Òwe on Hunger, Food and Plenty
Sixty-seven Yorùbá proverbs on hunger, eating, restraint at table and the difference between a full house and an empty one, each with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation it is spoken in.
Ebi is hunger, and in Yorùbá it is not something a person has but something that acts: the ordinary way to say you are hungry is ebi ń pa mí, hunger is killing me. This file collects sixty-seven proverbs in which hunger, food and sufficiency are the subject: what hunger does to a person's principles, what eating reveals about their upbringing, who is fed first and who eats last, and what the state of a household's pot says about its standing. The recurring Yorùbá position is that hunger is an argument nobody wins, and that what a person does at the point where hunger meets their principles is the most reliable information available about them.
The proverbs are given in Owomoyela's texts and translations unless another source is named. 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. Anything marked as the compiler's is this corpus's own and carries lower confidence.
A note on sources and diacritics
The Yorùbá texts below are reproduced exactly as Owomoyela prints them in the digitised Good Person collection, in standard orthography with full tone marking and subdots . That collection encodes its diacritics character by character rather than as plain text, and the readings here were recovered from that encoding directly, so Owomoyela's elisions and hyphenated compressed nominals, as in A-bánijẹun-bí-aláìmọra and à-wà-jẹ-wà-mu, appear as printed rather than normalised.
No proverb here has had diacritics supplied by the compiler. Where Owomoyela's English carries quotation marks inside a translation, as at entries 2 and 34, the marks are his and signal words he supplied rather than translated; his parenthetical explanations inside a translation, as at entry 5, are likewise his. His spellings of place and personal names are kept as printed.
Owomoyela attaches no informant, date or locality to any proverb . Where an internal marker allows rough placement, such as the cowrie sums at entry 20 or the kerosene trade at entry 21, the note says so.
What hunger does to a person
1. Ebi ni yó kọ̀ọ́ wèrè lọ́gbọ́n.
Literal: Ebi hunger ni yó kọ̀ọ́ wèrè lọ́gbọ́n is-what will teach the-madman sense.
Idiomatic: "It is hunger that will force sense into the imbecile."
Meaning: Hunger succeeds as a teacher where instruction has failed.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Even an imbecile must heed hunger"
Notes: Wèrè is the madman or the person beyond reasoning with, the standing Yorùbá example of someone who cannot be taught. Naming hunger as the one instructor that reaches him makes hunger the limiting case of persuasion, which is the premise the rest of this section works from. Kọ́ ... lọ́gbọ́n, to teach one sense, is the ordinary phrase for successful upbringing, so hunger is put in the position of a parent.
2. Ebi ò jẹ́ ká pa ọwọ́ mọ́; ebí ṣenú papala.
Literal: Ebi ò jẹ́ ká pa ọwọ́ mọ́ hunger does-not let us fold the-hands together; ebí ṣenú papala hunger makes the-inside-of-the-mouth shrunken.
Idiomatic: "Hunger keeps one from folding one's hands; hunger causes the mouth 'or cheeks' to shrink." The quotation marks are Owomoyela's.
Meaning: Hunger both compels work and visibly marks the body of whoever is not working.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One must work in order to eat"
Notes: Pa ọwọ́ mọ́, to fold the hands together, is the posture of idleness, the same gesture criticised in owe-laziness-waste-improvidence. Papala is an ideophone for something gone hollow or wasted, and the second clause supplies the evidence for the first: hunger drives you to work, and if you are not working it shows in your face. The proverb is the hinge between this file and the file on idleness.
3. Ebi ò pàmọ̀le ó ní òun ò jẹ àáyá; ebí pa Súlè ó jọ̀bọ.
Literal: Ebi ò pàmọ̀le hunger did-not kill the-Muslim ó ní òun ò jẹ àáyá he says he does-not eat colobus-monkey; ebí pa Súlè hunger killed Súlè ó jọ̀bọ he ate-monkey.
Idiomatic: "The muslim is not hungry and he vows he will not eat a red Colobus monkey; hunger gripped Suleiman and he ate a monkey."
Meaning: A dietary prohibition holds exactly as long as the stomach is full.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A desperate person is seldom finicky"
Notes: Súlè is Suleiman, so the man who abandons the prohibition is named and is the same man who announced it. The proverb is about a religious food rule, and it is worth noting that it circulates in a society with a long Muslim population and is not an outsider's mockery: it observes what hunger does to observance without arguing that the observance is wrong. Entry 4 makes the identical structure carry a regional rather than a religious rule, and the two are printed adjacently by Owomoyela .
4. Ebi ò pàJèṣà ó lóun ò jẹ̀kọ Ọ̀yọ́; ebí pa ọmọ Obòkun ó jẹ ori.
Literal: Ebi ò pàJèṣà hunger did-not kill the-Ìjẹ̀ṣà-person ó lóun ò jẹ̀kọ Ọ̀yọ́ he says he does-not eat Ọ̀yọ́ corn-loaf; ebí pa ọmọ Obòkun hunger killed the-child-of-Obòkun ó jẹ ori he ate ori.
Idiomatic: "The Ijeṣa person is not hungry and he rejects corn-loaf prepared by an Ọ̀yọ́ person; when hunger gripped the son of Obokun (an apellation for Ijeṣa people) he ate ori(the Ọ̀yọ́ name for corn-loaf.)" The parenthetical explanations, the spelling "apellation" and the placement of the closing bracket are Owomoyela's, reproduced as printed.
Meaning: The scruple was never about the food, since he ate the same thing once he was hungry enough to call it by the other town's name.
Used when: Owomoyela: "It is when one is not desperate that one is choosy"
Notes: This is the sharper of the pair with entry 3, because the man does not abandon his principle, he renames the food. Ẹ̀kọ and ori are the Ọ̀yọ́ and Ìjẹ̀ṣà words for the same maize loaf, so the proverb turns entirely on a dialect difference and exposes the rejection as regional snobbery rather than taste. Ọmọ Obòkun, child of Obòkun, is the standard praise-name for Ìjẹ̀ṣà people, and using it in the second clause where the first says plainly Ìjẹ̀ṣà keeps the man's dignity intact while removing his argument.
5. Ọmọ ọba Ọ̀nà Ìṣokùn ńfi ehín gé ejò, ọmọ ọba kan-án ní òun kì í jẹ ẹ́; ìlú wo lọmọ ọba náà-á ti wá?
Literal: Ọmọ ọba Ọ̀nà Ìṣokùn the-prince of Ọ̀nà Ìṣokùn ńfi ehín gé ejò is-using teeth to-cut snake, ọmọ ọba kan-án ní òun kì í jẹ ẹ́ a-certain prince says he does-not eat it; ìlú wo lọmọ ọba náà-á ti wá? from-what town has that prince come?
Idiomatic: "The prince of Ọ̀na Ìṣokùn is sharing out snake meat with his teeth, and another prince says he does not eat such a thing; where did that prince come from?"
Meaning: When people of unquestioned rank are doing something, your refusal marks you as small rather than fastidious.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If your betters are reduced to an expedient, you would be foolish to say it is beneath you"
Notes: Ọ̀nà Ìṣokùn is a royal lineage of Ọ̀yọ́, so the eater is not merely a prince but a prince of a house nobody outranks, which is what makes the closing question annihilating. The question is the proverb's whole weapon: it does not argue that snake is good to eat, it asks the objector to name his town. Compare entry 4, where the same regional logic runs the other way.
6. Àìso àbà ló mẹ́yẹ wá jẹ̀gbá; ẹyẹ kì í jẹ̀gbá.
Literal: Àìso àbà the-not-fruiting of-the-àbà-tree ló mẹ́yẹ wá jẹ̀gbá is-what brought the-bird to eat garden-egg; ẹyẹ kì í jẹ̀gbá a-bird does-not eat garden-egg.
Idiomatic: "The failure of the àbà tree to fruit brought the bird to eating garden egg; ordinarily birds would not eat bitter tomato."
Meaning: The demeaning thing a person is doing is explained by the failure of what they would rather have been doing.
