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Gambian & Other African Traditional Proverbs

·        If a donkey kicks you and you kick back, you are both donkeys. (Gambia)

·        An adult squatting sees farther than a child on top of tree. (Gambia)

·        A fly that has no one to advice it, follows the corpse into the grave. (Gambia)

·        Giant silk cotton trees grow out of very tiny seeds. (Gambia)

·        However black a cow is, the milk is always white. (Gambia)

·        The disobedient fowl obeys in a pot of soup (Benin - Nigeria).

·        The crocodile does not die under the water so that we can call the monkey to celebrate its funeral (Akan).

·        When two elephants fight it is the grass that suffers (Uganda).

·        The frog does not jump in the daytime without reason (Nigeria).

·        One goat cannot carry another goat's tail (Nigeria).

·        The family is like the forest, if you are outside it is dense, if you are inside you see that each tree has its own position (Akan).

·        It is the woman whose child has been eaten by a witch who best knows the evils of witchcraft (Nigeria).

·        The hunter does not rub himself in oil and lie by the fire to sleep (Nigeria).

·        The hunter in pursuit of an elephant does not stop to throw stones at birds (Uganda).

·        If all seeds that fall were to grow, then no one could follow the path under the trees (Akan).

·        Even the mightest eagle comes down to the tree tops to rest (Uganda).

·        A tiger does not have to proclaim its tigri-tude (Wole Soyinka - Nigeria)

·        Before you ask a man for clothes, look at the clothes that he is wearing (Yoruba, Nigeria)

·        As long as there are lice in the seams of the garment there must be bloodstains on the fingernails (Yoruba, Nigeria)

·        If a blind man says lets throw stones, be assured that he has stepped on one (Hausa, Nigeria)

·        Until lions have their own historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter (Igbo, Nigeria)

·        When you are eating with the devil, you must use a long spoon (Igbo, Nigeria)

·        The fowl digs out the blade that kills it (Somali)

·        Although the snake does not fly it has caught the bird whose home is in the sky (Akan)

·        One should never rub bottoms with a porcupine (Akan)

·        Fowls will not spare a cockroach that falls in their mist (Akan)

·        You do not need a big stick to break a cock's head (Akan)

·        Marriage is like a groundnut, you have to crack them to see what is inside (Akan)

·        The rain wets the leopard's spots but does not wash them off (Akan)

·        If crocodiles eat their own eggs what would they do to the flesh of a frog (Nigeria)

·        A man does not wander far from where his corn is roasting (Nigeria)

·        Rat no dey born rabbit (Nigeria)

·        When man pikin dey piss, him dey hold something for hand. Woman wey try-am, go piss for her hand (Palmwine Drinkards, Nigeria)

·        Those who get to the river early drink the cleanest water (Kenya)

·        Hurry hurry has no blessings (Kenya)

·        A person changing his clothing always hides while changing (Kenya)

·        A donkey always says thank you with a kick (Kenya)

·        Nobody gathers firewood to roast a thin goat (Kenya)

·        Having a good discussion is like having riches (Kenya)

·        Many births mean many burials (Kenya)

·        The important things are left in the locker (Kenya)

·        A boy isn't sent to collect the honey (Kenya)

·        If you don't wish to have rags for clothes, don't play with a dog (Nigeria)

·        No sane person sharpens his machete to cut a banana tree (Nigeria)

·        If a monkey is amongst dogs, why won't it start barking? (Nigeria)

·        An elephant's tasks are never too heavy for it (Zimbabwe)

·        It is the soil that knows that the mouse's baby is ill (Zimbabwe)

·        A man who doesn't know his or her family is like a lion wounded while trying to make a kill for lunch (B. Audifferen)

·        If you can walk, you can dance; If you can talk, you can sing

·        Greed loses what it has gained

·        The house-roof fights with the rain, but he who is sheltered ignores it. (Wolof)

·        To love the king is not bad, but a king who loves you is better. (Wolof)

