Inspiring African Sayings

African sayings are full of wit and wisdom. There is always an important message in every African saying. Here are a few African saying that will inspire you.

Why did you pass the plantain garden and enter into the bananas garden?

To go out often is your father and to sit in one place is your mother.

To be injured in the eye is to procure protection.

Who tells you too close is yours.

From 100 Chagga Sayings (Tanzania) compiled by Michael Mushi (May 2005).      

If you are not responsible of the work, anyway when you talk of it, it is like nothing; so if you leave, nobody will see your mistake.

You speech died like beer.

Children play with drums and spread in no time.

From 198 Proverbs of Kishubi Language North-West Tanzania along the borders of Tanzania-Rwanda by Nd. Joseph Nkumbulwa and Rev. Max Tertrais.

Great power is adequate for a hard task.
FIRE can soften iron. 

Proverbs of the Nkundo-Mongo Tribes in Belgian Congo (Zaire) Wilma S. Jaggard Hobgood Department of Africa, Division of Overseas Ministries Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Appearances are deceitful. 

Beyond your sphere your importance wanes. 

If heedless of warning it is you who will suffer, not I. 

Useless to warn one who has made up his mind (set his heart on a matter.) 

Labor has sure reward.

There is no hurry about the matter in hand.

As that which breaks the soil comes up, so that spoken comes to pass. 

 

Umbundu Proverbs (Angola) Collected and translated by W.H. Sanders
West Central Africa Mission 1914

Burning charcoal is turned into ashes.

The alarm from the other house does not prevent one from eating.

No one can perform a celebration by himself.

A debt between children born by the same mother is paid in a clever way.

From A Collection of 104 Kuria Proverbs Northwestern Tanzania near Lake Victoria and Southwestern Kenya in East Africa. Collected and explained by Emmanuel P. Chacha.   

The witch is going! The witch is going! but if you are not a witch you don't turn around to look.

It is not only one person who bathes in the witch's water.

If two proverbs are not similar, one is not used to explain the other.

 When the palm nuts ripen, you carry half and I carry half.

It is only one bad palm tree that spoils the whole lot of palm wine.

The strength of the palm tree is in its branches.

The army of the palm tree is its branches.

Even though the peel of the palm nut has no pulpy substance in it, it is stripped off all the same (and the oil is extracted).

The prickly branches of the palm tree do not show preference even to friends.

The grasshopper which is always near its mother eats the best food. 

Three Thousand Six Hundred Ghanaian Proverbs
(From the Asante and Fante Language)
J.G. Christaller

A stranger does not hold the head of a coffin.

It is because of shame that the harlot does not use the main street of a village.

The person who has gone into a patch of giant-grass does not complain of skin irritation.

A thief does not reap more than the farmer himself.

If a whiteman wants to give you a hat, look at the one he is wearing before you accept it.

The vulture cannot cure baldness, (because if it can it would have cured its own baldness.)

The chicken says, "Fear is life".

Even the longest life ends in a grave, it does not prolong its longevity beyond the grave.

Proverbs in the Ewe Language (West Africa)

Going to a forest, you don't know leads to getting/cutting a stick you don't know.

An ignorant barren animal/woman licks an axe.

What you do not know cannot kill you.

He who does not know a medicine he/she defecates on it.

He who hates growth kills a calf.

Runci (Burundi) Proverbs from The Endangered African Proverbs Collections
Compiled by Jean Dyandwi     

If brothers follow the honey bird, they will eat honey.

The lame leg will be used for limping.

Those who eat people, cry; those who eat a crocodile, laugh.

A man is lenient when he is judging his own children (in comparison with others). 

Proverbs in the Kaonde Language compiled by John C. Ganly, M.M.

Kindness with words is as readily available as goods in the market

Work very hard at what you do; dine as well as you can afterwards. 

It is foolhardy to climb two trees at once just because one has two feet.

To fight with everyone can result in shortage of pallbearers at your funeral.

Vast differences among people are in the realm of character, not anatomy. 

Selections from "Wit and Wisdom of Ethiopia" Compiled and Presented with Introduction, Annotations by Negussay Ayele.

Have a great day!