As half-dozen-year-olds in Republic of zimbabwe, we were taught African proverbs before we were taught how to navigate the nuts and bolts of Shona (the most mutual language in the country). This approach left some students capable of dropping rich wisdom freely but not being able to inquire you how your day was.

Many African proverbs are strongly tied to the globe and animals, conveying lessons of life often through daily, seemingly menial, procedures. An example of a Zimbabwean proverb is "there is love but no bees" — describing a situation when yous find something gratis for the taking and without consequence.

Hither's a list of African proverbs from around the continent. Some are known to come from specific ethnic groups, or countries while others have an unknown source and are listed simply as "African proverbs." Take a read and pluck out some ancestral insight from the motherland to acquit with you today (and remember if yous ever visit Africa).

1. A bird that flies off the earth and lands on an anthill is still on the ground. — Igbo proverb
2. He that beats the pulsate for the mad man to dance is no meliorate than the mad man himself. — African maxim
3. Where water is the boss, there the land must obey. — African proverb
4. No affair how cute and well-crafted a bury might look, it will non brand anyone wish for decease. — African maxim
5. When the shepherd comes home in peace, the milk is sweet. — Ethiopian maxim
6. A spider'due south fiber isn't only its sleeping spring but likewise its nutrient trap. — African proverb
7. If you do not accept patience you cannot make beer. — Ovambo proverb
viii. He who runs after practiced fortune runs away from peace. — African proverb
ix. Teeth do non see poverty. — Masai proverb
10. You accept lilliputian power over what'southward not yours. — Zimbabwean proverb
11. If yous pick upwardly one stop of the stick you also choice up the other. — Ethiopian proverb
12. Better trivial than too footling. — Cameroonian saying
13. Y'all must attend to your business with the vendor in the market, and non to the noise of the market. — Beninese proverb
14. When y'all befriend a main, remember that he sits on a rope. — Ugandan proverb
15. The nighttime has ears. — Masai proverb
16. The kid you lot sired hasn't sired you. — Somali proverb
17. A doc who invoked a storm on his people cannot prevent his house from devastation. — Nigerian proverb
xviii. An intelligent enemy is better than a stupid friend. — Senegalese proverb
xix. The young bird does non crow until it hears the old ones. — Tswana proverb
20. If yous carry the egg handbasket do not dance. — Ambede maxim
21. The nutrient which is prepared has no chief. — Malagasy proverb
22. The worlds of the elders exercise not lock all the doors; they exit the right door open. — Zambian proverb
23. Fifty-fifty the best cooking pot will not produce nutrient. — African proverb
24. The child of a rat is a rat. — Malagasy proverb, similar to the Japanese idiom, "The kid of a frog is a frog."
25. Where you will sit when you are old shows where y'all stood in youth. — Yoruba proverb
26. He who is unable to dance says that the g is stony. — Masai proverb
27. Y'all cannot name a child that is not born. — African proverb
28. Exercise a practiced human activity and throw it into the bounding main. — Egyptian saying
29. When the roots of a tree brainstorm to disuse, it spreads death to the branches. — Nigerian proverb
thirty. Slander by the stream will be heard by the frogs. — Mozambican proverb
31. A child is a child of everyone. — Sudanese proverb
32. Even the lion, the king of the forest, protects himself confronting flies. — Ghanaian proverb
33. Birds sing non because they take answers merely considering they have songs. — African proverb
34. If your only tool is a hammer, y'all volition run into every problem as a blast. — Gambian maxim
35. When you show the moon to a child, it sees simply your finger. — Zambian proverb
36. It is crooked wood that shows the best sculptor. — African saying
37. 1 who bathes willingly with common cold water doesn't feel the cold. — Fipa proverb
38. Globe is the queen of beds. — Namibian proverb
39. Be a mount or lean on one. — Somali proverb
40. A flea can trouble a panthera leo more than a lion can trouble a flea. — Kenyan saying
41. Wisdom is similar a baobab tree; no one private can cover it. — Ewe proverb
42. The death of an elderly man is like a burning library. — Ivorian proverb
43. Acrimony and madness are brothers. — African proverb
44. Practise not follow a person who is running abroad. — Kenyan maxim
45. An orphaned calf licks its own back. — Kenyan proverb
46. Even as the archer loves the pointer that flies, so too he loves the bow that remains constant in his hands. — Nigerian proverb
47. He who burns down his house knows why ashes cost a fortune. — African proverb
48. If you are edifice a firm and a nail breaks, practise you stop building or practise you change the boom? — Rwandan proverb
49. You cannot build a house for last yr'southward summer. — Ethiopian maxim
50. Nosotros desire to bequeath two things to our children. The first one is roots; the other one is wings. — Sudanese saying

A version of this commodity was previously published on February ii, 2017, and was updated on February 26, 2021, with more information.

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