Kora Musician Baba the Storyteller

I was once told that there is no proverb without an occasion. I really didn’t grasp the true meaning of this lesson until a few years ago when, after having committed a vast number of proverbs to memory; they began cropping up in my mind during various conversations. Very recently I experienced this phenomenon again when some friends and I were sitting around discussing everything from politics to sports and, well, yes, “Desperate Housewives.” When we broached the topic of contemporary morality, or lack thereof, I remembered the following proverb:

“The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its’ people.”

It was a readily succinct way to express what I was thinking at the time. I can’t recall where I originally heard it or read it but it feels really good when an old friend returns for a visit.

“Dooni dooni kononi bè nyaga da.”