proverbs

Foreword
The Wolof love proverbs. The wisdom of generations of Wolof sages is recorded in thousands of
proverbs and sayings. And the Wolof sages can teach us much in this day and age, especially in an area
which has become a weakness of Western societies - community and relationships. We would save
ourselves a lot of pain and shame if we listened to the wisdom of the Wolof.
This first edition was quickly organised into topics, and it can be improved. I invite you, the reader, to
suggest improvements to the classification system - better titles, or perhaps combining several similar
topics together, or including particular proverbs under different topics.
For those who speak Wolof, proverbs are an excellent tool – both for teaching and for resolving problems
in relationships. As oral communicators the average Wolof person can remember a message contained in
a proverb and take it home with him, when he could never remember the main points of a lesson. A
Wolof person will listen to the advice contained in a proverb when he would never listen to the same
things said to him directly.
This work is hardly original. Rather it is a compilation of the collections found in the bibliography at the
end of the book. I am particularly grateful to Maam Daoud Wade who translated about 100 of the
proverbs in this collection. Thanks also to those who helped with proofreading and offered suggestions
for improvement including John Bardsley, Galen Currah, Graham Keen, and Jeanette Lee.
I hope to enlarge the number of proverbs in future editions, as well as incorporate your suggestions for
improvement.
For each proverb, the main proverb and any alternative versions are in Times New Roman italics, a literal
translation follows in Arial font, followed by explanatory notes. Where possible approximately equivalent
English proverbs are supplied in blue text. Scattered throughout the book are quotes from the Holy
Scriptures in the Lucinda Calligraphy font.
All biblical verses are taken from the New International Version © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International
Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.
Richard Shawyer (dit Musaa Sarr)
August 2009
shawyer.richard@gmail.com
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