African Proverbs

∞ The disobedient fowl obeys in a pot of soup (Benin - Nigeria)

∞ The crocodile does not die under the water so that we can call the monkey to celebrate its funeral (Akan)

∞ When two elephants fight it is the grass that suffers (Uganda)

∞ The frog does not jump in the daytime without reason (Nigeria)

∞ One goat cannot carry another goat's tail (Nigeria)

∞ The family is like the forest, if you are outside it is dense, if you are inside you see that each tree has its own position (Akan)

∞ It is the woman whose child has been eaten by a witch who best knows the evils of witchcraft (Nigeria)

∞ The hunter does not rub himself in oil and lie by the fire to sleep (Nigeria)

∞ The hunter in pursuit of an elephant does not stop to throw stones at birds (Uganda)

∞ If all seeds that fall were to grow, then no one could follow the path under the trees (Akan)

∞ Even the mightiest eagle comes down to the tree tops to rest (Uganda)

∞ A tiger does not have to proclaim its tigri-tude (Wole Soyinka - Nigeria)

∞ Before you ask a man for clothes, look at the clothes that he is wearing (Yoruba, Nigeria)

∞ As long as there are lice in the seams of the garment there must be bloodstains on the fingernails (Yoruba, Nigeria)

∞ If a blind man says let’s throw stones, be assured that he has stepped on one (Hausa, Nigeria)

∞ Until lions have their own historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter (Igbo, Nigeria)

∞ When you are eating with the devil, you must use a long spoon (Igbo, Nigeria)

∞ The fowl digs out the blade that kills it (Somali)

∞ Although the snake does not fly it has caught the bird whose home is in the sky (Akan)

∞ One should never rub bottoms with a porcupine (Akan)

∞ Fowls will not spare a cockroach that falls in their mist (Akan)

∞ You do not need a big stick to break a cock's head (Akan)

∞ Marriage is like a groundnut, you have to crack them to see what is inside (Akan)

∞ The rain wets the leopard's spots but does not wash them off (Akan)

∞ If crocodiles eat their own eggs what would they do to the flesh of a frog (Nigeria)

∞ A man does not wander far from where his corn is roasting (Nigeria)

∞ Rat no dey born rabbit (Nigeria)

∞ When man pikin dey piss, him dey hold something for hand. Woman wey try-am, go piss for her hand (Palmwine Drinkards, Nigeria)

∞ Those who get to the river early drink the cleanest water (Kenya)

∞ Hurry has no blessings (Kenya)

∞ A person changing his clothing always hides while changing (Kenya)

∞ A donkey always says thank you with a kick (Kenya)

∞ Nobody gathers firewood to roast a thin goat (Kenya)

∞ Having a good discussion is like having riches (Kenya)

∞ Many births mean many burials (Kenya)

∞ The important things are left in the locker (Kenya)

∞ A boy isn't sent to collect the honey (Kenya)

∞ If you don't wish to have rags for clothes, don't play with a dog (Nigeria)

∞ No sane person sharpens his machete to cut a banana tree (Nigeria)

∞ If a monkey is amongst dogs, why won't it start barking? (Nigeria)

∞ An elephant's tasks are never too heavy for it (Zimbabwe)

∞ It is the soil that knows that the mouse's baby is ill (Zimbabwe)

∞ A man who doesn't know his or her family is like a lion wounded while trying to make a kill for lunch (B. Audifferen)

∞ If you can walk, you can dance; If you can talk, you can sing

∞ Greed loses what it has gained

∞ The house-roof fights with the rain, but he who is sheltered ignores it (Wolof)

∞ To love the king is not bad, but a king who loves you is better (Wolof)

∞ Allah does not destroy the men whom one hates (Wolof)

∞ If nothing touches the palm-leaves they do not rustle (Oji, Ashanti)

∞ He is a fool whose sheep runs away twice (Oji, Ashanti)

∞ The man who has bread to eat does not appreciate the severity of a famine (Yoruba)

∞ Because friendship is pleasant, we partake of our friend's entertainment; not because we have not enough to eat in our own house (Yoruba)

∞ When your neighbour's horse falls into a pit, you should not rejoice at it, for your own child may fall into it too (Yoruba)

∞ The pot-lid is always badly off: the pot gets all the sweet, the lid nothing but steam (Yoruba)

