Liberian Literary Magazine
Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture
Liberian Proverbs
6. No matter how long a log may float
in the water, it will never become a
crocodile. What you are, you are;
what you are not, you are not. We
can’t change the natural order of
certain things. They are just the way
they are.
Excepted from, The Elders’ Wisdom
1. Marriage is like a peanut, you have
to crack it to see what is inside. When
one decides to get married, one will
never know fully what it entails until
you are in it. It is a journey that can
only happen when you leave for it. It
is true we can get glimpses of our
partners, but the real thing is only
when the marriage ceremony is
over. In this case, one has cracked
the ground pea and with time, one
will know if it was good or not.
7. No matter how low a cotton tree falls,
it is still taller than grass. Some things
are just way beyond our reach or
abilities. The grass at its tallest still falls
short of the cotton tree at its lowest
point.
8. No matter how tight a monkey's
trousers are, he has to leave space
for his tail. We carry along with us
some ingrain things. They never
leave us, in fact, we make a
conscious effort to provide for them.
The monkey here never covers up or
leaves its tails hidden, not even for a
tight pant.
2. Marriage is bittersweet. Married
people fight and make up just like
everyone else.
3. No child laughs at the ugliness of its
mother. Just as it is related in another
parable, the sentiments hold true.
There is no bad bush for a child. The
child has none for its parents as well.
The child sees its mother in ways that
transcends any negativity others
may see.
9. No one can uproot the tree, which
God has planted. As mentioned
before, the concept of God is not
limited to one kind. Liberians are
religious on many counts. We
believe that fate/destiny has a way
of taking its proper place at the
proper time. For the traditionalists or
the Christians/Muslim etc. it is
practically the same.
4. No man is an island. We need others
in life as much as they need us. We
can do many things alone, but in
substance, our lives depend on so
many others and what they provide
to make us live peaceably or
happily.
10. No sane person sharpens his
machete to cut a banana. The
relative softness of the banana
makes it seem foolish for one to use
a sharpened knife on it. Some tasks
are so obvious or have easy solutions
that when others try to make them
complicated, it gives room to
question their sanity. In this case, the
one who sharpens the knife is viewed
as insane.
5. No matter how cold a monkey gets,
he doesn't warm himself in leopard
skin. There are some things that do
not happen. The monkey in this case
has and knows it limits. It will never
consider wearing a leopard’s skin as
something of a play not even if it is
facing a desperate situation.
46