Lore lo ojwa le sa le metsi.
“A branch is bent while it is still green with sap.”
Children must be taught discipline, values, and skills while they are still young and supple; once a person has hardened into their ways, they can no longer be shaped.
— Traditional Botswana Wisdom, Botswana
Source: Resane, K.T., "Leadership insights from selected Setswana proverbs: An African perspective", Inkanyiso: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 17(1) (2025); also documented on the "Setswana Sa Borre" community proverb page
More Proverbs from Botswana
A bull is caught by its horns, but a person is caught by their words.
A person's own words reveal their true character and can bind them just as surely as an animal is restrained by its horns.
A mother holds the knife by its sharp edge for the sake of her child.
A mother will endure pain or danger herself rather than let harm reach her child.
A person is a person because of other people.
No one becomes fully human alone; identity, dignity, and worth are formed through relationships with others.
A basket of locusts is only filled by people working together.
Large or difficult tasks, including raising a child or building a community, are accomplished through shared effort, not by any one person alone.
A chief is chief only because of the tribe.
A leader's authority comes from the people they serve, not from themselves; leadership without the people's support is empty.
Traders in the same goods do not love one another.
People competing in the same trade or pursuit rarely stay on friendly terms with each other.