All Things Kenyan

African Proverbs on Love

The proverb “Love is Blind” is attributed to many sources including Africa. Here are many more interesting and thought provoking African proverbs about love.

The quarrel of lovers is the renewal of love. ~Moroccan Proverb

True love means what’s mine is yours. ~African Proverb

Love is like a baby: it needs to be treated tenderly. ~Congolese Proverb

The cabin of a loved one is never too far away. ~Bantu Proverb

He who doesn’t feel jealousy is not in love. ~African Proverb

You know who you love, but you can’t know who loves you. ~Nigerian Proverb

Love and let the world know, hate in silence. ~Egyptian Proverb

If love is torn apart you cannot stitch the pieces together again. ~Malagasy Proverb

Let your love be like the misty rain, coming softly, but flooding the river. ~Liberian & Madagascan Proverb

Perhaps you do not understand me because you do not love me. ~African Proverb

Love is like young rice: transplanted, still it grows. ~Malagasy Proverb

It’s better to fall from a tree and a break your back than to fall in love and break your heart. ~African Proverb

When an only kolanut is presented with love, it carries with it more value than might otherwise be associated with a whole pod of several kolanuts. ~Nigerian Proverb

Love for something makes a man blind and deaf. ~Sudanese Proverb

A fish and bird may fall in love but the two cannot build a home together. ~African Proverb

One who marries for love alone will have bad days but good nights. ~Egyptian Proverb

To be able to love other people you must be able to love yourself. ~African Proverb

Lovers do not hide their nakedness. ~Congolese Proverb

Love is a painkiller. ~African Proverb

Love never gets lost it’s only kept. ~African Proverb

If the full moon loves you, why worry about the stars? ~Tunisian Proverb

If anybody makes you laugh, it is not always because he loves you. ~Kikuyu Proverb

If love is a sickness, patience is the remedy. ~Cameroonian Proverb

Don’t be so much in love that you can’t tell when it’s raining. ~Malagasy Proverb
Hot Coffee and Love Mug
A loved one has no pimples. ~Kenyan Proverb

Love is like cough you can’t hold it back. ~African Proverb

The path leads towards loved ones not thorns. ~African Proverb

Why take away something by force which you can obtain by love. ~African Proverb

Coffee and love taste best when hot. ~Ethiopian Proverb

Loving someone that does not love you is like loving the rain that falls in the forest. ~African Proverb

Love is better than a whip. ~Nigerian Proverb

He who loves the vase loves also what is inside. ~African Proverb

Don’t try to make someone hate the person he loves, for he will still go on loving, but he will hate you. ~Senegalese Proverb

To love that one who never loves you is like rain falling in the forest. ~African Proverb

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

When one is in love, a cliff becomes a meadow. ~Ethiopian Proverb

Love is just like rice — plant it elsewhere and it grows. ~Malagasy Proverb

Brothers love each other when they are equally rich. ~African Proverb

Do not treat your loved one like a swinging door: you are fond of it but you push it back and forth. ~Madagascan Proverb

Pretend you are dead and you will see who really loves you. ~African Proverb

He who loves, loves you with your dirt. ~Ugandan Proverb

Talking with one another is loving one another. ~Kenyan Proverb

The one who loves an unsightly person is the one who makes him beautiful. ~Ganda Proverb

He may say that he loves you, wait and see what he does for you. ~Senegalese Proverb

It is difficult for two long-nosed lovers to kiss. ~African Proverb

The best part of happiness lies is in the secret heart of a lover. ~Ugandan Proverb

Even as the archer loves the arrow that flies, so too he loves the bow that remains constant in his hands. ~Nigerian Proverb

There is no physician who can cure the disease of love. ~African Proverb

To love the king is not bad, but a king who loves you is better. ~Wolof Proverb

Don’t look into the eyes of your lover, or you will see what he has told many women before. ~African Proverb

Where there is love there is no darkness. ~Burundian Proverb

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

It’s much easier to fall in love than to stay in love. ~African Proverb

It is better to be loved than feared. ~Proverb from Senegal & Sierra Leone

Happiness requires something to do, something to love and something to hope for. ~Swahili Proverb

Let your love be like drizzle: it comes softly, but still swells the river. ~Malagasy Proverb

Love is a despot who spares no one. ~Namibian Proverb

One thought on “African Proverbs on Love

  1. Jeanne Post author

    Previous Comments From Old ATK Site:

    manex spicklez said: we the best when it come to provebs.luv africa

    Anonymous said: love is angry; you feel but some one who doesn’t love you does n’t fall

    sara j. lee said: I am writing a book of my memoirs about love and relationships over my life time. Everyone has their own story to tell…however…our wise ancestors said it all before. Thank you so much for this page. Very therapeutic…joyous to tap into our amazing history…long before Columbus. Hotep…