Used when: Owomoyela: "But for unavoidable misfortune one would not have been reduced to the demeaning circumstance in which one finds oneself"
Notes: The proverb is a defence rather than an accusation, which distinguishes it from entries 3 to 5: those expose a pretension, this one excuses a comedown. The final clause is doing the work, since without it the bird merely eats and with it the eating is evidence of a crop failure. Ẹ̀gbá here is the bitter garden egg, and Owomoyela glosses it both ways in a single translation.
7. Àfi ohun tí a kì í tà lọ́jà lẹrú kì í jẹ.
Literal: Àfi ohun tí a kì í tà lọ́jà except the-thing that one does-not sell in-the-market lẹrú kì í jẹ is-what a-slave does-not eat.
Idiomatic: "The only thing a slave cannot eat is something not available in the market."
Meaning: A person without standing eats whatever there is, because refusal is a privilege of the free.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A slave has no choice"
Notes: The proverb states the general rule that entries 3 to 5 illustrate with individuals, and it names the mechanism plainly: choosiness is a function of status. Domestic slavery was a live institution in the society that produced this proverb and the text registers it without comment. Read beside entry 19 on how the rich and the poor eat, the file is consistent that manner at table tracks social position rather than character.
8. Ẹni tí kò gbọ́n lààwẹ̀ ńgbò.
Literal: Ẹni tí kò gbọ́n one who is-not wise lààwẹ̀ ńgbò is-whom fasting starves.
Idiomatic: "Only the unwise hungers while fasting."
Meaning: A rule that binds you at fixed hours leaves room the clever person finds.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The resourceful person can find a way around any difficulty"
Notes: Àwẹ̀ is the religious fast, and the proverb is cheerfully cynical about observance in a way that matches entry 3. It does not recommend breaking the fast; it observes that the fast has boundaries in time and that a person who plans around them need not suffer. Whether this is admiration or mockery depends entirely on delivery, and both uses are current.
Famine, plenty and husbanding
9. Ìyàn-án mú, ìrẹ́ yó; ìyàn-án rọ̀, ìrẹ́ rù.
Literal: Ìyàn-án mú the-famine bit, ìrẹ́ yó the-grasshopper was-full; ìyàn-án rọ̀ the-famine slackened, ìrẹ́ rù the-grasshopper grew-thin.
Idiomatic: "A famine rages and the grasshopper grows fat; the famine subsides and the grasshopper grows lean."
Meaning: Fortunes invert, and the season that ruins most people makes some.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should husband one's resources wisely, and save for lean times in times of plenty"
Notes: The observation is entomologically exact rather than fanciful, since the conditions that fail a grain crop can favour the insects that take what remains, and the proverb's authority rests on it being a thing farmers had watched. Mú, to bite or be sharp, is the standard verb for a famine's severity. The four clauses are perfectly balanced, two words each in Yorùbá, and the symmetry is the argument.
10. Ajàkàṣù ò mọ̀ bí ìyàn-án mú.
Literal: Ajàkàṣù the-one-who-tears-off-large-lumps ò mọ̀ bí ìyàn-án mú does-not know how the-famine bites.
Idiomatic: "The person who eats large helpings does not care that there is a famine."
Meaning: Appetite does not register scarcity.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Greed knows no thrift"
Notes: Ajàkàṣù is an agent noun from jà, to tear, and àkàṣù, a large lump of pounded food, so the man is named for the size of the piece he takes. Owomoyela's "does not care" renders ò mọ̀, does not know, and the Yorùbá leaves it open whether the greedy man is ignorant of the famine or indifferent to it. The ambiguity is worth keeping: both are the same at the pot.
11. A kì í gbé ẹran erin lérí ká máa fẹsẹ̀ wa ihò ìrẹ̀.
Literal: A kì í gbé ẹran erin lérí one does-not carry elephant meat on-the-head ká máa fẹsẹ̀ wa ihò ìrẹ̀ and be-digging cricket holes with-the-foot.
Idiomatic: "One does not carry elephant meat on one's head and dig cricket holes with one's big toe."
Meaning: Having secured the large thing, stop scrabbling for the small one.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If one is blessed with plenty, one should not keep chasing after trifles"
Notes: An elephant kill is the largest quantity of meat available in this economy and crickets are the smallest edible catch, dug out of their holes by children, so the proverb spans the entire range of provision in one sentence. The absurdity is physical and immediate, since a man with a full head-load cannot usefully be toeing the ground. This is among the best-known Yorùbá proverbs about proportion.
12. Má fi iyán ewùrà gbọ́n mi lọ́bẹ̀ lọ sóko ẹgàn.
Literal: Má fi iyán ewùrà gbọ́n mi lọ́bẹ̀ do-not use water-yam pounded-yam to-exhaust my stew lọ sóko ẹgàn going to-the-forest farm.
Idiomatic: "Do not eat up my stew with pounded yam made from wateryams before your trip into the forest farm."
Meaning: Do not consume a poor household's reserves on your way to a place where there is abundance.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Do not use up my meager resources on your way to a place of plenty"
Notes: Ewùrà, the water yam, is the inferior yam, so the guest is finishing the stew with the cheap staple, which is the specific complaint: the accompaniment costs more than what it is eaten with. Oko ẹgàn is the distant forest farm, where food is plentiful. The proverb is a rare instance of the Yorùbá corpus permitting a host to object, and its politeness is that it objects to the timing rather than to the eating.
13. A kì í fi pàtàkì bẹ́ èlùbọ́; ẹní bá níṣu ló ḿbẹ́ ẹ.
Literal: A kì í fi pàtàkì bẹ́ èlùbọ́ one does-not use importance to-cut yam-flour; ẹní bá níṣu whoever has yams ló ḿbẹ́ ẹ is-who cuts it.
Idiomatic: "One does not come by yam-flour because of one's importance; only people who have yams can make yam flour."
Meaning: Standing does not produce food. Stock does.
Used when: Owomoyela glosses it "One cannot eat one's importance"
Notes: Èlùbọ́ is the flour made by slicing, drying and grinding yams, so the proverb names a process with a required input and points out that rank is not among the inputs. The sentence is built as a general prohibition followed by the positive rule, a common Yorùbá proverb shape. It belongs with the proverbs on the limits of title, and it is the food-side counterpart of the claim in owe-laziness-waste-improvidence that no deity supports an idler.
14. A fún ọ níṣu lỌ́yọ̀ọ́ ò ńdúpẹ́; o rígi sè é ná?
Literal: A fún ọ níṣu lỌ́yọ̀ one gave you yams at Ọ̀yọ́ ọ́ ò ńdúpẹ́ you are-giving-thanks; o rígi sè é ná? have-you found wood to-cook it yet?
Idiomatic: "You are given yams at Ọyọ and you rejoice; have you secured wood to cook them?"
Meaning: Raw provision is not a meal, and the gift has costs the recipient has not yet counted.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Never assume that a propitious beginning assures a successful conclusion"
Notes: Firewood is the constraint the proverb turns on, and it is a real one: fuel gathering is substantial daily labour, and a stranger in a town has no woodlot. Naming Ọ̀yọ́ marks the recipient as away from home, which is exactly why the wood is a problem. The proverb is a caution against premature gratitude and reads as gently mocking rather than harsh.
15. Ìkòkò tí yó jẹ ata, ìdí ẹ̀ á gbóná.
Literal: Ìkòkò tí yó jẹ ata the-pot that will eat pepper, ìdí ẹ̀ á gbóná its bottom will be-hot.
Idiomatic: "The pot that wishes to eat pepper (stew) will first endure a scalded bottom." The parenthetical is Owomoyela's.
Meaning: Whatever is worth having is preceded by the discomfort that produces it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Good things come only after great labor or suffering"
Notes: The pot is said to eat what it holds, which is the metaphor's whole hinge, and the fire it sits on becomes the price of the meal. Ata is pepper and by extension the pepper stew that is the standard accompaniment, so the pot's reward is the ordinary good dinner rather than a luxury. This is one of the most frequently quoted Yorùbá proverbs on delayed benefit.
16. Ajá tó máa rún ọkà á láyà; ológbò to máa jẹ àkèré á ki ojú bọ omi.
Literal: Ajá tó máa rún ọkà a-dog that will crunch dried-corn á láyà will have chest; ológbò to máa jẹ àkèré a-cat that will eat a-frog á ki ojú bọ omi will dip its-face into water.
