ ruins the-one-behind.
Idiomatic: "The goitered person going in front ruins the fortunes of the one coming behind."
Meaning: A person's own visible defect or misdeed compromises the standing of whoever follows them.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A person's misdeeds compromises those coming after him"
Notes: A goiter was a recognisable and stigmatised condition, so the image trades on an association available to the original audience without further explanation; the proverb's logic, that one person's condition taints the reception of another simply by association or sequence, is a variant of the reasoning found in proverbs about lineage reputation collected in owe-family-lineage-compound.
32. Ọwọ́ híhá àhájù ní ńdínà ire mọ́ni.
Literal: Ọwọ́ híhá àhájù excessive tight-fistedness ní ńdínà ire mọ́ni is-what shuts the-door of-good-fortune against-one.
Idiomatic: "Excessive stinginess is what slams the door of fortune in one's face."
Meaning: Miserliness actively repels the good fortune it is meant to hoard.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Miserliness will divert good fortune from the miser's direction"
Notes: Ire, good fortune or blessing, is imagined here as something that must be let in through a door the miser has shut on it, which reverses the miser's own logic: the closed hand meant to keep wealth in instead keeps further wealth out.
33. Abúni ò tó abẹ̀rín; bẹ́ẹ̀ni abẹ̀rín ò mọ ẹ̀hìn ọ̀la.
Literal: Abúni ò tó abẹ̀rín the-one-who-insults-one does-not equal the-one-who-derides-one; bẹ́ẹ̀ni abẹ̀rín ò mọ ẹ̀hìn ọ̀la yet the-derider does-not know the-outcome of-tomorrow.
Idiomatic: "The person who insults one is not as bad as the person who derides one; yet the person who derides one does not know what the future may bring."
Meaning: Even the worse offender, the one who mocks rather than merely insults, cannot know how fortunes will turn.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Fortunes and circumstances may be reversed in time"
Notes: The proverb first ranks two offences against each other, insult below derision, and then undercuts the ranking's usefulness by pointing out that neither offender has any purchase on what tomorrow will do to the person they have mocked, which connects this file's themes of destiny to the reversals of fortune treated at length in owe-time-delay-opportunity.
Orí as the seat of aspiration and refuge
34. Orí adẹ́tù ńpète àrán; orí adáràn-án ńpète àtijọba.
Literal: Orí adẹ́tù the-head that wears-a-cloth-cap ńpète àrán schemes for velvet; orí adáràn-án the-head that wears-velvet ńpète àtijọba schemes for kingship.
Idiomatic: "The head that wears a cloth cap strives to wear a velvet cap; the one that wears a velvet cap strives to become a king."
Meaning: Every orí, whatever it has already attained, reaches for something further.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Everyone hopes for a better tomorrow"
Notes: The proverb tracks a specific, recognisable ladder of Yorùbá headwear, from ordinary cloth cap to velvet cap to the crown, and uses orí, head, as shorthand for the person wearing it, in a construction that blurs the literal head and the destiny it stands for exactly as the concept itself does in ordinary speech.
35. Orí ọ̀kẹ́rẹ́ popo láwo; bí a wí fọ́mọ ẹni a gbọ́ràn.
Literal: Orí ọ̀kẹ́rẹ́ the-squirrel's head popo láwo sits-heaped in-a-plate; bí a wí fọ́mọ ẹni a gbọ́ràn if one counsels one's child, it-should heed-the-counsel.
Idiomatic: "The squirrel's head sits in a plate like a lump; if one counsels one's child it should listen."
Meaning: Advice unheeded by a child leaves the outcome as inert and unshaped as a discarded animal's head.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Refusal to listen to counsel leads to disaster"
Notes: The squirrel's head, not a portion normally prized for eating, sits abandoned in the serving plate the way an ignored piece of counsel sits unused in the child's mind; the image is domestic rather than dramatic, and its force comes from the flatness of a thing simply left where it lies.
36. "Orí jẹ́ kí mpé méjì" obìnrin ò dénú.
Literal: "Orí jẹ́ kí mpé méjì" "orí, let-me become two", obìnrin ò dénú the-woman is-not sincere-in-heart.
Idiomatic: "'May my head grant that I have a partner' as a woman's prayer is not sincere."
Meaning: A woman's spoken prayer to her own orí for a marriage partner is here judged, by the proverb, to be lip service rather than a genuine wish.
Used when: Owomoyela: "People often pay lip service to concepts they do not believe in"
Notes: This is one of the few entries in the file that shows orí being addressed directly, in the second person, as an entity capable of granting a request, which is the ordinary form of prayer to one's own destiny in Yorùbá devotional practice; the proverb's scepticism is aimed at the sincerity of a particular speaker, not at the practice of praying to one's orí itself. It is also, like several proverbs recorded elsewhere in this corpus, a claim made specifically about a woman's supposed insincerity with no equivalent claim made about men, a pattern this corpus notes rather than corrects.
37. Ọ̀làjà ní ńfi orí gbọgbẹ́.
Literal: Ọ̀làjà the-one-who-separates-fighters ní ńfi orí gbọgbẹ́ is-who gets a-gash on-the-head.
Idiomatic: "It is the person who separates two fighters who gets gashed on the head."
Meaning: The peacemaker, not either combatant, ends up bearing the injury.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The peace maker is liable to suffer for his pains"
Notes: Orí here reads primarily as the literal head, the part of the body a blind blow is likeliest to strike, but the proverb is placed in this file because Owomoyela's usage note extends it to the broader pattern of a person's good intentions costing them dearly, a pattern this file's other entries treat as a matter of fortune rather than mere physical accident.
38. Ẹni tí ó forí sọlẹ̀-ẹ́ gbìyànjú ikú.
