Xhosa Proverbs

Xhosa Proverbs carry the voice of South Africa’s Eastern Cape, where click sounds and praise-poetry preserve memory. They teach ubuntu, courage, and patience, shaped by generations of frontier struggle.

One does not become great by claiming greatness. (Xhosa Proverb)
Misfortune of soup made of shanks and feet. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
No partridge scratches the ground in search of food for another. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
One fly does not provide for another. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
One who eats the remains of a meal without first obtaining permission. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
The baldness of a head begins at the temples. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
The coming of nkele. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
The crab has stuck fast between the stones at the entrance of its hole. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
The foot has no nose. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
The land is dead. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
The mist and the sun are together. (Xhosa Proverb)
The people who rescue and kill. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
The shield turned the wrong way. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
The sun never sets without fresh news. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
The walls have come into collision. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
The wonderful and the impossible have come into collision. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
There is no beast that does not roar in its den. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
There is no wormwood that comes into flower and does not wither. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
They are people of experience who do not sleep at a strange place. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
They prevent us from getting red clay from the pit, and they do not use it. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
Throats are all alike in swallowing. (Xhosa Proverb)
To skin a mouse. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
We shall hear, we are on the side towards which the wind blows. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
You are creeping on your knees to the fireplace. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
You are lighting a fire in the wind. View proverb
Xhosa Proverb
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