African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Jamaica Folklore

After writing about Anand Prahlad's African-American Proverbs in Context last week, I promised more proverbs, and here they are: "Jamaican Proverbs," which is a publication included in the book Jamaica Folklore by Martha Beckwith. 

There are four separate studies, all previously published, that have been combined and republished in this big (almost 400 pages) collection: Folk Games of Jamaica, Christmas Mummings in Jamaica, Jamaica Proverbs, and Notes on Jamaican Ethnobotany. 

The Proverbs begin on p. 185, and there are 972 proverbs here, plus an index, running to 137 pages. The proverbs are organized alphabetically (sometimes with multiple versions), and each one is accompanied by a rendering in standard English along with the originals in Jamaican English. As you can see, some of the proverbs are associated with folktales, and when that's the case, as with the Anansi proverb here, Beckwith also supplies the story:

Beckwith opens the book with praise of the African proverb tradition, arguing that the widespread use of proverbs in Jamaican is part of the island's African cultural legacy. Beckwith's main informants were 22 women students at a teachers college in 1919 who grew up in different locations around the island. She also collected sayings from other sources and used existing collections of Jamaican proverbs which are detailed in the introduction. The proverbs are a blend of African and British traditions; the "Dog say" or "Hog say" tradition of opening a proverb with "[animal] says" is one distinctively African tradition that is found here.

As someone who is fascinated by proverbs, this is the section of Beckwith's book that is of most interest to me, but you might find materials of interest in the rest of the book too. Beckwith worked with Helen Roberts, a musicologist who was her regular collaborator, so you will find musical materials here, as in the folk games section. Here's a game called Hardy Hardy:

Martha Beckwith, an American folklorist, is best known for her massive collection of Anansi stories, so I'll come back with that tomorrow. Meanwhile, hundreds of Jamaican proverbs await you, and more Jamaican folklore too.

Jamaica Folklore

by Martha Beckwith