Source: Swahili Tales by Edward Steere, 1870. Online at the Internet Archive. The book includes the Swahili text plus the English translation. You can see the island of Zanzibar off the eastern coast of Africa, just north of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
You can find out more about the Swahili language at Wikipedia.
Below are the proverbs I chose from this book; when I've rephrased, I've included the book's version in parentheses. If there is no version in parentheses, that means I didn't make any changes. You can see the whole slideshow here: African Proverbs.
If you are running on a rooftop, stop at the edge.
(Running on a roof ends at the edge of it.)
Someone drunk with wine gets sober;
someone drunk with wealth does not.
(He that is drunk with wine gets sober; he that is drunk with wealth does not.)
Use your clay while it is wet.
When two elephants fight, the grass suffers.
(When two elephants struggle, it is the grass that suffers.)
Who will dance when the lion roars?
(Who will dance to a lion's roaring?)
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