...I have benefitted a lot from my grandmother especially from her expertise in hausa proverb, like she cant talk for five minutes without chipping in like 2-3 proverbs that needed translation from her. It amuses me that I wanted emulating her and I did, I stood out amidst most of my mates when it comes to proverbs, some of them learn from me. My favourite among was 'kowa ya daka rawar wani, zai rasa turmin daka nasa', it means loved it because its saying a lot about life and she used to say it when people are gossiping around or when talking about something that dont concern them. When the children in the neighbourhood are playing and disturbing and some of the elders in the house are complaining she'll say:" ai sai da karenka ka kan ga na wani" or ' dan kai ake hula har kunne ya samu' meaning you see another persons dog because of your own or the cap made for the head is shared with the ears.
The amazing thing about her is she usually give history of almost everything, just ask and she'll tell. I once asked her about this proverbs and its origin and she said 'bahaushe' has them right from time and its been used based on the situation at hand to either commend, praise or insult someone, just to send a message. She used to say "maganar bahaushe bata cikin littafi amma littafi baya kankareta" meaning the words of hausaman are not from the book but the book cant erase them either. Just let her speak and you will learn, full of knowledge and wisdom, I used to say to myself if only it was during her childhood that the western education was introduced, no doubt she'll be the best of her class...#GrannyWisdom