Terms of Service
These are the terms for using Under the Baobab. They’re meant to be read, not skimmed past, but we’ve kept them as short as we honestly can.
What Under the Baobab is
Under the Baobab is a bilingual (English/French) collection of African proverbs, each attributed to a specific people, region, and language, along with related cultural context. It’s free to read and use for personal and educational purposes.
The site accepts voluntary donations to cover its running costs, and may offer optional paid features in the future (for example advanced quizzes or games, offline access, or audio pronunciation). The collection itself — every proverb, its attribution, and its meaning — stays free for anyone to read, always.
Accounts
You don’t need an account to browse. An account (via Google or email sign-in) is only needed to save favorites, sync your reading theme, or submit a proverb. You’re responsible for keeping access to your account secure, and for anything submitted through it.
Submitting content
If you submit a proverb, you’re confirming you have the right to share it and that, to your knowledge, the information (culture, translation, meaning, and how you know it) is accurate. Every submission is reviewed by a real person before anything is published; nothing goes live automatically.
By submitting, you grant Under the Baobab a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to review, edit for clarity or accuracy, and publish the submission as part of the collection, in the same form as every other proverb on the site. You can still ask us to remove a submission you made, before or after publication, through the Feedback & contact link.
A submitted proverb joins the free collection: the saying, its attribution, and its meaning stay readable by anyone, at no cost, and are never placed behind a paywall. Separate optional features built around the collection (for example advanced quizzes or games) may be paid and may reference submitted proverbs. Either way, submitting doesn’t create an employment or business relationship and doesn’t entitle you to payment or a share of any donations or revenue the site receives. Name credit is opt-in, on the submission form.
Feedback
Anything you send through the Feedback & contact form (bug reports, feature requests, general messages) may be used to improve Under the Baobab, without any obligation to credit or compensate you for it.
Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- Use Under the Baobab to submit false attributions, spam, or abusive content.
- Attempt to disrupt, overload, or gain unauthorized access to the service.
- Scrape or bulk-extract the collection for republishing elsewhere without permission.
We can suspend or remove access for accounts that violate these terms, and remove submitted content that doesn’t belong here.
The content itself
Traditional proverbs and their cultural context, as presented here, are drawn from and attributed to their originating cultures. They’re not Under the Baobab’s invention, and we don’t claim exclusive ownership of a saying that predates this project by generations. The specific text, translations, and presentation on this site are Under the Baobab’s work, made available for personal and educational use. If you’d like to republish or reuse it beyond that, reach out first.
No warranty
Under the Baobab is provided “as is.” We work to keep proverbs, translations, and cultural details accurate and properly sourced, but we don’t guarantee the service will be error-free, uninterrupted, or fit for any particular purpose.
Limitation of liability
To the extent permitted by law, Under the Baobab isn’t liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the service.
Changes
We may update these terms as Under the Baobab grows. If we do, we’ll update the date at the top of this page. Continuing to use Under the Baobab after a change means you accept the updated terms.
Questions
Use the Feedback & contact link in the app for anything about these terms.