20 African Proverbs With Powerful Life Lessons

A proverb is a simple and concrete saying, popularly known and repeated, that expresses a truth based on common sense or experience. They are often metaphorical. Many African proverbs are strongly tied to the earth and animals, conveying lessons of life and learning often through daily, seemingly menial, procedures.

We’ve selected 20 of our most powerful African proverbs that exist in this life with profound meaning. Check them out below…..

1. If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do no harm.

2. If you think you are too small to make a difference, spend a night with a mosquito.

3. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

4. A lie has many variations, the truth none.

5. No person is born great. Great people become great when others are sleeping.

6. The axe forgets, but the tree remembers.

7. He that beats the drum for the mad man to dance is no better than a mad man himself.

8. Don’t look where you fell, look were you slipped.

9. Where you will sit when you are old shows where you stood in your youth.

10. An intelligent enemy is better than a stupid friend.

11. However long the night, the dawn will always break.

12. Don’t set sail on someone else’s star.

13. If the rhythm of the drumbeats changes, the dance steps must adapt.

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

15. When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground with him.

16. Only a fool tests the depth of a river with both feet.

17. A man that pays respect to the great, paves his way for his own greatness.

18. It takes a whole village to raise a child.

19. Life is like a shadow and a midst; it passes quickly by and is no more.

20. A person is a person because of other person’s.