Idiomatic: "A dog that will chew dried corn must be brave; a cat that will eat a frog will dip its face in water."
Meaning: Each food demands of its eater the specific thing that eater least wants to do.
Used when: Owomoyela: "It takes a great effort to accomplish a great feat"
Notes: Ní àyà, to have chest, is the Yorùbá idiom for courage, located in the chest as English locates it in the heart. The two examples are chosen precisely: dogs are not built for grain and cats will not willingly wet their faces, so neither animal is being asked for effort in general but for the one concession its nature refuses. That precision is what lifts the proverb above a platitude about hard work.
17. Ẹní bá mọ iṣin-ín jẹ a mọ ikú ojú-u rẹ̀-ẹ́ yọ̀.
Literal: Ẹní bá mọ iṣin-ín jẹ whoever knows how-to eat the-akee-apple a mọ ikú ojú-u rẹ̀-ẹ́ yọ̀ knows-to remove the-death at-its-face.
Idiomatic: "Whoever knows how to eat Akee Apple must know how to remove its deadly raphe."
Meaning: Competence at a dangerous thing is defined by knowing which part kills.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should be sure of one's capabilities before one attempts dangerous feats"
Notes: The botany is exact and the stakes are real: the akee (Blighia sapida) is edible only when ripe and only after the pink raphe attached to the seed is removed, and eating it wrongly causes severe and sometimes fatal poisoning. Ikú, death, is the Yorùbá name for the part itself, so the food's deadly component is lexicalised. The proverb is used well beyond food, of any skill whose danger is specific and locatable.
Who has food, and who is fed
18. Olóúnjẹ-ẹ́ tó-ó bá kú.
Literal: Olóúnjẹ-ẹ́ the-owner-of-food tó-ó bá kú is-enough to-die with.
Idiomatic: "Someone who has food is worth dying with."
Meaning: Provision is sufficient reason to attach yourself to a person.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Food is a good enough reason to cast one's lot with another person's"
Notes: Five words in Yorùbá and completely unsentimental. Bá ... kú, to die with someone, is the strongest available expression of loyalty, used of following a patron to the end, and the proverb assigns it a purely material cause. Whether this is cynical or simply honest is not settled by the text, and Owomoyela's note declines to settle it either. Compare entry 19, which describes the same dependence from the client's side without approving of it.
19. Ilé olóńjẹ là ńdẹ̀bìtì àyà sí.
Literal: Ilé olóńjẹ the-house of-the-owner-of-food là ńdẹ̀bìtì àyà sí is-where we set the-chest as-a-trap.
Idiomatic: "It is in the home of a person who has food that one sets one's chest like a trap."
Meaning: People station themselves where the provision is.
Used when: Owomoyela: "People usually position themselves where they imagine there is something to gain"
Notes: Dẹ ìbìtì is to set a spring trap, and using the chest as the trap gives a picture of a man lying in wait with his own body, which is both comic and slightly predatory. The proverb passes no judgement on the hanger-on; it reports a reliable social fact, and it is most often quoted to explain why a prospering household suddenly has visitors.
20. Olówó ní ńjẹ iyán ẹgbàá.
Literal: Olówó the-moneyed-person ní ńjẹ iyán ẹgbàá is-who eats pounded-yam of-two-thousand-cowries.
Idiomatic: "It is a rich person that eats pounded yams worth two thousand cowries."
Meaning: What is on the plate reports the size of the purse.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One's level of consumption is a reflection of the depth of one's pocket"
Notes: Ẹgbàá is two thousand cowries, a specific and substantial sum, and its presence dates the proverb to the cowrie currency period that ran until the early colonial era. Iyán, pounded yam, is the prestige staple and labour-intensive to prepare, so the expense named is partly the yam and partly the pounding. The proverb is descriptive rather than censorious, which distinguishes it from the proverbs on display in owe-laziness-waste-improvidence.
21. Olówó jẹun jẹ́jẹ́; òtòṣì jẹun tìpà-tìjàn; òtòṣì tí ḿbá ọlọ́rọ̀ rìn, akọ ojú ló ńyá.
Literal: Olówó jẹun jẹ́jẹ́ the-moneyed-one eats gently; òtòṣì jẹun tìpà-tìjàn the-poor-one eats with-force-and-with-struggle; òtòṣì tí ḿbá ọlọ́rọ̀ rìn the-poor-one who walks with the-wealthy, akọ ojú ló ńyá is-borrowing a-bold face.
Idiomatic: "The rich man eats slowly and at leisure; the poor person eats fast and with anxiety; the poor man who keeps company with a wealthy man is exceeding his station."
Meaning: Wealth and poverty are legible in the speed of a person's eating.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should keep to comrades whose station is similar to one's"
Notes: The observation in the first two clauses is acute and unflattering to nobody: the man who knows another meal is coming eats slowly, and the man who does not eats as though it is the last, which is a description of scarcity rather than of manners. Akọ ojú yá, to borrow a bold face, is to assume a confidence one has not got. The third clause draws a conservative moral from a sympathetic observation, and the join between them is loose enough that the first half circulates on its own.
22. Ọjọ́ tí olówó ńṣẹbọ ni à-wà-jẹ-wà-mu ìwọ̀fà.
Literal: Ọjọ́ tí olówó ńṣẹbọ the-day the-creditor makes-sacrifice ni à-wà-jẹ-wà-mu ìwọ̀fà is-the-being-there-eating-being-there-drinking of-the-pawn.
Idiomatic: "The day the person who did the hiring makes a sacrifice is the day the hired hand eats and drinks."
Meaning: The dependent eats when the patron has a reason to feast, and not otherwise.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The poor will eat when the rich provide a feast"
Notes: The ìwọ̀fà is a pawn whose labour services a debt, an institution also assumed in owe-laziness-waste-improvidence; Owomoyela translates it "hired hand," which modernises a specific status relation. Ẹbọ, sacrifice, is followed by the distribution and eating of the offering, so the pawn's good day depends on his creditor's ritual calendar rather than on his own work. The hyphenated nominal à-wà-jẹ-wà-mu packs the whole scene of being present and consuming into a single noun.
23. A kì í lọ́mọ lẹ́hin kọ oúnjẹ.
Literal: A kì í lọ́mọ lẹ́hin one does-not have a-child at-the-back kọ oúnjẹ and-refuse food.
Idiomatic: "One does not have children at one's rear and yet refuse food."
Meaning: Whatever your quarrel, you eat, because someone depends on your body.
Used when: Owomoyela: "No amount of anger or distress should keep one from looking after one's dependents"
Notes: Lọ́mọ lẹ́hìn, to have a child on the back, is the ordinary description of a nursing mother carrying an infant in a back-wrap, so the person addressed is specifically feeding another body from her own. Refusing food is a recognised Yorùbá expression of anger or grief, which is exactly what the proverb overrides. It is the clearest statement in the file that eating can be an obligation rather than a pleasure.
24. Abiyamọ́ purọ́ mọ́mọ-ọ rẹ̀ jẹun.
Literal: Abiyamọ́ a-nursing-mother purọ́ mọ́mọ-ọ rẹ̀ lied against her child jẹun and-ate.
Idiomatic: "The nursing mother lies against her child to secure food."
Meaning: A person will use whatever pretext is available to get fed, including the child she is feeding.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One uses every ruse available to one in the interest of one's well-being"
Notes: The scene is specific: a nursing mother has a recognised claim to extra food on the child's behalf, and the proverb catches her overstating the child's need. It sits directly beside entry 23 as its cynical counterpart, since one says she must eat for the child's sake and the other says she knows it. Owomoyela records both without reconciling them, and the pairing is characteristic of how the corpus handles a genuine social claim that is also abusable.
25. Bí olóúnjẹẹ́ bá rojú à fi àìjẹ tẹ́ ẹ.
Literal: Bí olóúnjẹẹ́ bá rojú if the-owner-of-food scowls à fi àìjẹ tẹ́ ẹ we use not-eating to-disgrace him.
Idiomatic: "If the owner of the food is reluctant to share, one disgraces him by refusing to eat."