Literal: Ẹni tí ó forí sọlẹ̀ one-who dives head-first to-the-ground ẹ́ gbìyànjú ikú has-attempted death.
Idiomatic: "Whoever dives head first to the ground has made a creditable attempt at suicide."
Meaning: A drastic, visibly self-endangering act should be credited as a genuine effort, whatever its outcome.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should acknowledge people's sincere efforts"
Notes: The literal act described, a headfirst dive to the ground, and the extension Owomoyela draws from it, crediting sincere effort generally, sit at some distance from each other, and the gloss should be read as the proverb's conventional social use rather than as a paraphrase of its plain sense.
Scholarly framing: is the allotted orí fixed
39. Rírú ẹbọ n gbé ni, àìrú ẹbọ kì í gbe ni yán. (printed without tone marks in the source used here)
Literal: Rírú ẹbọ the-performing of-sacrifice n gbé ni helps one, àìrú ẹbọ the-not-performing of-sacrifice kì í gbe ni yán does-not help one.
Idiomatic: "Making of sacrifice favours one more than its utter refusal." Translator: Balogun, quoting a standard Yorùbá formula in his discussion of ebọ .
Meaning: Ritual sacrifice made to Ọlọ́run or to one's orí improves one's prospects; refusing to make it does not.
Used when: Cited by Balogun as the proverbial ground for the claim that ebọ can alter the course of an allotted destiny .
Notes: Balogun's article prints this text without tone marks and does not name a separate primary source for it beyond citing it as a standard Yorùbá saying in the course of his own philosophical argument; it is reproduced here in that untoned state rather than with diacritics supplied by this corpus, since supplying them would settle a reading the source did not give. Balogun uses the proverb as evidence that Yorùbá belief, properly understood, allows ebọ (sacrifice) and ẹsẹ̀ (individual effort or struggle) to modify the outcome of a destiny chosen before birth, which is the core of his argument that the tradition is better described as soft-deterministic than as strictly fatalistic . That argument belongs to Balogun's reading of the tradition, not to a claim this corpus makes about what the proverb itself asserts beyond its plain sense.
40. Orí burúkú kò gbọ́ ọṣẹ. (printed without tone marks in the source used here)
Literal: Orí burúkú a-bad orí kò gbọ́ ọṣẹ does-not heed soap.
Idiomatic: "A bad ori cannot be rectified with soap." Translator: Balogun, citing Idowu [S2, after S3].
Meaning: Washing, the ordinary means of removing dirt or a stain, has no effect on a destiny that was badly chosen; some misfortunes are represented as beyond correction by ordinary remedy.
Used when: Cited by Balogun as an example of the Yorùbá "easy recourse to fatalistic submissions" available for events that resist rational or practical explanation .
Notes: Balogun cites this proverb from Idowu's 1962 Olódùmarè: God in Yorùbá Belief, p. 182, and reproduces it without tone marks, so this corpus does the same rather than supply diacritics of its own [S2, after S3]. Balogun's own argument treats this proverb as the exception rather than the rule: he holds that the Yorùbá reach for language like this only for the small class of events that are genuinely inexplicable by ordinary causes, and that the bulk of Yorùbá belief about orí and destiny is better described as soft-deterministic, allowing ebọ, ẹsẹ̀ and ìwà to shape outcomes, than as the hard fatalism this proverb's surface wording suggests . Compare entries 6, 25 and 26 above, which in ordinary Yorùbá idiom keep locating the cause of a reverse in the person's own conduct rather than in a sealed allotment, and so make from the inside the same room for responsibility that Balogun argues for philosophically.
Source: [S2, after S3]
Reading this set
Two things stand out across these forty proverbs that no single entry states on its own.
The corpus argues both sides of its own central question. Entries 3, 4 and 5 assert that a destined outcome is not merely likely but certain, arriving whatever help is offered, whatever risk is taken, and whatever happened to the person who held the position before. Entries 6, 25 and 26 assert almost the opposite: that a bad lot is often preceded by a failure of the person's own, that responsibility for what a life does with its capacities rests with the one living it, and that a reverse should not be charged to whatever innocent thing is nearest when it lands. Both positions are proverbial common sense, deployed on different occasions for different rhetorical work, and the tension between them is not a flaw in the record but a fair description of a corpus of situational sayings rather than a treatise. Balogun's 2007 argument that the Yorùbá tradition, examined as a whole, fits soft-determinism better than fatalism or hard determinism is a scholar's attempt to resolve that same tension into a single coherent position ; the proverbs themselves, read plainly, do not resolve it, and this file has tried not to resolve it on their behalf.
Boasting is treated as a mechanism, not merely a vice. Entries 27, 28 and 29 do not simply disapprove of pride; they describe a causal sequence in which the announcement of good fortune is the specific act that summons its loss, whether by predator or by presumption. That is a stronger and more mechanical claim than ordinary moralising against vanity, and it recurs often enough, with enough different animals carrying the same "the mouth kills" formula, that it reads as a settled piece of folk reasoning about how fortune actually behaves once it becomes known, rather than as a moral lesson about character.
Two further points bear noting for anyone using this file. First, the two proverbs drawn from Balogun's article (entries 39 and 40) are the only entries here not sourced from Owomoyela's collection, and they are printed without tone marks because that is how Balogun's source printed them; the difference in provenance and register between these two and the rest of the file is deliberate and should not be smoothed over by a reader assembling a single list. Second, entry 36 is one of several proverbs across this corpus, alongside entries 51 and 56 of owe-iwa-character, that direct their scepticism specifically at women's sincerity with no equivalent claim made of men; the pattern is reported here as a fact about the recorded corpus, not corrected or balanced away.