Òwe on Ogun: War, the Warrior and the Battlefield
Forty Yorùbá proverbs on war as an institution, the warrior's obligations, cowardice and boasting, and what battle exposes about a person, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Ogun is war, and the nineteenth century supplied Yorùbá speakers with a great deal of it. The collapse of the Ọ̀yọ́ empire, the Fulani advance from the north, the rise of Ibadan as a war camp, and the long series of campaigns that ran until the British imposed a settlement in the 1890s meant that war was not a distant subject for the generations from whom this corpus was collected. Several proverbs in this file name specific wars, specific towns, and specific offices, and those are the ones that can be dated.
What the corpus says about war is unsentimental. It holds that a warrior has exactly two acceptable outcomes, that charms do not stop bullets, that the man who boasts at home is the man who runs, and that the person most likely to die in battle is the one worrying about how he looks. It also contains a proverb saying that only a fool fights for his town. These positions are not reconciled, and the file does not reconcile them.
Forty proverbs are given here in four groups: the warrior's obligation, cowardice and its excuses, what war reveals, and war as a condition of life. The proverbs are given in Owomoyela's texts and translations . Owomoyela's parenthetical usage notes are the basis of the Used when lines; 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
Owomoyela prints full standard orthography with tone marks and subdots, and his texts are reproduced here as printed . He attaches no informant to any proverb, holding that proverbs are communal property , so the texts are attested but not localised or dated, except where an internal historical marker allows it.
The warrior's obligation
1. Ohun méjì ló yẹ Ẹ̀ṣọ́: Ẹ̀ṣọ́ jà, ó lé ogun; Ẹ̀ṣọ̀ jà ó kú sógun.
Literal: Ohun méjì ló yẹ Ẹ̀ṣọ́ two things befit the-warrior: Ẹ̀ṣọ́ jà the-warrior fights, ó lé ogun he drives-off the-enemy; Ẹ̀ṣọ̀ jà the-warrior fights ó kú sógun he dies in-battle.
Idiomatic: "Only two things are proper for a warrior: the warrior goes to war and drives the enemy off; the warrior goes to war and dies in battle."
Meaning: There are two permissible endings and returning alive after failing is not one of them.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not act in a way that is not proper or becoming"
Notes: The Ẹ̀ṣọ́ were the titled war chiefs of Ọ̀yọ́, a specific military order rather than soldiers in general, which makes this a proverb about an office and its terms. The construction is exhaustive by design: two options are listed and the third, which everyone can supply, is left unstated and thereby excluded. This is the file's foundational text and entries 2 through 6 are its consequences.
2. Alákòró kì í sá fógun.
Literal: Alákòró the-wearer-of-the-akòró kì í sá fógun does-not flee from-war.
Idiomatic: "A wearer of a battle helmet does not flee from war."
Meaning: The insignia carries the obligation; whoever puts it on has undertaken not to run.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A warrior does not run from battle"
Notes: Akòró is a war headdress or crested helmet worn as a mark of rank, so the proverb reasons from the object to the duty, in the same way entry 40 of owe-head-face-ori reasons from the location of a guard's wound. Taking the title means accepting the terms, which is why the proverb is quoted at people who want an office without its liabilities.
3. Ẹ̀rù ogun kì í ba jagun-jagun.
Literal: Ẹ̀rù ogun fear of-war kì í ba jagun-jagun does-not seize the-warrior.
Idiomatic: "Fear of battle never afflicts a warrior."
Meaning: The condition of being a warrior excludes being afraid of the thing warriors do.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should be bold in pursuing one's goals"
Notes: Jagun-jagun, from jà ogun, to fight war, is a reduplicated agent noun and the ordinary word for a fighting man. The proverb is definitional rather than empirical: it does not claim warriors happen not to be afraid, it claims that fear and the title are incompatible, which leaves the frightened man without a name.
4. A kì í fi ogun dán ẹ̀ṣọ́ wò.
Literal: A kì í fi ogun one does-not use war dán ẹ̀ṣọ́ wò to-test the-warrior.
Idiomatic: "One does not tease a warrior by saying there is a war." Translator: Owomoyela, whose printed note is truncated in the source consulted .
Meaning: A false alarm of war is not a joke to play on the man whose duty it triggers.
Used when: The compiler's reading: said against tests or provocations aimed at someone bound to respond. Confidence on the usage: medium.
