African Proverbs
African proverbs collected by country and tribe, with meanings where they have been written. 443 in the archive.
- One who plants grapes by the road side, and one who marries a pretty woman, share the same problem.Ethiopia
- One who recovers from sickness, forgets about God.
- Only a wise person can solve a difficult problem.Guinea
- Only a knife knows what the inside of a coco-yam looks like.
- Only the tortoise knows what is hidden in its shell.
- Only the thing for which you have struggled will last.Nigeria
- A palm wine tapper does not stop tapping wine because he or she once fell from the top of a palm tree.
- Patience can cook a stone.
- A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness.
- When making a fire people like to join you, when cleaning the ashes you are often alone.
- People who love one another do not dwell on each other's mistakes.Kenya
- The person who rides a donkey cannot avoid smelling its farts.
- It is play to the cat, but a matter of life and death to the rat.
- When the laborer is praised, his cutlass begins to cut more keenly.Nigeria
- Preparing cocoyams for planting does not mean that they are already planted.Nigeria
- If you are filled with pride, then you will have no room for wisdom.
- To have two eyes is cause for pride; but to have one eye is better than to have none.Guinea
- Big people do not quarrel over small vegetables, unless they are tasty.Uganda
- Quarrels end, but words once spoken never die.
- Rain beats the leopard's skin but it does not wash out the spots.
- A rat cannot call a cat to account for what the cat has done.Nigeria
- Rat no dey born rabbit.Nigeria
- Rats don't dance in the cat's doorway.Cameroon
- We live by hope, but a reed never becomes an Iroko tree by dreaming.Nigeria