∞ His opinions are like water in the bottom of a canoe, going from side to side (Efik)

∞ You lament not the dead, but lament the trouble of making a grave; the way of the ghost is longer than the grave (Efik)

∞ For no man could be blessed without the acceptance of his own head (Yoruba)

∞ If you don't sell your head, no one will buy it (Yoruba)

∞ The bell rings loudest in your own home (Yoruba)

∞ No one can uproot the tree which God has planted (Yoruba)

∞ Where you will sit when you are old shows where you stood in youth (Yoruba)

∞ Nobody knows the mysteries which lie at the bottom of the ocean (Yoruba)

∞ If we stand tall it is because we stand on the backs of those who came before us (Yoruba)

∞ When you stand with the blessings of your mother and God, it matters not who stands against you (Yoruba)

∞ After we fry the fat, we see what is left (Yoruba)

∞ When the door is closed, you must learn to slide across the crack of the sill (Yoruba)

∞ `You must be willing to die in order to live (Yoruba)

∞ What you give you get, ten times over (Yoruba)

∞ Stretch your hands as far as they reach, grab all you can grab (Yoruba)

∞ If you are on a road to nowhere, find another road (Ashanti)

∞ You must act as if it is impossible to fail (Ashanti)

∞ Do not follow the path. Go where there is no path to begin the trail (Ashanti)

∞ The ruin of a nation begins in the home of its people (Ashanti)

∞ Do not let what you cannot do tear from your hands what you can (Ashanti)

∞ True power comes through cooperation and silence (Ashanti)

∞ Force against force equals more force (Ashanti)

∞ Two men in a burning house must not stop to argue (Ashanti)

∞ One falsehood spoils a thousand truths (Ashanti)

∞ The one who asks questions doesn't lose his way (Akan)

∞ You must eat an elephant one bite at a time (Twi)

∞ It is a fool whose own tomatoes are sold to him (Akan)

∞ You must live within your sacred truth (Hausa)

∞ Strategy is better than strength (Hausa)

∞ When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers (Kikuyu)

∞ A child who is to be successful is not to be reared exclusively on a bed of down (Akan)

∞ The rope for a long life, is pooled by oneself (Ghana - Ewe)

∞ Treat your guest as a guest for two days; on the third day, give him a hoe! (Swahili)

∞ Wisdom is not like money to be tied up and hidden (Akan)

∞ The friend of a fool is a fool. The friend of a wise person is another wise person (Husia)

∞ You cannot pick up a pebble with one finger (Malawi)

∞ Two hippopotamuses cannot share the same hole (Cote d'Ivoire)

∞ One bean does not make a whole meal (Morocco)

∞ An axe does not cut down a tree by itself (Burkina Faso)

∞ The tortoise is friends with the snail: those with shells keep their shells close together (Benin)

∞ People helping one another can bring an elephant into the house (Rwanda)

∞ Nobody mourns an unnoticed death (Burundi)

∞ The river may be wide, but it can be crossed (Cote d'Ivoire)

∞ He who eats well speaks well or it is a question of insanity (Yoruba)

∞ No matter how long a log may float in the water, it will never become a crocodile (Gambia)

∞ The blacksmith in one village becomes a blacksmith's apprentice in another (Ghana)

∞ If a child's hands are clean, he can eat with elders (Gambia)

∞ A child who denies their mother a night's sleep will also remain awake (Gambia)

∞ He who has been bitten by a snake becomes scared by the sight of a rope (Hausa)

∞ One rotten bean is enough to spoil the entire sauce (Dan wake daya ke bata miya) (Hausa)

∞ Famine strikes the adult as much as the child (Yunwa cadi yaro cadi baba) (Hausa)

∞ One hand washes the other (Isandla siya kezane) (Zulu)

∞ "Boto kensengo buka lo no" (Gambia - Mandinka) - An empty bag cannot stand

∞ Mix yourself with the grain and you will be eaten by the pigs (South Africa)

∞ The same heat that melts ghee, hardens the egg

∞ When you grab the head of a snake, the rest is mere rope (Ghana - Akan)

∞ The wandering child does not see the corpse of his dead mother before burial (Manden - West African) 

Proverbs Source: http://resourcepage.gambia.dk/proverbsall.htm