African Proverbs
Every culture around the world has its share of wise proverbs or sayings. They are usually single sentences. Which are passed down from one generation to the next. These sayings vary from one language, culture, and country to another. But the wisdom they convey is universal. When it comes to African proverbs they are kind of special.
Africa is overflowing with inspirational sayings. Many African proverbs are strongly tied to the earth and animals, conveying lessons of life often through daily, seemingly menial, procedures. For example, there is an African proverb, “there is honey but no bees”. It describes a situation when you find something free for taking and without consequence.
So, here is a list of African proverbs from around the continent. Have a read and take some ancestral insight from Africa to remember.
Also read: Forbidden Confucius Quotes That Can Inspire Greatness and Instill Wisdom
1. You always learn a lot more when you lose than when you win.
2. A beautiful thing is never perfect.
3. Wisdom is wealth.
4. To get lost is to learn the way.
5. A diamond does not lose its value due to a lack of admiration.
6. Between two friends, even water drunk together is sweet enough.
7. Where you sit when you are old shows where you learning, you use it, increases.
8. If there is a character, ugliness becomes beauty; if there is none, beauty becomes ugliness.
9. There are many colorful flowers on the path of life. But the prettiest have the sharpest thorns.
10. The one who loves an unsightly person is the one who makes him beautiful.
11. Instruction in youth is like engraving in stone.
12. If you marry a monkey for his money. The money will go away and the monkey will stay the same.
13. Slander by the stream will be heard by the frogs.
14. If you think you are too small to make a difference you haven’t spent the night with a mosquito.
15. Telling a secret to an unworthy person is like carrying grain in a bag with a hole in it.
16. Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it.
17. Love is like a baby, it needs to be treated tenderly.
18. A woman’s polite devotion is her greatest beauty.
19. A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.
20. If you are filled with pride, then you will have no room for wisdom.
21. Anyone who sees beauty and does not look at it will soon be poor.
22. Once you have been tossed by a buffalo, a black ox looks like a buffalo.
23. If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.
24. If men, swear that they want to harm you when you are asleep, you can go to sleep. If women say so, stay awake.
25. When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.
26. Ears that do not listen to advice, accompany the head when it is chopped off.
27. In the moment of crisis the wise build bridges, and the foolish build dams.
28. The heart of the wise man lies quiet like limpid water.
29. We desire to bequeath two things to our children, the first one is roots, the other one is wings.
30. A cutting word is worse than a bowstring. A cut may heal, but the cut of the tongue does not.
31. Not everyone who chased the zebra caught it, but he who caught it chased it.
32. The fool speaks, the wise man listens.
33. There is no beauty but the beauty of action.
34. By crawling, a child learns to stand.
35. To be without a friend is to be poor indeed.
36. Unity is strength, division is weakness.
37. One should punish a child the first time he comes home with a stolen egg. Otherwise, the day he returns home with a stolen ox, it will be too late.
38. Ugliness with a good character is better than beauty.
39. He who beats the drum for the mad man to dance is no better than the mad man himself.
40. A man who uses force is afraid of reasoning.
41. The laughter of a child lights up the house.
42. No matter how tall your grandfather was, you have to do your own growing.
43. When the shepherd comes home in peace, the milk is sweet.
44. Only a fool tests the depth of a river with both feet.
45. The young bird does not crow until it hears the old ones.
46. One who causes others misfortune also teaches them wisdom.
47. You learn how to cut down trees by cutting them down.
48. Never trust a woman who has had sex with your enemy.
49. The old woman looks after the child to grow its teeth and the young one, in turn, looks after the old woman when she loses her teeth.
50. If relatives help each other, what evil can hurt them?
51. A home without a woman is like a barn without cattle.
52. Counsel and advice him, if he refuses to listen, then let adversity teach him.
53. Wisdom is like fire. People take it from others.
54. Knowledge without wisdom is like water in the sand.
55. Children are the reward of life.
56. What you help a child to love can be more important than what you help him to learn.
57. When sleeping women wake, they move mountains!
58. An army of sheep led by a lion can defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.
59. A women’s beauty is not hidden in her face.
60. It takes a village to raise a child.
