The Greatest African Proverbs

“No son is better than your own son”

“Let the one who has not finished crossing a stretch of water not mock the one who is drowning”

“Hands that give cross each other”

“It is by trying often that the monkey learns to jump from the tree”

“Don’t envy the one carrying the briefcase. You will carry your own when the time comes”

“The old man warms himself with the wood he gathered in his youth”

“The drummer cannot be the best dancer in the village”

“If you want to know the truth, listen to the fools”

“The cricket fits in your hand, yet it is heard across the whole meadow”

“First you must stab a hyena, then aim for a lion”

“We hear the crash of falling trees, but not the whisper of the growing forest”

“Do not let the goat you could carry on your shoulder be dragged through the mud”

“Whoever is rich without being generous has nothing!”

“Horns do not grow before the head”

“Just because some people are thirsty doesn’t mean we will stop washing”

“Love is not sung, it is lived!”

“A slip of the tongue hurts more than a stumble of the foot”

“Where the mouse mocks the cat, there is a hole”

“You don’t pull on a flower to make it grow. You water it and watch it grow… patiently”

“However high the bird flies, it eventually lands”

“What the old man sees sitting down, the young man cannot see standing up”

“The river may run dry, but it keeps its name”

“What matters most is said in silence”

“When the cat isn’t hungry, it says the mouse’s behind stinks”

“Even at night, milk is white”

“Whoever learns without acting plows without sowing”

“A grain of corn is always wrong in front of a hen”

“Don’t throw away the water in your jar because rain is on its way”

“A small hill leads you to a big one”