Proverbs from the book "Arrow of God"

‘The fly that struts around on a mound of excrement wastes his time; the mound will always be greater than the fly.

The thing that beats the drum for ngwesi is inside the ground.

Darkness is so great it gives horns to a dog.

He who builds a homestead before another can boast more broken pots.

It is ofo that gives rain-water power to cut dry earth.

The man who walks ahead of his fellows spots spirits on the way.

Bat said he knew his ugliness and chose to fly by night.

When the air is fouled by a man on top of a palm tree the fly is confused.

An ill-fated man drinks water and it catches in his teeth

When a handshake passes the elbow it becomes another thing.

The sleep that lasts from one market day to another has become death.

The man who likes the meat of the funeral ram, why does he recover when sickness visits him?

The mighty tree falls and the little birds scatter in the bush…

The little bird which hops off the ground and lands on an ant-hill may not know it but is still on the ground…

A common snake which a man sees all alone may become a python in his eyes…

The very Thing which kills Mother Rat is always there to make sure that its young ones never open their eyes…

The boy who persists in asking what happened to his father before he has enough strength to avenge him is asking for his father’s fate…

The man who belittles the sickness which Monkey has suff ered should ask to see the eyes which his nurse got from blowing the sick fire…

When death wants to take a little dog it prevents it from smelling even excrement…’

- Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God