Nosotros no leemos en los libros. Nosotros conocemos nuestra tradición porque el más viejo se la entrega al joven para que cuando sea viejo también él se la dé a los jóvenes. Así hemos vivido siempre.
“We do not read it in books. We know our tradition because the eldest passes it to the young, so that when he too grows old he may pass it to the young. This is how we have always lived.”
Knowledge and identity survive not through writing but through the living chain of elders teaching the young, generation after generation.
— Donato Ndongo-Bidyogo, Equatorial Guinea
Source: Donato Ndongo-Bidyogo, Las tinieblas de tu memoria negra (1987)
More Proverbs from Equatorial Guinea
A dog that is determined to go astray will not wait to listen to the voice of the master.
Someone set on doing wrong will ignore every warning and piece of guidance offered to them.
Any river that forgets its source will definitely dry up.
A person or community that loses touch with its roots and heritage eventually withers.
The rabbit that stays in a hole must be ready to face the hunter's fire.
Hiding from a problem instead of confronting it still carries its own risks.
He that learns to eat without reservation must also learn to starve.
A person who consumes everything without restraint should expect a season of scarcity in return.
A monkey left behind laughs at the others' tails.
It is easy to mock the struggles of others while ignoring one's own shortcomings.
The search for a black fowl should always be done before darkness falls.
Difficult tasks should be handled early, before circumstances make them even harder.