This proverb, one of the hundreds Yoruba’s have about chickens, tells us that the feathers of a chicken hides the fact that it sweats. This proverb helps us understand that what you see on the surface is not the complete story. A man drives who drives a nice car and wears expensive clothes might be working extremely hard to achieve that image. A person can behave in such a way that hides real ailments of the heart.
Proverbs are part of what makes the Yoruba language so rich. Although most people don’t use them in everyday conversation they are still a quick way to convey warning, encouragement or reproach the way fusing many sentences together sometimes cannot. To honor proverbs and show you dear readers a bit more about Yoruba culture, I like to make these illustrations.
