Where does this proverb come from? “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”

Question

I am attempting to find the origin or source of this proverb:

“If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”

Most sources say that this is a translation of an African proverb, but this article from NPR implies that there's a bit of confusion regarding whether this is actually genuinely from Africa:

One Twitter user, Christiana A. Mbakwe, said, "If someone starts an aphorism with 'there's an African saying' it's probably a mythical quote misattributed to a whole continent."

[...]

Here at Goats and Soda, African countries are part of our beat. So we wondered: Are these both examples of proverbs from African countries?

What we found is that it takes a lot of phone calls to track down the origins of a proverb. And in the end, the answer might be: We just don't know.

(It refers to it in the plural because there's another proverb also being discussed)

Is this genuinely an African proverb? If yes, what is the original? If not, where did it first come from?

Answer 1

"99% of quotes described only as 'ancient African proverbs' are just made up."

— Ancient Chinese proverb

All joking aside, an NPR investigation found that, while the phrase "does hold true to the spirit of some African cultures," there is no clear evidence of an African origin. The Andrew Whitby article linked in the comments introduces some evidence of similar proverbs in African cultures, but the evidence seems weak.