Rwandan Proverbs

Rwandan proverbs distill wisdom from the Land of a Thousand Hills. Echoing cattle pride, clan ties, and the hard lessons of rebuilding after 1994, they praise unity, quiet strength, and careful speech.

The most extensive land is the human belly.

Rwandan Proverb

You can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy.

Rwandan Proverb

You can take a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

Rwandan Proverb

Every cackling hen was an egg at first.

Rwandan Proverb

When the leopard is away, his cubs are eaten.

Rwandan Proverb

A girl only gets pregnant once.

Rwandan Proverb

When your beard appears, childhood disappears.

Rwandan Proverb

Rain falls on everyone, but one person gets wetter than the rest.

Rwandan Proverb

Real fraternity is not about blood, it is about sharing.

Rwandan Proverb

If you shake a dog, you shake his owner.

Rwandan Proverb

Only God generates, man only educates.

Rwandan Proverb

Nobody hates himself more than he who hates others.

Rwandan Proverb

The guest is always the prisoner of the host.

Rwandan Proverb

In a court of fowls, the cockroach never wins his case.

Rwandan Proverb

If you are building a house and a nail breaks, do you stop building, or do you change the nail?

Rwandan Proverb

Help from abroad always comes when the rain has stopped.

Rwandan Proverb

He who has travelled alone can tell what he likes.

Rwandan Proverb

You set the trap when the rat has gone.

Rwandan Proverb

When the child falls the mother weeps; when the mother falls the child laughs.

Rwandan Proverb

What itches in the daughter's skirt, itches also in her mother's.

Rwandan Proverb

Pregnancy and fire cannot be kept secret.

Rwandan Proverb

In a fiddler's house, all are dancers.

Rwandan Proverb