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Umanika agatu wicaye mu kukamanura ugahaguruka

You can hang an item from where you are seated, but when you want to get it down, you have to stand up.

What it means
Setting something up can be done comfortably, from a distance, with little effort. Getting the reward down always takes one last unavoidable effort: sitting still won't finish the job.
Burundi · East Africa
Source and context
From: Burundi, East Africa
Source: Burundian (Kirundi) oral-tradition proverb (Umanika agatu wicaye mu kukamanura ugahaguruka); independently attributed to Burundi with this Kirundi original by zikoko.com ("13 African Proverbs and Their Meanings") and ikirundi.org's own Kirundi proverb collection (Imyibutsa y'Ikirundi) — not, as originally recorded here, Ewe (Agbemenu's Ewe collection could not be verified to contain it)

The meaning given here is our own reading. Other interpretations exist.

Work
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