Notes: Dán ... wò is to test or try out, and the proverb treats the warrior as a mechanism that will fire when the word is given, which makes the false report dangerous to everyone including the joker. Owomoyela's entry is cut off mid-note in the extraction used here and only the text and translation are secure.
5. A kì í fi olórí ogun ṣe ìfagun.
Literal: A kì í fi olórí ogun one does-not put the-head of-the-army ṣe ìfagun at-the-rear.
Idiomatic: "One does not position the commander of the army at the rear of the column."
Meaning: The person in command belongs where the danger is.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The best foot is the one to put forward"
Notes: Olórí, literally the owner of the head, is the standard word for a leader, so the Yorùbá phrase for a commander is built on the same orí discussed throughout owe-head-face-ori. Owomoyela's gloss generalises the proverb into advice about presentation, which is how it is most often used, but its literal claim about command is the sharper one and is worth keeping visible.
6. Ogun kì í rí ẹ̀hìn ogun.
Literal: Ogun kì í rí ẹ̀hìn ogun an-army does-not see the-back of-an-army.
Idiomatic: "An army does not see the rear of an(other) army."
Meaning: Armies meet face to face, so seeing an enemy's back means they are running.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should face one's adversary squarely"
Notes: The proverb states as an impossibility what is in fact the definition of a rout, which is the Yorùbá way of saying it must not happen. Ẹ̀hìn, the back, is the same term that condemns the fleeing guard at entry 40 of owe-head-face-ori, and the two proverbs share a military ethic in which the back is the shameful surface.
7. Ohun tí a fún ẹ̀ṣọ́ ṣọ́ ni ẹ̀ṣọ́ ń ṣọ́.
Literal: Ohun tí a fún ẹ̀ṣọ́ ṣọ́ what we give the-guard to-guard ni ẹ̀ṣọ́ ń ṣọ́ is-what the-guard guards.
Idiomatic: "Whatever one hands to a warrior to look after is what he looks after."
Meaning: The duty assigned is the duty performed, and nothing beyond it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should concentrate on the duty entrusted to one"
Notes: The proverb turns on repeating ṣọ́, to guard, three times in a single short sentence, so the Yorùbá enacts the narrowness it describes. It can be read as praise of focus or as a warning about the limits of a hired guard's interest, and both uses are current.
8. Olókùnrùn ẹ̀ṣọ́ kì í ru ẹkù; kí alára tún ara mú.
Literal: Olókùnrùn ẹ̀ṣọ́ a-sickly warrior kì í ru ẹkù does-not carry snares; kí alára tún ara mú let-the-owner-of-the-body put the-body in-order.
Idiomatic: "A sickly warrior does not carry rope snares; everyone should prepare properly for the task at hand."
Meaning: Equipment is useless to a body not fit to use it, so the body is the first preparation.
Used when: Owomoyela: "People who have important duties to perform should gird up their loins accordingly"
Notes: The second clause is the gloss built into the proverb, which is a common Yorùbá structure noted at entry 2 of owe-iwa-character. Tún ara mú, to put the body in order, covers both physical fitness and readiness generally.
9. A kì í ti ojú ogun wẹ́ fọ́n.
Literal: A kì í ti ojú ogun one does-not at the-face of-war wẹ́ fọ́n start-splitting palm-midrib.
Idiomatic: "One does not wait until the heat of the battle to start looking for palm-leaf midrib."
Meaning: The materials are prepared before the fighting, not during it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Always make your preparations well ahead of the event"
Notes: Palm-leaf midribs are the shafts from which arrows and other implements are made, so the proverb pictures a man starting to manufacture ammunition once the enemy has arrived. Ojú ogun, the face of war, is the standard phrase for the front line and is another instance of the corpus placing the decisive place at a face.
10. Òketè baba ogun: bí a ṣí gun, olúkúlùkù ní ń di òketè-e ẹ̀ lọ́wọ́.
Literal: Òketè the-large-bundle baba ogun father of-war: bí a ṣí gun when we set-out to-war, olúkúlùkù each-person ní ń di òketè-e ẹ̀ lọ́wọ́ ties his-own bundle in-hand.
Idiomatic: "Large bundle, father of all wars: when preparing for war, each person prepares his bundle to take along."
Meaning: Before the fighting there is the packing, and every man does his own.
Used when: Owomoyela: "For all tasks, adequate preparations are mandatory"
Notes: Baba here names the chief instance of a category rather than a parent, as at entry 9 of yoruba-owe-proverbs. The proverb is about logistics and it is realistic: Yorùbá nineteenth-century campaigns required men to carry their own supplies, and the bundle is therefore the first fact of war rather than the weapon.
