100+ Voices for Miss Lou

LORNA GOODISON

Acknowledgements xxi

Louise Bennett-Coverley: A Cultural Icon xxiii

Introduction: Promise Fulfilled 1

OPAL PALMER ADISA

An Outstanding Cultural Influencer 8

OLIVIA GRANGE

A Formidable Woman 16

PERCIVAL J. PATTERSON

SECTION 1. ONE BIG FAMILY

Love Letta 25

LOUISE BENNETT

My Mother, My Friend 27

FABIAN COVERLEY

A Strict but Wonderful Mother 33

CHRISTINE SWABY

Tenky Miss Lou, Tenky 38

JOAN ANDREA HUTCHINSON

Together for Life: Louise and Eric Coverley 40

MERVYN MORRIS

One of the Great Joys of My Life 44

EASTON LEE

Conversation, Consultation, Communication, Celebration 47

MARJORIE WHYLIE

A Journey of Love 55

BARBARA GLOUDON

Boonoonoonoos 58

LINDA GAMBRILL

You Can’t Bury Creativity 62

NEIL ARMSTRONG

A Family Connection 65

LINCOLN ROBINSON

Learning from Her Dynamics 68

PAULINE STONE MYRIE

If the World Was Like Miss Lou 71

BONGO HERMAN

Lessons from Miss Lou 73

OLIVER SAMUELS

Jamaican Through and Through 78

FRANKLYN HORACE CAMPBELL

Miss Lou Fe Real 82

PAUL KEENS-DOUGLAS

“Ac’ chile, ac’!”: She Helped Shape My Life 86

FAE ELLINGTON

Memories of Ring Ding 93

ERIC DOUGLAS

Being Miss Lou 95

FAITH D’AGUILAR

Miss Lou, Miss Lou 99

MUTABARUKA

Things My Mother Taught Me 101

LOLITA KNIBB PHILLIPS

Reflections and Memories 105

PAMELA APPELT

“Mi just like people” 110

LOUISE BENNETT-COVERLEY

SECTION 2. REAFFIRMING OUR CULTURE

Noh Lickle Twang 121

LOUISE BENNETT

Speaking Jamaican Talkin Farin 123

AMINA BLACKWOOD MEEKS

Miss Lou We Celebrating 131

JULIET HOLNESS

Keep We Culcha Alive 133

PATRICIA REID-WAUGH

1-2-3 Aunty Lou Lou 135

MICHAEL HOLGATE

Smile Queen 138

ASHLI-ANN DOUGLAS

Eloquently Expressed in Patwa 141

JEAN SMALL

Mi Miss You Bad 143

fabian m. thomas

We Could Be Whoever She Was 146

VELMA POLLARD

Patwa Pride 148

MELISSA McKENZIE

A Ring Ding Love Affair 150

KEVIN A. ORMSBY

For Miss Lou 155

LILIETH H. NELSON

Tan Tuddy wid Har Pen 157

SHELLEY SYKES-COLEY

Birthday Beach Bonfire 158

BEVERLEY ELAINE WRIGHT

If It Weren’t for Miss Lou 159

NORMA DARBY

Find de Riddim 164

TEJAN GREEN WASZAK

Miss Lou Mek History 165

BEVERLEY LASHLEY

She Find Wi Tung fi Wi 167

CURTIS MYRIE

Founder of the Heritage Singers in Canada 169

GRACE CARTER-HENRY LYONS

Neva Bi Figatten: Iconic Miss Lou 172

JAYNA SHIELDS

Amazing Grace 174

KEI MILLER

Ode to Miss Lou 179

KALLIAH WHAYNETTE  MINTO

Our Jamaican Queen Comes to St Andrew High School 181

MARGARET RECKORD BERNAL

From Miss Lou: 2019 Scene 185

DAVIA ELLIS

Everytime, I Am a Jamaican 187

COURTNEY GREAVES

Talk You Talk Regardless 188

VIVIAN CRAWFORD

Using the Language of My Heart 189

FARIKA BERHANE

Beneath the Folk Caricature 195

TOMMY RICKETTS

SECTION 3. AUNTY ROACHY SEH

Dutty Tough (excerpt) 207

LOUISE BENNETT

Slanguage  208

CHERRY NATURAL

My Jamaican Tongue 211

MALACHI SMITH

She Who Laughs the Revolution 213

ANDRENE BONNER

Fowl Pill Bruk Nes 218

SHIRLEY MASSEY

Adina 220

DEANNE KENNEDY

Exilia 223

DONNA P. HOPE

Bawl Woman Bawl 225

PAMELA MORDECAI

Tooth-Ache 231

RUTH HOWARD

Thelma’s Precious Cargo 233

KWAME DAWES

Di House 235

DELROY McGREGOR

Licky Licky 236

KEMAR CUMMINGS

Miss Joyce Mongrel Dawg 238

RAUL A. DAVIS

Abeng in Beijing 241

fabian m. thomas

My Chinaman Jump to the Riddim of Jah 243

JEAN LOWRIE-CHIN

’88 Storm 244

CHRISTOPHER ALLEN

Mi Dear Sista Sandy 246

SEAN C. HARRISON

Oiii, Driva! 249

SIHLE ATKINSON

Di Jril a di Ting 251

ANNIKA SIMONE ROWE

Cat 253

ANN-MARGARET LIM

Black 254

LATTECHA WILLOCKS

Puss and Dawg Luck 257

ALECIA MARIA SAWYERS

Fever Grass 260

MEL COOKE

