Zizi kurungwa munyu roti ndava hukuwo

Munhu anoda kuzvifananidza nevanhu vaanogara kana kutamba navo achizvipa zvinhu nechimiro chakafanana nevaagere navo apo kuzvinyengedza.

An owl being seasoned with salt now thinks, "I am a now chicken too".

People often want to think they have the same qualities and status with people they associate with.

The proverb is a humorous mocking of the owl for wanting to be like the chicken. This desire is made more apparent when the owl believes that being salted for consumption will make it feel more like a chicken but the owl remains an owl. Hence our elders were mocking the owl for thinking that just because it has been seasoned for a meal, this will not make it a chicken. The central lesson is that a person is out of place in company with people with whom he/she has nothing in common, though he/she may strive to appear as one of them. One cannot be someone else merely by association.

This proverb is used to mock pretentious people who feel they can use their association with people to attain a similar status or similar qualities. It is applied to caution people who may have gotten carried away by association by now believing that they too are similar to those they are associating with.