11. Alááyan ni ń jẹun ogun.
Literal: Alááyan the-industrious-one ni ń jẹun ogun is-who eats the-food of-war.
Idiomatic: "It is the industrious person who enjoys the booty of war." Owomoyela's gloss: "To the valiant belong the spoils"
Meaning: Plunder goes to whoever did the work.
Used when: Said in support of a claim on a reward by the person who earned it .
Notes: Jẹun ogun, to eat war's food, is the Yorùbá phrase for taking booty, and it treats plunder as a meal rather than as property, which fits the corpus's habit of routing benefits through the mouth. Slave-taking and plunder were the economic point of much nineteenth-century Yorùbá warfare, and proverbs of this kind record that without comment.
Cowardice, boasting and excuses
12. Ìléríi ilé ò mọ ti à ń jagun; kùfẹ̀-kùfẹ̀ ò mọ ìjà; ọjọ́ tá a rógun là ḿmọ jo.
Literal: Ìléríi ilé boasting at-home ò mọ ti à ń jagun does-not know what war-making is; kùfẹ̀-kùfẹ̀ puffing-up ò mọ ìjà does-not know fighting; ọjọ́ tá a rógun the-day we see war là ḿmọ jo is-when we know the-coward.
Idiomatic: "Boasting within the house is no proof of bravery in battle; rearing in anticipation is no proof of prowess in a fight; the day that war breaks out is when one knows who is a coward."
Meaning: Only the event distinguishes the brave man from the loud one.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Valor is a matter not of speech but of deed"
Notes: Kùfẹ̀-kùfẹ̀ is an ideophone for swelling or puffing out, the physical posture of a boast, and it has no English equivalent that is not a paraphrase. The proverb's three clauses move from words to posture to the test, which is a diagnostic sequence rather than a list.
13. Kò-sí-nílé kì í jagun ẹnu tì.
Literal: Kò-sí-nílé He-was-not-at-home kì í jagun ẹnu tì never fails to-wage war with-the-mouth.
Idiomatic: "He-was-not-at-home never fails to prove his valor with his mouth."
Meaning: The man who was absent is the loudest about what he would have done.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Said of a person who vows that had he been around when something happened, he would have performed wonders"
Notes: The whole clause Kò-sí-nílé is used as a personal name, an oríkì-style formation of the kind discussed at entry 45 of owe-iwa-character, so the man is named for his alibi. Jagun ẹnu, to make war with the mouth, is a fixed and contemptuous phrase.
14. Ọ̀lẹ́ mọ èèwọ̀ ìjà: ó ní bàbá òun ní kóun má jà lọ́nà oko.
Literal: Ọ̀lẹ́ mọ èèwọ̀ ìjà the-coward knows the-taboo of-fighting: ó ní bàbá òun he says his father ní kóun má jà lọ́nà oko told him not to-fight on-the-farm-road.
Idiomatic: "The coward knows the preventive for fighting: he says his father has ordered him not to fight on the way to the farm."
Meaning: He has a prohibition ready, and it happens to cover exactly the situation he is in.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The coward will use every excuse to get out of a fight"
Notes: Èèwọ̀ is a genuine category of ritual prohibition, so the coward is dressing evasion in the language of religious obligation, which is the joke and also the accusation. The specificity of "on the way to the farm" is what gives it away, since a real taboo would not be so conveniently local.
15. Ìjímèrè tó lóun ò ní-í sá fájá, ojú ajá ni ò ì tí-ì tọ́.
Literal: Ìjímèrè tó lóun ò ní-í sá fájá the-brown-monkey that says it-will-not flee from-a-dog, ojú ajá ni ò ì tí-ì tọ́ it-is-that the-dog's eyes have-not yet reached-it.
Idiomatic: "The brown monkey vows it will not run from a dog, only because the dog has not caught a glimpse of it."
Meaning: The vow holds only while the confrontation is hypothetical.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The coward may boast as much as he or she wishes, until the real test materializes"
Notes: The proverb locates the decisive moment at the dog's gaze rather than at its approach, which makes seeing the trigger and connects the text to owe-eyes-seeing-blindness. Its structure is a boast quoted and then punctured by a single clause, one of the commonest Yorùbá proverb shapes.
