A man who lives on the bank of a river does not use spittle to wash his hands.

A person is a guest for one or two days, but becomes an intruder on the third.
A bag that says it will not take more, and a traditional doctor who says he would not
leave anything behind are both sure to suffer.
A bird can drink much but an elephant can drink more.
A bird does not change its feathers because the weather is bad.
A bird that flies from the ground onto an anthill does not know that it is still on the
ground.
A bottle of oil warmed over the fire has no means of producing oil by itself.
A bush fowls’ playground is never appreciably spacious.
A chief is a reward of God
A child does not die because the mother’s breasts are dry.
A child is what you put into him.
A child who fears beating, would never admit that he played with a missing knife.
A child who has no mother will not have scars to show on his back.
A child who is carried on the back will not know how far the journey is.
A child’s face is his mirror.
A clay pot of water is never hot-tempered.
A crowd is like a smoldering log which can spark into a flame at any time.
A diviner cannot accurately divine his own future.
A doctor who invoked a storm on his people cannot prevent his house from destruction.
A family name is not cooked and eaten, one’s life is the thing.
A farmer does not boast that he has had a good harvest until his stock of yams lasts till
the following harvest season.
A farmer does not conclude by the mere look of it that a corn is unripe; he tears it open
for examination.
A farmer who would not work inside the rain and would not work under the sun, would
have nothing to harvest at the end of the farming year.
A fight between grasshoppers is a joy to the crow.
A fowl does not forget where it lays it eggs.
A friendly person is never a good-for-nothing.
A glorious past is the work of a glorious man.
A goat owned by two people sleeps outside.
A good name is better than gold.
A herbalist that refuses to ask laymen what leaves he looks for in the bush, must have
difficulties getting what he wants.
A housewife who complains that there is not enough foodstuff in the market should
remember that if her husband adds to what is already available, there would be more for
everyone.
A hunter who has only one arrow does not shoot with careless aim.
A laughing jackal portends a witch in the rafters.
A leader in the community without a pot belly is a stingy man.
A lizard that fell from the top of a tree wastes its time looking back to where it fell from; if
there was anything good the lizard deserved, it could not have missed it while it was
there on top of the tree.
A lounging lizard catches no crickets.
A man can not sit down alone to plan for prosperity.
A man does not wander far from where his corn is roasting.
A man that begets a barren cannot have a grand child.
A man who eases himself in public, gives cause to others to despise him.
A man who has one finger pointing at another has three pointing towards himself.
A man who is advised and he takes it, is still a man who acts from his own free will.
A man who is trampled to death by an elephant is a man who is blind and deaf.
A man who lives alone is either always overworked, or always overfed.
A man who walks alone carries a load of palm-fronds.
A masquerade does not perform to an outside audience until he performs well at the
home base.
A masquerade is not a spirit only because of its mask.
A mother is gold, a father is a mirror.
A mouse that removes the palm-nut that turns out to be the bait of a trap, would already
have known that the palm-nut does not ripen on the ground.
A one-eyed person does not thank god until he meets a blind person at prayer.
A pad that breaks a pot of water does not remain on the head.
A performing masquerade who tries too hard to outclass his colleagues may expose his
anus.
A person always breaking off from work never finishes anything.
A person on whose head lice are being removed, must be grateful.
A person once bitten by a snake will be scared by an old rope.
A person who does not bathe, must know it of himself that he is dirty.
A person who has children does not die.
A person who picks something and decides to make it his own, ought to think how he
would feel if he was the person who lost the property he picked.
A piece of iron can only become what the blacksmith says it should become.
A pig that is used to wallowing in the mud looks for a clean person to rub against.
A pot that build attracts the cook.
A proverb is the horse of conversation: when the conversation lags, a proverb revives it.
A rat is not born a rabbit.
A shepherd does not strike his sheep
A single man can not build a house.
A single tree can not make a forest.
A smiling face dispels unhappiness.
A snake which escapes fills a basket.
A spacious ground is the right place to demonstrate one’s skill in wrestling.
A speedy wrestling and a bad fall go hand in hand.
A strong man is remembered on the day of the fight, and a gluttony on the day pounded
yam is surplus.
A thorn that pierces the toe should be burned by the light of a new moon lest the devil
possess the foot.
A tiger does not have to proclaim its tigri-tude.
A toad does not jump around in the daytime, unless something is after its life.
A traveler to distant places should make no enemies.
