Quotes: Oral traditions
3 quotes on this theme, each with its source and insight
The quotes
“Man is the child of customs, not the child of his ancestors.”
Source: no specific work is documented · Check the source
Disputed attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- Scholars judge the short wording disputed but likely grounded in a Muqaddimah passage about how customs form people.
- What remains uncertain
- The precise Arabic wording, chapter, edition or earliest translation for the concise English sentence remain undocumented; consider the line a modern paraphrase.
Ibn Khaldun argues that people are shaped mainly by customs and habitual practice rather than by bloodline alone. This claim fits his broader Muqaddimah analysis of social formation and change. The familiar one-line version is a modern rendering of a passage attributed to that work, not a securely documented verbatim sentence.
“In Africa, when an old man dies, it is a library burning.”
Source: Address to UNESCO (formulation cited by the Organization), 1960 · Check the source
Disputed attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- Evidence shows Hampâté Bâ advanced the idea that the deaths of traditionalists equal the loss of an untapped cultural fund; the association with him is well established.
- What remains uncertain
- The exact sentence with “library” is a later, compressed formulation; it cannot be confirmed as a verbatim line from the documented speech.
The image captures a policy point: when trained custodians of oral knowledge die unrecorded, entire bodies of practice, genealogy and history can vanish. This was Amadou Hampâté Bâ’s core argument as he urged preservation of oral traditions. The familiar “library burning” line is a popular paraphrase of that plea.
“Our people say no condition is permanent, Mr. Edwards. Good times must come to an end, just like bad times, whether we want it or not.”
Source: Behold the Dreamers, 2016 · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording appears in Imbolo Mbue's novel Behold the Dreamers (2016), spoken by the character Jende Jonga to Clark Edwards.
- What remains uncertain
- Verified as a line from the novel; the sentence is dialogue by a fictional character, not a direct statement by Mbue herself.
The line states a hard-earned wisdom: circumstances change. Spoken by Jende Jonga as he parts from Clark Edwards, it frames both personal loss and fragile privilege during the 2007–08 financial collapse and carries communal Cameroonian resonance.