Meaning: Refusal is the guest's instrument, and it shames the reluctant host more than complaint would.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The best way to treat a miser is to refuse anything from him"
Notes: Rojú is to knit the face, the visible reluctance rather than an outright refusal, so the offence being answered is a facial expression. In a culture where offering food to whoever is present is close to mandatory, declining is a public verdict on the host, which is why tẹ́, to disgrace, is the right verb. The proverb shows the hospitality norm being enforced from below.
26. A-binú-fùfù ní ńwá oúnjẹ fún a-binú-wẹ́rẹ́-wẹ́rẹ́.
Literal: A-binú-fùfù one-who-is-angry-violently ní ńwá oúnjẹ is-who seeks food fún a-binú-wẹ́rẹ́-wẹ́rẹ́ for one-who-is-angry-mildly.
Idiomatic: "A volatile-tempered person secures food for a mild-tempered person."
Meaning: What the hot-tempered man goes out and gets ends up feeding the calm one.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Whatever good fortune might have been meant for the volatile person will wind up in the lot of the mild-mannered person"
Notes: The two epithets are built on the same frame with contrasting ideophones, fùfù for a violent gust and wẹ́rẹ́-wẹ́rẹ́ for something gentle and gradual, so the pair is a single construction used twice. The proverb is a compact argument for temperament as an economic asset and belongs with the ìwà proverbs in owe-iwa-character.
27. Ohun tí à ńtà là ńjẹ; kì í ṣe ọ̀rọ̀ oní-kẹrosíìnì.
Literal: Ohun tí à ńtà what one sells là ńjẹ is-what one eats; kì í ṣe ọ̀rọ̀ oní-kẹrosíìnì it-is-not the-matter of-the-kerosene-seller.
Idiomatic: "What one sells is what one eats; that does not apply to the kerosene seller."
Meaning: A trader lives off the stock, except where the stock is inedible.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should be mindful of the peculiarities of one's situation"
Notes: Kerosene dates the proverb firmly to the colonial period or after and makes it one of the youngest texts in this file, which is useful evidence that the proverb form remained productive well into the twentieth century. The structure is a general rule followed immediately by its exception, and the wit is that the exception is stated as a legal-sounding disclaimer.
Restraint at the table
28. À-jẹ-tán, à-jẹ-ì-mọra, ká fi ọwọ́ mẹ́wẹ̀ẹ̀wá jẹun ò yẹ ọmọ èèyàn.
Literal: À-jẹ-tán eating-everything-up, à-jẹ-ì-mọra eating-without-knowing-oneself, ká fi ọwọ́ mẹ́wẹ̀ẹ̀wá jẹun to-eat with all-ten fingers ò yẹ ọmọ èèyàn does-not befit a-human-child.
Idiomatic: "Eating-absolutely-everything, eating-with-abandon, eating with all ten fingers is unworthy of human beings."
Meaning: How a person eats is a test of whether they are properly a person.
Used when: Owomoyela: "People should not be slaves to food"
Notes: Eating with all ten fingers is the concrete offence, since Yorùbá eating from a shared dish uses the right hand and a restrained number of fingers, so the image is of someone using both hands at a communal bowl. Mọra, to know oneself, is the standard term for self-restraint, and its negation here names the fault exactly. Ọmọ èèyàn, child of a person, is the phrase for a properly socialised human being, so the charge is a serious one dressed as table manners.
29. A-bánijẹun-bí-aláìmọra, ó bu òkèlè bí ẹ̀gbọ́n ìyá ẹ̀.
Literal: A-bánijẹun-bí-aláìmọra one-who-eats-with-others-like-one-without-restraint, ó bu òkèlè bí ẹ̀gbọ́n ìyá ẹ̀ he breaks-off a-morsel like his mother's-elder-sibling.
Idiomatic: "He-who-eats-with-one-without-self-restraint; he breaks off morsels like his mother's senior."
Meaning: He takes the large helping that only a senior relative is entitled to take.
Used when: Owomoyela: "When eating in company one should be restrained. A man eating with the child of his younger sister need show no such restraint"
Notes: Òkèlè is the ball of pounded food broken off with the fingers and dipped in stew, and its size is a precise social signal at a shared dish. Owomoyela's usage note supplies the essential background: the entitlement is relational, so the same morsel is proper for a senior and greedy for a junior. Yorùbá seniority is reckoned individually rather than by absolute age, which is why the proverb names a specific kin position rather than saying simply "an elder."
30. “Mo yó” ńjẹ́ “mo yó,” “mo kọ̀” ńjẹ́ “mo kọ̀”; jẹun ǹṣó, àgbà ọ̀kánjúwà ni.
Literal: "Mo yó" ńjẹ́ "mo yó" "I am-full" means "I am-full," "mo kọ̀" ńjẹ́ "mo kọ̀" "I refuse" means "I refuse"; jẹun ǹṣó eating at-every-watch, àgbà ọ̀kánjúwà ni is the-chief of greed.
Idiomatic: "'I am full' means 'I am full'; 'I decline' means 'I decline'; eating with abandon, that is the father of all greediness."
Meaning: A refusal should be a real refusal, and the person who eats at every offer has none.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not accept every invitation to the table"
Notes: The first two clauses insist that the polite formulas mean what they say, which is a live issue in a culture where declining food once before accepting is normal courtesy. The proverb refuses that game and asks for the words to be true. Àgbà, elder or chief, is used here as "the foremost instance of," the same construction as baba in the laziness proverbs.
31. À-jẹ-pọ̀ ni tàdán.
Literal: À-jẹ-pọ̀ eating-to-excess ni tàdán is that-of-the-bat.
Idiomatic: "Eating-until-vomiting is the trait of the bat."
Meaning: Consuming past capacity is animal behaviour, and a particular animal's at that.
Used when: Owomoyela records two readings: "An observation on a being with no self-restraint. This could also be a wish that a person does not benefit from something he/she has appropriated"
Notes: Owomoyela's second reading turns the proverb into a curse, since a person who eats to vomiting keeps nothing, and that use is worth preserving rather than resolving. Fruit bats do pass fruit rapidly and were watched doing so, so the natural history is the basis. The proverb is four words and its force is entirely in the attribution to a specific creature.
32. Màá jẹ iṣu, màá jẹ èrú, ibi ayo ló mọ.
Literal: Màá jẹ iṣu I-will eat yam, màá jẹ èrú I-will eat a-slice, ibi ayo ló mọ it-ends at-the-place of-satiation.
Idiomatic: "I will eat a whole yam, I will also eat a slice of yam, satiation ends it all."
Meaning: Boast as you like about appetite, the stomach sets the limit.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The greediest appetite will not survive satiation"
Notes: The first two clauses are the boaster's own voice and the third is the commentator's, a structure Yorùbá proverbs use often, letting a person condemn themselves before the verdict lands. Ayo is fullness or satiation, and putting it at the end as a place, ibi ayo, the place of satiation, makes it a destination the eater arrives at whether he wants to or not.
33. Òtòlò-ó jẹ, òtòlò-ó mu, òtòlò-ó fẹsẹ̀ wé ẹsẹ̀ erin.
Literal: Òtòlò-ó jẹ the-waterbuck ate, òtòlò-ó mu the-waterbuck drank, òtòlò-ó fẹsẹ̀ wé ẹsẹ̀ erin the-waterbuck compared its-leg to the-elephant's leg.
Idiomatic: "The water-buck ate, the water-buck drank, the water-buck compared its limbs to an elephant's."
Meaning: A full stomach produces delusions of scale.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Satiation leads to excess"
Notes: The three clauses repeat the subject in the same position, giving a plodding rhythm that enacts the animal's growing complacency, and the third clause lands the absurdity without commentary. The waterbuck is a large antelope and therefore not ridiculous until it reaches for the elephant, which is the proverb's calibration: the comparison is not wild, only one step too far. Compare entry 34, where the consequence of the same complacency is bodily harm.
34. Àáyá yó níjọ́ kan, ó ní ká ká òun léhín ọ̀kánkán.
Literal: Àáyá yó níjọ́ kan the-colobus-monkey was-full one day, ó ní ká ká òun léhín ọ̀kánkán it said we-should cut off its front teeth.
Idiomatic: "The Colobus monkey ate its fill one day, and asked that his front teeth be knocked out."