A tree does not move unless there is wind.
A tree is best measured when it’s down.
A tree is known by its fruit.
A wealthy man will always have followers.
A wise man who knows proverbs can reconcile difficulties.
A woman possessed by demons dreams of toads in red dancing shoes.
A woman who has not been twice married cannot know what a perfect marriage is.
A woman who is not successful in her own marriage has no advice to give to her
younger generations.
All is never said.
All lizards lie on their bellies, but nobody knows which of them suffers stomach ache.
Allah preserve us from “If only I’d known!”
Although the snake does not fly it has caught the bird whose home is in the sky.
An ant-hill that is destined to become a giant ant-hill will definitely become one, no
matter how many times it is destroyed by elephants.
An oil lamp feels proud to give light even though it wears itself away.
An old banana leaf was once young and green.
An old man is there to talk.
An old woman is not old in a song she dances well.
Antagonism is not good for fowls, and it is not good for goats; worse still, it is not good
for human beings.
Any wealth that takes only a market week to acquire is sure to contain in it things for
which the gods will surely come to make claims.
Anyone who urinates in a stream should be warned because any of his relatives may
drink from the water.
As long as you stay in a group, the lion will stay hungry.
Ashes fly back into the face of him who throws them.
At a time a cockerel matures, it begins to crow to tell the world the time of day.
Beauty is not sold and eaten.
Beetles that roll balls out of human feces demand to be hidden away from the rich man,
because there is nothing he wouldn’t buy.
Before firing, you must take aim.
Before one cooks, one must have the meat.
Before you ask a man for clothes, look at the clothes that he is wearing.
Being happy in one’s home is better than being a chief.
Being happy is better than being king.
Better a single decision maker than a thousand advisors.
Birth is the only remedy against death.
Black goats must be caught early, before it gets dark.
By being grateful, a man makes himself deserving of yet another kindness.
Charms do not perform miracles on the shelf; they perform for those who are brave.
Children of the same mother do not always agree.
Choose your fellow traveler before you start on your journey.
Choose your neighbors before you buy your house.
Courage is the father of success.
Criticism is easy but it does not create.
Dead though the oil-palm may be, the maggot in it lives on.
Does a man not know when he has pepper in his eyes? If we forget yesterday, how
shall we remember tomorrow.
Don’t ask me where I am going but where I have come from.
Don’t look for speed in a cheap horse; be content if it neighs.
Earth is the queen of beds.
Even an old woman may run when a goat carries her snuff-box.
Even as the archer loves the arrow that flies, so too he loves the bow that remains
constant in his hands.
Even in Mecca people make money.
Even when fire has done its very worst, one still has to resort to it.
Every kind of love is love, but self-love is supreme among them.
Every river knows where its water would not be soaked up into the earth, and that is
where it flows past.
Everybody joins to blame or condemn a child who overthrows the pot of soup.
Evil knows where evil sleeps.
Familiarity breeds contempt; distance breeds respect.
Fine words do not produce food.
Fire has no brother.
Fishing without a net is just bathing.
Flog my erring child comes from the lips, “don’t hurt him/her” comes from the bottom of
the heart.
Fowls will not spare a cockroach that falls in their mist.
From the well of envy, only a fool drinks the water.
Give me a push from my back does not mean give me a hunchback.
God keeps away flies from the tailless cow.
Grass does not grow on the nose of a thief.
Greatness and beauty do not belong to the gods alone.
Guilt is like the footprint of a hippopotamus.
He who boasts much can do little.
He who digs a pit for others must invariably fall into it.
He who dines with the dogs will eat feces.
He who does not look ahead always remains behind.
He who does not lose his way by night will not lose his way by day.
He who does not mend his clothes will soon have none.
He who has people is richer than he who has money.
He who is afraid of doing too much always does too little.
He who is called a man must behave like a man.
He who is courteous is not a fool.
He who is sick will not refuse medicine.
He who lives in the attic knows where the roof leaks.
He who marries a beauty marries trouble.
He who pursues an innocent chicken always stumbles.
He who runs from the white ant may stumble upon the stinging ant.
He who waits for a chance may wait for a long time.
He who wishes to barter, does not like his belongings.
He whose throat is longer than his arm must pray constantly for gods’ protection.
Hold a true friend with both your hands.
Hold on to a true friend with both hands.
Horns do not grow before the head.
How can man be remembered when the giant trees in the forest are soon forgotten.
However far the stream flows, it never forgets its source.
However hard a thing is thrown into the air, it always falls to the ground.
However long the moon disappears, someday it must shine again.
