Thursday, July 19, 2007

The Democratic Party Anthology of African Proverbs   [Mark Steyn]

You'll recall that, when Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote her bestselling book It Takes A Village To Raise A Child, there was some skepticism expressed (including by Derb, if memory serves) as to whether the title was, as the then First Lady claimed, an authentic African proverb as opposed to just a leftist bromide tricked out in tribal dress. By the time of her next bestselling African proverb, Mrs Clinton was better sourced. In Living History, she writes:

"What you don't learn from your mother, you learn from the world" is a saying I once heard from the Masai tribe in Kenya.

Lovely line - and she heard it from an actual tribe in Kenya! Any tribesman in particular? Or did they all yell it out in unison as her motorcade passed by? Africa is an apparently bottomless source for tribal proverbs that all exemplify the progressive communitarian worldview. And who wouldn't want to live by this ancient folk wisdom? As the Tanzanian collective farm or Sierra Leone shanty town goes today, so Malibu and Ann Arbor go tomorrow.

Now Al Gore has uncovered yet another generic African proverb of universal application:

"There's an African proverb that says, 'If you want to go quick, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.' We have to go far quickly," former Vice President Al Gore told a packed, rapt house at the Benedict Music Tent Wednesday. With many scientists pointing to a window of less than 10 years to moderate the effects of global warming, he said, meaningful change is still possible, but "It is a race." 

Does this latest African proverb come from any part of Africa in particular, or just from Africa in general? A Google search uncovers no prior use except by the Congregational Church , which, naturally enough, uses it to justify an "open and affirming" approach to such traditional African customs as gay pastors. But I'd be interested to know from any of NR's African readers from which part of the continent this particular aphorism comes.

07/19 12:59 PMShare