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African Quotes: 108 popular African sayings that will make you think
Africa has a very rich culture and part of that is easy to see in African quotes. Some of the African quotes that are usually considered the sayings of the wise have been around for more than 500 years when they were first coined by the wise and the heroes among our fathers. Some of our influential figures today, including Nelson Mandela, say much more.
African quotes have so many uses in African culture and beyond. From admonition to displaying excellent communication skills , African Sayings of the Wise are worth having a fewThe sword serves as a double edged sword whose purpose is to drive your thoughts and words through the minds of the least understanding souls. Answers Africa brings you some of the famous African sayings that will inspire you.
1. “I am African not because I was born in Africa, but because Africa was born in me” – Kwame Nkrumah
2. Always being in a hurry does not prevent death or slow life.
3. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
4. “I am a Negro: Black as the night is black, black as the depths of my Africa.” – Langston Hughes, Negro
5. “A man who makes trouble for others makes trouble for himself.” – Chinua Achebe.
6. When the elders travel in a house, the experience of the younger ones grows rapidly.
7. Patience can boil a stone.
8. “You’re either alive and proud or you’re dead, and if you’re dead you don’t care anyway.” – Steven Biko
9. “Half an education is more dangerous than no education” – Chris Ukaobasi
10. If you love the vase, you also love what’s inside.
11. Those who cause misfortune to others also teach them wisdom.
12. If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you haven’t spent a night with a mosquito.
13. “Travel – it leaves you speechless and then makes you a storyteller” – Ibn Battuta.
14. When the rooster crows, it signals a new day… Good morning.
15. Cross the river in a crowd and the crocodile won’t eat you. ~ African Quote
16. “Education is the most powerful weapon you can wield to change the world.” -Nelson Mandela
17. Knowledge without wisdom is like water in sand.
18. “For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” – African quote
19. When brothers quarrel to death, a stranger inherits his father’s estate.
20. “After climbing one great hill, one has only to climb many more hills.” – Nelson Mandela
21. Marriage is like a peanut; You have to crack it to see what’s inside.
22. “Black skin is not a mark of shame, but a glorious symbol of national greatness” – Marcus Garvey.
23. Only the tortoise knows what is hidden in its shell
24. “While revolutionaries can be murdered as individuals, ideas cannot be killed.” – Thomas Sankara
25. You learn how to cut down trees by cutting them down.
26. Overfilling means breaking.
27. The sheep with a strong master sleeps with his tail in front of the house.
28. The falling of dry leaves on a tree is a warning to other leaves on the tree. So be careful and never celebrate other people’s downfall.
29. Nobody is born wise. ~ African quote
30. “If wealth were the inevitable result of hard work, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire.” – George Monbiot
31. “When the heart overflows, it comes out through the mouth.” ~ Ethiopian quote
32. Running does not necessarily mean arriving.
33. “Power concedes nothing without having a claim. She never did and never will.” —Frederick Douglass
34. “Hold a true friend with both hands.” – Nigerian quote
35. “For me, Africa is more than a glamorous fact. It’s a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and how he got to his present place. – Maya Angelou
36. “My humanity is bound in yours, for we can only be human together.” – Desmond Tutu
37. A goat will never be found innocent if the judge is a leopard.
38. A man wanders not far from the place where his corn roasts.
39. “Imagine you are dead and you will see who really loves you”. – African quote
40. Internal affairs are not discussed in the public square.
41. “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth”. – Muhammad Ali
42. There is no better mirror than an old friend.
43. When you are filled with pride, then you have no room for wisdom.
44. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
45. “It’s a lot easier to show compassion to animals. They’re never evil.” – Haile Selassie.
46. A fool and water will go the way where they are distracted.
47. Two ants do not fail to draw a grasshopper.
48. The cure for bad times is to be patient with them.
49. Don’t tell the man carrying you that he stinks.
50. Ash flies back into the face of whoever throws it.
51. Don’t try to fight a lion if you aren’t one yourself.
52. A family is like a forest, when you are outside it is dense, when you are inside you see that every tree has its place.
53. A good thing sells itself, a bad thing advertises itself.
54. Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
55. To have a good enemy, choose a friend: he knows where to strike.
56. Everyone used to be young, but not everyone used to be old.
57. Loving the king is not bad, but a king who loves you is better.
58. The lion does not turn around when a small dog barks.
59. It is better to be loved than feared.
60. He who is carried on another’s back does not know how far away the city is.
61. Patience puts a crown on the head.
62. Whether the knife falls on the melon or the melon on the knife, the melon suffers.
63. Wisdom does not come overnight.
64. If you refuse to be straightened when you’re green, you won’t be straightened when you’re dry.
65. The fool speaks, the wise listens.
66. The quarrels end, but the words once spoken never die.
67. He who deserves misfortune eats it with his family.
68. It is the calm and still water that drowns a man.
69. Not knowing is bad. Not wanting to know is worse.
70. To get lost is to learn the way.
71. “Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.” – Wole Soyinka
72. “After climbing one great hill, one has only to climb many more hills” – Nelson Mandela
73. When a needle falls into a deep well, many people will look into the well, but few will be willing to go down after it.
74. Ears that do not listen to advice accompany the head when it is cut off.
75. When a bird goes and comes, it spins its nest.
76. “If we knew the meaning of everything that happened to us, then there would be no meaning.” – Idi Amin
77. Wisdom is like a baobab tree; Nobody can accept it.
78. One of the truest tests of integrity is the blunt refusal to compromise. – Chinua Achebe
79. They do not cut down the green trees when the dried ones stand upright.
80. What the family talks about in the evening, the child talks about in the morning.
81. Love is never lost, it is only kept
82. If you marry a monkey for his wealth, the money goes and the monkey stays the way he is.
83. The old woman takes care of the child to grow his teeth, and the young woman in turn takes care of the old woman when she loses her teeth.
84. Be extra careful when the crocodile smiles.
85. The lion that kills does not roar.
86. “The rich man’s dog stands in the way of medical care more than the laborers on whom the rich man’s wealth rests.” – Samora Machel
87. No matter how acrobatic a masquerade, he follows the monkey.
88. The eye crosses the river in front of the body.
89. When the mouse laughs at the cat, there is a hole nearby.
90. A happy man will marry the girl he loves, but a happy man will love the girl he is marrying.
91. A single bracelet does not ring.
92. The wise create proverbs so that fools can learn and not repeat.
93. Brothers love each other when they are equally rich.
94. If your mother-in-law can’t sit properly, you should be able to watch properly.
95. If we are great, it is because we stand on the backs of those who came before us.
96. “To be impartial…indeed, is to have already taken sides…with the status quo.” – Desmond Tutu.
97. No matter how wildly howls, the mountain cannot bow to it.
98. If you close your eyes to facts, you will learn from accidents.
99. If a lion’s dynamic display of power and strength means nothing to you, invoke cat to do the same in front of lion.
100. By the time the fool has learned the game, the players have scattered.
101. However hot the sun may be, it will never dry up the sea.
102. If you close your eyes while cutting down a tree, you will probably cut down people with it.
103. “It is better to die for an idea that will live than to live for an idea that will die.” – Onkgopotse Tiro
104. “We are a sentimental people. We prefer a few kind words to millions of dollars spent in a humiliating manner.” – Gamal Abdel Nasser.
105. If your mother-in-law can’t sit properly, you should be able to watch properly.
106. It is the child who died in the middle of the night, causing a huge crowd in front of his mother’s house.
107. “Revolutions are made by men, by men who think as men of action and act as men of thought.” – Kwame Nkrumah.
108. If you sleep because you don’t want to die, you will die because you don’t sleep.
