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Sixty (60) Top African Proverbs














Those who accomplish great things pay attention to little ones. 
 ~Malian 

 Around a flowering tree there are many insects. 
 ~Guinean

 He who learns, teaches. 
 ~ Ethiopian  

 One who loves you, warns you. 
 ~Baganda

 Leadership does not depend on age. 
 ~Namibian 

 An elephant which kills a rat is not a hero.  
 ~Cameroonian

 He is like a drum which makes a lot of noise but is hollow inside. 
 ~Sudanese

 I pointed out to you the stars and all you saw was the tip of my finger.   
 ~Sukuma 

 Confiding a secret to an unworthy person is like carrying grain in a bag with a hole.   
 ~Nilotic

 Better a curtain hanging motionless than a flag blowing in the wind. 
 ~Swahili

 One who bathes willingly with cold water doesn't feel the cold. 
 ~Fipa 

 You are beautiful, but learn to work, for you cannot eat your beauty. 
  ~Congolese

 Life is a shadow and a mist; it passes quickly by and is no more. 
 ~Madagascar

 Every dog is a lion at his own gate.  
 ~Ghanaian

 No person is born great; great people become great when others are sleeping.  
 ~African

 An intelligent enemy is better than a stupid friend. ~Senegalese

 Time destroys all things. 
  ~Nigerian

 The rain does not recognize anyone as a friend; it drenches all equally.  
 ~Ibo(Nigeria) 

 It requires a lot of carefulness to kill the fly that perches on the scrotum 
 ~Ghanaian

 If you are looking for a fly in your food it means that you are full. 
 ~ South African

 When the brothers fight to the death, a stranger inherits their father's estate. 
 ~Ibo People of Nigeria  

 It is what is in the heart when there is no wine in the head, that comes out when there is wine in the head. 
 ~Nigerian 

 When God cooks, you don't see smoke. 
 ~Kaonde 

 A child can play with its mother's breasts, but not its father's testicles 
 ~ Guinea 

 The tears running down your face do not blind you. 
 ~Togolese 

 If you fear something you give it power over you. 
 ~African

 Do not scare the birds you are going to shoot. 
 ~Madagascar 

 Nothing is so difficult that diligence cannot master it.  
 ~Madagascar

 Words are like eggs: when they are hatched they have wings. 
 ~ Madagascar

 What an old man will see while seated, a small child cannot see even standing on top of a mountain! 
 ~ Nigerian

 Even the lion, the king of the forest, protects himself against flies.   
 ~Ghanaian

 Let your love be like the misty rain, coming softly, but flooding the river. 
 ~Liberian

 The mouse that makes jest of a cat has already seen a hole nearby. 
 ~ Nigerian 

 Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested. 
 ~Guinea

 Birth is the only remedy against death. 
 ~West Africa 

 A single bracelet does not jingle. 
 ~Congolese

 Everybody loves a fool, but nobody wants him for a son.   
 ~Ivorian 

 A little rain each day will fill the rivers to overflowing. 
 ~Madagascar

 Where you will sit when you are old shows where you stood in youth. 
 ~Yoruba People of Nigeria 

 What is inflated too much will break into fragments.  ~Ethiopian  

 Words are sweet, but they never take the place of food.  
 ~Ibo 

 When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion. 
 ~Ethiopian

 If your mouth turns into a knife, it will cut off your lips. 
 ~Rwandan

 Too much discussion leads to a quarrel. 
  ~Ivorian 

 Rain beats a leopard's skin, but it does not wash out the spots. 
  ~Ashanti

 It is not only giants that do great things.   
 ~Liberian

 You don't need pain killers for another man's headache. 
 ~Igala People of Nigeria 

 When the head is too big, it cannot dodge blows. 
 ~Zambian

 When the laborer is praised, his cutlass begins to cut more keenly. 
 ~ Nigerian  

 He who cannot dance will say, "The drum is bad!"  
 ~Ashanti

 Knowledge without wisdom is like water in the sand. 
 ~Guinean 

 The thing that will hurt you will always keep on coming back even if you try to avoid it. 
  ~Shubi  

 A strong man is remembered on the day of the fight, and a glutton on the day pounded yam is surplus 
 ~ Ghanaian 

 It is impossible to find a man who has everything, but it is possible to find one who enjoys the things he has. 
 ~Maasai 

 You don't need pain killers for another man's headache. 
 ~Igala People of Nigeria

 The best way of practising the art of  charity is to stop seeing people as gold diggers. 
~ Michael 

 Always being in a hurry does not prevent death, neither does going slowly prevent living. 
 ~Ibo(Nigeria)

 A deaf ear is followed by death and an ear that listens is followed by blessings.  
 ~ Samburu

 When one is in trouble, one remembers God.
 ~Nigerian

 Do not make the dress before the child is born.
~Tanzanian 
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