Water jars do not go to the well themselves: shared universal wisdom in Darfurian proverbs

Abstract

Introduction

When carrying out my field work on Arabic as spoken in Darfur (West Sudan) in the 2010s, many Darfurians came up with Darfurian proverbs spontaneously. Particularly some who I met for the first time, and to whom I explained that I was interested in the variety of Arabic spoken in their part of the country, instantly produced a number of proverbs in that language variety. A few would call their Darfurian mother or grandmother on the spot in order to deliver more examples of Darfurian sayings. Hence, it seemed to me that Darfurians love their proverbs and consider them typical of their culture and language. It may be a drop in the ocean (mind the proverbial expression) but this paper tries to present a snapshot of the linguistic and literary wealth of Darfurian proverbial images that display universal human values.