However much the world degenerates, man shall never find worms in salt.
However poor the elephant, it will be worth more than ten frogs.
Hurrying and worrying are not the same as strength.
Hyenas are caught with stinking bait.
If a blind man says, “Let’s throw stones,” be assured that he has stepped on one.
If a child is not well-behaved, she is not sent by the mother to go alone to the market to
buy things for her.
If a child shoots an arrow that reaches the top of a tall palm tree, then it must be that an
elderly person carved the arrow for him.
If a drum is not made, it is the fault of the master; but if the drum is made and is not
beaten, then that is the fault of the boys.
If a greedy eater is near a patient, such a patient can never survive.
If a man is not clean and smooth, there is nothing he can really do about pride.
If a man wants to grow a long tooth, he should have the lip to cover it
If a monkey is amongst dogs, why won’t it start barking?.
If a person who curses another is not better than the person he curses, a request is
never made of him to rescind the curse.
If a soup is sweet, it is money that cooks it.
If a toad jumps around in the daytime, it is either chasing something or something is
chasing it.
If all seeds that fall were to grow, then no one could follow the path under the trees.
If crocodiles eat their own eggs, what would they do to the flesh of a frog?
If death be terrible, the fault is not in death, but thee.
If gold rusts, what will iron do?
If hunger forces a farmer in a particular year to eat both his yam tubers and the seed-
yams, the succeeding years would still be worse because he would have no yams to eat
and none to plant.
If men were now to turn their hostility towards the cat, it would not be long before the
domestic cat becomes a wild animal.
If neither animal nor vegetable you be, then mineral you are. If one finger brought oil it
soiled others.
If one finger brought oil it soiled others.
If one goes to a land where they cut off ears, he should cut off his own and contribute
them.
If one imitates the upright, one becomes upright; if one imitates the crooked, one
becomes crooked.
If one were to remove every smoking wood from a fire and condemn it as bad, one
would be killing the fire itself.
If one would not eat pounded yam for its own sake, one can still eat it for the sake of the
soup that goes with it.
If the bull would throw you, lie down.
If the load is too heavy for someone to carry, one would be better off to give the load to
the ground to carry.
If the owner of a calabash calls it a worthless calabash, others will join him to use it to
pack rubbish.
If the owner of two adjacent farms cannot be friends, then they must wait till their next
reincarnation to be able to make friends.
If the stomachache were in the foot, one would go lame.
If the sun claims that it has power over the moon, let it shine in the night
If there is character, ugliness becomes beauty; if there is none, beauty becomes
ugliness.
If you can’t dance well, you’d better not get up.
If you don’t wish to have rags for clothes, don’t play with a dog.
If you fail to take away a strong man’s sword when he is on the ground, will you do it
when he gets up?
If you find “Miss This Year” beautiful, then you’ll find “Miss Next Year” even more so.
If you have one finger pointing at somebody, you have three pointing towards yourself.
If you have run out of gunpowder, use your gun as a club.
If you neglect the pot, it boils over and extinguishes the fire.
If you put a razor in your mouth, you will spit blood.
If you rise too early, the dew will wet you.
If you think you have someone eating out of your hands, it is a good idea to count your
fingers.
If you wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. If you don’t wait for tomorrow, tomorrow
comes.
If you want to give a sick man medicine, let him first be really ill — so that he can see
how well the medicine works.
If you watch your pot, your food will not burn.
If your parents take care of you up to the time you cut your teeth, you take care of them
when they lose theirs.
In the moment of crisis, the wise build bridges and foolish build dams.
It is a lazy man who says “it is only because I have no time that my farm is overgrown
with weeds”.
It is a pot of water that is already half full that the world would like to help in filling to the
brim.
It is an irresponsible adult that creates enmity because of a disagreement that arises
between two children.
It is an unthinking man who achieves prosperity, and then finds with time, that his body
can no longer pass through the door.
It is by the strength of their number that the ants in the field are able to carry their prey
to the nest.
It is for saying that he has no time that the monkey’s body became over-grown with long
hairs.
It is from a small seed that the giant Iroko tree has its beginning.
It is he who has no place to call at that moves fast through life.
It is little by little that a bird builds its nest.
It is more fun doing evil than putting it right.
It is not enough to run, one must arrive and know when one has arrived.
It is not only the fox, even the snail arrives at its destination.
It is not only the hare, the tortoise arrives also at the destination.
