Proverbs and sayings

Proverbs show how people think. Driberg wrote down a collection of Lango proverbs with their meaning; the lineage of most of them, he said, is “lost in the mists of antiquity”. A few of them:

• Mach onywalo buru. – Fire produces ashes (said of a lazy or ineffectual person).
• Winyo ochodo tol. – The bird breaks the snare (a lucky escape).
• Kal ka otu mam dong olworo cheng. – Grown grain does not fear the sun.
• Tong gwen yam obeko duchu ba? – Do all eggs hatch out?

Read all of them on the proverbs page. The spelling is the old one of 1923 and may differ from today’s.

Source: J. H. Driberg, The Lango: A Nilotic Tribe of Uganda (London, 1923), pp. 136–137; public domain. It describes life about a hundred years ago as a colonial administrator saw it, so customs have changed and some may be told differently today. Elders and families are invited to correct it and add what they know.