3 / 12
with the past, an inspiration for the present
and a hope for the future. She evokes in us
the humour, optimism, resilience, creativ-
ity, defiance and boundless resourcefulness
which our foreparents have used to survive
the brutality, atrocity, treachery and dehu-
manisation of slavery and colonialism. Miss
Lou used to be called the First Lady of Com-
edy. It took us a number of years to realise
that Miss Lou was no comedian. Don’t be
fooled. She was not joking. She tackled some
of the most serious and painful issues and
used the cloak of humour - brilliant strategist
and communicator that she is - to force this
society to face certain unpleasant truths. She
’tek serious tings mek joke’, for she knew
that in the oft-repeated phrase of that other
cultural icon, Professor Rex Nettleford, ’we
can’t take ourselves too seriously’. If we did,
not only would we court arrogance but also
insanity. For we have to learn to laugh at our-
selves and, importantly, we have to learn how
to ’tek kin teet kibber heart bun’ -meaning
how to maintain a sense of joy in the midst of
the most disheartening circumstances.
Miss Lou is a folk philosopher, cultural
anthropologist and community psychologist,
digging into our rich and textured Jamaican
culture to come up with the universals for
daily living and coping. She is a cultural
archivist, preserving the treasures of our
culture. She is indispensable to our Second
Emancipation.
Today, a cloud of pessimism hangs over
Jamaica. Gloom and doom is proclaimed all
over and many believe that ’Jamaica can’t
come back’. There has never been a time
when we seemed as listless, as directionless
and as purposeless as today. In the ’bad old
days’ of the 1970s when there were many
shortages, frightening levels of political
tensions, terrifying political violence, sharp
political divisions and consternation over so-
called ’creeping communism’, there were at
least a significant number of people who had
a sense of purpose, mission and vision and a
commitment to the nation.
In the early 1980s many found a new
sense of hope, and began what they said was
the rebuilding of their lives. But by the late
1980s, the disillusionment had set in and the
then JLP Government was booted out. Since
then we have been on a declining scale of
hope, despite what the objective economic
statistics are saying. Economics cannot buoy
our spirits and economics alone will not
rebuild our hope. In this developing economy
we will never have enough for trickle down
economics to work.
As I have been saying, our crisis is funda-
mentally cultural and philosophical and that
is where we have to start in rebuilding hope.
It is the cultural base which will give you the
strength to build your economy. It is from
the culture that you will be able to launch the
thrust into our Second Emancipation.
A TRUE HERO
At a time when many would-be heroes
have stumbled under the weight of their own
corruption, deception or plain ineptitude,
Miss Lou remains a true, unspoilt, undefiled
hero.
She was and is a symbol of non-parti-
sanship. Her grace and dignity would never
lead anyone in his right mind to accuse her
of playing politics. She is the Jamaican’s
Jamaican. Kevin O’Brien Chang, whom this
country owes a debt of gratitude for high-
lighting Miss Lou’s epic contributions to
Jamaican culture, made the point in a Daily
Observer column that Miss Lou is probably
the most loved Jamaican of all time. He said
she was above the political fray and does
not have the number of detractors that other
famous Jamaicans have. Marcus and Marley
can’t claim the same broad-based, unequivo-
cal adoration.
Sure, there are people who believe that
she was irresponsible for promoting ’bad
talking’, ’poor speech’ and even ’crude and
crass’ communication with the patois; but
there is something about Miss Lou’s endear-
ing, disarming grin, stunningly pleasant
personality, charm and sweetly overpowering
presence which make even critics warm to
her. Miss Lou is a true icon, a symbol of the
unity that this country desperately needs.
MESSIANIC
At a time when there are so many ways
in which we divide ourselves; when the guns
were only just recently barking near the
airport where Miss Lou was so touchingly
greeted (kudos to the organisers); and a time
when it seems we have no one symbol to pull
us all together, Miss Lou’s presence among
us take on almost Messianic proportions. If
you say I exaggerate her importance, it is
precisely because we suffer such an absence
of heroes.
At a time when our people’s minds are
taken up with the success symbols of West-
ern, particularly American, culture; when
our leading deejays are simply reflective of
a decadent American culture and its twisted
values; when corruption reigns at all levels
because people lack self-esteem and are
in a mad rush to gain significance and
’smadditisation’ (to use Nettleford’s word),
Louise Bennett-Coverley is a symbol of our