It is one person in a street that kills a dog and the street is named a street of dog killers.
It is one word of advice that one needs to give to a wise man, and that word keeps
multiplying in his mind.
It is only the toad that gets up from its knees and falls back again on its knees.
It is only the tortoise that moves and carries its shell about, which it calls its house.
It is the boast of every juju priest that unless he dies, no thief can ever come to steal his
juju away.
It is the brutally outspoken man that earns enmity.
It is the fear of offense that makes men swallow poison.
It is the fear of what tomorrow may bring that makes the tortoise to carry his house
along with him wherever he goes.
It is the first step that is difficult.
It is the fortunate person that the physician undertakes to help.
It is the fortunate person that the physician undertakes to help.
It is the habit that a child forms at home, that follows them to their marriage.
It is the same moon that wanes today that will be the full moon tomorrow.
It is the self-love of the king parrot that made him become a talkative.
It is the toothless animal that arrives first at the base of the fruit tree, to eat his fill before
others arrive.
It is the woman whose child has been eaten by a witch who best knows the evils of
witchcraft.
It is the work of one’s hands that decides what one eats for dinner – for some it is
pounded yam, for others it is pounded plantain or nothing.
It is usual of a person found guilty in a trial to boast that he would press his case further.
It is what the eyes of one man sees that is described as a boa constrictor.
It is when there is a stampede, that a person with big buttocks knows that he carries a
load.
It is wisdom to prevent someone from whom one cannot accept repayment to have
access to one’s valuable possessions.
It takes all sorts to make a world.
Jealousy is as ash.
Languages differ but coughs are the same.
Lending is the firstborn of poverty.
Leopards lurk in dark corners.
Let’s fight, let’s fight, no one knows whom fighting would favor.
Little by little the bird builds its nest.
Look for a black goat while it is still daytime.
Love is better than a whip.
Man is like pepper — you only know him when you’ve ground him.
Marriage is like a groundnut, you have to crack it to see what is inside.
Meat does not eat meat.
Midday sun is the remedy for a cold.
Money does not announce how it is earned but whereas properly earned money
appreciates, improperly earned money depreciates.
Money has the capability of making people laugh; but when they laugh, the foolish ones
sometimes forget to close their mouths.
Money kills more than do weapons.
More than one mother can make tasty soup.
Mother’s soup is always the best in the world.
Mud houses don’t burn.
No frog is tied by a rope to a pond.
No matter how dark it is, the hand always knows the way to the mouth.
No one feels the pains that arise from unintended injury.
No sane person sharpens his machete to cut a banana tree.
Not to know is bad, not to wish to know is worse.
Not to know the good we have Till time has stolen the cherished gift away, Is cause of
half the misery that we feel, And makes the world the wilderness it is.
Not to oversee workmen, is to leave your purse open.
Now the marriage begins, says the woman who has been beaten with thorns.
Old age does not come in just one day.
Once a cock begins to crow, it never again becomes dumb.
One can only try to get what one can from the head of an elephant, no one ever carries
it home.
One cannot go back to the farmer from whom one borrowed seed-yams to plant to say
that the beetles have eaten up the seed-yams.
One cry of “Thief!” and the whole marketplace is on the lookout.
One does not become a master diviner in a day. A forest is not made in a season. The
swoop of an eagle has seen many seasons and floods…
One finger cannot remove lice from the head.
One goat cannot carry another goat’s tail.
One must have to wait till the evening of one’s life time to know what gratitude to pay to
one’s guardian spirit.
One must row in whichever boat one finds one’s self.
One pebble doesn’t make a floor.
Only a mother would carry the child that bites.
Other people’s wisdom prevents the king from being called a fool
Our elders quote the cock as saying that “it would not be good if one becomes the only
person in the world, and that is why they crow every morning to show their number”.
Our elders say that at sunset, it is one’s cloth that one goes to remove from the village
square.
Our examples are like seeds on a windy day, they spread far and wide.
Overabundance is not far from want.
Patient people are patient to gain longevity.
People in trouble remember Allah.
Preparing cocoyams for planting does not mean that they are already planted.
Profit is profit even in Mecca.
Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.
Rain does not make friends with anybody — it falls on any person it meets outside.
Rat no dey born rabbit.
Rather than tell a lie to help a friend, it is better to assist him in paying the fine for his
offense.
Seeing is better than hearing.
Sinews and big muscles do not make a farmer.
Sleep and indolence are not cousins of a good harvest.
Some birds avoid the water, ducks look for it.
Some birds avoid the water, ducks seek it.