16. A-lè-jà-má-lè-jà-pẹ́: ẹlẹgbẹ́ ojo.
Literal: A-lè-jà-má-lè-jà-pẹ́ one-who-can-fight-but-cannot-fight-long: ẹlẹgbẹ́ ojo the-companion of-the-coward.
Idiomatic: "He-who-can-fight-but-cannot-fight-for-long: the equal of a coward."
Meaning: Stamina is part of the definition, so a man who quits early is classified with the man who never started.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Ability to start a fight is nothing like the ability to see it through"
Notes: Ẹlẹgbẹ́ means of the same age-set or company, so the judgement is delivered as a social classification rather than as an insult, which makes it colder. The long hyphenated nominal is again a naming formation.
17. Ojo díẹ̀, akin díẹ̀; ìyà ní ń kó jẹ ni.
Literal: Ojo díẹ̀ a-little cowardice, akin díẹ̀ a-little bravery; ìyà ní ń kó jẹ ni it-is suffering that it brings one.
Idiomatic: "A little cowardice [or] a little bravery: all it brings one is trouble."
Meaning: Half-commitment in either direction produces the worst outcome.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should decide whether one will be bold or cowardly; inconsistency in such matters results in suffering"
Notes: Owomoyela's gloss is striking for treating cowardice as a legitimate option to choose consistently, which is not the position of entries 12 to 16. The corpus here values coherence over valour, and the proverb is used in practice to force a decision rather than to demand courage.
18. "Ó kù díẹ̀ kín wí": ojo ni ń sọ ni da.
Literal: "Ó kù díẹ̀ kín wí" "I was-about to-speak": ojo ni ń sọ ni da it-is cowardice that turns one.
Idiomatic: "'I was just on the verge of speaking my mind': it only makes one into a coward."
Meaning: The retrospective almost is itself the failure.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should either engage or refrain from making excuses"
Notes: This is the verbal counterpart of the fighting proverbs and it belongs equally with owe-speech-silence-tongue. Compare entry 40 of yoruba-owe-proverbs, where no corpse is heard saying "I was nearly there": the corpus is consistent that the near-miss counts as a miss.
19. "Bí mo lè kú ma kú" lọmọkùrín fi ń lágbára; "Ng ò lè wá á kú" lọmọkùnrín fi ń lẹ.
Literal: "Bí mo lè kú ma kú" "If I can die let-me die" lọmọkùrín fi ń lágbára is-what makes a-man strong; "Ng ò lè wá á kú" "I will-not come to-die" lọmọkùnrín fi ń lẹ is-what makes a-man weak.
Idiomatic: "'If I must die, let me die' is what makes a man strong; 'I simply will not court death' is what makes a man lazy or cowardly."
Meaning: The stance a man takes toward his own death determines what he is capable of.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Daring makes the man; caution unmakes the man"
Notes: The proverb quotes two positions and assigns each an outcome, which lets it argue without asserting in the speaker's own voice. It is the file's strongest statement of the warrior ethic and should be read against entry 17, which recommends choosing consistently rather than choosing courage, and against entry 22, which says only a fool fights for his town.
20. Ọ̀lẹ́ ní ọjọ́ tí òun bá kú òun ó yọ̀; ohun tí ojú ọ̀lẹ́ máa rí kó tó kú ń kọ́?
Literal: Ọ̀lẹ́ ní the-coward says ọjọ́ tí òun bá kú the-day he dies òun ó yọ̀ he will rejoice; ohun tí ojú ọ̀lẹ́ máa rí what the-coward's eyes will see kó tó kú ń kọ́ before he dies, what-of-that?
Idiomatic: "The coward says he will rejoice on the day he dies, but what about the woes he will experience before he dies?"
Meaning: Death may end his troubles but he has to live through them first.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Death may offer the coward a respite, but he will suffer before death comes" Owomoyela cross-references the preceding entry .
Notes: The proverb concedes the coward's premise and then charges him interest on it, which is a characteristic Yorùbá move. Owomoyela's ọ̀lẹ́ is rendered "coward" here and "lazy person" elsewhere in the collection; the word covers both and the choice depends on context.
21. Bí ọ̀lẹ́ ò lè jà, a lè kú tù ẹ̀.
Literal: Bí ọ̀lẹ́ ò lè jà if the-idler cannot fight, a lè kú tù ẹ̀ he can die quietly.
Idiomatic: "If a lazy man cannot fight, he should be able to die disgracefully."
