35+ African Proverbs and Wise Sayings

"An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb". Here are some stimulating proverbs from all over Africa.

By Wall Art Prints

1. Never marry a woman who has bigger feet than you.
~ Mozambique proverb


2. If you are ugly you must either learn to dance or make love.

~ Zimbabwean Proverb

3. Dogs do not actually prefer bones to meat; it is just that no one ever gives them meat.

~ Akan Proverb

4. Where a woman rules, streams run uphill.

~ Ethiopian proverb

5. Every woman is beautiful until she speaks.

~ Zimbabwean Proverb

6. Between true friends, even water drunk together is sweet enough.

~ African proverb

7. A happy man marries the girl he loves, but a happier man loves the girl he marries.

~ African proverb

8. Ears that do not listen to advice, accompany the head when it is chopped off.

~African Proverb

9. A bad cook also has his/her share of the bad food.

~African Proverb

10. Water is colourless and tasteless but you can live on it longer than eating food.
~ African Proverb

11. If the cockroach wants to rule over the chicken, then it must hire the fox as a body-guard.

~ Sierra Leone proverb

12. He who thinks he is leading and has no one following him is only taking a walk.

~ Malawian proverb

13. Coffee and love taste best when hot.

~ Ethiopian proverb

14. By the time the fool has learned the game, the players have dispersed.

~Ashanti proverb

15. If there is character, ugliness becomes beauty; if there is none, beauty becomes ugliness.

~ Nigerian Proverb

16. If you are looking for a fly in your food it means that you are full.

~ South African Proverb

17. Pretend you are dead and you will see who really loves you.

~ African proverb

18. You become wise when you begin to run out of money.

~ Ghanaian Proverb

19. The surface of the water is beautiful, but it is no good to sleep on.

~ Ghanaian Proverb

20. One who eats alone cannot discuss the taste of the food with others.

~ African Proverb

21. Nature gave us two cheeks instead of one to make it easier to eat hot food.

~ Ghanaian Proverb

22. The rich are always complaining.

~ Zulu

23. If you give bad food to your stomach, it drums for you to dance.

~ African Proverb

24. The beauty of a woman becomes useless if there is no one to admire it.

~ African Proverb

25. If you can’t resolve your problems in peace, you can’t solve war.

~ Somalian proverb

26. The most beautiful fig may contain a worm.

~ Zulu Proverb

27. She is like a road – pretty, but crooked.

~ Cameroonian Proverb

28. The wealth which enslaves the owner isn’t wealth.

~ Yoruba

29. The fool speaks, the wise man listens.

~ Ethiopian proverb

30. When brothers fight to the death, a stranger inherits their father’s estate.

~ Ibo proverb

31. Beautiful from behind, ugly in front.

~ Uganda Proverb

32. Man is like a pepper, till you have chewed it you do not know how hot it is.

~ Haussa Proverb

33. One who plants grapes by the roadside, and one who marries a pretty woman, share the same problem.

~ Ethiopian Proverb

34. What you help a child to love can be more important than what you help him to learn.

~African proverb

35. The cook does not have to be a beautiful woman.

~ Shona Proverb

36. There is always a winner even in a monkey’s beauty contest.

~ African Proverb