This might seem hard, but for some of you who feel using poems are too… pretentious? (Or maybe they just are not your kind of thing, I don’t know which) a few proverbs here and there in your vows could do the trick for you. And if, dear reader, you are not part of the bridal party but are giving a speech, then you could include a proverb or two. In other words, this article is not for only the bride and groom.
Swoon-Worthy Sayings:
“If the full moon loves you, why worry about the stars?” Tunisia
“You have captured my liver” African
“Love, like rain, does not choose the grass on which it falls” Zulu
“One thread for the needle, one love for the heart.” Sudan
“A letter from the heart can be read on the face” Swahili
“When in love, a cliff becomes a meadow” Ethiopia
“The one who loves an unsightly person is the one who makes them
beautiful” Uganda
“He who loves, loves you with your dirt” Uganda
“He who loves the vase loves also what is inside” African
“If you are ugly you must either learn to dance or make love” African
“A woman is a flower in a garden; her husband is the fence around it” Ghana
“Love is like a baby: it needs to be treated tenderly” Congo DRC
“So many little things make a man love a woman in a big way” Ghana
“Don’t be so much in love that you can’t tell when it’s raining” Madagascar
“Coffee and love taste best when hot!” Ethiopia
For A Dash of Humor:
“If you marry a monkey for his wealth, the money goes and the monkey remains as is” (Egypt)
“The buttocks are like a married couple though there is constant friction between them; they will still love and live together” African
“Never marry a woman who has bigger feet than you”. Mozambique
“If there were no cold Friday evenings and boring Saturdays, no one would get married anymore.” Morocco
“If a young woman says no to marriage just wait until her breasts sag.” Burundi
“If money were to be found up in the trees, most people would be married to monkeys”. African proverb
Regarding Marriage:
“The man may be the head of the home but the wife is the heart.” Kenya
“A bird can be guarded, a wife can’t.” Swahili
“Bread without sauce and a home without a wife are meaningless.”
Ethiopia
“A good wife is easy to find, but good in-laws are rare.” Madagascar
“One who plants grapes by the road side, and one who marries a pretty woman, share the same problem.” Ethiopia
Including a proverb is not as hard as it seems. For example, you could decide to begin with one, by saying something like, “the people of Madagascar say that a good wife is easy to find, but good in-laws are rare.”
Now, if you are an in-law, you could continue by either praising the new branch in your family (the bride and groom can also use that suggestion) or mentioning that you will do your best to be a good in-law, or crack a joke in relation to the proverb.
Also, if you are interested in getting more proverbs, here are some places you can find more proverbs online and in the book I mentioned in the article about poems: “African Love Poems and Poetry” by C. W. Leslau, which can be found on amazon. Hopefully you find some proverbs that suit your taste.
For more African Wedding insights visit –http://zimbabwewedding.org
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