Aisha Harris-Parker | In Miss Lou’s Memory – Dis lang taim gyal

Cultural Icon Louise Bennett-Coverley is celebrated annually on September 7, which is the anniversary of her birth. To commemorate her life and legacy, we host events and have even mounted a monument in her honour. All these things are good, but have we taken the necessary steps as a country to seriously move our national language and culture to a level of prominence?

Acknowledging Jamaican Patois as an official language is paramount if we would like our children to make progress in language acquisition. So many people are still of the mistaken notion that all Jamaicans are fully proficient in standard English, or that Jamaica is a country of monolinguals, two things we know not to be true.

People are sometimes mistreated because of their inability to speak or understand standard English, especially when it is used in formal, business and legal contexts. There are some Jamaicans who are still of the impression that Patois is ‘bad English’. If this is the case, and even worse, if it is not a language at all, are we therefore saying that the persons who exclusively use this language in their everyday lives do not speak ‘a language’? This takes away a big aspect of their personhood.

‘YU CHAT TOO BAD’

In Miss Lou’s poem No Lickle Twang, she gives public commentary on the shame that can be experienced when one has not grasped standard English. In this poem, the mother said of her son, “Yu chat too bad!” These sentiments are still expressed to Jamaican children at home and in schools, where some of them are silenced and shamed; this is discouraging for the young learners

Our government has the responsibility to protect the interests of the people. How can we consistently give information of vital importance in a language that some of our people will not understand? How can we not see that this is a big part of the reason why some of our children are lost in the education system? Miss Lou’s teachings encourage us to embrace this aspect of our identity. She wanted to encourage national pride in our mother tongue, helping us to understand its value and uniqueness. She taught the language to persons all over the world and, because of this, was dubbed a ‘cultural ambassador’.

We love to attend our roots plays and listen to the music in our language. We find its use in the media humorous, but we undervalue how much we use it with our friends and family and in our day-to-day lives. Miss Lou herself warned us in Bans a Killin that the endangerment of our language may have an effect on many different aspects of our culture when she wrote, “When yu done kill wit an humour, when yu kill variety, yu wi haffi fine a way fi kill originality!”

BILINGUAL EDUCATION

Mother tongue illiteracy is one of the issues that we are faced with. Many persons would say that they cannot read in Jamaican Patois. The Jamaican writing system is available, but there is the need for awareness. Some of us continue to write the language based on general English rules, so whenever we look on social media and in public advertisements, we can see the language all around us.

It is not true that the language is not being written, as some claim. The language is seen in the newspapers – Carolyn Cooper writes her articles in both Chaka-Chaka and the Cassidy – Jamaican Language Unit (JLU) writing system; it’s in some of our Jamaican tabloids for added entertainment; it is also seen in letters to the editor, signage and fast-food restaurants (I particularly enjoy seeing the language used in Island Grill).

Children books are now increasingly using our local language, as well as poetry, with persons such as Joan Andrea Hutchinson, that ‘Bumpy Head gyal’, continuing the legacy. The Bible is fully translated into Jamaican Patois, and primary-school books have been fully translated into Jamaican by the JLU’s Bilingual Education Project.

WORLD TRAVELLER

Raising awareness of the formal writing system would empower us to continue using the language we all love so dearly, “A Patwa wi chat – notn no rang wid dat.” In her rendition of Fi wi Language, Miss Lou says, “Wi no haffi shame a taal a taal”, as she outlines the various uses and functions of the language. Her efforts at public education have not gone unnoticed.

I know as soon as we start talking about our language, there are those who are quick to ask, “What are we going to do with that? Our people need to learn English since it is an international language.” To that I say, yes. We all should be learning English, and we should develop language skills in a way that it is proven to work, moving from known to unknown.

The general aim is bilingualism; this is the desired goal and much more beneficial than monolingualism. It allows you to function in a variety of contexts and it prepares you to engage with people from different backgrounds and perspectives. Miss Lou herself was a world traveller, with the ability to codeswitch. She felt that language advocacy was worthwhile because of the irreplaceable value of being able to express love and appreciation in the language of your heart. Tenky, Miss Lou, and Happy Birthday (sung Jamaican style)!

Aisha Harris-Parker is a language and culture specialist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.