From “Legacy: Wisdom of African Traditions and the Bible” by Chris Morehouse; forward by Therese Taylor-Stinson
What astute observations we find about greed in these proverbs! Warnings about greed can be found in many wisdom traditions. Indeed, modern Midases can be found in our consumer culture today, people whose desire for gold never ends and who value wealth over human beings, while many families struggle. In particular, the Swahili proverb about wanting more and more reminds me of superrich moguls who compete with each other to have ever-bigger yachts, and who, never finding satisfaction, reveal their insecurity and unhappiness. When we measure ourselves by wealth and possessions, we risk setting up our own collapse according to Sibongakonke Nyathi. This wisdom accords with Paul’s warning against the love of money and Jesus’s words about storing up treasures on earth.
According to Moeketsi Mamakoko and Heather Puffett, the Setswana proverb about riches being a burden has parallels in other South African languages, such as Sesotho. How, we might wonder, can great wealth ever be a burden? They explain that the wealthy cannot ever rest, because they worry about all the ways they might lose their wealth. Also, a wealthy person may worry about the sincerity of those who offer friendship but who might be more motivated by the prospect of how they might prosper from the relationship. Finally, a person who invests everything in his or her self-image as based on his or her wealth may fear becoming a person with no status when that wealth is lost. There are so many ways in which wealth can indeed be a burden! When our worth is based on our understanding of our nature as children of God, we are freed from such fears.
As with other ways humans can miss the mark, greed pulls us away from others, from God, and even from ourselves. Again, it is one of the ways that can lead us to treat other people as objects. Also, greed represents a kind of theft – often from those Jesus considered “the least of these.” It’s worth remembering that one of the only times Jesus shows anger is in response to greed and exploitation.
To be sure, wealth can be used to house, clothe, and feed the least among us. As the visionary Rev. Gordon Cosby said, “We are not money’s minions. Money must do our bidding, not us its bidding.”
But when we make greed our god, we are on very dangerous ground, though we may not even know it. Halimatu Sadiya Rilwan observes that wealth can become a shackle. Serving wealth as an end in itself, we imprison ourselves. Once we become imprisoned in this way, God’s Word may fall on deaf ears – though we can be sure God will keep trying to reach us.
Finally, we can indeed allow ourselves to become enslaved to wealth. Things begin to own us, rather than the other way around. According to Wale Azeez Adebisi, the Yorbu believe that if a rich man is being controlled by his wealth, he has not yet become wealthy. As the Yoruba understand, that is not wealth at all – it is ultimately a kind of poverty! Let us choose a better way.
Questions for Discussion and Study
- What are some of the ways that wealth might rule us, as the Swahili proverb cautions against?
- How might we curb our propensity to want and acquire?
- While warning about storing up treasure on earth, which don’t last, Jesus instead encouraged us to store up treasure in heaven. What does it mean to “store up treasure in heaven”?
- What kind of true wealth might the Yoruba proverb be alluding to, that is, the kind that does not enslave?