Burkinabe Proverbs


Sayings of Burkinabe origin

If you haven’t been to two marketplaces, you don’t know which the best value is.

He who speaks does not know that the listener is smart.

One hand does not pick up the flour.

After beating milk, butter is obtained.

Everything has an end, except the banana which has two.

Every birth is the rebirth of an ancestor.

The hen cannot say thank you to the mortar.

A friend is better than a brother of the same mother.

One can only believe the fish that says the eye of the crocodile is rotten.

Patience is a golden path.

An axe does not cut down a tree by itself.

Even if you do not like the hare, at least recognize his speed!

A child, who loves culture and breeding, is a perfect child.

The hand that gives is always above the one that receives.

If your father takes care of you until your teeth grow, take care of him until his fall.

The wife is home.

The elephant is big but the child is small.

If the ants get together, they can lift an elephant.

When a beautiful woman does not steal, she takes you.

If the river route changes, the caiman is obliged to follow.

As long as the water does not disorder, it does not settle.

Even if you leave a long piece of wood in the water, it will never become a crocodile.

Hunger is better than shame.

If you rub your back, then rub your face.

The hand that is on top is better than the hand that is below.

Only a thief can recognize the trace of another thief on a rock.

An old man who dies is a library burns.

If the water has not been disturbed, it is not deposited.

The mother is there, so is the child. Now all we need is the rain.

A hypocrite always has something to hide.

If you do not have enough water to take a bath, wash your face.

Your wife is for you alone, do not share her with strangers.

Ants surround the dying elephant.

If we lie, we are dead.

The glory of an old woman in her ears.

If they wash your back, you yourself should wash your stomach.

The value of a person is measured by the happiness he gave to others in life.

Knowledge is power.

The content of a peanut is enough for two friends to share it.

The tears do not save the man.

Death is unable to speak of the ancestor.

Forgiveness, tolerance and wisdom are the language of strong men.

Burkina Faso

Burkinabe Proverbs

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa around 274,200 square kilometres (105,900 sq mi) in size. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north; Niger to the east; Benin to the southeast; Togo and Ghana to the south; and Ivory Coast to the southwest. As of 2014, its population was estimated at just over 17.3 million.

Formerly called the Republic of Upper Volta, the country was renamed “Burkina Faso” on 4 August 1984 by then-President Thomas Sankara. Residents of Burkina Faso are known as Burkinabé . French is an official language of government and business.It is served by an international airport and it is linked by rail to Abidjan in the Ivory Coast. (An excerpt from Wikipedia)

Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic centre of the nation. It is also the country’s largest city, with a population of 1,475,223 (as of 2006). The city’s name is often shortened to Ouaga. The inhabitants are called ouagalais.

Une Seule Nuit (also known as L’Hymne de la victoire or Ditanyè) is the national anthem of Burkina Faso.


Burkina Fas National Anthem ( English Lyrics):
Against the humiliating bondage of a thousand years
Rapacity came from afar to subjugate them for a hundred years.
Against the cynical malice in the shape
Of neo-colonialism and its petty local servants.
Many gave in and certain others resisted.
But the frustrations, the successes, the sweat, the blood
Have fortified our courageous people and fertilized its heroic struggle.

And one single night has drawn together
The history of an entire people,
And one single night has launched its triumphal march.
Towards the horizon of good fortune.
One single night has brought together our people
With all the peoples of the World,
In the acquisition of liberty and progress.
Motherland or death, we shall conquer.
Nourished in the lively source of the Revolution,
The volunteers for liberty and peace
With their nocturnal and beneficial energies of the 4th of August
Had not only hand arms, but also and above all
The flame in their hearts lawfully to free
Faso forever from the fetters of those who
Here and there were polluting the sacred soul of independence and sovereignty.

And seated henceforth in rediscovered dignity,
Love and honour partnered with humanity,
The people of Burkina sing a victory hymn
To the glory of the work of liberation and emancipation.
Down with exploitation of man by man!
Forward for the good of every man
By all men of today and tomorrow, by every man here and always!

Popular revolution our nourishing sap.
Undying motherhood of progress in the face of man.
Eternal hearth of agreed democracy,
Where at last national identity has the right of freedom.
Where injustice has lost its place forever,
And where from the hands of builders of a glorious world
Everywhere the harvests of patriotic vows ripen and suns of boundless joy shine.

And one single night has drawn together
The history of an entire people,
And one single night has launched its triumphal march.
Towards the horizon of good fortune.
One single night has brought together our people
With all the peoples of the World,
In the acquisition of liberty and progress.
Motherland or death, we shall conquer.
Nourished in the lively source of the Revolution,
The volunteers for liberty and peace
With their nocturnal and beneficial energies of the 4th of August
Had not only hand arms, but also and above all
The flame in their hearts lawfully to free
Faso forever from the fetters of those who
Here and there were polluting the sacred soul of independence and sovereignty.

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