·        Allah does not destroy the men whom one hates. (Wolof)

·        If nothing touches the palm-leaves they do not rustle. (Oji, Ashanti)

·        He is a fool whose sheep runs away twice. (Oji, Ashanti)

·        The man who has bread to eat does not appreciate the severity of a famine. (Yoruba)

·        Because friendship is pleasant, we partake of our friend's entertainment; not because we have not enough to eat in our own house. (Yoruba)

·        When your neighbor's horse falls into a pit, you should not rejoice at it, for your own child may fall into it too. (Yoruba)

·        The pot-lid is always badly off: the pot gets all the sweet, the lid nothing but steam. (Yoruba)

·        His opinions are like water in the bottom of a canoe, going from side to side. (Efik)

·        You lament not the dead, but lament the trouble of making a grave; the way of the ghost is longer than the grave. (Efik)

·        For no man could be blessed without the acceptance of his own head. (Yoruba)

·        If you don't sell your head, no one will buy it. (Yoruba)

·        The bell rings loudest in your own home. (Yoruba)

·        No one can uproot the tree which God has planted. (Yoruba)

·        Where you will sit when you are old shows where you stood in youth. (Yoruba)

·        Nobody knows the mysteries which lie at the bottom of the ocean. (Yoruba)

·        If we stand tall it is because we stand on the backs of those who came before us. (Yoruba)

·        When you stand with the blessings of your mother and God, it matters not who stands against you. (Yoruba)

·        After we fry the fat, we see what is left. (Yoruba)

·        When the door is closed, you must learn to slide across the crack of the sill. (Yoruba)

·        You must be willing to die in order to live. (Yoruba)

·        What you give you get, ten times over. (Yoruba)

·        Stretch your hands as far as they reach, grab all you can grab. (Yoruba)

·        If you are on a road to nowhere, find another road. (Ashanti)

·        You must act as if it is impossible to fail. (Ashanti)

·        Do not follow the path. Go where there is no path to begin the trail. (Ashanti)

·        The ruin of a nation begins in the home of its people. (Ashanti)

·        Do not let what you cannot do tear from your hands what you can. (Ashanti)

·        True power comes through cooperation and silence. (Ashanti)

·        Force against force equals more force. (Ashanti)

·        Two men in a burning house must not stop to argue. (Ashanti)

·        One falsehood spoils a thousand truths. (Ashanti)

·        The one who asks questions doesn't lose his way. (Akan)

·        You must eat an elephant one bite at a time. (Twi)

·        It is a fool whose own tomatoes are sold to him. (Akan)

·        You must live within your sacred truth. (Hausa)

·        Strategy is better than strength. (Hausa)

·        When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. (Kikuyu)

·        A child who is to be successful is not to be reared exclusively on a bed of down. (Akan)

·        Treat your guest as a guest for two days; on the third day, give him a hoe! (Swahili)

·        Wisdom is not like money to be tied up and hidden. (Akan)

·        The friend of a fool is a fool. The friend of a wise person is another wise person. (The Husia)

·        You cannot pick up a pebble with one finger. (Malawi)

·        Two hippopotamuses cannot share the same hole. (Cote d'Ivoire)

·        One bean does not make a whole meal. (Morocco)

·        An axe does not cut down a tree by itself. (Burkina Faso)

·        The tortoise is friends with the snail: those with shells keep their shells close together. (Benin)

·        People helping one another can bring an elephant into the house. (Rwanda)

·        When you wake up in the morning you see the other person’s butt.

·        Nobody mourns an unnoticed death. (Burundi)

·        The river may is wide, but it can crossed. (Cote d'Ivoire).

·        He who eats well speaks well or it is a question of insanity. (Yoruba)

·        No matter how long a log may float in the water, it will never become a crocodile. (Gambia)

·        The blacksmith in one village becomes a blacksmith's apprentice in another (Ghana)

·        If a child's hands are clean, he can eat with elders (Gambia)

·        A child who denies their mother a night's sleep will also remain awake (Gambia)

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