Meaning: One good meal persuades a creature to destroy the means of getting the next one.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Excessive happiness made the animal careless"
Notes: The monkey's front teeth are what it eats with, so the request is a precise self-mutilation aimed at its own future, and the proverb's point is the single day, níjọ́ kan: the whole misjudgement rests on one meal. This is the food-side version of the general Yorùbá warning that prosperity corrupts conduct, treated in owe-iwa-character.
35. A-pẹ́-ẹ́-jẹ kì í jẹ ìbàjẹ́.
Literal: A-pẹ́-ẹ́-jẹ one-who-is-late-to-eat kì í jẹ ìbàjẹ́ does-not eat spoiled-food.
Idiomatic: "A person who waits patiently for a long time before eating will not eat unwholesome food."
Meaning: Waiting is not losing, because the person who waits is not the one who gets the bad portion.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Those who are patient will have the best of things"
Notes: Ìbàjẹ́ is spoiled or corrupted food and also, in other contexts, moral corruption, so the proverb's promise runs on both registers at once and English must choose. The claim is counter-intuitive on its face, since latecomers usually get the worst, which is what gives it its force as reassurance to someone being made to wait.
36. A kì í fi ìkánjú lá ọbẹ̀ gbígbóná.
Literal: A kì í fi ìkánjú one does-not use haste lá ọbẹ̀ gbígbóná to-lick hot stew.
Idiomatic: "One does not eat scalding stew in a hurry."
Meaning: Some things punish speed directly.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Patience is best in delicate or difficult matters"
Notes: Probably the most widely known Yorùbá proverb about patience, and it translates with almost no loss because the physical fact is universal. Lá is specifically to lick or lap, the verb used of taking stew or soup, rather than the general jẹ, to eat. The proverb belongs to the large a kì í class of negative prescriptions collected in Owomoyela's separate study .
Fullness and its signs
37. Àjẹ́kù là ńmayo.
Literal: Àjẹ́kù leftovers là ńmayo is-how we know satiation.
Idiomatic: "Leaving-remnants is the indicator of satiation."
Meaning: Sufficiency is proved by what is left over, not by what was consumed.
Used when: Owomoyela: "How one lives will show how well off one is"
Notes: Four words, and it states a measurement rule. Àjẹ́kù, what remains after eating, is the diagnostic because in a household at the edge nothing remains, so leftovers are evidence about the household rather than about the meal. Owomoyela's usage note generalises to standard of living, and the proverb is regularly used of wealth well beyond food.
38. Bí ọmọ́ bá yó, a fikùn han baba.
Literal: Bí ọmọ́ bá yó when a-child is-full, a fikùn han baba he shows the-belly to the-father.
Idiomatic: "When a child is full, he shows his stomach to his father."
Meaning: The satisfied child displays the evidence to the person who provided it.
Used when: Owomoyela records two readings: "When one accomplishes one's goals, one feels like celebrating; also, one should show one's appreciation to one's benefactor"
Notes: The gesture is literal and observable, a small child patting or presenting a distended belly, and the proverb's warmth is unusual in a corpus mostly concerned with restraint. Owomoyela's two glosses pull apart, one making the display spontaneous joy and the other making it a duty of gratitude, and the Yorùbá supports both. Confidence on the emphasis: medium.
39. Bí a bá jẹ̀wọ́ tán ẹ̀rín là ńrín; bí a bá yó tán orun ní ńkunni.
Literal: Bí a bá jẹ̀wọ́ tán when one has-finished joking ẹ̀rín là ńrín laughter is-what one laughs; bí a bá yó tán when one is-fully-satisfied orun ní ńkunni sleep is-what nods-one.
Idiomatic: "After a joke one gives way to laughter; after satiation one gives way to sleep."
Meaning: Each state has its proper sequel, and fullness has sleep.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The action should match the occasion"
Notes: Owomoyela prints a close variant, Bí a bá sọ̀rọ̀ tán, ẹrín là ńrín; bí a bá yó tán orun ní ńkunni, "When one is done discussing a matter one laughs, when one is satiated sleep claims one," with the note that one turns one's attention in the appropriate direction . The two differ only in the first verb and both are current. The proverb treats post-prandial sleep as correct rather than slothful, which is a useful corrective to reading the corpus on idleness too broadly.
40. “Ọmọ-ọ̀ mi ò yó” la mọ̀; “ọmọ-ọ̀ mí yó, ṣùgbọ́n kò rí sáárá fẹ́,” a ò mọ ìyẹn.
Literal: "Ọmọ-ọ̀ mi ò yó" "my child was-not filled" la mọ̀ is-what we understand; "ọmọ-ọ̀ mí yó, ṣùgbọ́n kò rí sáárá fẹ́" "my child was-filled, but found no snuff to-snort," a ò mọ ìyẹn we do-not understand that.
Idiomatic: "'My child did not have enough to eat,' we understand; 'My child had enough to eat but had no snuff to snort,' that we do not understand."
Meaning: A complaint about hunger is legitimate and a complaint about missing luxuries is not.
Used when: Owomoyela: "People should care for their children, not spoil them with over-indulgence"
Notes: The proverb sorts grievances into admissible and inadmissible by quoting both, which is a common Yorùbá device for adjudicating without arguing. Sáárá is snuff, an adult indulgence, so the second complaint is doubly absurd. The structure establishes a floor of real need and denies standing to anything above it, which is the clearest statement in the file of where Yorùbá obligation to feed stops.
41. Ẹni tó bá máa jẹ ọ̀pọ̀lọ́ a jẹ èyí tó lẹ́yin.
Literal: Ẹni tó bá máa jẹ ọ̀pọ̀lọ́ whoever will eat a-toad a jẹ èyí tó lẹ́yin should-eat the-one that has eggs.
Idiomatic: "If one must eat a toad one should eat one with eggs."
Meaning: If you are going to do the distasteful thing, get the full value from it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If one must suffer, one might as well do so with panache"
Notes: The toad is the standard Yorùbá example of food eaten only under compulsion, so the proverb concedes the humiliation and then argues about its terms. The eggs are the one part with real food value, which makes the advice practical rather than merely defiant. Compare entry 6, which excuses the comedown, where this one negotiates it.
Eating in company
42. Ibi tí a ti ńjẹun bí ikun bí ikun, a kì í sọ̀rọ̀ bíi kẹ̀lẹ̀bẹ̀ bíi kẹ̀lẹ̀bẹ̀ níbẹ̀.
Literal: Ibi tí a ti ńjẹun bí ikun bí ikun where one eats food like mucus like mucus, a kì í sọ̀rọ̀ bíi kẹ̀lẹ̀bẹ̀ bíi kẹ̀lẹ̀bẹ̀ níbẹ̀ one does-not speak like phlegm like phlegm there.
Idiomatic: "Where one is eating food like mucus, one should not bring up matters like phlegm."
Meaning: Do not raise a disgusting subject at a meal that already resembles it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One must be careful not to bring up matters that are too sensitive for present company"
Notes: The food described is a slippery draw soup of the ewédú or okra type, and the resemblance is honest rather than insulting, which is what makes the proverb funny rather than crude. The doubled bí ikun bí ikun and bíi kẹ̀lẹ̀bẹ̀ bíi kẹ̀lẹ̀bẹ̀ give a rhythm English cannot carry. The proverb is a rule about conversational tact framed entirely as a rule about dinner.
43. Bí a bá ḿbá ọmọdé jẹun lóko, gànmùganmu imú ẹni ní ńwò.
Literal: Bí a bá ḿbá ọmọdé jẹun lóko if one eats with a-child on-the-farm, gànmùganmu imú ẹni ní ńwò it-is the-bulk of-one's nose that he watches.
Idiomatic: "If one eats with a youth on the farm he stares at the protrusion of one's nose."
Meaning: Familiarity at close quarters invites the junior to study and appraise the senior.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Too much familiarity with youth breeds contempt"
Notes: Gànmùganmu is an ideophone for something large and protruding, and the detail is exact: a child sharing a bowl has nothing to look at but the face opposite. The proverb is one of a set regulating the distance between seniors and juniors, and it is notable for locating the risk in a perfectly ordinary situation rather than in misconduct.