Someone else’s legs are no good to you when you’re traveling.
Sometimes the rain might force a man more than once to seek shelter under the same
tree.
Stupidity is the lover of ignorance.
Success is 10% ability, and 90% sweat.
Talks that are considered to be important must be made to drag on for so long as to
make even the deaf begin to hear it.
That which brings misfortune is not big.
The advice of a woman ends with “Oh, if I had only known!”
The alcohol that is insufficient for a whole town ought not to intoxicate one man.
The bird flies high, but always returns to earth.
The bird that remembers its flockmates, never missed the way.
The blind say that eyes have no sense of smell.
The body of joy is not so big.
The bottom of wealth is sometimes a dirty thing to behold.
The Child of an elephant will not be a dwarf.
The child that will not allow his parents to sleep through the night must be prepared to
stay awake himself.
The cricket is never blinded by the sand of its burrowing.
The crocodile does not die under the water so that we can call the monkey to celebrate
its funeral.
The crocodile drinks from the same river as the centipede.
The day you are leaving is not the time to start your preparations.
The death that will kill a man begins as an appetite.
The disobedient fowl obeys in a pot of soup.
The drum sounds when the hawk appears wit ha rabbit.
The dying man is not saved by medicine.
The earth moves at different speeds depending on who you are.
The elders of a community are the voice of God.
The elephant and the tiger do not go hunting on the same pasture.
The elephant’s tracks cover the camel’s tracks.
The eye of a crow boiled at the new moon brings good luck for the New Year.
The family is like the forest. If you are outside, it is dense; if you are inside, you see that
each tree has its own position.
The fire that burns a royal palace only enhances its splendor.
The fish that can see that its water is getting shallower, cannot be stranded.
The fly that has no one to advise it follows the corpse into the grave.
The fowl perspires, but the feathers do not allow us to see the perspiration.
The frog does not jump in the daytime without reason.
The glow-works light the nights, but more so the night that their mother prepares
porridge.
The gods may still send a gentle breeze when they want to bless us.
The gods only hear one wish at a time, and nothing more.
The habit of thinking is the habit of gaining strength.
The head could not have got to where it is now if it did not give.
The head of your neighbor is a kingdom and his heart a wood.
The heap of yams you will reap depends upon the number of mounds you have plowed.
The house roof fights the rain, but he who is sheltered ignores it.
The house sweeper’s buttock is never at one direction.
The hunter does not rub himself in oil and lie by the fire to sleep.
The king who shuts his eyes during famine in the land will soon see ancestors
The king’s ambassador is without sin.
The leech that does not let go even when it is filled, dies on the dry land.
The lion basks in the rays of the giraffes sun.
The lion’s power lies in our fear of him.
The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree said he would praise himself if no one
else did.
The man being carried does not realize how far away the town really is.
The man that won’t marry a woman with other admirers won’t marry a woman at all.
The man who is honored, has first honored himself.
The man who remembers others, remembers also his creator.
The mouth that eats pepper is the one that the pepper influences.
The one being carried does not realize how far away the town is.
The one-eyed man thanks God only when he sees a man blind in both eyes.
The only insurance against fire is to have two houses.
The owl is the wisest of all birds because the more it sees, the less it talks.
The ox will die but its harness remains.
The pillar of the world is hope.
The quarrel that doesn’t concern you is pleasant to hear about.
The rat cannot call the cat to account.
The Rhinoceros never dances with the monkey.
The river may dry up but she keeps her name.
The roaring lion kills no prey
The shepherd of a herd of toads must be very patient with his rod
The spider that knows what it will gain sits waiting patiently in its web. The praying
mantis is never tired waiting all day.
The spirit that keeps one going when one has no choice of what else to do must not be
mistaken for valor.
The stars shine brightest when the moon is gone.
The stone in the water does not know how hot the hill is, parched by the sun.
The thirsty fig sits waiting patiently, waiting for the arrival of the rains.
The tree that cannot shed its old leaves in the dry season, cannot survive the period of
drought.
The truth passes through fire and does not burn.
The weak warrior wearing sandals overcomes the brave with a thorn in his foot.
The well gives, but the bucket refuses.
The whip hits at the legs, not the guilt.
The woman is cold water that kills you; deep water that you drown in.
There is no elephant that complains about the weight of its trunk. No elephant is
burdened by the weight of its tusks.
There is no god like the throat: it takes sacrifices daily.
They are the gods themselves that white-wash the fruits of the pumpkins.
Those who are carrying elephants home on their heads, need not use their toes to dig