Meaning: A man unable to defend his claim has only the alternative of losing it entirely.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A person who cannot defend his rights should yield to death"
Notes: This is the harshest proverb in the file and Owomoyela records it without softening. It offers a stark two-term choice of the same shape as entry 1, but where the warrior's two options are both honourable, the idler's are fighting or dying badly.
22. Aṣiwèrè èèyàn ni ń gbèjà ìlú-u rẹ̀.
Literal: Aṣiwèrè èèyàn a-mad person ni ń gbèjà ìlú-u rẹ̀ is-who fights-in-defence-of his town.
Idiomatic: "Only an imbecile gets into a fight in defense of his town."
Meaning: The town's quarrel is not any individual's quarrel and whoever makes it his own is a fool.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A town's cause is no business of any one individual"
Notes: This proverb flatly contradicts entries 1 through 6 and it is not a marginal saying: Owomoyela records it plainly with a gloss that endorses it. Set against the Ẹ̀ṣọ́ proverbs it shows the corpus holding a professional's obligation and a civilian's scepticism at the same time, and the nineteenth-century context makes both intelligible, since the wars were fought by war chiefs and their followings and were frequently ruinous for everyone else.
23. Ará Ìbàdàn kì í ságun; à ó rìn sẹ́hìn ni wọ́n ń wí.
Literal: Ará Ìbàdàn kì í ságun Ibadan people do-not flee from-war; à ó rìn sẹ́hìn "we shall walk backwards" ni wọ́n ń wí is-what they say.
Idiomatic: "Ibadan people do not run from war; what they say is, 'We will fall back a little.'"
Meaning: They have a phrase for it that is not the word for running.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There are ways of avoiding battle without seeming to do so"
Notes: Ibadan was the dominant Yorùbá military power of the nineteenth century, founded as a war camp and sustained by campaigning, so the proverb is a joke at the expense of the era's most formidable army and depends on that reputation to work. It is also a proverb about euphemism, and it belongs beside entry 13: both are about the distance between what is said and what happened.
What war reveals
24. Olójútì logun ń pa.
Literal: Olójútì the-one-who-feels-shame logun ń pa is-whom war kills.
Idiomatic: "It is those who worry about their image who die in war."
Meaning: Concern for how you look gets you killed, because it prevents you from doing the ugly thing that would save you.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Discretion and a thick skin are sometimes much better than valor"
Notes: Ojú tì, the eye pushes, is the shame idiom discussed at entry 40 of owe-iwa-character, where the capacity for shame is a virtue. Here it is fatal. The proverb is the exact counterweight to entry 2, and read together the pair says that the helmet obliges you not to run and that not running will kill you.
25. Jagajìgì ò mọ ogun; ogun ń pa elégbèje àdó.
Literal: Jagajìgì the-jangling-of-charms ò mọ ogun does-not know war; ogun ń pa elégbèje àdó war kills the-owner-of-one-thousand-four-hundred charm-gourds.
Idiomatic: "Loading the body down with charms has no effect in a war; war kills even the person carrying 1,400 juju gourdlets."
Meaning: Protective medicine does not stop what happens in battle.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should trust in one's arms rather than in one's charms"
Notes: Àdó are the small gourds holding protective preparations, and egbèje, 1,400, is a conventional large number rather than a count. The proverb is evidence that Yorùbá thought contained its own scepticism about the efficacy of war medicine, and it should be set beside entry 57 of owe-iwa-character, where a man who sleeps armed is diagnosed by his armament rather than protected by it.
26. Ogun àgbọ́tẹ́lẹ̀ kì í pa arọ.
Literal: Ogun àgbọ́tẹ́lẹ̀ a-war heard-of-beforehand kì í pa arọ does-not kill a-cripple.
Idiomatic: "A long-foreseen war does not kill a cripple."
Meaning: Warning converts even the least mobile person's disadvantage into a survivable one.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One must take advantage of foreknowledge to protect oneself" Owomoyela cross-references 2237 .
Notes: The cripple is chosen because he is the slowest person available, so if he can escape, anyone can. Àgbọ́tẹ́lẹ̀, heard beforehand, is a compressed nominal of the same kind as à-rí-fíni-lé at entry 37 of owe-head-face-ori. Compare entry 34 of owe-stomach-appetite-inner-person, where the same figure holds wisdom.
27. Ẹni tó bá ogun níbodè-é bá iṣẹ́.
