African Proverbs
African proverbs collected by country and tribe, with meanings where they have been written. 435 in the archive.
- Do not try to fight a lion if you are not one yourself.
- Never fight a stranger in the dark, for he may turn out to be your brother.Zambia
- Don't insult the crocodile until you cross the water.
- Because a man has injured your goat, do not go out and kill his bull.Kenya
- Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.
- You don't punish a fish by throwing it into water.Uganda
- Do not respond to a mosquito with a hammer because you will miss and hurt yourself instead.Kenya
- Do not rush the night - the sun will always rise for its own sake.
- I don't sow ground nuts when the monkey is watching.
- Do not step on the dog's tail and he will not bite you.Cameroon
- Do not tell the man that is carrying you that he stinks.
- No one tests the depth of a river with both feet.Ghana
- When the cock is drunk, he forgets about the hawk.Ghana
- No matter how drunk a rat is he doesn't go to sleep in a cat's bed.Cameroon
- If you educate a man you educate one individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a family.Ghana
- If the chicken's egg cracks the palm kernel, the grinding stone is put to shame.Nigeria
- Even as the archer loves the arrow that flies, so too he loves the bow that remains constant in his hands.Nigeria
- Even if made of gold, shoes are still for the feet.Ethiopia
- Looking at a king's mouth one would never think he sucked his mother's breast.
- Even the best cooking pot will not produce food.
- Even the lion, the king of the forest, protects himself against flies.Ghana
- Even the mightiest eagle comes down to the tree tops to rest.Uganda
- Everybody has been young before, but not everybody has been old before.
- Evil enters like a needle and spreads like an oak tree.