up crickets on the way.
Those who derive fun watching lunatics, ought to have one as a child or relation to know
the pains of it.
Thoughts and dreams are the foundation of our being.
Time destroys all things.
To do one’s duty is to eat the prized fruit of honor.
To eat from the same pot with another man, is to take an oath of perpetual friendship
with him.
To have no enemies is equivalent to wealth.
Two footsteps do not make a path.
Two men quarreling do not share the same seat on a canoe.
Two raindrops do not make a pool.
Ugliness with a good character is better than beauty.
Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.
Until lions have their own historians, accounts of the hunt will always celebrate the
hunter.
Voluntary work is better than slavery.
Warm water never forgets that it was once cold.
We are what our thinking makes us.
We can not choose who our relatives should be, even though we may come to like
some better than others.
We do not use our bare feet to search for hidden thorns which we have seen in day
time.
We live by hope, but a reed never becomes an Iroko tree by dreaming.
What a prostitute earns she calls presents from her husband’s friends.
What affects the nose must also affect the eyes that must weep for it.
What is Past is Prologue.
What is sensible today may be derangement at another time.
What the child says, he has heard at home.
What you do in black hair you will eat in white hair.
When a dying man cries, it is not because of where he is going which he knows nothing
about, but because of what he wishes he would have done in the world he is leaving
behind.
When a face is sullen it remains there to be seen on its owner.
When a fire starts from the shrine, no precaution can be possible.
When a fowl gets to a new town, it stands on one leg until it knows that it is a town
where people stand on their two legs.
When a man finds that he was wrong to have refused to eat, he should leave his anger
and play a harp to call for harmony.
When a man loses his prestige, he does not regain it by going to where he is not known.
When a palm-branch reaches its height, it gives way for a fresh one to grow.
When a person regrets endlessly, he gets to pay more for what he regrets.
When a ripe fruit sees an honest man, it drops.
When a sickle is drawn, it in turn draws the tree to which it is hooked.
When a soup is unpalatable, and the paste of the pounded yam that goes with it is not
smooth, that is the time to know a man who loves to eat pounded yam.
When a woman cannot have good palm-nuts to give her rich oil, she still has to maintain
decency in order to remain one of those that sell good quality oil.
When a woman has ten children, there is nothing that happens in the night that she
does not know about.
When a woman prepares a dish which others find unpalatable, she says that she
prepared it to suit her own taste.
When an elephant falls, meat is sure to be surplus for those who follow the hunter.
When an only kolanut is presented with love, it carries with it more value than might
otherwise be associated with a whole pod of several kolanuts.
When it is the turn of a man to become the head of a village, he does not need to
diviner to tell him that he is destined to rule.
When mother cow is cropping grass, her young one watches her mouth.
When one is in trouble, one remembers God.
When one is taking a chicken from its roost, the hen is bound to attack with at least its
claws.
When the elderly ones in a house travel, the younger ones quickly grow in experience.
When the elephants fight it is the grass that suffers.
When the laborer is praised, his cutlass begins to cut more keenly.
When the mice laugh at the cat, there is a hole nearby.
When the mouse laughs at the cat, there is a hole nearby.
When the music changes, so does the dance.
When the next house is on fire, ’tis high time to look to your own.
When the right hand washes the left hand and the left hand washes the right hand, both
hands become clean.
When the roots of a tree begin to decay, it spreads death to the branches.
When the teeth fall off, the nose is sure to collapse.
When will the goat be strong enough to kill a leopard.
When you are eating with the devil, you must use a long spoon.
When you are sick you promise a goat, but when you are well again make do with a
chicken.
When you cook a guinea fowl, the partridge gets a headache.
Who says the oasis in the desert is happy because of its hidden spring of water?
Whoever says “let’s fight” does not know who will be victorious.
With a little seed of imagination you can grow a field full of hope
Without history, no life.
Without knowing a person we must not hate him.
Without knowing a way thoroughly at day time, never attempt to pass it at night.
Without retaliation, evils would one day become extinct from the world.
You cannot compare the living with the dead.
You cannot roast corn with two eyes.
You cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
You can’t jump from one tree to another but you can from one man to another.
You can’t use your hand to force the sun to set.
You do not look for a black sheep at night.
You do not need a big stick to break a cock’s head.
You know who you love, but you can’t know who loves you.
Your own rags are better than another’s gown.