Literal: Ẹni tó bá ogun níbodè whoever meets war at-the-gate é bá iṣẹ́ has-met work.
Idiomatic: "Whoever walks in on a battle at the town gate walks in on a tough assignment."
Meaning: Arriving in the middle of a fight means the fight is now yours.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If one walks in on trouble, one's task is cut out"
Notes: Bodè is the town gate, the fortified entrance in the earth wall that enclosed Yorùbá towns, and it is where an attack is met, so the location is not incidental. Calling battle iṣẹ́, work, is deliberately flat and is the same reduction the corpus applies to plunder as food at entry 11.
28. Ogun tí olójú méjì í rí sá ni olójú kan-án ní òún ń lọ jà.
Literal: Ogun tí olójú méjì í rí sá the-war the-two-eyed-one saw and-fled ni olójú kan-án ní òún ń lọ jà is-what the-one-eyed-one says he-is-going to-fight.
Idiomatic: "The war that the two-eyed person saw and fled is the same the one-eyed person vows he will join."
Meaning: The man with less capacity is volunteering for what defeated the man with more.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A comment on overreaching people who attempt feats that have defeated their betters"
Notes: The proverb reasons from the number of eyes, which makes seeing the measure of military competence and links it to owe-eyes-seeing-blindness. It is used more often of ambition generally than of war, and Owomoyela's gloss reflects that.
29. Ẹni tó pa mẹ́fà lógun Ọ̀la: wọ́n ní "Háà, hà, háà!" Ó ní kí wọ́n gbé ọpọ́n ayò wá, ó tún pa mẹ́fà.
Literal: Ẹni tó pa mẹ́fà lógun Ọ̀la the-one who killed six in-the-Ọ̀la war: wọ́n ní "Háà, hà, háà!" they said "Ha, ha, ha!" Ó ní kí wọ́n gbé ọpọ́n ayò wá he said let-them bring an-ayò board, ó tún pa mẹ́fà he again took six.
Idiomatic: "The man who [claimed to have] killed six people during the Ọla war: people exclaimed in disbelief, 'Ha, ha, ha!' He asked them to bring an ayò board, and he won six games."
Meaning: Challenged on a claim he could not prove, he proved an unrelated one and let the audience draw the conclusion.
Used when: Owomoyela's note is truncated in the source consulted . In use the proverb describes a demonstration that changes the subject while appearing to answer it.
Notes: The pun is the whole proverb and it does not survive translation: pa means both to kill and to capture pieces in ayò, the board game played with seeds in carved cups, so the same verb and the same number do duty in both claims. The Ọ̀la war is a named campaign, which dates the proverb, though the reference is not further identified in the collection.
30. Abánigúnwà ní ḿmọ ìjagun ẹni.
Literal: Abánigúnwà the-one-who-shares-one's-seat ní ḿmọ ìjagun ẹni is-who knows one's war-making.
Idiomatic: "It is he who shares one's throne that knows one's strategy in battle."
Meaning: Only the person admitted to the innermost place knows how you actually fight.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Only soulmates know each other's minds" Owomoyela cross-references the next entry .
Notes: Gúnwà, to sit in state, is used of an installed ruler, so the sharer is a co-occupant of authority rather than a friend. The proverb is about the distribution of secrets and belongs with entries 23 to 30 of owe-stomach-appetite-inner-person, where the interior is closed to almost everyone.
31. Abánikú ọ̀rẹ́ ṣọ̀wọ́n; abánikú, ogun ní ḿba ni lọ.
Literal: Abánikú ọ̀rẹ́ a-friend-who-dies-with-one ṣọ̀wọ́n is-scarce; abánikú the-one-who-dies-with-one, ogun ní ḿba ni lọ goes-with one to-war.
Idiomatic: "A friend who would die with one is rare; he who would do so accompanies one even to war."
Meaning: The test of a friendship is whether it will follow you into a war it has no stake in.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Few friends will risk death by accompanying one to a war that they have no interest in"
Notes: The proverb supplies its own test rather than merely praising loyalty, which makes it usable as a challenge. Read with entry 22, which calls the man who fights for his town an imbecile, the corpus is consistent: fighting someone else's war is not rational, which is exactly why doing it proves the friendship.
32. Orí olókìkí ò jẹ́ asán; wọ́n ń kí gbe ẹ̀ nílé, wọ́n ń kí gbe ẹ̀ lógun.
Literal: Orí olókìkí ò jẹ́ asán the-renowned-one's lot is-not easy; wọ́n ń kí gbe ẹ̀ nílé they call-for him at-home, wọ́n ń kí gbe ẹ̀ lógun they call-for him at-war.
