The next best thing to eating food, is talking about it, the best ten African food sayings proverbs and quotes
These 10 African food Sayings proverbs and quotes will give you an appreciation of African culture love for good food. Many African food proverbs have origins in rural African villages and can tell you a lot about that place.
Best Ten African Food Sayings Proverbs and Quotes
A palm wine tapper does not stop tapping palm wine because he once fell from the top of a palm wine tree.
An onion shared with a friend tastes like roast lamb.
Rather a piece of bread with a happy heart than wealth with grief.
A juicy bone is useless to a dog with no teeth.
Man is like palm-wine: when young, sweet but without strength; in old age, strong but harsh.
A bowl should not laugh when a calabash breaks.
A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam that his mother puts into his palm.
A fallen branch cannot bear fruits on its own.
A guest who breaks the dishes of his host is not soon forgotten.
A person who sells eggs does not start a fight in the market.
Proverbs preserve knowledge the way food preserves memory. This collection belongs to a larger African foodways archive. Explore African foodways →
Archival Context
Food proverbs are part of Africa’s intangible culinary heritage. While AFHA primarily documents food systems, techniques, and preservation, language surrounding food offers insight into values, risk, patience, scarcity, and social obligation.
This page is preserved as a cultural index — a reference point for how food is spoken about, not how it is produced.