44. Onílé ńjẹ èso gbìngbindò; alèjò-ó ní kí wọ́n ṣe òun lọ́wọ́ kan ẹ̀wà.
Literal: Onílé ńjẹ èso gbìngbindò the-householder is-eating the-fruit of-the-gbìngbindò; alèjò-ó ní kí wọ́n ṣe òun lọ́wọ́ kan ẹ̀wà the-visitor says they-should make him a-handful of beans.
Idiomatic: "The host is eating the fruits of the gbìngbindo tree; the visitor asks to be treated to some black-eyed peas."
Meaning: Look at what your host is eating before you say what you would like.
Used when: Owomoyela: "When one's benefactor is experiencing hardship, one should be realistic in one's requests of him"
Notes: Wild tree fruit is famine food, so the host's own meal is the evidence of the household's state, and the guest's request for cooked beans ignores information already in front of him. The proverb is a rule about reading a room, and its politeness is that it faults the guest for inattention rather than for greed.
45. Orí-i kí ní ńyá àpọ́n tó ńsúfèé? Nítorí pé yó gùn-ún-yán fúnra ẹ̀ yó nìkan jẹ́?
Literal: Orí-i kí ní ńyá àpọ́n tó ńsúfèé? what kind of-head is-lifting the-bachelor who is-whistling? Nítorí pé yó gùn-ún-yán fúnra ẹ̀ yó nìkan jẹ́? because he-will pound-yam for-himself and eat alone?
Idiomatic: "What is the cause of the bachelor's elation that makes him whistle? That he will make pounded yams for himself and eat it by himself?"
Meaning: Eating alone is not an achievement worth celebrating.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A bachelor with no one to share his life and his meals has nothing to be cheerful about" Owomoyela's parenthetical note in the source is truncated after this point.
Notes: Pounding yam is heavy two-person work in most households, so the bachelor doing it alone is being pitied for the labour as well as the solitude. Àpọ́n, the unmarried man, is a standing figure of deficiency in Yorùbá proverbs rather than of freedom, which is a sharp contrast with the English bachelor. Entry 46 develops the same figure through his empty floor.
46. Jùrù-fẹ̀fẹ̀ jùrù-fẹ̀fẹ̀, ewúrẹ́ wọ ilé àpọn jùrù-fẹ̀fẹ̀; kí làpọ́n rí jẹ tí yó kù sílẹ̀ féwúrẹ́?
Literal: Jùrù-fẹ̀fẹ̀ jùrù-fẹ̀fẹ̀ tail-wagging tail-wagging, ewúrẹ́ wọ ilé àpọn jùrù-fẹ̀fẹ̀ a-goat entered the-bachelor's house tail-wagging; kí làpọ́n rí jẹ tí yó kù sílẹ̀ féwúrẹ́? what did the-bachelor find to-eat that would remain on-the-ground for-a-goat?
Idiomatic: "Busily wagging tail, busily wagging tail, a goat enters a bachelor's house busily wagging its tail; what does a bachelor have to eat whose left-over the goat can have?"
Meaning: The optimistic scrounger has picked the one house with nothing on the floor.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One wastes one's time expecting some largesse from a destitute person"
Notes: The repeated ideophone jùrù-fẹ̀fẹ̀ three times over is the comic engine, giving the goat a bustling confidence the scene does not reward. Village goats do scavenge household scraps, so the expectation is reasonable everywhere except here. Read with entry 37, the proverb uses the same diagnostic: what is left on the ground reports the household's condition.
47. Ọ̀sán pọ́n o ò ṣán ẹ̀kọ; oòrún kan àtàrí o ò jẹ àmàlà; àlejò-ó wà bà ọ ní ìyẹ̀tàrí oòrùn o ò rí ǹkan fún un; o ní “Njẹ́ ng ò níí tẹ́ lọ́wọ́ ẹ̀ báyìí”? O ò tíì tẹ́ lọ́wọ́ ara ẹ, ká tó ṣẹ̀ṣẹ̀ wá wípé o ó tẹ̀ẹ́ lọ́wọ́ ẹlòmíràn tàbí o ò níí tẹ́?
Literal: Ọ̀sán pọ́n the-afternoon reddened o ò ṣán ẹ̀kọ you did-not slice corn-loaf; oòrún kan àtàrí the-sun touched the-crown-of-the-head o ò jẹ àmàlà you did-not eat yam-flour-meal; àlejò-ó wà bà ọ ní ìyẹ̀tàrí oòrùn a-visitor came-upon you at the-sun's-leaving-the-crown o ò rí ǹkan fún un you found nothing for him; o ní "Njẹ́ ng ò níí tẹ́ lọ́wọ́ ẹ̀ báyìí"? you say "Shall I not be-disgraced before him now?" O ò tíì tẹ́ lọ́wọ́ ara ẹ have-you not already been-disgraced before yourself, ká tó ṣẹ̀ṣẹ̀ wá wípé o ó tẹ̀ẹ́ lọ́wọ́ ẹlòmíràn tàbí o ò níí tẹ́? before we begin to-ask whether you will be-disgraced before another or not?
Idiomatic: "The sun rises and you do not eat corn meal; the sun moves directly overhead and you do not eat yam-flour meal; a visitor arrives for you when the sun is just past the overhead position and you have nothing to entertain him with; and you ask, 'Am I not in danger of being disgraced in his eyes'? Aren't you already disgraced in your own eyes? Never mind whether you may be disgraced in others' eyes or not."
Meaning: A man who has not eaten all day is already in trouble, and the arrival of a witness is not the trouble.
Used when: Owomoyela: "What one thinks of oneself is every bit as important as what others think of one"
Notes: The longest text in this file, and its structure is a clock: three positions of the sun, each with the meal that should have been eaten and was not. Ẹ̀kọ is the morning corn loaf and àmàlà the midday yam-flour meal, so the sequence names the actual Yorùbá eating day. The turn comes in the final question, which relocates the disgrace from the guest's eyes to the man's own, and this is one of the few places in the proverb corpus where an internal standard is explicitly ranked above reputation.
48. “Yan àkàrà fún mi wá ká jìjọ jẹ ẹ́”: àìtó èèyàn-án rán níṣẹ́ ní ńjẹ́ bẹ́ẹ̀.
Literal: "Yan àkàrà fún mi wá ká jìjọ jẹ ẹ́" "buy bean-fritters and-bring for me so-we-may together eat it": àìtó èèyàn-án rán níṣẹ́ ní ńjẹ́ bẹ́ẹ̀ not-being-entitled to-send a-person on-an-errand is-what is-called that.
Idiomatic: "'Go buy bean fritters for me so we can eat them together': that spells uncertainly about one's right to send the person concerned on an errand." Owomoyela's phrasing is reproduced as printed.
Meaning: Sweetening an instruction with a share of the food admits you cannot simply give it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "People in authority should not be tentative in asserting their authority"
Notes: The proverb is an acute piece of social analysis: the offer to share is read as evidence of a weak claim, not of generosity. Rán níṣẹ́, to send on an errand, is a right attached to seniority, so the hedged request exposes an unsettled relationship. Anyone who has softened an instruction they were entitled to give will recognise the diagnosis.
49. Ẹ̀yá ló bí mi, ẹkùn ló wò mí dàgbà, ológìnní gbà mí tọ́; bí kò sẹ́ran lọ́bẹ̀ nkò jẹ.
Literal: Ẹ̀yá ló bí mi a-monkey is-what bore me, ẹkùn ló wò mí dàgbà a-leopard is-what raised me to-adulthood, ológìnní gbà mí tọ́ a-cat took me to-rear; bí kò sẹ́ran lọ́bẹ̀ nkò jẹ if there-is-no meat in-the-stew I do-not eat.
Idiomatic: "I was born of a monkey; I was raised by a leopard, I was adopted by a cat; if there is no meat in the stew I will not eat it."
Meaning: Given who raised me, a meatless meal is not something I can be asked to accept.
Used when: Owomoyela: "I will not act in a way inconsistent with my upbringing"
Notes: The three animals are all carnivores or presumed so, and the speaker is building a genealogy as an oríkì-style self-praise before delivering a demand, which is the proverb's comedy: an elaborate pedigree deployed to insist on meat. It reads as self-mocking in most uses, and it is the counterpart of entries 3 to 5, where hunger dissolves exactly this kind of claim.
