West African Proverbs Part 2 – Proverbs from around West Africa, including Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger, Benin, Burkina Farso, Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania … Use the page links at the bottom to navigate.

Ghanian Proverbs

  1. If a goat bites an intruder, the dog must be ashamed.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  2. Two rams cannot drink from the same bucket at the same time, for fear of locking horns.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  3. If all seeds that fall were to grow, then no one could follow the path under the trees.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  4. When you go searching for fame, watch out for notoriety, for they are like identical twins.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  5. Reputation is like a raw egg, if it falls it is difficult to gather.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  6. If you think you are old, there is someone who is older.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  7. The secret of the mouth is best known by the chewing stick.
    Community/language of origin: Accra
    Country: Ghana
  8. A barber doers not shave himself.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  9. If a crocodile refuses to act like one, even children will call it a lizard.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  10. Two men in a burning house must not stop to argue.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  11. You will know those who can swim well, the day a river overflows its banks.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  12. No one appreciates his bottom until it develops a boil.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  13. First find an escape route before taunting the cobra.
    Community/language of origin: Akan
    Country: Ghana
  14. It requires a lot of carefulness to kill the fly that perches on the scrotum.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  15. By the time the fool has learned the game, the players have dispersed.
    Community/language of origin: Ashanti
    Country: Ghana
  16. Do not beat a drum with an axe.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  17. If you are in hiding, do not light a fire.
    Community/language of origin: Ashanti
    Country: Ghana
  18. An old lady feels uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  19. The hoe of death does not weed on one place.
    In original language: Owu adare ndow faak
    Community/language of origin: Akan
    Country: Ghana
  20. When the fool is told a proverb, its meaning has to be explained to him.
    Community/language of origin: Ashanti
    Country: Ghana
  21. Like a turtle, every man should stick out his neck if he wants to go forward.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: GhanaLike a turtle, every man should stick out his neck if he wants to go forward.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  22. Like a turtle, every man should stick out his neck if he wants to go forward.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  23. Rebuke is greater to the wise than hundred blows on a fool.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  24. Evil prospers because good men fail to act.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Gambia
  25. One must first have a head before contemplating chewing corn.
    Community/language of origin: Dagomba
    Country: Ghana
  26. He who marries a real beauty is seeking trouble.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  27. A woman is a flower in a garden; her husband is the fence around it.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  28. A leader in the community without a pot belly is stingy.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Ghana
  29. What an old man sees when sitting, a child cannot see even on the top of a tree.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Nigeria / Ghana
  30. Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it.
    La science est le tronc d’un baobab qu’une seule personne ne peut embrasser (French)
    In original language: Nunya, adidoe, asi metunee o.
    Community/language of origin: Unknown
    Country: Benin, Ghana and Togo

Do you have any proverbs you would like to share?

Send them to us via the contact form and better still, register and share it in the Forums => https://www.habariportal.com/forums/ . After a quick registration and subsequent approval of your account, log in and post it in the Proverbs & sayings section …
Alternatively, post it as a comment at the bottom of this page.

  • If possible the proverb not only in English but original language as well
  • A short explanation of its meaning
  • Please include the community or tribe where this proverb is from
  • country