“God often moves a man so that he can move his own world, and ultimately, the entire world”
- Samuel A. Ajayi (THE AMBASSADOR)
What is a proverb? A proverb is a short, concise sentence that conveys moral truth. In other words, it is a well-known expression that states a general truth or gives advice.
What is a saying? A saying is a well-known expression, or a remark that is often made to convey an idea or a message. It is also known as a proverb.
Proverbs, in the African context, are recipes for digesting words. As a result, they usually have a deeper meaning that goes far beyond their literal connotations or denotations. Below is a comprehensive list of AFRICAN PROVERBS. Enjoy them!
What is a saying? A saying is a well-known expression, or a remark that is often made to convey an idea or a message. It is also known as a proverb.
Proverbs, in the African context, are recipes for digesting words. As a result, they usually have a deeper meaning that goes far beyond their literal connotations or denotations. Below is a comprehensive list of AFRICAN PROVERBS. Enjoy them!
1. The night is always darkest right before the dawn.
2. The man who prepared the coffin is not necessarily responsible for the dead.
3. Until a crab enters a soup pot, it never believes there are two kinds of water on earth.
4. If the masquerade allows children to dance close, one day, they will discover the man behind the mask.
5. When a tsetsefly perches on a man’s scrotum, it is killed with extreme caution.
6. When the mouse starts laughing at the cat, it shows there is a hole nearby.
7. Since all lizards lie on their bellies, it is difficult to tell which of them has belly ache.
8. When you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day but when you teach him to fish; you feed him for a life time.
9. The love a man has for his cock never prevents him from killing it.
10. The horns are never too heavy for the head of the cow that carries them.
11. The traveler who is never shy of asking questions never misses his way.
12. Those who eat eggs forget the pains suffered by the hens that ay them.
13. An old woman is never old when it comes to the dance she loves.
14. No matter how sharp a knife is, it can never carve its own handle.
15. Until a nagging wife marries a second husband, she never knows the value of the first one.
16. The old woman who falls twice on a journey ought to stop cou ting the contents of her luggage.
17. The young man who inherits his father’s widow never realizes how expensive marriage is.
18. Life is like the onion bulb that is made up of layers.
19. You never use what is meant for pricking the ears to scratch the eyes.
20. The fall of dead leaves is a warning to others.
21. No hen ever attends a marriage ceremony where the fox is chairman.
22. What the hen sees and chuckles is what the goat sees and continues gnawing.
23. The fellow who does ONLY what he’s told to do can never be told to do big things.
24. It is the house rat that shows the hidden fish in the house to the bush rat.
25. One who buys a she-goat naturally invites a he-goat to his house.
26. It is only a foolish man who never realizes that his relative is his guest.
27. It is God who drives away flies for the tailless cow.
28. The bird that uses his beak to construct a nest can use the same beak to destroy it
29. He who gathers ant-infested firewood invites lizards to a feast.
30. When a foolish man begins to be wise, it shows that he has used up all his foolishness.
31. Whoever deserves the king’s honour must not go against the laws of the land.
32. The missile that a man sees coming does not meet him in the eye.
33. If urine is jointly directed at a spot, it creates foam.
34. The old woman who refuses to run will do so when a goat snatches her snuff-box.
35. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
36. When a woman gets old, it looks as though no bride price was ever paid on her.
37. When a bird flies without perching, the hunter learns to shoot without aiming.
38. A child who calls his mother an ugly woman calls his father a foolish man.
39. A short man does not thank his stars until he sees a dwarf.
40. He who pursues the chicken has the fall while the chicken has the trot.
41. The head always gets cut off with the ear that fails to listen to instructions.
42. It is okay to fall down for laughter since it doesn’t intoxicate like alcohol.
43. The teeth should never bite the finger that feeds it.
44. The surest way a wife gets through to her husband’s heart is through his belly.
45. Death is never assigned to a deserted house.
46. You cannot stand at a spot to watch a masquerade dance.
47. It is better for the hen to find the dead fox because if the opposite is the case, the fox will be accused of wanting to devour it.
48. The local dog naturally follows the man who has eaten so much because if he
doesn’t vomit, at least, it must excrete.
doesn’t vomit, at least, it must excrete.
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