Wednesday 28 December 2011

Proverb #7


Oke sooro Ngwere maa mmiri. Ya Kọọchaa Ngwere, Ọ kọọla Oke?



Sometimes you see this, in the wake of flash storms, in the marshy rain forests of the Ibos. Two struggling forms. You can't make them out at first and then you decide that one is a lizard, (the agama variety), a very popular sight in Igbo land, the other at first is just a fur ball rolling along in the mire and the mud rivulets made by the rain fall, but your superior wisdom informs you, that's a rat. It is also a common sight, but hostility to rats is near common across Igbo land. 
And then just as suddenly the flash storms cease and the sun's rays pierce through the brush, once again, warming the palm trees and the stone outcrops and the dripping plantain leaves and our erstwhile animal friends start taking stock. The Lizard soaks up the sun's heat and the colour returns to its head and the scales are coping quite well. But not so much, the rat.
That old fur ball will lie there pathetically for hours, shuddering, shivering, causing sympahty in a thousand quixotic hearts, as the children ask their fathers - 'what's wrong with it, Dad?' ...This is a classic proverb, about peer pressure: It means: 'When the Rat goes rain-surfing with the Lizard, the Lizard does very well after the rain's gone, but whatever happens to the Rat?' -I am paraphrasing a little - but this pretty near exactly captures the sense. 
You do only what you feel sure about and what is in your nature to do. If you take on another person's challenge and do what for you is quite out of character, then, there will be hell to pay when the dust settles. And the elders understood that.

Contributed By Kelechi Una Isiodu, Umunjam, Mbieri.
for iFaT at ifont@groups.facebook.
© ifont 2011, as it appears here.

The image was manipulated using the GIMP, it is not the best image, but what's an image, if you get the proverb? :-)
Permission to use the 'Wet Chipmunk' shot was sought from Tim Lyons who captured the shot.
To see the Wet Chipmunk in all it's glory, visit.



1 comment:

  1. Be sure to catch up on our dialogue with Tim Lyons at:

    Here

    Too large to fit in the comments and so it has been repost as an entry in its own right.

    Maka na ụka wụ ilu.

    ReplyDelete