Some Botswana Proverbs

The Tswana live in Botswana and South Africa

  1. Eating without sharing is like swearing with your mouth.
  2. To give away is to make provision for the future.
  3. We are people because of other people.
  4. He who offended forgets, but he who suffered from the offense does not.
  5. Eyes can see widely: They can cross a river in full flood.
  6. What is seen is seen by all.
  7. Plenty is like the mist.
  8. Famine hides under the granary.
  9. To travel is to see.
  10. To kiss the child is to kiss the mother.
  11. The cripple is fair in its mother’s eyes.
  12. You can’t keep a bull in the Kraal.
On May 4, 2005 President Ketumile Masire of Botswana spoke at the Roxbury (MA) Boys and Girls Club

Compiled by Barbara Brown, PhD