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Mukarirano wakapisa umba. (M)

Shona Definition

Kugarorambidzana kuita chinhu nokuda kwokukonona zvinogumira mukuzochishaya mose. Vanhu vanoitirana mukarirano havana chimuko paupenyu hwavo.

English Translation

When each one holds back and leaves the task to the other out of grumbling, it goes undone and every one of them is left without it; people who live like this make no headway. The wrangling over whose duty it was eats up time and can end in real damage.

Cultural Context

“Invoked to press for prompt action instead of fruitless argument.”

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This is a variant of

Mukarirano wakapedza mbuya munzara

When everyone leaves a duty for someone else to do, the one in need is the one who suffers — old women died in times of famine because each person assumed another would feed them.