In Africa and worldwide the most commonly used
Swahili proverb (translated into English) is: When elephants fight the grass
(reeds) gets hurt. There are different wordings of this very popular proverb
such as When elephants jostle, what gets hurt is the grass but they all mean the
same thing: the feeling of powerlessness in the midst of larger forces. It is
very relevant in many situations and contexts. In the 1970s Julius Nyerere (then
the President of Tanzania) used this proverb in a speech at the United Nations
in New York. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire) Ambassador to
Great Britain used this same proverb in a talk to a group of Missionaries of
Africa (White Fathers) in London. The meaning was the same: In the Cold War
between the (then) two great super powers — the United States and Russia — it
was the poor Third World countries such as those in Africa who suffered and were
victimized.