CULTURE

Diversity, the chain of individual and societal differences is not only spotted in skin color but could also be seen alarming in language and culture.

Cultural diversity holds its interest in the origin and conventional way of livelihood, known to a certain people within a geographical location.

Despite diversity in culture and language, Eastern Nigerians, the Igbo people and South Western Nigerians, the Yoruba people, define some of their adages and proverbs alike. Could the similarity in adages be likened to environment proximity? Beyond proximity, there is a language barrier which will always sabotage communication. Interestingly, a common thought could be seen expressed in proverbs and adages from two different cultures.

An Igbo adage says, 

What the elders see while on seat, the kid will not see, even if he climbs on the tallest tree.

The Yoruba one says, 

When the kid is cutting a tree in the forest, only the elders can correctly tell which direction the tree will eventually fall.

They appear different, but interpreting, they tend to have the same meaning. The information common to the Igbo and Yoruba adage is foresight from the elders.

 Igbo adage which metamorphosed from experience over time, birthed and exposed them to believing that an elderly person who is older than the younger one has had experiences in life and that these experiences can only be achieved in growth and time spent seeing them over and over again.

Therefore, a kid who has not seen much, tend to be naive and would not have seen more than what his little age presented to him, even if he tries all day working so hard.

The Yoruba adage similarly interprets that, whatever a kid does and no matter how innovative his ideas are, the elders, because they were once on the same path will always know where the journey ends. (That is the place of being able to tell where the tree falls)

The common ideology in the Yoruba and Igbo adage is "FORESIGHT", foresight by elders; that is, an elder's experience encompasses a wider scope of reasoning to help the younger navigate through life without making the same mistakes they made. The similarity in the two adages explains to us that, though we may be different culturally, but life experiences are never different.