African Proverbs

by Charlotte Leslau, Wolf Leslau, Jeff Hill

African Studies, African Literature, Global Literature, World Literature

Genres: Africa, Poetry

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1962

Reviews

[Shila Iris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have both the 1962 and 1985 printings of this book. The content is identical. The covers are different. It’s one of the few collections of African proverbs that I know about and enjoy. Excellent.

[CC · Rating 3 out of 5]

"If one is not in a hurry, even an egg will start walking."

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable, short collection of African Proverbs.

Some of my favorites include:

“No one tests the depth of a river with both feet.” -Ashanti

“Wood may remain ten years in the water, but it will never become a crocodile.” -Zaire

“Anticipate the good so that you may enjoy it.” -Ethiopia

“One finger alone can’t kill even a louse.” -Kenya

[Brielle Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

five favorite proverbs:

“As the wound inflames the finger, so thought inflames the mind.”

“Let your love be like the misty rain, coming softly, but flooding the river.”

“Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is
worse.”

“If you are building a house and a nail breaks, do you stop building, or do you change the nail?”

“The opportunity that God sends does not wake up him who is asleep.

[Charles Collyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was probably a gift/greeting item; it is only about 60 pages long, and does not provide scholarly documentation for the proverbs. However, it is an interesting collection. I made notations on many of the proverbs, connecting them to ideas in psychology or peace education.

[Starlon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nigerian proverbs are surreal and absurd. Wrote down quite a bit of these.

[Chezzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The classification of books in my school library makes it ridiculously hard to find anything specific. The librarian has trouble finding books, for goodness sakesses! It isn't under the Dewey Decimal, which I'm familiar with, but some university classification I forget the name of. (It's worth saying that the public library here is nearly as strangely organized, where I have to ask someone for help finding something every single time.)

This annoys me.

Then: Most of the books are ancient and haven't been checked out in decades and decades -- not to mention haven't been entered into the computer system.

This absolutely thrills me.

With these two factors, I find myself often looking for something specific but getting distracted by other titles. By the time I'm done I'll have a stack of books; none of which are the ones I was looking for when I entered. I cart them up to the check out counter and force the librarian to enter all these funky books from the '60s and around into the system. The books are so happy that someone has finally checked them out again! It's so nice to be touched! The tactile, delightful, feeling!

This book was nice. Some of the proverbs made a lot of sense, some I've heard worded differently, some were funny... to me. It's interesting to see what they reference a lot -- what is really part of their days. Lots of monkeys and leopards.

A few favorites:
"If a little tree grows in the shade of a larger tree, it will die small."
"A fault confessed is half redressed."
"Since he has no eyes, he says that eyes smell bad."

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd collections of often mundane proverbs (from Ethiopia: "One scoops with a scoop."). Others are a little more pithy.

[Krystal Esmi · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5