50. A kì í jẹ “Mo fẹ́rẹ̀-ẹ́” lọ́bẹ̀.
Literal: A kì í jẹ "Mo fẹ́rẹ̀-ẹ́" lọ́bẹ̀ one does-not eat "I nearly did" in-stew.
Idiomatic: "One does not eat 'I almost' in a stew."
Meaning: A near miss provides nothing.
Used when: Owomoyela: "What one missed narrowly, one cannot enjoy at all"
Notes: The quoted phrase is treated as a substance and put in the stew, which is the whole device and works as well in English as in Yorùbá. Mo fẹ́rẹ̀-ẹ́ is the ordinary "I almost," the phrase of the unsuccessful hunter or trader. The proverb is used far beyond food, of any excuse offered in place of a result.
51. Bí a bá fi inú wénú; iwọ là ńjẹ.
Literal: Bí a bá fi inú wénú if one measures inside against inside, iwọ là ńjẹ bitterness is-what one eats.
Idiomatic: "If we compare notes with others, we wind up eating bile."
Meaning: Comparing your circumstances with other people's leaves a bitter taste.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Comparing fortunes with others is liable to leave a bitter taste in one's mouth"
Notes: Inú is the inside, the seat of feeling in Yorùbá, and wé, to compare or measure against, gives an image of holding two interiors side by side. Ìwọ̀ is the bitter gall, so the result of the comparison is not a feeling but a food, which keeps the proverb inside this file's vocabulary. The construction is close to the English "swallowing one's bile" without being derived from it.
What is fit to eat, and for whom
52. A kì í ka igún mọ́ ẹran jíjẹ.
Literal: A kì í ka igún mọ́ ẹran jíjẹ one does-not count the-vulture among edible meat.
Idiomatic: "One does not list vultures among edible meats."
Meaning: Some options are excluded from the list before choosing begins.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Certain things one does not stoop to do"
Notes: The vulture is a sacrificial and ritually charged bird in Yorùbá practice, not merely unappetising, so the exclusion is categorical rather than a matter of taste. The proverb establishes that the Yorùbá food world has an outside, which is what makes entries 3 to 5, where hunger drives people to the edge of it, meaningful. Compare entry 53, where a real ranking within the permitted range is at issue.
53. A kì í fi ẹran ikún gbọn ti àgbọ̀nrín nù.
Literal: A kì í fi ẹran ikún one does-not use squirrel meat gbọn ti àgbọ̀nrín nù to-shake off that of-the-antelope.
Idiomatic: "One does not brush off antelope meat with squirrel meat."
Meaning: Do not discard the greater thing in favour of the lesser.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Never prefer something of little value to something of great value"
Notes: The two animals are a real scale of hunting value, the antelope a substantial kill and the squirrel a small one, so the proverb assumes shared knowledge of what a day's hunting is worth. Gbọn ... nù, to shake something off and away, is the gesture of brushing crumbs from cloth, which makes the dismissal casual and therefore worse. Compare entry 11, which uses the elephant and the cricket for the same span.
54. Àgbọn kì í ṣe oúnjẹ ẹyẹ.
Literal: Àgbọn kì í ṣe oúnjẹ ẹyẹ the-coconut is-not food of-birds.
Idiomatic: "Coconut is no food for birds."
Meaning: Some things are proof against the creature that would like to take them.
Used when: Owomoyela records two readings: "Some things and some people are immune to some types of danger; one should not attempt the impossible"
Notes: The two glosses face in opposite directions, one consoling the coconut and one warning the bird, and the proverb is used both ways depending on who is being addressed. The shell is the reason and the proverb does not mention it, leaving the hearer to supply the mechanism. Owomoyela prints both readings without deciding, and preserving that is more useful than resolving it.
55. Àgbéré àwòdì ní ńní òun ó jẹ ìgbín.
Literal: Àgbéré àwòdì the-overreaching of-the-kite ní ńní òun ó jẹ ìgbín is-what says it will eat a-snail.
Idiomatic: "It is an overreaching kite that proposes to eat snails."
Meaning: The ambition is disqualified by the equipment of whoever holds it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Know your limits"
Notes: A kite takes chicks and carrion and cannot deal with a shell, so the proverb is about capability rather than entitlement. Owomoyela prints a companion text in which the same bird eyes a snail shell and is asked what it would do with it, glossed as not wasting effort on a task one cannot master . The pair shows the corpus working the same image toward slightly different morals.
56. A-fàkàrà-jẹ̀kọ́ ò mọ iyì ọbẹ̀.
Literal: A-fàkàrà-jẹ̀kọ́ one-who-uses-bean-fritters-to-eat-corn-loaf ò mọ iyì ọbẹ̀ does-not know the-value of-stew.
Idiomatic: "He-who-eats-corn-meal-with-bean-fritters does not know the virtues of stew."
Meaning: Someone who has only ever had the substitute cannot judge the thing itself.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Whoever leads a sheltered life misses out on some great experiences"
Notes: Ẹ̀kọ is properly eaten with stew, and eating it with àkàrà is the cheaper everyday combination, so the proverb identifies a real economy of substitution rather than an eccentricity. The judgement is on the man's range of experience rather than on his poverty, which is a distinction the Yorùbá corpus generally maintains.
57. Àgbààgbà ìlú ò lè péjọ kí wọn ó jẹ ìfun òkété, àfi iyán àná.
Literal: Àgbààgbà ìlú the-elders of-the-town ò lè péjọ cannot assemble kí wọn ó jẹ ìfun òkété to-eat the-intestines of-a-giant-rat, àfi iyán àná except yesterday's pounded-yam.
Idiomatic: "The elders of the town will not assemble and eat the intestines of a bush-rat, only stale pounded yams."
Meaning: People of standing may eat modestly but not disgustingly, and the two are different.
Used when: Owomoyela: "People should behave in ways that befit their station"
Notes: The proverb draws a careful line: day-old pounded yam is humble but acceptable, giant-rat offal is not, so the constraint on elders is about category rather than about cost. This is the same logic as entry 52 applied to a specific social rank. Compare owe-family-lineage-compound on the head of a household never being so hard up as to sweep with his bare hands.
58. Àgbàlagbà kì í wẹwọ́ tán kó ní òun ó jẹ si.
Literal: Àgbàlagbà kì í wẹwọ́ tán an-elder does-not finish washing the-hands kó ní òun ó jẹ si and-say he will eat more.
Idiomatic: "An elder does not wash his hand and then decide to eat more."
Meaning: A decision announced by an elder is not reopened.
Used when: Owomoyela: "An elder should know his mind"
Notes: Washing the hands after eating from a shared dish is the formal signal that one has finished, so reaching back in is not merely undignified but contradicts a public act. The proverb uses a table ritual as the model for decisions generally, and it is the exact counterpart of entry 30, which asks the same consistency of the words "I am full."
59. “Gbà jẹ” ò yẹ àgbà.
Literal: "Gbà jẹ" "take and-eat" ò yẹ àgbà does-not befit an-elder.
Idiomatic: "'Take this and eat it' does not become an elder."
Meaning: Being handed food marks the recipient as a dependent.
Used when: Owomoyela: "It better becomes an elder's to give than to go begging" Owomoyela's phrasing is reproduced as printed.
Notes: The proverb quotes the words said to a child and points out who they are said to. Four words in Yorùbá, and the sting is that the phrase itself, not the food, is the indignity. It belongs with the substantial Yorùbá literature on the elder's obligation to give, treated in owe-family-lineage-compound.
60. Àrífín ilé ò jẹ́ ká jẹ òròmọ adìẹ.
Literal: Àrífín ilé the-contempt of-the-household ò jẹ́ ká jẹ òròmọ adìẹ does-not let us eat a-chick.
Idiomatic: "Fear of losing face within one's home dissuades one from eating day-old chicks."
Meaning: What restrains a person is the judgement of the people they live with.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A person who would retain his esteem among his peers must not act beneath himself or herself"
Notes: Eating a chick is wasteful as well as undignified, since it destroys a future hen, so the restraint is economic and reputational at once. The proverb locates the sanction inside the compound rather than in the town, which matches the Yorùbá placement of moral supervision in the household treated in owe-iwa-character.
