Across cultures, many Russian proverbs have African counterparts that carry the same common sense about life. Yulia Suetina, Associate Professor of African Studies at Moscow State University ISAA, who specializes in the Hausa language, shared observations with socialbites.ca. A notable example is the well-known saying “Prepare the sled in the summer, the car in the winter,” which in Africa would be echoed as “The wise give water to the chicken even in the rainy season.” Similarly, when Russians caution about leaving animals in vulnerable spots, Africans offer a different image: instead of leaving the goat in the garden, they advise not allowing the hyena to guard the meat. And when a rope twists toward trouble, Africans respond with the idea that no matter how long the night lasts, dawn will come in the end.
Proverbs and sayings hold a valued place in the cultures of both peoples. They reflect the universal arc of human experience, yet each society shapes it with its own language and imagery. Suetina emphasized that proverbs distill practical wisdom born from everyday situations, even if the wording shifts from one culture to another.
The linguist noted that the stylistic gap between African and Russian proverbs largely stems from the continents’ natural features, climate, and biodiversity. Yet the core meanings stay remarkably aligned. She explained that while a phrase like “Get the sled in the summer, the car in the winter” resonates in one culture, it simply does not exist in Africa because their environment lacks sleds and winter. Likewise, goats may roam Africa, but gardens there come with different concerns. A Russian peasant might be unfamiliar with a hyena, yet people in both regions face parallel predicaments and reach parallel conclusions. They might say, for instance, “We are going to Tula with our samovar” in one context, while in a later moment in Africa they might speak of “adding horses to Borna.” These idiomatic expressions illustrate how geographic and cultural specifics shape language while keeping the underlying wisdom intact.
Russian and African proverbs have endured for generations. They began as spoken wisdom, passed down through families and communities, and only later found their way into written records. Tracing the precise origins of many phrases is nearly impossible, with influences crossing continents and centuries.
According to Suetina, the emergence of written evidence is a key baseline for researchers, especially linguists. In Russia, written documentation of proverbs began relatively late, marked by Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl’s efforts. In contrast, many African languages were written earlier, making their proverbial traditions appear in literature sooner. Regarding Hausa, she noted that around the 1930s a movement grew to produce modern literary works in the language, and proverbs and idioms became common features of those texts. While the roots of these lines stretch deeper, the exact origin point remains unclear. The similarities in everyday reasoning across cultures show that, even before such records existed, people learned from the environment and their surroundings, just as Russians did.
In contemporary Russia, proverbs still pepper everyday speech. Among Africans, however, folk wisdom is even more integral to daily dialogue, including media language and headlines. Proverbs appear in fiction and in political discourse as well. As an example from Hausa literature, a hero addresses authority with a concise image of decisiveness: you are the flesh, you are the sword. In modern Africa, when remarks about leadership are needed, descriptions like “a president with a knife and meat” reflect a cultural vocabulary that communicates authority through vivid metaphor.
Suetina noted that God is mentioned less frequently in African proverbs than in Russian ones, though divine language does appear there as well. She suggested an example where the archetype shifts from a general divine trust to a direct assertion: rather than “Trust in God, but do not rely on yourself alone,” there is a saying that translates to “God said: Go, let me help you.” These cases are rarer but indicate that African proverbs, with their roots in earlier religious contexts, still carry spiritual resonance. The absence of such words in current use should not be mistaken for a lack of belief; rather, historical contact and later religious shifts have altered the linguistic footprint, much as Russia’s own religious and linguistic history evolved.
In discussions about long-standing ties between Russia and Africa, Suetina stressed that proverbs and idioms were likely not borrowed in the sense of direct translation. She added that Hausa speakers today take pride in their cultural heritage and are keen to preserve their linguistic traditions, preferring native expressions over borrowed phrases. She observed that in the late 1950s, students brought English into speech, but that impulse has evolved into a broader ideal of cultural fidelity and linguistic self-reliance present among both everyday speakers and higher education graduates.