African proverbs about Love and Marriage

African Proverbs about Love and Marriage

Wood already touched by fire isn't hard to set alight. - Africa

Dogs don't love people, they love the place where they are fed. - Burundi

Where there is love there is no darkness. - Burundi

It is better to be loved than feared. - Sierra Leone

The way to the beloved isn't thorny. - Cameroon (Duala)

One doesn't love another, if one doesn't accept anything from her. - Chad, Niger, Nigeria (Kanuri/Bornu)

Love doesn't listen to rumors. - Ghana (Akan)

Love is like a baby: it needs to be treated tenderly. - Congo

If a woman doesn't love you, she calls you brother. - Ivory Coast (Baule)

Love put the eaglet out of its nest. - Kenya (Gikuyu)

People who love one another do not dwell on each other's mistakes. - Kenya (Gikuyu)

To be smiled at isn't to be loved. - Kenya (Gikuyu)

The house of a person we love is never far. - Kenya (Kikuyu)

A letter from the heart can be read on the face. - Kiswahili

Love has to be shown by deeds not words. - Kiswahili

Love doesn't rely on physical features. - Lesotho

He who loves you, loves you with your dirt. - Uganda (Ganda)

The one who loves an unsightly person is the one who makes him beautiful. - Uganda (Ganda)

To love someone who does not love you, is like shaking a tree to make the dew drops fall. - Congo

He who doesn't like chattering women must stay a bachelor. - Congo

A young wife tends to cook too much at first. - Ethiopia

Bread without sauce and a home without a wife are meaningless. - Ethiopia

The way you got married isn't the way you'll get divorced. - Haiti

A bird can be guarded, a wife can't. - Kiswahili

A man without a wife is like a vase without flowers. - Africa

It is the habit that a child forms at home, that follows them to their marriage. - Nigeria

If you marry a monkey for his wealth, the money goes and the monkey remains as is. - Egypt

Having beauty doesn't mean understanding the perseverance of marriage.- Africa

If you do not travel, you will marry your own sister. - Mozambique

A man that does not lie shall never marry. - Zimbabwe

One who plants grapes by the road side, and one who marries a pretty woman, share the same problem. - Ethiopia

Marriage is like a groundnut: you have to crack them to see what is inside. – Ghana (Akan)

The buttocks are like a married couple though there is constant friction between them; they will still love and live together. - Africa

If there were no cold Friday evenings and boring Saturdays, no one would get married any more. - Morocco

How gently glides the married life away, when she who rules still seems but to obey. - Kenya

He who marries a beauty marries trouble. - Nigeria

A woman who has not been twice married cannot know what a perfect marriage is. - Nigeria

A good wife is easy to find, but suitable in-laws are rare. - Malagasy

It is better to be married to an old lady than to remain unmarried. - Uganda

A woman who is not successful in her own marriage has no advice to give to her younger generations. - Nigeria

A married couple is neither enemies nor friends. - Somalia

If money where to be found up in the trees, most people would be married to monkeys. - Africa

The man may be the head of the home but the wife is the heart. – Kenya (Gikuyu)

If there is cause to hate someone, the cause to love has just begun. - Wolof

The man that won't marry a woman with other admirers won't marry a woman at all. - Nigeria

The robin and the wren are God's cock and hen; the martin and the swallow are God's mate and marrow. - Tanzania

He was entrapped by the evening, it has cost him his marriage. - Bantu

Talking with one another is loving one another. - Kenya

One who loves you, warns you. – Uganda (Baganda)

Leave her now and then if you would really love your wife. - Malawi

The most dangerous thing a man needs is a woman. - Somalia

When one is in love, a cliff becomes a meadow. - Ethiopia

Marriage is not a tight knot, but a slip knot. - Malagasy

Marriage is a snake to slip into your handbag. - Africa

Marriage is a snake to slip into your handbag – Africa

For more African proverbs on love and marriage (and many other topics) please see Lifelines: The African Book of Proverbs.