African Diaspora at Internet Archive: African-American Proverbs in Context

After a series of supernatural stories (yesterday was the dog ghosts!), I want to shift today to another incredibly important folk genre: proverbs. I've written about African proverb books at the Internet Archive (Week 21 was devoted to African proverbs), and today I want to write about a beautiful African American book of proverbs: African-American Proverbs in Context by Anand Prahlad.

The book is divided into three sections: there is a contextual theory framework in the first chapter, followed by Part One, 1930s-1960s: Proverbial Speech among the Ex-Enslaved, Speech Events with European-Americans, and Proverbs in Blues Lyrics: Creativity and Innovation, and then Part Two: Contemporary Speech Acts: Proverb Masters and Symbolic Meaning, and Proverb Speech Acts among Peers. There is also an Appendix of African American proverbs, and as the author explains, it is "the first collection of any size of African-American proverbs to provide contextual data, informant data, and informant's interpretation of proverb meaning," along with a detailed bibliography (and discography!) of sources. One of Prahlad's most important informants is Clara Abrams, his great-grandmother, born in 1898.

Some of Prahlad's reference works are also available at the Archive. He edited African American Folklore: An Encyclopedia for Students.

And he also edited The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. The Archive has volumes covering A-F and covering G-P. Hopefully the third volume will make its way to the Archive also!

You can find out more at his website: PrahladAuthor.com

And I'll be back next time with more proverbs! Meanwhile, Prahlad's book about proverbs along with his reference books await you at the Internet Archive. :-)

African-American Proverbs in Context

by Anand Prahlad

 African American Folklore: An Encyclopedia for Students

edited by Anand Prahlad

The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore

edited by Anand Prahlad