There is really nothing in the Edo proverb like "Uma i gba ne ofen ya gbe ologbo." I can swear that Dan made it up, but the interpretation you guys have given it fits very well into the situation we are facing today, especially the prostitution and embezzlement wahalas.

Brother Kienuwa, let me disagree with you, though most agreeably, here on two levels.

First, from "Ore avbiere a mue no mwentin la", "no mwentin" here means the strong and senseless. Therefore, "Ore avbiere a mue no mwentin la" means it is through the neighborhood or front of house of the weak and coward but sensible person that the dead body of the senseless strong individual is carried. "No mwentin" cannot be paraded but may be carried through the neighborhood of the coward and weak after he is dead.

There is really nothing in the Edo proverb like "Uma i gba ne ofen ya gbe ologbo." I can swear that Dan made it up, but the interpretation you guys have given it fits very well into the situation we are facing today, especially the prostitution and embezzlement wahalas.

Brother Kienuwa, let me disagree with you, though most agreeably, here on two levels.

First, from "Ore avbiere a mue no mwentin la", "no mwentin" here means the strong and senseless. Therefore, "Ore avbiere a mue no mwentin la" means it is through the neighborhood or front of house of the weak and coward but sensible person that the dead body of the senseless strong individual is carried. "No mwentin" cannot be paraded but may be carried through the neighborhood of the coward and weak after he is dead.

Second, "itan fi ma Edo, Edigue a kpe emwen ho ma." Your interpretation is fine, but I have problem with it because "Edigue" is not exactly the "shallow thinker." "Edigue" means one who duels in or is from "Igue" which means village or a place distant and remote from Benin City or Edo. It is common practice those days for those people born in Benin City to think of those from the villages as "Edigue" or "Ovbiedigue" or "Ovbigue." "Igue" translated into English should mean village or remote place, so "Edigue" or "Ovbiedigue" or "Ovbigue" should be a villager, bush person, or the unsophisticated and unworldly wised person.

For instant, "Iguagban" (Igue Agban) is the village of Agban; "Iguomon" (Igue Omon), the village of Omon; "Iguovbiobo" (Igue Ovbiobe), the village of Ovbiobo; "Iguadolor" (Igue Adolo), the village of Adolor.

I am from OKHUOKHUO a typical "Igue." Because I was not born and raised in Benin City (Edo), most people from Benin City those days, my uncle included, used to call me "Ovbiedigue." They were not more sensible, and we were not in any wise shallow in our thinking at that time.

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Dan did not make up the proverb - "Uma i gba ne ofen ya gbe ologbo". It was culled from a book that has over 2,500 genuine Edo proverbs and idioms. The distinguished female Edo author of that book was profiled earlier today. She is a gem. What she has put on paper (after years of research and collation) is priceless. As we have observed many times on this net our educational system failed miserably in enabling us to pass many of these proverbs from generation to generation.

It was Kienuwa that said Dan should have used the parable "Ore avbiere a mue no mwentin la" in qualifying his original explanation (which Ben challenged) - in which he placed the proverb in a contemporary political context - what is happening back home.

I had made a contribution that proverbs and idioms take their meaning in the context in which they are used. Sometimes through usage they lose their original meaning and become associated with other interpretations. It is all in the eye of the beholder and user.

Just this afternoon one of my white patients was complaining to me about a side-effect of a Blood Pressure pill I placed him on. He said it made him "drunk as a parrot". That phrase is an old English Idiom that probably (according to one theory) takes origin from the days of sea-pirates when pet parrots might have been given a taste of wine by bored sailors - for entertainment. They then spent all day talking recklessly - as one who is drunk might be expected to do. Another theory is that the idiom simply recognizes that a man who is tipsy talks loosely - like a normal parrot. It does not really mean that Parrots drink alcohol or that we are ever really likely to see a drunk parrot

As more Edo proverbs and idioms are shared please jump in to share your perspectives. And again...please share some proverbs and idioms that you were taught while growing up in Okhuokhuo.

Dr. Pita Agbese - who has just left for Nigeria - has been very excited about the posting of Edo proverbs. He sent me a message that we should try to discuss the paradigmatic angles of some of these proverbs. He teaches a course in Iowa which he says proverbs, idioms and parables could go a long way in enhancing.

Let the games begin.