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14 African Proverbs That’ll Shift Your Perspective on Life
“If you carry the egg basket do not dance.”
In his now-legendary book, Things Fall Apart, author Chinua Achebe described proverbs as “the palm oil with which words are eaten.” Proverbs are used to confer deep meaning, advice, insights in a condensed manner.
Proverbs are wisdom expressed in few words.
Here’s a list of African proverbs curated from around the continent.
“The best way to eat an elephant in your path is to cut him up into little pieces.”
The elephant is a metaphor for a challenge or goal. By sheer size, it is intimidating and overwhelming. If you try to solve all your challenges by taking them on at once, you will not make progress. The best approach to solving a problem is to take it bit by bit; one step at a time. In the same way, to achieve an important goal, the most effective way to achieve a major goal is to break it down into small, manageable, easy-to-accomplish milestones. Breaking tasks down helps us to see large tasks as more approachable and doable, and reduces our propensity to procrastinate or defer tasks because we simply don’t know where to begin.
