African Proverbs

                                         AFRICAN PROVERBS

Proverbs are nuggets brimming full with wisdom, they bridge the chasm between the known and the unknown. Handed down to us by our ancestors, these perfectly contrived words have for ages helped infuse in us wisdom and at the same time inspire in us awe at the keenness with which these ancient beings could derive lessons from nature, animals, mythical beings and other subjects imaginable.
Chinua Achebe once opined that proverbs are the "palm oil with which words are eaten". Proverbs even in our century have not failed to find relevance in our changing systems of values, relationships and dealings. Thus for your knowledge and refinement are 20 proverbs borne of the ancient wisdom of the African continent, after all an ancient Ashanti proverbs says "A wise man who knows Proverbs reconciles difficulties ".

A Man who is trampled to death by an elephant is a man who is blind and deaf.

The wrong-headed fool who refuses counsel will come to grief.

Many words do not fill a basket.

What an old man sees while seated a child cannot see even while standing on the summit of a mountain.

A farmer does not conclude his corn his ripe without first opening it for a close examination

When brothers fight to death, a stranger inherits their father's estate.

Until the lion gets his own historian, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

Since the hunter has learned to shoot without missing, the bird has learned to fly without perching.

When the moon is full, the stars shine more brightly.

Money is sharper than a sword.

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

When spider webs unite, they can tie a lion.

If you are too smart to pay the doctor, you had better be too smart to get Ill.

Cutting off the head is not the panacea for an headache.

Attitude is like a smoke, sooner or later it will be revealed.

A single bracelet does not jingle.

A wise person never tests the depth of a river with both feet.

A man who peers into the anus of the other leaves his own exposed.

When the cock is drunk he forgets about the hawk.

The friends of our friends are our friends.