AFRICAN PROVERBS
A man, who chases two rats, kills no one.
A man whose house is on fire does not go chasing rats.
A river, which fills up in a man’s presence, cannot carry him away.
When brothers fight to the death, a stranger inherits their father’s property.
One does not test the depth of a river with both feet.
Anger and madness are brothers.
A child’s name pretends his future.
A timid man cannot inherit his father’s title.
Singing birds does not build nests.
A man, who throws stones in the marketplace, hit someone from his own house.
A man does not go to sleep with a burning lamp on his roof.
Twenty children cannot play together for twenty years.
A man, who has no remedy for stomach ache, should not eat cockroaches.
A wearing child that does not cry will die on its mother’s back.
A lie may travel for twenty years, but one day, truth will eventually catch up with it.
A sheep, which walks with dogs, will eat faeces; a dog, which walks with sheep, will eat yam peelings.
If vines unite; they will tie up an elephant.
That, which makes a farmer cry, is a source of amusement for the partridge.
The customs of one land are taboo in another.
A man, who wishes to grow tall, will have thin legs.
Short or bald, a man without debt is a man without shame; it is debt, which exposes a man to shame.
It is not only rain, which drives a man to seek shelter.
Once the mouth has eaten, the eyes grow dim
A man’s character is like smoke. It cannot be hidden.
A man who pursues an innocent chicken, always stumble.
A river, which forgets its source, runs dry.
The hand that gives is always on top.
The tree, which does not know how to dance, will be taught by the wind.
One does not count the fingers of a nine-fingered man in his presence.
A man should not sniff what he does not intend to eat.
When a mother and her child are burnt by fire, the mother brushes the flames from her body first.
Hearing and refusing to heed ruins a child. Seeing and refusing to speak ruins an old man.
A child may have as many clothes as an old man, but he can never have as many rags.
A fool, if not restrained, will throw stones at a leopard.
The fly which sticks close to the hunter will drink it’s fill of blood.