- Home
- literary collections
- 100+ Voices for Miss Lou

100+ Voices for Miss Lou
Poetry, Tributes, Interviews, Essays
Edited by Opal Palmer Adisa
Miss Lou had the instinctive wisdom to relate language to identity. As a people who have long since lost our identity, we continue to search for it.
There is an interrelationship between language – the words we use – and our identity. In that regard, Miss Lou helped us to remember who we are. However, mental slavery is still with us. While we continue to deny our own language, our way of expressing ourselves, there is no escaping the fact that our language is part of our identity as Jamaicans.
Although a lot of our unique cultural DNA disappeared during the Middle Passage, Miss Lou had the wisdom and the courage to grasp what remained of that DNA and give voice to the voiceless. She did it with such decisiveness that I have lived to see the day when Patwa, or Jamaican Language as it is properly called, has taken its rightful place as an important part of our identity.
That is Miss Lou’s legacy.
—Beverly Manley-Duncan
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
Opal Palmer Adisa is the outgoing University Director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies – Regional Coordinating Office, the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. An award-winning writer of twenty published books, she is a cultural activist and a gender specialist.
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.
Forthcoming Events

Radio Feature | 100+ Voices for Miss Lou edited by Opal Palmer Adisa
Sunday. February 13, 2022 | 9:00 am
Radio: IRIE FM, 107.1/ 107.3, 107.5, 107.7/ 107.9
Read more
Women’s History Month Feature | 100+ Voices for Miss Lou: Poetry, Tributes, Interviews, Essays edited by Opal Palmer Adisa
Saturday. March 5, 2022 | 9:30 am
Nationwide 90FM
Read more
Women’s History Month Feature | 100+ Voices for Miss Lou: Poetry, Tributes, Interviews, Essays edited by Opal Palmer Adisa
Sunday. March 6, 2022 | 3:30 pm
Radio Jamaica 94FM
Read more
Contributor’s Highlight | ‘Licky Licky’ by Kemar Cummings Recited by Sandrika Dunkley
Thursday. March 17, 2022 | 10:00 am
YouTube
Read more
15th Annual Louise Bennett-Coverley Reading Festival
Saturday. April 2, 2022 | 1:30 pm
West Regional Library, 8601 Broward Blvd, Plantation, FL, USA
Read more
100+ Voices for Miss Lou | Abeng in Beijing by fabian m. thomas
Friday. April 8, 2022 | 10:00 am
Online
Read more
Book Launch | 100+ Voices for Miss Lou: Poetry, Tributes, Interviews, Essays edited by Opal Palmer Adisa
Thursday. April 28, 2022 | 2:00 pm
YouTube
Read more