Inner Strength
January 3, 2007
While proverbs can be interpreted in as many ways as there are interpreters, I take pleasure in the illusion of their simplicity. Depending on the listener’s age, experience and social integration, proverbs offer multiple dimensions of understanding. Let me give an example:
“Fire destroys the plant, but not its’ roots.”
This proverb may address an individual’s strength of character, or it could relate to something on a more grand scale. I first heard it used one of the times I was studying Kora in West Africa, Senegal. I was sitting against a wall in a compound Thiaroye playing a song on the Kora called Cheddo. There were a few older men seated not far from me involved in some kind of gambling game. One of the old men started speaking loudly and laughing at me when I started trying to sing the lyrics of the song. His Maninka was so rapid that I couldn’t grasp a word he said. I was offended and asked my patron what was so funny?
He told me that the man wasn’t making fun of me but that I had inspired him to speak a proverb: “Fire destroys the plant, but not its’ roots.”
It turned out that he was overjoyed at the fact that a man whose ancestors had been taken from the continent some 300 years ago would return and show talent in an ancient tradition.
The lesson for me in the incident was, “Don’t rush to judgment.” I’m still in the process of learning that one but I kept this proverb in my head almost as a gift from the old man.
“Doooni dooni kononi bè nyaga da.”
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