African Literature Parables

Darian Greenbaum

Professor Zak

African American and African Studies

10 October 2012

1. In the Ibo society parables and proverbs played an important role in the way the tribe members interacted with one another, indirectly. Parables and proverbs made communication more about interpretation rather than explaining word for word how someone should go about doing something. It was important for the Ibo people to continue using parables and proverbs because it was a way of sustaining their culture and values. The author of the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, made clear how valuable parables and old sayings were to the African culture, especially the Ibo’s. A specific proverb comes to mind when I think of the Ibo tribe and that is on page 19 of the novel. Achebe wrote “let the kite perch, and the eagle perch too.” In this case the kite is a small bird and I interpret the quote as “let there be freedom, which does not deny the other their freedom”. I can also see how interpreting the eagle as a “leader” in the tribe and the kite representing a regular tribe member saying: “hey, you’re guaranteed your glory, you are mightier than me, why don’t you let me reap some of the benefits, you shouldn’t get all of them”. It goes back to open-mindedness about the Ibo people, not having one answer as a solution, but several. Another quote of Achebe’s I enjoy is also on page 19, “a man who pays respect for the great, paves the way for his own greatness.” To me, this signifies how much the Ibo people have respect for one another, especially their elders. This quote represents the Ibo people very well because their tribe is full of hard workers who want that respect one day for themselves, so they give it and pay it forward until it is their time. There is another proverb I like in the novel about adapting to other people’s learnings; “ since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching.” I think this quote is valuable to the...