A Collection of Wisdom: Proverbs

Malagasy Proverbs

A man who lets his problems get the better of him is like the man who divorces his wife the first time she makes him angry.

It is better to refuse to go than to accept and not go.

Don’t be so in love that you can’t tell when rain is coming.

Distracted by what is far away, he does not see his nose.

A fortuneteller says, “If it's not a boy, it will be a girl.”

Nothing is so difficult that diligence cannot master it.

Don’t blame the axe for the noise made by the chicken you are about to slaughter.

Madagascar is a large island and group of smaller islands all off of southeast coast of the African continent. Despite its close proximity to Africa, Madagascar is a very unique land. The people are Malagasy, and have a primarily Indonesian culture combined with some Arab and Bantu-African influences and ethnicities mixed in.

The origins of Malagasy people are uncertain, but they are thought to derive from Indonesian navigators from the first millennium AD who settled there, and soon established trade with Arabs. The French later established settlements in Madagascar and took control of it by the late 1800s, but by 1960, the island gained full independence.

Malagasy themes include music, dancing, unique animal species, elaborate burial tombs, woodcarving, literature, festivals, rice, bananas, cassava, yams, and fruit.