A European researcher travels to a remote West African village to conduct a research on the role of proverbs in the society. In the village, he talks to a chief who happens to dislike proverbs for their indirectness. The chief informs the researcher that proverbs are a pack of lies. The latter appears to be convinced with that and writes a lengthy article on the frailty, scheming and deceit of proverbs and gets it published in the Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute called MAN. Vo1.28.2 (1993: 225-242). This article attempts a rejoinder to the chief and the researcher. The major argument is that the chief's hatred of the proverb corpus should not be regarded as a yardstick for their social significance. The paper also reiterates the observation by Okpewho (1992), Chinweizu et al (1980) and Lo Liyong (1969) that scholars of a foreign culture should feel that they owe to the culture in which they carry out their research the duty to accord such a culture their scholarly unbiased integrity.
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