This year's celebration of emancipation from slavery comes while we yet mourn the passing of Louise Bennett-Coverley less than a week ago. She of course represents a good example of our growth through colonial tutelage to still developing nationhood - monumental enough to inspire the genuine outpouring of sadness and grief at her passing. The fact that she will be given an official funeral is in keeping with her stature. Except for the reggae star, Bob Marley, no Jamaican is as culturally iconic as Miss Lou.
For more than a half a century, she caused us to laugh at her sharp wit and her poetry, in the Jamaican dialect or patois, delivered in her inimitable cadence, which many adapted, often approximated, but never quite mastered. So there was Miss Lou, the folklorist and master humorist.
Miss Lou lifted us up by making us laugh. If that was all she did, Miss Lou would have deserved all the accolades that were showered on her during her 86 years of life. But knowing that she made us laugh, if that is all we know, is an inadequate understanding of Miss Lou. For just as, if not more important, is the fact that Miss Lou challenged us to laugh; to laugh at our foibles, our strengths and the things which make us peculiarly Jamaican. She used as the instrument to elicit that laughter deft manipulation of Jamaican dialect. And in causing us to laugh, Miss Lou taught; with guileful twists she unmasked the society's prejudices, hypocrisies and insecurities.
So there is the celebration of the people's language in her ironic verse, 'Noh Likle twang?', in which, with mock consternation, she complains of the young man who returns from the United States without the obligatory American accent.
Not even little twang bwoy?
Not even little twang?
An yuh sista wat work ongle
One week wid Merican
Se talk so nice dat we have
De jooce fe undastan?
The burlesque work calls us to self-confidence. It is an unabashed declaration of self-worth and Pa, in the contortions of "twanging" doesn't become "Poo", and all that this signifies in Jamaican patois, and even other dialects.
This outpouring of appreciation for Louise Bennett-Coverley is important and opportune, coming as it does, in the midst of a debate over our failures in education and the resources and tools required for a turnaround. Miss Lou was as adept at English as she was at Patois and was aware of the pre-eminence of the former as the language of global communication, commerce, science and technology.
So while mastering English was critical, she also understood the possibilities of Jamaican patois to support the teaching and learning process, even when the pedagogy was in English. In the Jamaican situation of poor education performance, believe in education by every means possible, by all means necessary. We have to become creative in the delivery of education if we are to achieve the
targeted results.
In that regard, we cannot agree with those who insist that Jamaican patois has no place in the classroom whatsoever, except in circumstance of levity or for entertainment. That would be to misunderstand Miss Lou and to fail to give credence to Jamaican creativity.
The real issue is how to fashion a pedagogy that utilises all the available tools to achieve the desired end. If standard English is an impediment in school Miss Lou as model will suffice as a vivid example of our emancipation and evolution as a nation.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE,
DO NOT NECESSARILY RELECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
