Let a young man in his desperation go out and hunt. If he kills the elephant, his poverty ends. If the elephant kills him, his poverty ends.
Genuine
Yes. In Oyekan Owomoyela, The Good Person: Excerpts from the Yorùbá Proverb Treasury, electronic edition, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, part 4; the full collection is Owomoyela, Yoruba Proverbs (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), part 4.
Checked against Oyekan Owomoyela, The Good Person: Excerpts from the Yorùbá Proverb Treasury, electronic edition, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, part 4; the full collection is Owomoyela, Yoruba Proverbs (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), part 4, in a full-text transcription.
The wording people share differs from the text; the words in the text are underlined below.
- Where
- Yoruba proverb (Nigeria)
- Source
- Oyekan Owomoyela, The Good Person: Excerpts from the Yorùbá Proverb Treasury, electronic edition, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, part 4; the full collection is Owomoyela, Yoruba Proverbs (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), part 4
- Checked
- In a full-text transcription
Researched by AI. Entry updated 21 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
About this quote
The scene
A traditional Yoruba proverb, collected with Yoruba text, translation and explanation by the Nigerian scholar Oyekan Owomoyela. His gloss: people in desperate straits should resort to desperate remedies; whatever the outcome, they will be no worse off than before. ‘Ìṣẹ́’ is poverty or privation; the elephant is the biggest and most dangerous game, whose meat and ivory would make a hunter rich.
What it means
When you have nothing left to lose, take the big risk: success or failure, the misery ends either way.
Often misread
Shared as heroic encouragement to ‘go for it’. The proverb is darker: it counts being killed as one of the two ways out of poverty, and speaks of a young man pushed past endurance, not of ambition.
Also shared as
- The form on posters and social mediaLet a young man in his desperation go out and hunt. If he kills the elephant, his poverty ends. If the elephant kills him, his poverty ends. Posted as an ‘Ancient Proverb’ by the self-improvement creator Jett Franzen (@jettfranzen) in a YouTube Short, 22 June 2026. Elsewhere it circulates as an ‘African proverb’; it is Yoruba. Where it was seen
Topics
Related quotes
- Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself. J. K. Rowling
- It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. (misattributed) Mark Twain
- History, despite its wrenching pain Cannot be unlived, but if faced With courage, need not be lived again. Maya Angelou
- It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be! J. K. Rowling
- The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. (misattributed) Epictetus
Sources
- yoruba.unl.edu/yoruba.php-text=1d&view=0&uni=0&l=2.htm (Owomoyela, Yorùbá Proverb Treasury, part 4)
- yoruba.unl.edu (about the collection: compiled and translated by Oyekan Owomoyela)
- youtube.com/watch?v=hvSYrpEUUeM (Jett Franzen, 22 June 2026, ‘Ancient Proverb’)
Cite it
Anonymous, Oyekan Owomoyela, The Good Person: Excerpts from the Yorùbá Proverb Treasury, electronic edition, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, part 4; the full collection is Owomoyela, Yoruba Proverbs (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), part 4. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/if-he-kills-the-elephant-his-poverty-ends/ (21 October 2026).
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Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
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