Idiomatic: "The lot of a valorous person is not simple; he is called upon at home, and he is called upon in battle."
Meaning: Reputation generates obligations in every setting at once.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A great person is subject to demands from all sides"
Notes: Olókìkí is the person of renown, from òkìkí, fame, and the proverb treats fame as a claim other people hold on you rather than as a possession. It is the standard Yorùbá text quoted by or about someone whose standing has made their life unquiet.
33. Akíkanjú-kankan, ogun ní ń lọ; abù-wàwà, ọjà ní ń ná.
Literal: Akíkanjú-kankan the-truly-daring-one, ogun ní ń lọ it-is war he goes-to; abù-wàwà the-gregarious-one, ọjà ní ń ná it-is the-market he trades-in.
Idiomatic: "For the exceptionally brave person the proper profession is warring; for the gregarious person, trading."
Meaning: Temperament should determine occupation.
Used when: Owomoyela's note begins "Proper application of one's talent ..." and is truncated in the source consulted .
Notes: The proverb treats war as a trade alongside trading, which is historically accurate for the period: war chiefs were professionals with followings, and campaigning was a career with an income. Owomoyela's full text continues with a clause about the he-goat that finds enough to eat even when poor.
34. Orúkọ ń ro ni; àpèjà ń ro ni.
Literal: Orúkọ ń ro ni one's name works-on one; àpèjà ń ro ni one's war-name works-on one.
Idiomatic: "One's name affects one's character; one's war name determines how one behaves."
Meaning: What you are called shapes what you do, and a fighting name commits you to fighting.
Used when: Owomoyela: "People are influenced by their names"
Notes: Àpèjà is the name a warrior takes or is given for battle, a real institution attached to the war titles. Yorùbá naming is descriptive and consequential, as noted at entry 24 of owe-iwa-character, so this proverb is not about self-fulfilling prophecy in the loose sense but about a name functioning as a standing instruction.
War as a condition of life
35. Ẹ̀hìn àjànàkú là ń yọ ogbó; ta ní jẹ́ yọ agada lójú erin?
Literal: Ẹ̀hìn àjànàkú after the-elephant là ń yọ ogbó is-when we draw the-cudgel; ta ní jẹ́ yọ agada lójú erin who would draw a-sword in-the-face of-an-elephant?
Idiomatic: "It is after the demise of the elephant that one brandishes a cudgel; who dares draw a scimitar in the face of an elephant?"
Meaning: The weapons come out once the danger is dead.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One can be brave after the danger has been removed" Owomoyela notes this is a variant of 1764 .
Notes: Agada is a curved sword or scimitar, a weapon associated with the northern cavalry traditions that reached Yorùbá country through Ọ̀yọ́ and Nupe contact, so the word itself carries military history. The proverb is the standard rebuke to posthumous courage.
36. Ogun kì í jà kó wọlé Asẹ́yìn.
Literal: Ogun kì í jà war does-not rage kó wọlé Asẹ́yìn and-enter the-house of-the-Asẹ́yìn.
Idiomatic: "War does not rage and destroy the home of the Asẹ́yìn."
Meaning: That house is exempt from what happens to everyone else.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Certain personages are beyond the reach of misfortune"
Notes: The Asẹ́yìn is the ọba of Ìsẹ́yìn, a specific titled ruler, so this is a proverb of a named place and reads as a claim made by or on behalf of that town. Whether it records an actual record of being spared or an assertion of prestige is not recoverable from the text, and the collection does not say.
37. Bí kò sí tỌya, ogun a ti kó Irá; bí kò sí tOlúfọ́n, ogun a ti kó Ifọ́n lọ.
Literal: Bí kò sí tỌya but-for Ọya, ogun a ti kó Irá war would-have sacked Irá; bí kò sí tOlúfọ́n but-for Olúfọ́n, ogun a ti kó Ifọ́n lọ war would-have carried Ifọ́n away.
Idiomatic: "But for the goddess Ọya, Irá would have been sacked in a war; but for the god Olúfọ́n, Ifọ́n would have been destroyed."
