"When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground."

This is an old African proverb. There are many others ranging from the profound to the frankly bizarre, including:

• If you refuse the elder's advice you will walk the whole day. (Tanzania).
• If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a family (Ghana).
• It takes a whole village to raise a child. (Nigeria).
• Wherever the heart is, the feet don’t hesitate to go. (Togo).
• When the monkey sees a nice fruit in the tree that can’t be grasped, then the monkey says the fruit is rotten. (Congo).
• The ox doesn’t boast about its strength in front of the elephant.
• When elephants fight, the grass always is the one that suffers. (Swahili).
• Swim across the river before being rude to the crocodile.
• If one had nothing to say, one had better keep silent.
• It isn’t because it is hard that one doesn’t dare, but since one doesn’t dare it becomes hard.
• Everything has an end, except a banana which has two of them. (Bambara/Mali).
• He who swallows a coconut has confidence in his anus!

The country of origin is just one of the countries where the expression can be found - no doubt many of them are widely spread, if not universal!

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This quote & biography originally ran in an issue of BookBrowse's membership magazine. Full Membership Features & Benefits.