WORDS OF WISDOM

The Greatest Gift

The Greatest Gift God can grant man is a blessed child. The origin of a progeny is a child. A child is a gift of the Almighty God. Wherever we are and whatever we do, we are all gifts to the world through our fathers and mothers. We are gifts who shall be useful to ourselves, to our families and to the whole world – a commitment to fulfill the social contract in the environment in which we are. 

Fathers and mothers must be torch bearers to brighten the path of their children. In the words of John F Kennedy, ‘A child mis-educated is a child lost’.

After parents have paved the way for their children, pouring splendor on their path ways, the children will remain teachable. An anonymous writer has tutored that man should never try to teach a pig to sing, because this action will waste the man’s time and annoy the pig. It is only when children are teachable that there can be a complete paradigm shift from a state of ignorance to light. In such an ‘Eden of capability’ an ideal transformation of a child can take place.

As a teacher I shall do my best to light the path of my progeny and it shall remain the best legacy I will bequeath to them. Ben Sweetland once said that ‘we cannot hold the torch to light another’s path without brightening our own’.

WISE SAYINGS

DAGBANNI PROVERBS AND WISE THOUGHTS TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH

1. Wisdom is not the preserve of one man – By Tolon Naa Alhassan

2. No one will reject a gift that does not attract blows.

3. Pain to the heart reaps tears from the eyes.

4. A wise youth is thought a proverb and not its meaning.

5. All human beings are the work of God. None was fashioned out by a blacksmith.  – By Alhaji Haruna Abu (Kpalsi Yipelnaa).

6. We do not shy away from a goat to the detriment of our lives if the oblation of the gods so demand of it.

7. An evil bird of the night will surely waste the hunter’s gunpowder.

8. A butterfly resents a joke that throws it near a fowl.

9. A willow is found at the river side because it is the only tree endowed with firm roots to withstand the turmoil.

10. The misfortune that left a vulture without hair will claim the life of a fowl for once.

11. The mouse can only venture out into the comfort of its home in the absence of the cat.

12. We do not show off before our accomplishments.

13. No matter the situation, the ‘go-to-hell’ is never stung but its bearer.

14. Passengers on board a canoe should not laugh at the dead.

15. We do not buy fish until it is caught.

16. A bird that has never experienced the stone sent from a child’s catapult continues to fly lower.

17. Repeated strikes kill a snake quickly.

18. If you want to share the yam that is given to a child, you must first contend with his tears.

20. If you continue to feed a goat that belongs to a lazy man, the goat forever remains his.

21. The crowing of cockerels does not prompt daybreak.

22.  An eye wink is premised on a promise.

23. To break the head of a housefly is to kill it.

24. When dogs are at a dance, it becomes none of a monkeys business.

25. If a blind man says he will pelt you with a stone, he has already stepped on that stone.

26. Fingernails are part of the instruments in a fight.

27. The smell of burnt hair is better sensed by the man who burns his own hair.

28. A wandering child is master of all seasons. Ironically, he is said to be older than his father.

29. It is the Almighty God himself who drives away flies from the wounds of a tailless cow.

30.All babies are tender, no one can tell which one is an idiot and which is wise.

31. We gain by investing

32. The misfortune that killed a goat is likely to spoil the hide at the leather maker's residence.

33. You can only reap what you have sowed

TRANSLATED BY SULEMANA HARUNA

    

SULEMANA ZUHDAH