Cultural Icon - Miss Lou

A sweet-faced lady who mesmerized a country with folk tales, original poems and performances in Jamaican patio.

Transcript

Louise Bennett-Cloverly, affectionately known as Miss Lou, is Jamaica’s most prominent poet and folklorist who boasts radio host, writer, television host, and educator amongst her multi-hyphenate titles.

Welcome to Small Excellence where I discuss various nations around the world.  I'm your host Ngai.  This season we are speaking about my homeland, Jamaica.  In this episode, I will be discussing a cultural icon, Louise Bennett-Cloverly.

Miss Lou was born, Louise Simone Bennett on September 7, 1919, in Kingston, Jamaica, the only child of Augustus Cornelius Bennett, the owner of a bakery and Kerene Robinson, a dressmaker.  Louise was raised primarily by her mother after the death of her father when she was 7 years old.  Following secondary school at Excelsior College she began her studies of Jamaican Folklore at Friends College in Highgate located in St. Mary in 1943.  That same year, the Gleaner, a Jamaican newspaper, published her poetry for the first time in the Sunday Gleaner.   In 1945 her accomplishments continued across the pond as a British Council scholarship recipient at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA); she was the institution’s first black student.  After graduating from RADA, Miss Lou worked with various theater companies across England in Amersham, Coventry and Huddersfield further expanding her talents as a performer.  She also worked for the BBC as a radio host of Caribbean Carnival from 1945 to 1946 and West Indian Night in 1950.

On returning home to Jamaica, Louise Bennett worked for the Jamaica Social Welfare Commission, and taught Folklore and drama at the University of the West Indies. In addition to her regular work, she was writing poetry, producing radio & TV monologues, and even found time to write books.   I remember my children sitting in front of the television listening to Miss Lou entertain them with stories of Anansi, the trickster god.

What makes Miss Lou such a national treasure is not only her immense talent as a storyteller but her willingness to do so exclusively in Jamaican Patois at a time when this was frowned upon.  She typically told relatable stories of the everyday, of everyday people in everyday situations.  The well-to-do in the Jamaican society argued that Jamaican Patois was not a language but a dialect or slang and as far as these people were concerned, patois was an English extract or English spoken incorrectly.  Miss Lou begged to differ and was cognizant of the fact that outside of formal settings – school, business, politics, law, etc. Jamaican society at large speaks patois in their daily lives. That said, she believed strongly that patois was the best way to expose Jamaicans, especially the children, to their heritage.  She also understood that the same rules designating English as a language with influences from other languages such as French, Latin, Greek, German, and so on applied to Jamaican Patois.  Patois is also richly influenced by a variety of other languages outside of English such as Spanish and a multitude of African languages along with having its own set of grammatical rules.

After the end of World War II her work began to get wider acclaim leading to wider recognition. At this time, lectures and performances about Jamaican culture and music became a bigger part of her life allowing her to tour in Jamaica, England and The United States.       

Louise Bennett was married to Eric Coverley, who was also an advocate of Jamaican theater, on May 30 1954, until his death in August 2002.  The couple raised many children including her stepson, Fabian Coverley and several adopted daughters Christine, Althea, Odette and Simone. 

Because of her outstanding contributions to Jamaican culture, she received many honors, the M.B.E. or Member of the British Empire which is awarded for an outstanding achievement or service to the community, the Norman Manley Award for Excellence in the field of Arts, the Order of Jamaica in 1974 bestowed to a person of outstanding distinction, the Institute of Jamaica’s Silver and Gold Medals for distinguished eminence in the fields of Arts and Culture, an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 1983 from the University of the West Indies, and an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 1988 from York University, Toronto, Canada.  The Government of Jamaica also appointed her Cultural Ambassador at Large for Jamaica.

Louise Bennett-Coverley died July 26, 2006 in Toronto, Canada; she was 86 years old.  Her body was flown home to Jamaica and a funeral service was held on August 9, 2006 at Coke Methodist Church at East Parade.  Her final resting place is in the cultural icons section of the country's National Heroes Park.

Louise Bennett-Cloverly left a legacy brimming with cultural relevance; storytelling in spoken word and writings in Jamaican Patois along with infusing generations of Jamaicans in ancestral folklore.  She played a significant role in having Jamaican Patois recognized as a language in its own right.  Louise Bennett-Cloverly’s work influenced many other Jamaican writers and performers, the likes of which include Oliver Samuels, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Mutabaruka, and Yasus Afari, who also use Jamaican Patois as the language of their trade.  She is remembered warmly for her contributions in preserving the Jamaican culture through the arts.  Miss Lou is a figure that is universally celebrated throughout the Jamaican diaspora.

I personally own a book of poetry by Miss Lou called Jamaican Labrish and would like to share a sample of her work.  This poem is called Cuss-Cuss.

(Poem found in the book)

For anyone who didn’t understand that, this is the rough English translation. 

In this poem you have 2 women who are in an argument; woman 1 and woman 2.

Woman 1 starts by saying

You hoodlum you think I’m afraid of you and your friends.

Woman 2 responds

What?! You’re not even put together well and you want to argue with me.  I’ll slap you.

Woman 1 then says

I’m not a church girl so don’t get me started and I’ll curse bad words and punch when I get mad.

Woman 2 replies

Yeah I’m not surprised that you don’t go to church.  And by the way you look like a mule.

Woman 1 then says

We are not the same.  You have a funny shape like you’re legs are disfigured.

Woman 2 

You knock kneed witch with your big nose.

Woman 1 

Ooh, you can’t cook but you want to get married.  Not happening cause you can’t do anything.

Woman 2

You’re just jealous, not only can I cook but I’m intelligent and you’re illiterate.

Woman 1

Well, I’m sorry for any man who ends up with you cause what ever you cook is going to mess him up and make him sick.

I don’t know about you but I’m not sure who won that argument.

I hope that you have garnered some knowledge from this episode.  Tune in next time to learn more on Small Excellence.  Walk good, my friends.