The cover of Joan Andrea Hutchinson's 'Pretty and Proud'. - Contributed

Joan Andrea Hutchinson loves Jamaican proverbs so much that she just had to put out another CD chockfull of them.

Following up the 2004 'Hamper of Jamaican Proverbs', she has now put 37 earthy sayings with the compressed wisdom of generations which have observed their environment and learnt enduring lessons on 'Jamaican Proverbs, 'Pretty and Proud'.

The recently released CD does not have only the proverbs, as Hutchinson also illustrates each with a scenario which shows its practical application. And between them there is a snatch of the same song, the full-length version coming at the end as Hutchinson sings "Jamaican proverbs we haffi use dem, dem make de language sweet", also putting a number of them together in melodious manner.

Sweet language

However, it isn't only a case of making the language sweet. It is also a matter of cultural preservation.

"We keep on talking about the love for the Jamaican culture, but young people no longer have grandma to sit down and learn from," Hutchinson told The Gleaner. "It is important to package it in a way we can penetrate the market. They have to be able to download it on their IPod, to play the CD in the car."

She also pointed to another set of persons who need that feeling of connection to Jamaican culture, "the Diaspora community that has lost contact with their 'Jamaicanness' and are dying for it. Or they have children who they want to pass it on to and they don't remember it so well".

Oral illustration

The stories which orally illustrate the proverbs are both ones which she has put together and "a lot of them are part of my own daily life".

So the CD starts with "all jackass mout' white, yu no know which one nyam flour", the explanation beginning with "yu eva in a situation where somebody do something but tru everybody fava one anadda yu no knw who dweet?". And in explaining the proverb "hog sey de fuss wata yu ketch, wash", Hutchinson gives her own experience of being an exchange student in Mexico. She and a friend decided to sell their calabash bags and got an offer at the first store where they stopped. They decided they could get a better price, but after walking around for the whole day couldn't, and the first buyer was no longer interested.

There is a healthy dose of the medicine of humour on 'Jamaica Proverbs'. Pretty and Proud', quite a few of which are inherently funny. But Hutchinson points out that she has "moved away from the comedienne. I see myself more as a cultural educator. The comedy is part of the vehicle through which you deliver the message, but I am not a comedienne full stop".

And she points out that "it is not just the entertainment value of the proverbs we are mindful of. It is a part of how we interact with our environment".

Her 'absolute favourite' proverb on the CD is "parrot mek noise dem sey a him nyam banana". Also in Hutchinson's top five on the set are "beg water cyaa bwoil cow skin", "donkey cubby run pass donkey go stan' up a cross roads", "drum knock unda water bottom, de soun' mus come a top" and "dry stump a cane piece no fe laugh wen cane piece ketch fire".

Tracing proverbs

The Gleaner asked Hutchinson if she has tried to trace the proverbs to their origin and she pointed out that "since they are oral culture there are as many variations of the proverbs as proverbs themselves", hence tracing them is simply not on.

When word gets out that she is doing a set of proverbs, Hutchinson says she gets suggestions from many persons. But she also utilises the memories of three older persons in rural Jamaica, in addition to her mother.

And Hutchinson sees herself as a conduit for the compressed wisdom of Jamaican proverbs to be passed down. "What I want to do is document for the next generation," Hutchinson told The Gleaner.