In Honor of Black History Month

Here is a tabulation of genuine old world African Proverbs:

• A barber does not shave himself.
• A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches.
• A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which his mother puts into his palm.
• A comb becomes bad when it hurts you.
• A cutting word is worse than a bowstring, a cut may heal, but the cut of the tongue does not.
• A fool looks for dung where the cow never browsed.
• A fool may chance to put something into a wise man's head.
• A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride.
• A stranger has big eyes but sees nothing.
• A stream cannot rise about its source.
• A weapon which you don't have in your hand won't kill a snake.
• Ashes fly back into the face of him who throws them.
• Before shooting, one must aim.
• Confiding a secret to an unworthy person is like carrying grain in a bag with a hole.
• Do not call to a dog with a whip in your hand.
• Don't set sail on someone else's star.
• For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.
• He who is being carried does not realize how far the town is.
• He who is born a fool is never cured.
• He who learns, teaches.
• He who talks incessantly, talks nonsense.
• If a child washes his hands he could eat with kings.
• If you climb up a tree, you must climb down the same tree.
• If you don't stand for something, you will fall for something.
• If you don't work you shan't eat.
• If you refuse to be made straight when you are green, you will not be made straight when you are dry.
• If you run after two hares you will catch neither.
• If you're going home, you don't get wet.
• If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
• If your mouth turns into a knife, it will cut off your lips.
• It is not what you are called, but what you answer to.
• It is not with saying, "Honey," "Honey," that sweetness will come into the mouth.
• It is not work that kills, but worry.
• It's a bad child who does not take advice.
• One must talk little and listen much.
• Peace is costly but it is worth the expense.
• Return to old watering holes for more than water; friends and dreams are there to meet you.
• Seeing is better than hearing.
• Seeing is different than being told.
• Send a boy where he wants to go and you see his best pace.
• Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
• The day the monkey is destined to die, all the trees get slippery.
• The egg shows the hen where to hatch.
• The end of an ox is beef, and the end of a lie is grief.
• The fool speaks, the wise man listens.
• The fool sucks wisdom, as he porter sups, And cobblers grow fine speakers in their cups.
• The lion does not turn around when a small dog barks.
• To try and to fail is not laziness.
• Two birds disputed about a kernel, when a third swooped down and carried it off.