Valuable works of African art, allegedly looted by the colonial power, are often claimed, rightly or wrongly, by their former owners so that they can be returned to the continent. The question that remains unanswered is whether they will be kept there unharmed, as they are in the hands of their new masters. However, the mediocrity that plagues Gondwana, from cast-iron frying pans to household utensils, leads us to bet that destruction will take precedence over conservation. The chances of these much sought-after works being safe from the destroyer once their managers change are very slim. There is a risk that they will suffer the same fate as the tombs and mausoleums in Timbuktu. In place of all these silent documents and other works of value that will be returned to their natural masters, I suggest that the good curators who have long guarded all these possessions should keep in their libraries the African oral art conveyed by the proverbs, maxims and sentences collected in this book, at a time when its original users are content with a culture that is half fig, half grape, or neither fig nor grape.