Gum Bwile 261

LISA GAYE TAYLOR

Walk Good and Good Duppy Walk wid Yu 263

ALMA MOCKYEN

Ice Cream Sundays 265

SCHONTAL MOORE

Mi and di Tief 267

AISHA SMITH

Bruce Ghost 269

MAXINE J. BROWN

Matches Shoes Box 270

ANTONIA VALAIRE

Queenie Queenie and Colonial Empire 273

LILLIAN ALLEN

Goodnite 281

LINTON KWESI JOHNSON

Nativity 283

LASANA M. SEKOU

Slavery in Reverse 285

EMILE GRANT

Pastor 287

SUSAN LYCETT DAVIS (“DR SUE”)

Evelyn’s Wisdom288

SONIA S. WILLIAMS

No More “Smalling Up” of Me 290

JEAN WILSON

Use My Tongue Wisely 291

MARLON HENRY

Jamaican Women 292

QUEWANA COLLMAN

Mi Name Jamaica 294

OWEN BLAKKA ELLIS

Chanting Down Babylon... 296

ALEXANDRIA MILLER

Louise Go a Country.... 305

NADIA L. HOHN

Soun de Abeng fi Nanny 308

JEAN “BINTA” BREEZE

SECTION 4. ENGAGING IN A QUARREL WITH HISTORY

Colonization in Reverse 315

LOUISE BENNETT

“Pedestrian Crosses”: Sites of Dislocation in “Postcolonial” Jamaica 317

CAROLYN COOPER

The Truth Must Reveal Itself 327

KLIVE WALKER

Shifting Bodies and Missing Commodities: Louise Bennet on the Impacts of World War II on Working-Class Jamaicans 336

DALEA BEAN

Miss Lou: Organic Intellectual of the Jamaican Masses in Her Examination of Racial Politics 349

AJAMU NANGWAYA

The Cunny Jamaican ’Oman and the Value of a Positive Counter- Narrative 361

DONNA AZA WEIR-SOLEY

The Language Quarrel in Jamaica: A Pedagogical Conversation 368

ISIS SEMAJ-HALL AND L.A. WANLISS

Stitching Time Together: Meeting and Greeting in Caribbean Song 378

HUBERT DEVONISH

The Politics of Language and Identity in Jamaica: From Miss Lou to De Bumpy Head Gal 385

CAROLYN ALLEN

Celebrating Miss Lou’s Historical Record: A Canadian Perspective 401

VIVIAN LEWIS

Jamma Language Ketch a University 406

THE UWI MONA LIBRARY

Archiving the Life and Works of a Phenomenal Woman: The Honourable Louise Bennett-Coverley 408

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF JAMAICA

Contributors 417

FOREWORD

Simply Love

LORNA GOODISON

Thus it was that little Louise Simone Bennett said to herself, “These people are good people, so they cannot talk bad. These are nice people; they are kind people, so the way they talk cannot be bad.” And just like that, Louise Simone Bennett found her purpose in life. The good people, many of them women, would come to Louise’s house to see her mother, Kerene Robinson, a dressmaker, whom Louise called Love. She called her maternal grandmother Mimi. Her father, Cornelius, a baker, died when Louise was a small girl, but all her life she would remember the stories he told her.

These good people would sit around and talk as they waited on her mother to finish sewing a baby’s christening gown, or a school uniform, or a dress for work or church, or sometimes a wedding dress, and sometimes a shroud, because the job of dressmakers is to keep you well outfitted from you come into this world till you leave. Louise Simone would have observed all the people coming and going to her home on North Street in Kingston, then later in Spanish Town, and she would have listened to them telling their stories, in what she’d later call her Jamma language, which linguists call Creole. This was a language forged over hundreds of years from African languages like Akan and Twi, spoken by a great number of the enslaved Africans from whom many of us are descended, and mixed with a variety of the languages spoken by the English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh functionaries who conducted the day-to-day running of sugar estates. Some Portuguese, French, German and other words were also thrown in too.