The largest sum of money he had ever had at one time was threepence. - Chinua Achebe

Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.

...stories are not always innocent;...they can be used to put you in the wrong crowd, in the party of the man who has come to dispossess you.

Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-freedom of the human spirit — in state, in church or mosque, in party congress, in the university or wherever.