General African Proverbs

* The path is made by walking.
* The earth is a beehive; we all enter by the same door but live in different cells.
* An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.
* Haraka haraka haina baraka
o Swahili for: "hurry, hurry has no blessing"
* Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
* He who forgives ends the argument.
* Don't set sail on someone else's star.
* A bad name is like a stigma.
* A big blanket encourages sleeping in the morning. (Luxury encourages Idleness. If you have worked hard and made wise choices, you will find contentment.)
* A bird that is eating guinea-corn keeps quiet. (Someone going about his regular business will not create a disturbance. Dedicate yourself to a task.)
* A bird will always use another birds' feathers to feather its own nest.
* A blade won't cut another blade; a cheat won't cheat another cheat.
* A cat may go to a monastery, but she still remains a cat!
* A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches.
* A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which his mother puts into his palm.
* A close friend can become a close enemy.
* A cow gave birth to a fire: she wanted to lick it, but it burned; she wanted to leave it, but she could not because it was her own child.
* A cow that has no tail should not try to chase away flies.
* A cutting word is worse than a bowstring; a cut may heal, but the cut of the tongue does not.
* A fool and water will go the way they are diverted.
* A fool looks for dung where the cow never browsed.
* A fool will pair an ox with an elephant.
* A good deed is something one returns.
* A hippopotamus can be made invisible in dark water. (Ignorance can lead to potential danger. It is important to be informed and alert.)
* A home without a woman is like a barn without cattle.
* A little leaven smoothes away the whole lump.
* A little rain each day will fill the rivers to overflowing.
* A little subtleness is better than a lot of force.
* A loose tooth will not rest until it's pulled out.
* A man who continually laments is not heeded.
* A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness.
* A man with too much ambition cannot sleep in peace.
* A man's grave is by the roadside.
* A man's wealth may be superior to him.
* A partner in the business will not put an obstacle to it.
* A person is a person because of other persons.
* A pretty basket does not prevent worries.
* A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride.
* A proverb is the horse of conversation: when the conversation lags, a proverb revives it.
* A single bracelet does not jingle.
* A single stick may smoke, but it will not burn.
* A strawberry blossom will not sweeten dry bread.
* A too modest man goes hungry.
* A wise man who knows proverbs can reconcile difficulties.
* Absence makes the heart forget.
* Advise and counsel him; if he does not listen, let adversity teach him.
* After a foolish deed comes remorse.
* Allah does not destroy the men whom one hates.
* An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.
* Anticipate the good so that you may enjoy it.
* Around a flowering tree, one finds many insects.
* As the dog said, 'If I fall down for you and you fall down for me, it is playing.'
* As the wound inflames the finger, so thought inflames the mind.
* Because a man has injured your goat, do not go out and kill his bull.
* Because friendship is pleasant, we partake of our friend's entertainment; not because we have not enough to eat in our own house.
* Before eating, open thy mouth.
* Before one cooks, one must have the meat.
* Being well dressed does not prevent one from being poor.
* By the time the fool has learned the game, the players have dispersed.
* By trying often, the monkey learns to jump from the tree.
* Cactus is bitter only to him who tastes of it.
* Children are the reward of life.
* Clothes put on while running come off while running.
* Confiding a secret to an unworthy person is like carrying grain in a bag with a hole.
* Cross the river in a crowd and the crocodile won't eat you.
* Dine with a stranger but save your love for your family.
* Do not call the forest that shelters you a jungle.
* Do not dispose of the monkey's tail before he is dead.
* Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.
* Do not measure the timbers for your house in the forest.
* Do not say the first thing that comes to your mind
* Don't insult the crocodile until you cross the water. (Be careful about criticizing others.)
* Don't kick a sleeping dog.
* Don't take another mouthful before you have swallowed what is in your mouth.
* Even over cold pudding, the coward says ~'It will burn my mouth."
* Even though the old man is strong and hearty, he will not live forever.
* Evil enters like a needle and spreads like an oak tree.
* Every morning in Africa a gazelle awakens knowing it must today run faster than the fastest lion or it will be eaten. Every morning a lion awakens knowing it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It matters not whether you are a gazelle or a lion, when the sun rises you had better be running.
* Familiarity breeds contempt; distance breeds respect.
* Fire and gunpowder do not sleep together.
* Good millet is known at the harvest.
* Great events may stem from words of no importance.
* He is a fool whose sheep runs away twice.
* He that digs up a grave for his enemy, may be digging it for himself.
* He who asks questions, cannot avoid the answers
* He who begins a conversation, does not foresee the end.
* He who cannot dance will say: "The drum is bad."
* He who conceals his disease cannot expect to be cured.
* He who digs too deep for a fish, may come out with a snake.
* He who does not cultivate his field, will die of hunger.
* He who does not know one thing knows another.
* He who hunts two rats, catches none.
* He who is bitten by a snake fears a lizard.
* He who is unable to dance says that the yard is stony.
* He who learns, teaches.
* He who loves money must labor.
* He who receives a gift does not measure.
* He who talks incessantly talks nonsense.
* He who wants to barter, usually knows what is best for him.
* He who wears too fine clothes, shall go about in rags.
* He, who is free of faults, will never die.
* Hearts do not meet one another like roads.
* His opinions are like water in the bottom of a canoe, going from side to side.
* Home affairs are not talked about on the public square.
* Hunger is felt by a slave and hunger is felt by a king.
* If a child washes his hands he could eat with kings.
* If a dead tree falls, it carries with it a live one.
* If nothing touches the palm-leaves they do not rustle. (Compare English "Where there's smoke there's fire.")
* If relatives help each other, what evil can hurt them?
* If the heart is sad, tears will flow.
* If the palm of the hand itches it signifies the coming of great luck.
* If you are in hiding, don't light a fire.
* If you burn a house, can you conceal the smoke?
* If you do not step on the dog's tail, he will not bite you.
* If you don't stand for something, you will fall for something.
* If you find no fish, you have to eat bread.
* If you offend, ask for pardon; if offended, forgive.
* If you tell people to live together, you tell them to quarrel.
* If you try to cleanse others - like soap, you will waste away in the process!
* If you watch your pot, your food will not burn.
* If your house is burning, there is not time to go hunting. (Priorities are important in planning activities.)
* Indecision is like the stepchild: if he doesn't wash his hands, he is called dirty; if he does, he is wasting the water.
* It is Mr. Old-Man-Monkey who marries Mrs. Old-Woman-Monkey.
* It is best to bind up the finger before it is cut.
* It is no shame at all to work for money.
* It is the calm and silent water that drowns a man.
* It is the duty of children to wait on elders, and not the elders on children.
* It is the fool's sheep that break loose twice.
* It takes a village to raise a child. (West Africa)
* It takes a whole village to raise a child
* It takes two to make a quarrel.
* It's a bad child who does not take advice.
* Knowledge is better than riches.
* Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.
* He who pupus' with another mans anus does not know its painful even if he pupus' maizecobs.
* Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.