African Proverbs
African proverbs collected by country and tribe, with meanings where they have been written. 435 in the archive.
- She who does not yet know how to walk, cannot climb a ladder.
- It requires a lot of carefulness to kill the fly that perches on the scrotum.Ghana
- The cattle is as good as the pasture in which it grazes.
- The chameleon changes color to match the earth; The earth does not change color to match the chameleon.
- Children are the reward of life.
- What the family talks about in the evening, the child will talk about in the morning.
- The compassion of a people is cultivated at a grandmother's knees.Zimbabwe
- A conversation without proverbs is like stew without salt.Nigeria
- Copying everybody else all the time, the monkey one day cut his own throat.
- A cow may refuse to give to the milking jar but it cannot refuse to contribute to the cooking pot.Ethiopia
- It is crooked wood that shows the best sculptor.
- Crooks don't shave each other.
- Cross the river in a crowd and the crocodile won't eat you.Mauritania
- Crying is useless if you have no friends who will listen.Angola
- A tree belonging to a greedy man bore abundantly, but instead of gathering the fruits little by little, he took an ax and cut it down that he might have all at once.
- Do not call the forest that shelters you a jungle.Ghana
- Do not make fun of the crocodile when you are still standing knee-deep in the river.Cameroon
- Do something at its (right) time, and peace will accompany it.
- A doctor who invoked a storm on his people cannot prevent his house from destruction.Nigeria
- Dogs don't love people, they love the place where they are fed.Burundi
- Dogs do not actually prefer bones to meat; it is just that no one ever gives them meat.Guinea
- If you go to a town and find its chief sitting on the ground, you do not ask for a stool.Ghana
- Do not call a dog with a whip in your hand.South Africa
- You do not cut down the green trees when the dried ones are standing erect.