The orphan does not rejoice after a heavy breakfast. – Cape Coast, Ghana

When your mouth stumbles, it’s worse than feet. – Oji proverb

You are sitting in peace (unharmed): as the nose of a cow that feeds among thorntrees and shows no scars. Luganda, Uganda

The crows, the idle person grumbles. – Yoruba, Nigeria

That which is good is never finished. – Sukuma, Tanzania

The one chased away with a club comes back, but the one chased away with kihooto [reason] does not. – Kikuyu, Kenya

Rising early makes the road short. – Wolof proverb, Senegal

God is our neighbour when our brother is absent. – (Knappert, p. 33, Swahili)

If there is cause to someone, the cause to love has just begun. – Wolof proverb, Senegal

A sorcerer has no distinctive colour. Sechuana

We should put out fire while it is still small. – Kalenjin (Kenya)

One who is crazy for meat hunts buffalo. Luganda, Uganda

To be praised is to be lost. – Kikuyu, Kenya

The frog does not run in the daytime for nothing. – Igbo, Nigeria

With wealth one wins a woman. Uganda

It is foolhardy to climb two trees at once just because one has two feet. – Ethiopia

Water can not be forced uphill. – Kalenjin (Kenya)

He has not married a woman; for she is [the equal of] a man. Sechuana

A low-class man will just talk; deeds are the hallmark of a gentleman. – (Knappert, p. 84, Swahili)

Poverty is slavery (Somalia)

If your buttocks burn, you know you have done wrong.

He who refuses to obey cannot command. – Kikuyu, Kenya

When cutting, look at the age of the machete. – Fulfulde, Nigeria

Add legs to the snake after you have finished drawing it.

Do not vacillate or you will be left in between doing something, having something and being nothing. – Ethiopia

Let rats shoot arrows at each other. Sudan

The climber of ladders will descend [the ambitious person will be brought back down]. – (Knappert, p. 93, Swahili)

Where the rooster crows there is a village. -Schambala proverb

Do not follow a person who is running a way. – Kalenjin (Kenya)

A real family eats the same cornmeal. -Bayombe proverb

He who loves money must labor. (Mauritania)

We add wisdom to knowledge. – Kalenjin (Kenya)

Dogs do not actually prefer bones to meat,it is just that no one ever gives them meat. Akan proverb, West Africa

Be on the alert, like the red ant that moves with its claws wide open. Uganda

When you are at home, your troubles can never defeat you. – Cape Coast, Ghana

A tree not taller than an ant cannot shade you. – Kanuri proverb, Nigeria

We should talk while we are still alive. – Kalenjin (Kenya)

A Dog that steals sells its body. – Luyia proverbs , Western Kenya

One cannot both feast and become rich. (Ashanti tribe)

The rich are always complaining. Zululand

To be happy in one’s home is better than to be a chief. Yoruba, Nigeria

It is better to walk than curse the road. – Wolof proverb, Senegal

The elephant never gets tired of carrying its tusks. Vai, Liberia