Thupa e otlolloa e sa le metsi.
“A stick is straightened while it is still green.”
Children should be guided and disciplined while young and impressionable, before habits set — like a young, sap-filled branch that bends easily but an old dry one that snaps.
— Traditional Lesotho Wisdom, Lesotho
Source: Traditional Lesotho proverb, public-domain oral tradition (also cited in Lesotho Times, "Youths need guidance")
More Proverbs from Lesotho
A person is a person because of other people.
Human identity and worth are formed through relationships and community, not in isolation.
The axe is sharpened on the other side of the river.
Sometimes the tools or help a person needs are found far from home, echoing the long history of Basotho men traveling abroad for migrant work.
Lions that lack unity are chased off by a limping buffalo.
Even the strong can be overcome when they fail to act together; unity multiplies strength.
A child is a child of the whole community.
Raising and protecting children is a shared responsibility, not just the task of the birth parents.
Rain is life.
In a mountainous kingdom that depends on the land, rain sustains crops, cattle, and survival itself — a value echoed in Lesotho's national motto, Khotso, Pula, Nala.
To travel is to see.
Leaving home and experiencing the world broadens understanding and wisdom.