Ẹlẹwa Sapọn and the Principle of Living Within Your Means

There is a popular factoid amongst the Yoruba people and it is the story of Ẹlẹwa Sapọn. Sapọn is a popular area in Abeokuta, the state capital of Ogun state, Nigeria. Several accounts state that there was a woman who sold beans in Sapọn. She was quite popular and had numerous customers including dignitaries. However, the accounts differ on how the popular aphorism which is ascribed to the factoid came to be. One account narrates that despite her many customers, she cooked only a pot of beans daily which is often not enough to take care of the needs of her customers. When asked why she regularly cooks only a pot a day, she often voiced that “Şe b’o ti mọ” meaning “act according to your means”. The other account states that despite wanting to make sales, she was fond of advising her customers to buy according to how much they could afford. That is, she advised her customers against spending extravagantly with the “Şe b’o ti mọ” phrase. The phrase became her sobriquet and she became popularly known as “Şe b’o ti mọ, Ẹlẹwa Sapọn”, that is, act according your means, the beans seller of Sapọn.

Whatever the true account is, I believe the idea of the story is simple. It is simply premised on the moral that one must live within one’s means. The story has earned a place in Yoruba moral epistemology. A story that provides the wisdom of self truth and sticking to one’s capability. The idea of self truth is being honest to oneself with a careful and apt assessment of the self. It is closely related to the “know thyself” socratic principle. The principle which Socrates borrowed from the Delphi Temple simply indicates that man must look within to understand himself. It is on this notion that Socrates puts succinctly that ‘an unexamined life is not worth living’. The best way to lead a good life is to continually look inward and honestly adjudge oneself.

The Ẹlẹwa Sapọn story shows the wealth of Yoruba oral tradition. Whether this story is true or not; through oral transmission, people have come to learn about the morality of living within one’s means and adhering to this principle. Importantly, Şe b’o ti mọ is one of the tenets of Ọmọlúwàbí humanistic principle. Ọmọlúwàbí as an african humanism philosophy contains metaphysics, ethics and epistemology. Şe b’o ti mọ is an essential part of the moral dimensions of the Ọmọlúwàbí principle. The essence of the Yoruba people insisting on the Şe b’o ti mọ fulfils the notion of being morally upright, accountable and considerate. It is an approach that helps you understand wealth management and also contentment.

One of the problems that affects our humanity is people striving to outdo each other on some mundane issue or the other. This has made many people to subscribe to ways of life that are injurious to them and to others around them. For instance, if a fraudster adheres to the principle of Şe b’o ti mọ, there won’t be a need to swindle other people just to lead a life they can’t afford legally. Most of the ills of the world can be curbed by cutting your coat according to your size or the material available. The pressure amongst youths in this generation as it was in the generation before now, has put the idea of living within your means in danger. With social media platforms, many people who do not have the means to lead what is regarded as the good life now go all out and out of their ways to appear to strangers and friends as sophisticated and capable of what they won’t ordinarily afford. We all want to appear as though we are rich when we can barely afford certain things. Rather, what we should learn is how to take some certain ascetic measures when certain things are out of our reach, and be hedonistic when can actually afford to.

From the foregoing, the principle of living within your means as inherent in the Ẹlẹwa Sapọn story should be reiterated, taught and emphasized in order for it to become a part of our everyday life. With this in place and strictly adhere to, when you see your friends doing certain things in life, you have the knowledge needed to understand that there are certain things out of your reach at the moment but it doesn’t mean that they won’t be in your reach some day. What is pertinent to do is to hold off and wait till you can. In this case, the saying that ‘fake it till you make it’ is greatly antithetical of the Şe b’o ti mọ tenet of the Ọmọlúwàbí principle. When it comes to financial responsibility and morality, it is important for you to ‘know thyself’. That is, it is important to know what you can and can’t afford. You need to be honest with yourself when it comes to many aspects of your life. The significance of this is applicable to all aspects of our lives. Our entire moral worldview should be founded on the notions of ‘know thyself’ and ‘living within your means’. That is, after knowing what you’re worth, you should then apply the knowledge of yourself to determining what you should do and shouldn't do. Whenever you are about make a decision about something that is not immediately within your reach, you should always ask yourself, “what would Ẹlẹwa Sapọn say?”