^]^2 THK WIT AND WISDOM OK THE BANTU. 



tioiis of Character,"" probably the most important contribution to 

 ethical science made for many years, he 'l)ases his results largely 

 on the wisdom of the people as expressed in their literature, and 

 comments strongly on the neglect by philosophers hitherto of 

 the wisdom of life emljodied in i>o])ular fables, maxims, and 

 proverbs. There is little doubt that the shortest route to a know- 

 ledge of the Bantu psychology and the Bantu ethics is through 

 the study df their proverbs on the one hand, and their folk- 

 lore and fables on the other. 



What most strikes one on glancing at a collection of these 

 proverbs is how human the Bantu peoples are ! There is an 

 immense difference between the Bantu in their native state and 

 ourselves in colour, features, food, houses, habits and institu- 

 tions, but a quite wonderful similarity in judgments and con- 

 clusions, ideas and opinions, on life and death, youth and age, 

 and the various instincts, emotions, sentiments, desires and aims 

 by which man is affected or swayed, as well as on the qualities 

 which determine his success or failure in life. They commend 

 the same virtues, urge to the same efforts, stigmatize the same 

 .vices, and satirize the same follies that our European proverbs do. 



Government by phrases or formuliei so prominent nowa- 

 days, is as old as time immemorial with the Bantu. After the 

 subject has been laid down, understood and discussed, the 

 " word," the " phrase," that will best sum up the opinion of 

 the assembly is sought, and is usually found in some analogy 

 with animate or inanimate nature, of which the native people 

 are close observers, then stated by the chief or the spokesman 

 of the assembly, and the matter is settled. 



For convenience of treatment, 1 have arranged the proverbs 

 into groups dealing with allied subjects, as Man and Woman, 

 Parent and Child, Hunger and Hospitality, Wisdom and Folly, 

 Life and Death, and so on.* 



On Man and Woman. 



There are two words for man in Kaffir, iitduda and iirnntu; 

 man as the male or husband, and man as the human being. The 

 word Bantu is the jylural of the latter, and means just human 

 beings. And the word for virtue in the Bantu languages is 

 ubuntu, just manliness, all that becomes a man. .So the Zulu 

 says: Ngitanda umiintu ongumuntii, 1 like a man who is a man 

 (a man who is manly) ; we came to men who were not men (to 

 human beings who were not humane). The word <for character 

 is isimilo, what one has grown to, or isitunsi, the shadow one 

 casts. Aka)wsimilo, he has no growth, they say ; or akanasitunsi, 

 he has no shadow, by which they mean, he has no character, no 

 standing, no self-respect. Uyasihluba isilunsi ngokxi'ensa njalo, 

 you are stripping off your shadow by doing that, they say (yoti 

 are losing your good name). One without character is iliskwa 



* Most of the Kaffir and Zulu proverbs are given in the original as well 

 as in translation; the Sesuto and Sechuana proverbs in translation only. 



