Mbele ilinaoko utipoma/utipama ishike. (Sukuma) Ukiwa na wa kukuongoza huwezi kujikwaa. (Swahili) Si quelqu’un te guide, tu ne peux pas te perdre. (French) If you have someone leading you, you cannot lose the way. (English)

 
 

Sukuma(Tanzania )Proverb

 
Background, Meaning and Everyday Use

The Sukuma People, one among the ethnic groups found in Tanzania, use proverbs, sayings, songs and riddles to convey some important messages to a particular person or to a group of people in the community, depending on the certain circumstances.

 

In Tanzania there is very common Swahili proverb known as zimwi likujualo halikuli ukakwisha (a ghost that knows you cannot devour you completely). This proverb is well used to address people to live a suitable life in the community so as to keep the gift of fraternity alive because no one knows about tomorrow. Thus you can undermine someone today and tomorrow you go to seek for his or her help. This Swahili proverb made me to go to my Sukuma language to search for a similar proverb. When I asked, immediately my grandfather told me such a proverb in Sukuma known as mbele ilinaoko utipoma/utipama ishike (if you have someone leading  you, you cannot lose the way).

 

This Sukuma proverb shows the complexity of the Sukuma language and the difficulty of translation. First, both utipoma and utipama are used depending on what part of Sukumaland you are living in, for example, Mwanza or Nyalikungu. Second, there are three possible English translations:

 

If you have someone leading you, you cannot lose the way.

If you have someone who knows you, you cannot lose the way.

If you have someone walking before you, you cannot lose the way.

 

The meaning of this proverb is: ON THE NECESSITY OF LEAVING A GOOD LEGACY.  When you are living somewhere, try to be nice to people because you never know what will happen in the future. If you are a parent leave a good legacy to your children. Such a legacy will help them build their daily activities and be trusted.

 

 

Biblical Parallels

John 14: 1-3: “Let not your hearts be troubled. I will go and prepare a place for you. I will come again and I will take you to myself. That where I am you may also be.”

 

Romans 16: 1-2: “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae, that you may receive her in the Lord as benefits the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a helper of many and of myself as well.”

 

1 John 5:14: “This is the confidence we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”

 

Psalm 133:1: “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell in unity!”

 

Contemporary Use And Religious Application

We are living in intercultural societies, where we can help each other through sharing the core values found in our cultures. It our task today here and now to rediscover the treasure found in our cultures. Through them we can transfer a message or speech of many words in a single sentence that communicates the same thing that could be given in a long message. Thus this proverb can be a compendium for all of us to leave a life worthy for all called to be Christians. Leaving a legacy behind us makes us to be alive even in our absence.

 

Think of some of our legacies such as: Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the Founding President of Tanzania. Among Catholic Bishops Bishop Christopher Mwoleka, one of the Bishop Founders of Small Christian Communities (SCCs) in Eastern Africa. Among African theologians Father Laurenti Magesa. More recent legacies are the SCC Model of Church and the Synodal Process.

 

 

Prepared by:

 

Rev. Deacon Paschal Mahalagu

Deacon of the Catholic Diocese of Shinyanga

P.O Box 47

Shinyanga, Tanzania

Email: paschalmahalagu@gmail.com

Cellphone: +255755180893

 

 

Photographs by:

 

Rev. Zakaria Kashinje, OSA
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Cellphones:
+255-756-887787 Vodacom
+255-717-3337787 Tigo
+255-786-337787 Airtel
Email: zkashinje@gmail.com
zkashinje@yahoo.co.uk