Meaning: Two towns survived attacks and each credits its own òrìṣà.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Thanks to one's protector, one survives"
Notes: Ọya is associated with Irá, which tradition names as her town, and Olúfọ́n with Ifọ́n, so the proverb pairs each deity with the place that owns them. Kó is to sack or carry off, the standard verb for what happened to a defeated town, including the removal of its people. This is a proverb reporting what the tradition says of itself about specific sieges, not a historian's account of them.
38. Ọ̀rọ̀ àgbà, bí kò bá ta ẹ̀dẹ́, ogun ní ń ta.
Literal: Ọ̀rọ̀ àgbà an-elder's word, bí kò bá ta ẹ̀dẹ́ if it-does-not hit at-hunting, ogun ní ń ta it hits at-war.
Idiomatic: "The word that issues out of the mouth of an elder, if it does not hit at hunting, will hit at war."
Meaning: An elder's saying lands somewhere, and the two places it lands are the two serious undertakings.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There is always considerable substance and weight in what an elder says"
Notes: That hunting and war are the two domains named is itself informative about what the corpus regards as the arenas of consequence, and it links this file directly to owe-hunter-forest-chase. A variant appears at entry 25 of owe-speech-silence-tongue.
39. Bí ó ti wù kí Olúkọ̀tún gbójú tó, Ajagùnnà ni bàbá-a rẹ̀.
Literal: Bí ó ti wù kí Olúkọ̀tún gbójú tó however brave the-Olúkọ̀tún may-be, Ajagùnnà ni bàbá-a rẹ̀ the-Ajagùnnà is his father.
Idiomatic: "However brave the Olúkọ̀tún might be, the Ajagùnnà is his father."
Meaning: Courage does not alter rank.
Used when: Owomoyela: "However great the son turns out to be, he must still defer to his father; however successful the youth, he owes respect to the elders"
Notes: Both names are titles, and Ajagùnnà is transparently built on jagun, to make war, so the senior title is itself a war name. The proverb applies the seniority principle inside the military hierarchy, where it might be thought that performance would override it, and rules that it does not.
40. Àtàrí ìbá ṣe ìkòkò ká gbé e fún ọ̀tá yẹ̀wò; a ní ó ti fọ́ yányán.
Literal: Àtàrí ìbá ṣe ìkòkò if the-crown-of-the-head were a-pot ká gbé e fún ọ̀tá yẹ̀wò and-we gave it to-an-enemy to-inspect; a ní ó ti fọ́ yányán he-would-say it is-broken to-pieces.
Idiomatic: "If one's head was a pot and one gave it to an enemy to inspect, he would say it was irretrievably broken."
Meaning: An enemy asked to assess what is most precious to you will pronounce it worthless.
Used when: Owomoyela's note begins "An enemy is not one to trust with one's dest ..." and is truncated in the source consulted . In use it warns against submitting anything for judgement to someone who wants you to fail.
Notes: Àtàrí is the crown of the head and, by the logic set out in owe-head-face-ori, also the destiny; Owomoyela's truncated note appears to have read it that way. Yányán is an ideophone for something shattered into fragments. The proverb closes this file by returning war to its ordinary form, which is not the battlefield but the enemy who is asked for an opinion.
Reading this set
Three things are visible across these forty proverbs.
The corpus holds a professional ethic and a civilian scepticism simultaneously. Entries 1 through 11 describe a warrior whose obligations are absolute: two acceptable outcomes, no flight, the commander in front. Entry 22 says only an imbecile fights for his town, and entry 24 says the man who cares about his reputation is the one who dies. These are not stages of an argument, they are different speakers. The nineteenth-century context makes both positions intelligible, since the wars were conducted by war chiefs with professional followings and were catastrophic for ordinary people, and the proverb corpus preserves the view from both places.
Boasting is the corpus's central military vice, ahead of cowardice itself. Entry 12 makes the day war arrives the only test, entry 13 names the absent man for his alibi, entry 15 catches the monkey before the dog has seen it, entry 18 condemns the retrospective almost, and entry 23 mocks the euphemism of the strongest army in the region. The corpus is less interested in whether a man will fight than in the gap between his account of himself and the record.
War is dated in this file in a way most of the corpus is not. The Ẹ̀ṣọ́ of entry 1 are an Ọ̀yọ́ military order, entry 23 depends on Ibadan's nineteenth-century reputation, entry 29 names the Ọ̀la war, entries 36 and 37 name particular towns and their rulers and deities, and entry 35's agada is a weapon that arrived with northern contact. Most Yorùbá proverbs float free of any period. These do not, and they are correspondingly useful as evidence about the century that produced them.