What is the meaning of the proverb a toad does not run in the daytime for nothing in things fall apart?

If you see someone doing something unusual, there must be an unusual cause.

A toad must be threatened in order to run in the daytime. Toads do not like to run in the daytime because it is hot, and they tend to be lazy.

This is later expounded when Okika says "Whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight, then know that something is after its life."

Answer 2:

It is directly related to the Igbo community of Umuofia in eastern Nigeria, where a proverb is portraying their traditional ideas and truths that shape day-to-day Igbo life. These principles are often expressed through indirect language and symbols in the following examples:

* A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing."

* The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree tothe ground said: "I would praise myself if no one else did."

* [Because] men have learned to shoot without missing, [Eneke the bird] has learned to fly without perching."

* "You can tell a ripe corn by its look."

These traditional expressions demonstrate the great respect and courtesy that the Igbo people show to one another because the speaker uses veiled language when making comments about herself (in the lizard example, not allowing creative to find expression for self-gratification and the bird example, for avoiding the question); from the toad prince (in the toad example, that was lured away from the norm by Magnificence); the person he is addressing (in the corn example for instance could be saying that you would recognize an Artist by the way they look.) This symbolic language represents a high level of cultural sensitivity and sophistication.

An especially significant concept is the belief in personal chi at its simplest level; chi parallels the Western concept of soul, although chi is a more complex idea. The Igbo believe that an individual's fate and abilities for the coming life are assigned to the chi, and each individual is given a chi by the Creator (Chukwu) at the moment of conception.

Before each reincarnation, the individual bargains for improved circumstances in the next relationship with Chi...

The chi thus becomes one's personal god that guides one to fulfill the expected destiny. On the one hand, the individual is ruled by his chi, but on the other hand, only the individual can make the most of the fate planned through the chi, and in turn rule Chi in a symbiotic dance of balance and bliss ... Together!

Shine on!