Title: Lifelines - The Black Book of Proverbs
Authors: Askhari Johnson Hodari and Yvonne McCalla Sobers
Publisher: Broadway Books
Reviewer: Paul H. Williams

In the foreword, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu says, among other things, "A proverb is only proverbial if it is true, is useful and can be readily called to mind and applied. This compendium gathers the insights of the ages in helpful categories that mirror the life cycle. From the stories of their own experiences, the authors offer us illustrations that bring the proverbs to life."

But whether or not the proverbs in Lifelines are true and useful, they are certainly fodder for thought. Some are very provocative, humorous and paradoxical, and there are a few 'naughty' ones (see page 56-57). The Jamaican ones have been written for an international readership and, as such, some of them sound 'funny' when read aloud. For example, "A hen never tread on her chicken too hard", "The skin fit closer than the shirt" and "Money no grow on tree".

As the title implies, the proverbs are about the various facets of human existence: birth, childhood, adolescence, initiation, rites of passage, love, marriage, intimacy, parenting challenges, ethics and values, 'elderhood', death and afterlife. These maxims are all taken from the experiences, sensibilities and cultures of black people from Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean.

The book is a potpourri of the lifelines of people who are sepa-rated by geography, but are united by the poignancy and power of their philosophies such as, "Where God cooks, there is no smoke" - Zambia; "Kindness can pluck the hairs from a lion's moustache" - Sudan; "Do not quarrel with the leopard if you have no spear" - Democratic Republic of Congo; "Never kick down the ladder you climb on" - Trinidad and Tobago.

Pearls of wisdom

"Salt does not say of itself, 'I am tasty'" - Ghana; "Adultery is like dung; one goes far to do it" - Zambia; "One who marries for love alone will have bad days but good nights" - Egypt; "A home is ruined by the husband scolding his wife over food" - Kenya; "A fool is a wise man's ladder" - South Africa.

Apart from these pearls of wisdom, the 227-page hardcover is attractively packaged, from the well-designed orange/rust-coloured jacket, the high-quality paper, creative fonts, to the monochromatic illustrations by Katie Yamasaki, muralist and fine artist.

This compilation of proverbs is the fruit of two women who are great advocates of black history and culture. Yvonne McCalla Sobers, a graduate of the University of the West Indies, taught English and history for many years. She lives in Kingston but has also lived and worked in Britain and Ghana, Africa. Delicious Jamaica! Vegetarian Cuisine is another of her books.

Askhari Johnson Hodari, PhD, studied at Spelman College and Howard University in the United States. This black studies practitioner lives in Birmingham, Alabama, and is also the author of African Book of Names.

"Yvonne McCalla Sobers and Askhari Johnson Hodari have offered us a rare treasure. They have created for us a gathering of the elders to offer us wise counsel. They have retained for us a precious strand of the African story in this distillation of African wit and wisdom," Archbishop Tutu says in closing his foreword to a book which should be a part of the collection of everybody in the African diaspora. Lifelines is a collection of black proverbs to live by.