Tooñaa mu mesendoo le ti; dindiŋo si a je, keebaa fanaa si a je.
“Truth is like a needle: both the young and the old can find it.”
Honest wisdom is accessible to anyone willing to search for it, regardless of age.
— Traditional Gambia Wisdom, Gambia
Source: Traditional Gambia proverb (Mandinka), public-domain oral tradition
More Proverbs from Gambia
If a donkey kicks you and you kick back, you are both donkeys.
Responding to foolishness with more foolishness only lowers you to the same level.
Traditional Gambia Wisdom
Read more →
An adult squatting down sees farther than a child standing on top of a tree.
Age and experience often perceive more than youth and height alone.
Traditional Gambia Wisdom
Read more →
A fly that has no one to advise it follows the corpse into the grave.
Those who refuse guidance can be led straight into their own ruin.
Traditional Gambia Wisdom
Read more →
Giant silk-cotton trees grow out of very tiny seeds.
Great things have humble beginnings; a small start can grow into something immense.
Traditional Gambia Wisdom
Read more →
However black a cow is, its milk is always white.
A person's outward appearance does not determine the goodness of what they produce.
Traditional Gambia Wisdom
Read more →
No matter how long a log stays in the water, it will never become a crocodile.
Similar circumstances do not change something's fundamental nature.
Traditional Gambia Wisdom
Read more →