by Rose Mwanri 🇹🇿
🏆 Proverb Essay Contest
🥈 Second Place Winner
A proverb is a metaphorical expression used in a community. Words in proverbs have additional meanings and proverbs have two sides. The first side gives an idea and the second side completes the idea. Akiba haiozi (Savings do not decay) is one of the Swahili proverbs that is widely used in African communities and by Kiswahili speakers globally, with the aim of reminding people about the importance of saving.
The purpose of this proverb is to encourage us as members of the community to prepare well for today's life as well as tomorrow so we are ready to face the various challenges of life.
This proverb shows us that it is normal for a human being to experience various emergencies in everyday life. For example, an illness, accident, or even death. When you have the savings that you have set aside, it will help you when you are faced with a sudden challenge that you did not expect.
Another benefit of saving is improving life. First of all, I advise we all have a regular savings plan to be able to improve our lives in general. The more we save, the more that savings can help us improve our housing and infrastructure within our communities. A good example is parents whose savings enable them to pay for school fees, supplies and even other expenses that may arise at the same time.
This proverb also reminds us that the more we save, the more we grow our treasury. As with the proverb that says "Haba and haba hujaza kibaba" (little by little fills up the measure). If you analyze these proverbs, they have the same meaning, and you will find that it is a great reminder about building a good fate for our community, now and later. [These proverbs] encourage us to invest every penny we get. We grow our treasury, because what we save is there for us.
Take the opportunity to ask yourself, how many times have you faced challenges and your savings kept the ship afloat? How many issues have arisen without notice that you used your savings to put things right? I believe we should all save regardless of whether our income is big or small. For example, you can start saving little by little from what you earn and in time your savings will add up to be big.
Also, this proverb helps to develop knowledge for individuals and communities, especially where there has been a difference in savings from one generation to another. In the past we are told that people used to store their savings by digging underground, putting under the bed or even other places that they believed were safe. Today, people do not use traditional methods to save their savings. When it comes to money, there are banks with stable and safe systems for storing money. In terms of crop saving, there are also safe ways to store crops, even for a long time, without spoiling. In fact, savings do not decay.
In Swahili, we say “Akiba haizoi” ("Savings don't rot"), “Haba na haba hujaza kibaba” (“Little by little fills up the measure") meaning that the savings may seem small but the more they increase, the bigger they become. On the contrary, we are told “Chovya chovya humaliza buyu la asali” (“Dip [by] dip finishes the jar of honey”), “Bandu bandu humaliza gogo” (“Chop [by] chop finishes the log.”) If we take from our savings little by little without a good reason, the day will come when we’re infuriated to see all the savings are gone without anything meaningful getting done. Let's remember “mali bila daftari huisha bila habari” ("Wealth without a notebook disappears without notice"). Let's look at an example of this poem that stresses us about saving.
Savings are truly a treasure, they never betray,
For us it’s very important, they carries us through times
When we really have nothing, they stand sincerely,
Let's all save, savings is a savior.
Truly, it’s clear that we should take care of the good things and the resources we have by saving, so that we can save ourselves when we are faced with surprising challenges in our present and future lives.
