Editorial Policy

Òwe Yòòbá is a living, community-contributed archive of Yoruba proverbs. This policy describes how entries are sourced, translated, attributed, corrected, and, when necessary, restricted.

Sourcing. Proverbs are folk expressions and are not copyrightable as text. The archive draws from Wikiquote (Yoruba text only), personal and elder contributions, and independent compilation from print sources including Delano (1966), Ajibola (1947), Bamgbose, and Sheba. Bulk reproduction from Owomoyela's The Good Person (2005) and from yoruba.unl.edu is not undertaken pending permission from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Translation. Every English translation, literal or figurative, is written independently by the archive's compilers. Copyrighted glosses from named authors are not reproduced. Scholarly cross-references appear in a see also field.

Attribution. Each entry names its source: a contributor, a scholarly work cited as reference, or Wikiquote as text source. Contributors are credited by public display name where they consent.

Corrections. Errors are inevitable. Corrections are welcomed at hello@oweyoruba.org with subject line prefixed [correction] followed by the entry slug. Accepted corrections are applied as git commits; the full history is public.

Disputed interpretations. Where reputable sources disagree on meaning, dialect, or usage, the archive records variants rather than adjudicating between them. This preserves the plurality of the tradition.

Restricted knowledge. Some proverbs sit close to Ifá divination, ẹgbẹ́ associations, or other domains where public reproduction is inappropriate without consultation. Any contributor or reviewer may flag an entry as restricted. Restricted entries are excluded from the public build. Publication follows consultation with knowledgeable custodians of the tradition. Cultural-protocol labels in the manner of Mukurtu are under consideration for the Phase 1 schema.

Scope. The archive covers proverbs (òwe) only. Words, names, and general dictionary content are out of scope.

License. Original content is published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).