Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it.
This metaphor also explains that human wisdom is so great that it would be presumptuous and arrogant of a single individual to claim to have mastered it all, when it is truly impossible.
2. Where the rooster crows there is a village.
--Schambala proverb .
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This metaphor shows that roosters which are domesticated in most cases must be around people are a community of people. Therefore if one hears a rooster crowing there must be civilization nearby.
3. The cultivator is alone, but those who eat are many.
--Schambala proverb .
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This metaphor means that many people enjoy the fruits of only one's labor. Many people benefit from the work of one.
4. Dogs do not actually prefer bones to meat,.
it is just that no one ever gives them meat.
--(Akan proverb, West Africa).
This metaphor means that assumptions can be wrong. Dogs take what they are given. Given the freedom of choice one may not choose what is expected.
5. A real family eats the same cornmeal.
--Bayombe proverb .
A family shares the same ideas, culture and ways of life. The cornmeal in this metaphor is representative of that fact.
6. If your cornfield is far from your house, .
the birds will eat your corn.
-- Pigmy proverb .
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It is important to keep watch over what is yours, but this is extremely difficult if your property is not close to you.
7. When elephants fight it is the grass that suffers.
-- Kikuyu proverb .
When larger entities collide it is the smaller entities that pay the price. Using war as an example. The governments of two countries may be at war but more than likely the civilians are the ones that fight or die.
8. It is the fool whose own tomatoes are sold to him.
-- Akan proverb .
9. The house-roof fights with the rain, but he who is sheltered ignores it.
-- Wolof .
10. Because friendship is pleasant, we partake of our friend's entertainment; not because we have not enough to eat in our own house.
-- Yoruba .