Life in Ghana: Akan Proverbs
Peggy Appiah was the daughter of Sir Stafford Cripps, a minister in Winston Churchill’s World War II coalition government, and the wife of Joe Appiah, one of Kwame Nkrumah’s most determined political opponents. She was also the assembler of the most extensive collection of Akan proverbs. The first edition of her book ‘Twi Mmebusem’ contained over a thousand of these pearls of wisdom, and Peggy once hinted that a second edition might extend to four thousand. While most of these proverbs are remembered only by expert linguists, there are a few that are still heard in everyday conversation, often translated into English.
The wealth of Akan literature is staggering, considering that it was passed down by word of mouth for generations before writing was introduced. To demonstrate and preserve this power of memory, saying contests are held at the Kumasi National Cultural Center. In these events, two contestants participate with a referee standing between them. At a signal from the referee, the designated striker must immediately say a proverb. As soon as the first speaker has finished, the second is pointed out. The contest continues until one contestant doubts or repeats.
One problem with many of the Akan proverbs is that they are preserved in what is now an archaic form of the Twi language, and because of this, Peggy Appiah’s book provides explanations in modern Twi, as well as English translations and explanations. However, this problem does not occur with those that are still used daily.
Perhaps the most quoted proverb in modern Ghana is “Little by little, the chicken drinks water”, which can be applied to any learning process. The human preference for the safe and familiar is expressed in ‘Everyone likes their mother’s soup’, and the burden of life is acknowledged with ‘Until our heads are ripped off, we cannot help but wear (wear) a hat. ‘.
By the mid-1970s, the Ghanaian nation was tiring of the kale era: the rampant exploitation of the economy by the informal sector with its widespread corruption. In their opposition to the military dictator, General IK Akyeampong, university students adopted the proverb ‘A head cannot stand upright’ as their motto, implying that a person who makes all decisions without consulting others can only lead to the disaster. During this same period the proverb, ‘Poverty and hunger are killing us’, was also widely heard.
A number of proverbs refer to the treatment of strangers. One expresses the natural tolerance of the Akans: ‘The stranger does not break the law’, because as Peggy Appiah’s little book explains, if he unknowingly breaks a law, we forgive him. However, the stranger cannot play any leading role in the society because, ‘The stranger does not carry the head of the body.’
Several Akan proverbs express sentiments well known in English proverbs. For example, ‘Once bitten, twice shy’, becomes ‘He whom the snake has bitten fears the worm’, and ‘You scratch my back and I scratch yours’, parallels, ‘Blow on my watch out for me, that’s why two antelopes walk together.’ Ghanaians often use the English saying, “Beggars have no choice,” or express a similar sentiment in the vernacular such as “The rat does not refuse palm nuts,” meaning that one should take whatever is going.
The Akan respect the wisdom of old age in proverbs like “Trouble fears the beard,” and they respect their heritage by saying, “We did not call the forest that raised you little forest.” At the same time, they are prepared to recognize that advances in civilization are possible, that new ways can be better than old ones, in proverbs like ‘An iron cuts another iron’. Finally, like people everywhere, they are prepared to admit that one often only sees the value of a person or an institution after it is gone, ‘When the frog is dead, we see how much time has passed’.
Modern Ghana has adopted English as its official national language, but its traditional oral literature, expressed in its vernaculars, endows it with a wealth of wisdom to guide its progress in the 21st century world.
