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Anaang Proverbs (54)


The Anaang (also spelled Annang) is a cultural and ethnic group native to "South South" geopolitical zone in Nigeria. It is also known as Western Ibibio, is part of the Ibibio-Efik dialect cluster. It is the native language of the Anaang people of Nigeria.



Time cannot obliterate the memory of a village case.

Stones are cheap; the problem is weight.

Do not play with a snake offspring as if it could never bite.

Two cocks do not crow from the same roof.

If you play with a dog, do not complain when it tears your clothes.

A child who refuses the mother's advice does not live long.

If you play with a dog, do not complain when it tears your clothes.

The story of former wealth does not satisfy man.

The tortoise complains of rain whereas it has only wetted its feet.

A lender does not hate part payment.

A word shoots up like the blade of grass.

When a man has no one to play with he plays with his enemy.

When you hold the ground you cannot fall.

In a true heart, there is no fear.

If the cockroach refuses to stay in its hole,
the chicken refuses to stay hungry.

A soup that tastes good by licking must taste better by eating.

When a baby grows, the crying changes.

A wandering child cannot eat his mother's food when it is hot.

Praise has killed the antelope.

A chicken has no bad luck in the morning.

A chicken that gets a sprained ankle is abandoned by its own mother.

A word shoots up like the blade of grass.

When bitterness preceeds sweetness, the sweetness becomes sweeter.

While a bush fowl is being roasted, a chicken considers its own fate.

When a man has no one to play with he plays with his enemy.

A razor may be sharper than an axe, but it cannot cut wood.

Infancy teeth are not for chewing nuts.

What has escaped from the leopard, still remains for the leopard.

A mother refuses to go far lest her baby cries.

Pepper has a beautiful face with an ugly temper.

A river less vast than an ocean gets a bridge.

If you speak with a cunning mouth, I listen with a cunning ear.

A mother that has lost many children by death,
hates the idea of her child taking a nap.

A person does not lay on one side throughout the sleep.

After a fish has matured, it ventures into the deep.

A rat that gnaws pepper is desperate for food.

A person does not lay on one side throughout the sleep.

When a leopard limps, a hare dares to demand for payment of a debt.

When blood appears, it is apt to run.

Drop by drop rains fills a pot.

There is no discrimination in the forest of the dead.

An animal that has just escaped from a trap fears a bent stick.

Unity is strength, separation weakness.

Generosity is wealth.

A debtor's wife speaks the voice of her husband.

A thorn does not pierce a rat.

When you are rich, relation exists; if you are poor, relations desist.

A man who puts his hand into the bee's hive gets stung by the bees.

Medicine does not depend on the incantations of the sorcerer.

A man who lives in two homes cannot catch a thief.

While a dead tree is expected to collapse,
a live one unexpectedly snaps.

A lover is unmindful of any charcoal on the body.