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 drum for the mad man to dance is no better than the mad manhimself.
— African proverb

3. Where water is the boss there the land must obey. — African proverb

4. No matter how beautiful and well crafted a coffin might look, it will not make anyone
wish for death. — African proverb

5. When the shepherd comes home in peace, the milk is sweet. — Ethiopian proverb

6. A spider’s cobweb isn’t only its sleeping spring but also its food trap. — African
proverb

7. If you do not have patience you cannot make beer. — Ovambo proverb

8. He who runs after good fortune runs away from peace. — African proverb

9. Teeth do not see poverty. — Masai proverb

10. You have little power over what’s not yours. — Zimbabwean proverb
11. If you pick up one end of the stick you also pick up the other. — Ethiopian proverb

12. Better little than too little. — Cameroonian proverb

13. You must attend to your business with the vendor in the market, and not to the noise
of the market. — Beninese proverb

14. When you befriend a chief remember that he sits on a rope. — Ugandan proverb

15. The night has ears. — Masai proverb

16. The child you sired hasn’t sired you. — Somali proverb

17. A doctor who invoked a storm on his people cannot prevent his house from
destruction. — Nigerian proverb

18. An intelligent enemy is better than a stupid friend. — Senegalese proverb

19. The young bird does not crow until it hears the old ones. — Tswana proverb

20. If you carry the egg basket do not dance. — Ambede proverb

21. The food which is prepared has no master. — Malagasy proverb

22. The worlds of the elders do not lock all the doors; they leave the right door open. —
Zambian proverb

23. Even the best cooking pot will not produce food. — African proverb

24. The child of a rat is a rat. — Malagasy proverb

25. Where you will sit when you are old shows where you stood in youth. — Yoruba
proverb

26. He who is unable to dance says that the yard is stony. — Masai proverb

27. You cannot name a child that is not born. — African proverb

28. Do a good deed and throw it into the sea. — Egyptian proverb

29. When the roots of a tree begin to decay, it spreads death to the branches. — Nigerian
proverb

30. 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 against flies. — Ghanaian
proverb

33. Birds sing not because they have answers but because they have songs. — African
proverb

34. If your only tool is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail. — Gambian
proverb

35. When you show the moon to a child, it sees only your finger. — Zambian proverb

36. It is crooked wood that shows the best sculptor. — African proverb

37. One who bathes willingly with cold water doesn’t feel the cold. — Fipa proverb

38. Earth is the queen of beds. — Namibian proverb

39. Be a mountain or lean on one. — Somali proverb

40. A flea can trouble a lion more than a lion can trouble a flea. — Kenyan proverb

41. Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it. — Ewe proverb

42. The death of an elderly man is like a burning library. — Ivorian proverb

43. Anger and madness are brothers. — African proverb

44. Do not follow a person who is running away. — Kenyan proverb

45. An orphaned calf licks its own back. — Kenyan proverb

46. Even as the archer loves the arrow 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 building a house and a nail breaks, do you stop building or do you change
the nail? — Rwandan proverb

49. You cannot build a house for last year’s summer. — Ethiopian proverb

50. We desire to bequeath two things to our children; the first one is roots, the other one
is wings. — Sudanese proverb