Image: A baobab tree in Dinthi, Mozambique 

Nunya, adidoe, asi metunee o. (Akan and Ewe, Benin, Ghana and Togo)

Explanation: This proverb from Ghana, which exists in different forms in many African languages, can be applied to the vast treasure of African oral literature. This metaphor also explains that human wisdom is so great that it would be presumptuous and arrogant of a single individual to claim to have mastered it all.

Source: Random African Proverb a Google Gadget by Peter Munene Karunyu of Nairobi Kenya.

One of the great untapped treasures of the world is the indigenous languages that have yet to be documented. We in the English speaking world have a lot of information but indigenous cultures often have a deep store of local wisdom. This wisdom is tied up in the language and beliefs of thousands of people groups around the world. Just as scientists have been turning increasingly to remote tribes in the Amazon for knowledge about medicinal plants, linguists have the opportunity to bring to light the collective knowledge of the human race through linguistic description.

A number of years ago, I discovered in the Journal of David Livingstone a list of medicinal plants with their names and uses. I wrote down the list and gave it to a Nyungwe friend of mine. Several days later he returned with an armful of branches and leaves that corresponded in name and use almost exactly with the list that Livingstone had recorded 150 years ago. His mother knew every plant. Linguists have a similar opportunity to provide us with armloads of wisdom from under-documented languages and cultures. At this time there are almost 7,000 languages spoken around the world. And these languages have developed over centuries to describe and understand the world.

How far are you and I able to reach around the baobab with our limited perspectives and wisdom? If we join hands with the marginalized peoples of the world we might just be able to embrace the full knowledge and mystery of our world.

Check out Random African Proverb.