61. Oúnjẹ ọmọ kékeré a máa wọ àgbà nínú; òrùka ọmọ kékeré ni kì í wọ ágbá lọ́wọ́.
Literal: Oúnjẹ ọmọ kékeré a-small-child's food a máa wọ àgbà nínú does enter an-elder's inside; òrùka ọmọ kékeré a-small-child's ring ni kì í wọ ágbá lọ́wọ́ is-what does-not enter an-elder's hand.
Idiomatic: "A youth's food can enter the stomach of an elder; it is only a youth's ring that cannot slip unto an elder's finger."
Meaning: An elder may take a junior's food but there are things he cannot take, and the difference is fixed by fit rather than by right.
Used when: Owomoyela: "An elder may take advantage of the youth in certain respects, but in some others an elder must respect his status"
Notes: The argument is made physically: the stomach accommodates any quantity and the finger does not accommodate a small ring, so the limit on the elder is presented as a fact about bodies rather than as a rule anyone imposed. That is a characteristic Yorùbá way of stating a constraint on the powerful, and it is gentler than a prohibition would be.
62. Ọmọ àì-jọbẹ̀-rí tí ńja epo sáyà.
Literal: Ọmọ àì-jọbẹ̀-rí a-child who-has-never-eaten-stew tí ńja epo sáyà who spills palm-oil onto the-chest.
Idiomatic: "A child new to eating stews: he shows himself by dripping palm-oil on his chest."
Meaning: Inexperience announces itself through the mess it makes.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Upstarts will betray themselves by their misuse of their new-found fortune"
Notes: Palm oil stains permanently and conspicuously, so the evidence is not merely visible but lasting, which is why this proverb is used of the newly rich rather than of the merely clumsy. The nominal àì-jọbẹ̀-rí packs "has never eaten stew before" into one hyphenated word, a construction the corpus preserves throughout.
63. Orí tí yó jẹ igún kì í gbọ́; bí wọ́n fun ládìẹ kò níí gbà.
Literal: Orí tí yó jẹ igún the-head that will eat a-vulture kì í gbọ́ does-not hear; bí wọ́n fun ládìẹ kò níí gbà if they give it a-chicken it will-not accept.
Idiomatic: "The head that is destined to eat a vulture cannot be saved; if a chicken is offered to it it will refuse."
Meaning: A person set on the ruinous course will not take the better thing when it is handed to them.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The person destined to suffer will manage to succumb to the suffering even in spite of efforts by others to save him/her"
Notes: Orí is the inner head, the destiny chosen before birth, so the sentence is about destiny and not about appetite, and the vulture of entry 52 returns here as the emblem of what should never be eaten. Owomoyela's "cannot be saved" renders kì í gbọ́, does not hear, which is more specific: the failure is of listening rather than of possibility. Yorùbá thought holds that character intervenes between destiny and outcome, which makes this proverb a contested statement rather than a settled doctrine; see owe-iwa-character. Confidence on the reading: medium.
64. Iná kúkú ni yó ba ọbẹ̀ ará oko jẹ́.
Literal: Iná kúkú too-much fire ni yó ba ọbẹ̀ ará oko jẹ́ is-what will spoil the-farm-person's stew.
Idiomatic: "It is too much fire that will ruin the stew of a bushman."
Meaning: The unskilled cook overdoes the one thing they can control.
Used when: Owomoyela: "An ignorant person will ruin whatever venture he/she embarks on with his/her ignorance"
Notes: Ará oko is the farm or bush dweller as against the town dweller, a standing Yorùbá opposition also used in owe-family-lineage-compound, and Owomoyela's "bushman" carries a disdain the Yorùbá term holds more lightly. The diagnosis is precise: the failure is not neglect but excess of effort, which is a more interesting claim about incompetence than carelessness would be.
65. Ibi tí oníyọ̀nmọ̀ntìí ṣubú sí, ibẹ̀ ló ti tà á tán.
Literal: Ibi tí oníyọ̀nmọ̀ntìí ṣubú sí where the-yọ̀nmọ̀ntì-seller fell, ibẹ̀ ló ti tà á tán there is-where she sold it all.
Idiomatic: "Wherever the yọ̀nmọ̀ntì (food made from benniseed) seller falls, there she has sold all her wares." The parenthetical gloss is Owomoyela's.
Meaning: Once the goods are in the dirt the trading day is over, and calling it a sell-out is the only thing left to do.
Used when: Owomoyela: "It makes no sense to dwell on unrecoverable disasters"
Notes: The proverb is a piece of dark humour rather than consolation, since the seller has lost her stock and her capital and is being credited with a sale. Hawked food carried on the head is destroyed by a fall, which makes the loss total and instant. The phrasing tà á tán, sold it all out, is exactly what a successful trader says.
66. Elékuru kì í kiri lóko.
Literal: Elékuru the-seller-of-steamed-bean-meal kì í kiri lóko does-not hawk about on-the-farm.
Idiomatic: "The seller of steamed ground beans does not hawk her wares on a farm."
Meaning: Do not try to sell people what they produce themselves.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One wastes one's time attempting to sell things to those who produce them"
Notes: Èkuru is made from beans the farm households grow, so the proverb names a real market fact about where processed food finds buyers, which is the town rather than the producing countryside. It is a piece of commercial common sense preserved as a proverb, and it is used well beyond trade for any offer made to the wrong audience.
67. Ohùn àgbà: bí kò ta ìgún, a ta èbù.
Literal: Ohùn àgbà an-elder's voice: bí kò ta ìgún if it does-not yield mature-yams, a ta èbù it yields seed-yams.
Idiomatic: "An elder's voice: if it does not yield yams ready for pounding (for food), it will yield yam seedlings ready for planting." The parenthetical is Owomoyela's.
Meaning: An elder's words produce something usable, whether immediately or later.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There is some value in whatever comes out of an elder's mouth"
Notes: The two yam categories are the real ones a farmer sorts a harvest into, ìgún for eating and èbù for planting, so the alternatives offered are present benefit and future benefit rather than good and bad. That is a carefully limited claim for elders' authority: not that they are always right, but that nothing they say is wasted.
Reading these proverbs
Four things run across these proverbs that no single one of them says.
Hunger is treated as an argument that always wins, and the corpus is interested in what it wins against. Entries 3, 4, 5 and 7 each set hunger against a principle, a religious prohibition, a regional loyalty, a claim of rank, and in every case the principle loses. What makes the set analytically sharp rather than merely cynical is that it distinguishes the outcomes: the Muslim at entry 3 abandons the rule, the Ìjẹ̀ṣà man at entry 4 keeps the rule and renames the food, and the slave at entry 7 never had the standing to hold a rule at all. Read together they treat food refusal as a luxury good whose price is measured in how full the refuser is.
The corpus is more interested in eating than in food. Very few of these proverbs are about what is cooked. They are about the size of the morsel taken (29), the speed of chewing (21), the hands used (28), whether the eater has washed and finished (58), what he does with the leftovers (37), whether he shares (25), whether he eats alone (45). Food is the medium and the subject is conduct under observation, which is why so many of these texts are used far from the table.
Feeding others is an obligation with an explicit boundary. Entries 23, 25 and 44 assume a duty to feed whoever is present that is strong enough for a guest to enforce by refusing to eat. Entry 40 then draws the line precisely, granting standing to a complaint of hunger and denying it to a complaint about missing luxuries. The companion file owe-laziness-waste-improvidence supplies the other boundary, at its entries 54 and 55, where hunger is said to have a just claim against the idler and the household is released from feeding him. The obligation is therefore real, general and bounded on two sides, and a summary that reported only the hospitality would misdescribe it.
Sufficiency is measured by remainder, not by consumption. The recurring diagnostic across entries 37, 46 and 47 is what is left over: leftovers prove satiation, an empty floor proves the bachelor's poverty, and the sun crossing the sky over uneaten meals proves the state of a man's day. The Yorùbá test for whether a household has enough is not what it ate but what it did not have to eat, which is a more reliable measure and a harder one to fake.