Nigeria

Some Nigerian Proverbs

  1. The child of an elephant will not be a dwarf. [Like father, like son] (Yoruba)
  2. What an old man sees while lying down, a young man can never see even when he climbs up in a tree. (Yoruba)
  3. Only the thing for which you have struggled will last. (Yoruba)
  4. Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse.
  5. Whoever is patient with a cowrie shell will one day have thousands of them. (Hausa)
  6. Seeing is better than hearing.
  7. The day on which one starts out is not the time to start one’s preparations.
  8. What the child says, he has heard at home.
  9. A wealthy man will always have followers.
  10. Fine words do not produce food.
  11. If you fill your mouth with a razor, you will spit blood.
  12. Water may cover the footprint on the ground but it does not cover the words of the mouth. (Igbo)
  13. One who has been bitten by a snake lives in fear of worms. [Once bitten, twice shy.] (Igbo)
  14. Allah made the silk-cotton tree beautiful, so let the fig tree cease being angry. (Hausa)

Fiction

Achebe, Chinua. Chike and the River (East African Educ. Pub. Ltd., 1966)
________.  The Voter (South Africa, ViVa Books, 1994)
Adimora- Ezeigbo Akachi. The Buried Treasure (Heinemann, 1992, U.S. Distributor is Chelsea House)
Agwu, Ada K. Edet on Holiday (Nigeria, Macmillan, 1977)
Fulani, Dan. Sauna: Secret Agent (London, Arewa Books, 1981)
________. Sauna to the Rescue (London, Arewa Books, 1981)
Okoye, Ifeoma. Only Bread for Eze (Nigeria, Fourth Dimension Pub.)
Olaleye, Isaac. Bitter Bananas (Carolina House, 1994)
________. The Distant Talking Drum (Boyds Mills Press, 1995)
Rupert, Janet E. The African Mask (New York, Clarion Books)
Solaru, Lanna. Poor Akin! (Ibadan, Univ. Press Ltd. 1985)
Stewart, Dianne. The Paper Chase (Heinemann, 1991, US Distributor is Chelsea House)

Fiction / Folktales

Gershator, Phillis. The Iroko-Man: A Yoruba Folktale. (New York: Orchard Books. 1994)

Gerson, Mary-Joan. How Night Came from the Sea: A Story from Brazil. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1992)

________. Why the Sky is Far Away: A Nigerian Folktale. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1992)

Medearis, Angela Shelf. The Singing Man. (New York: Holiday House, 1994)

Walker, Barbara K. The Dancing Palm Tree and Other Nigerian Folktales. (Lubbock: Texas Tech. Pub., 1990)

Nonfiction

Adeeb, Hassan and Bonnetta, Nigeria: One Nation Many Cultures. (New York: Marshall Cavindish, 1996)

“The Yoruba People: Nigeria and Beyond.” (Faces: The Magazine About People 12(1), Sept., 1995)

Barker, Carol. A Family in Nigeria. (Minneapolis, Lerner Pub. Co.)

Isaacs, Deborah and Elizabeth. Benin: An African Kingdom. (Educational Broadcasting Co.)

Millar, Heather. The Kingdom of Benin. (New York: Marshall Cavendish,1997)

Onyefulu, Ifeoma. A is for Africa. (New York, Cobblehill Books, 1993)

________. Emeka’s Gift. (New York, Cobblehill Books, 1995)

Onyefulu, Ifeoma. Ogbo: Sharing Life in an African Village (Gulliver Books, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1996)