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Explore African proverbs, names, and stories, with their meanings and the people they come from. In English and French.

A proverb to begin

Akan · West Africa

Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi

It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.

What it means

Going back for what you forgot is no detour from moving forward; it can be how you move forward. The Sankofa bird shows it: feet facing ahead, head turned back toward an egg, reaching into the past while it moves on.

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Under the Baobab is a growing collection of African proverbs, names, beliefs, and stories. We bring the words together with their cultural context and sources, and distinguish our interpretations from source explanations.

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