Three Proverbs and a Bullying Case
During a school debate, a Form 1 boy says he is being bullied on the way home. Three speakers respond with proverbs. Speaker A: 'Motho ke motho ka batho - a kope thuso kwa morutabana.' Speaker B: 'Ngwana yo o sa lleng o swela mo masapong - a bue.' Speaker C: 'Go tsamaya ke go bona - a tsamaye a ye go nna kwa motseng o mongwe.' The chairperson asks the class to judge which proverbs are used well and which are misapplied, and to reply to Speaker C without insulting him. The class has studied all three proverbs, but has not compared them before.
1. Match Speaker A and Speaker B to the advice they support, and explain the link in each case.
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Speaker A's proverb, 'Motho ke motho ka batho' ('a person is a person through other people'), supports seeking help. It says a person exists through community, so asking a teacher is not shameful dependence but the normal way a community protects its members. It answers the boy's likely feeling of shame.
Speaker B's proverb, 'Ngwana yo o sa lleng o swela mo masapong' ('the child who does not cry dies in the blankets'), supports speaking out. It warns that silence is the danger, so it answers fear rather than shame.
Both are apt, but they do different work. A good answer says what each proverb is doing in the argument, not merely what it means.
2. Is Speaker C's use of 'Go tsamaya ke go bona' apt? Justify your judgement.
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No. The proverb means that travelling widens experience - one learns by going to new places - and it is normally used to encourage exploration or education.
Speaker C uses it to recommend leaving home to escape a bully. That is a different kind of problem: the bullying happens on the way home, and moving village would not necessarily stop it. The proverb's core meaning, learning through experience, has been replaced by an unrelated meaning, running away.
A proverb is misapplied when the situation does not share the logic of the saying. The test is not whether the words sound wise, but whether the reasoning transfers.
3. Write a two-sentence reply to Speaker C that corrects the proverb's use without insulting him.
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Model reply: 'Go tsamaya ke go bona, mme go bona ga go thuse ngwana yo o tshabang. A re bolelele morutabana gore a thuse.' ('Travelling is seeing, but seeing does not help a child who is afraid. Let us tell the teacher so that he or she can help.')
The reply concedes the proverb's truth before redirecting it: the issue is safety and help, not experience. It also avoids a direct 'o a fosagetse' ('you are wrong'), which would make the debate personal.
In a school debate, a concession plus a condition is usually more effective than contradiction, and it keeps the chairperson's rule against insults.