Dear Editor,

Long before she conceptualised and hosted Ring Ding, the first local television show developed for Jamaican children, Louise “Miss Lou” Bennett was actively advocating for our children.

Miss Lou researched and unearthed material in which Jamaican children could see themselves and their culture and feel proud. Ring Ding had a 12-year run from 1970 to 1982 and was designed around Miss Lou’s basic tenets and ideology that “Di pickney dem learn di sinting dat belong to dem.” A novel idea still desperately needed, more so today.

Emerging from a colonial legacy, Jamaican children were schooled on European paradigms and aesthetics that advocated white supremacy. To counter this indoctrination, Miss Lou taught them our folk wisdom which nourished their minds and gave them a sense of self-worth and pride. One of the proverbs that she collected states “Maga cow a bull mumma.” There are several ways to translate that proverb, but the most obvious is: Regardless of the cow’s slim size, she mothered a bull. Asked to analyse the poem, a child can infer that regardless of her or his size, she or he can produce or do something great.

In her poem New Scholar, Louise Bennett persuasively advocates for children and seeks to ensure that their special and unique ways are taken into consideration. The very title makes Bennett’s agenda of producing excellence in our children clear. The persona of the poem is a mother who goes to her child’s school and respectfully informs the teacher about the personality of her child so that the teacher can be more effective in teaching and recognising him as an individual. The mother implores, “No treat him rough, yaw, Teacher.” Throughout this poem, Bennett offers a way of teaching children in a non-abusive manner, whereby the child is catered to and handled with care. The poem also establishes a partnership between parent and teacher: “Now dat yuh know him lickle ways/Ah not havin no fear…”

New Scholar, like the other proverbs and riddles that Miss Lou collected and shared on her television show, were all intended to feed Jamaican values and infuse patriotism so that the Jamaican child could clap herself or himself and know her or his worth. Moreover, riddles support critical thinking, help to make associations, and employ deductive reasoning. These two riddles are apt examples:

1) Riddle: Hell a top, hell a bottom, hallelujah eena di miggle. Answer: Potato or cornmeal pudding (pone) made in a traditional oven with coals on top and at the bottom.

2) Riddle: Mi doan weigh anything but mi can sink di biggest ship. Answer: A complaint.

I invite parents to pause before relinquishing their children to games on cellphones. These games do not originate in the Caribbean and are imbued with subliminal values and norms that run counter to our values and beliefs. Miss Lou, like National Hero Marcus Garvey, understood acutely that we had to liberate our children’s minds if we expected to enjoy true independence and sovereignty. Who is developing local games that will teach our children our culture and the self-knowledge project that Miss Lou started?

More than a folklorist, poet, actor, and storyteller, Miss Lou was a warrior champion for our children. She understood that the real work of development must begin there, not just educating them, but equipping our children with skills and knowledge about themselves and their resilient history so they see themselves as important contributors to the world. I summon parents and teachers to revisit Miss Lou’s impressive body of work and dig deep and plumb its metaphors and messages. Now more than ever our children need to be fed our soups as foreign technological domination is at an all-time high, intrusive and insidious, focusing our children’s eyes away from themselves and their culture.

Miss Lou’s stories and idioms were about disrupting this gaze and refocusing it back to self. She was warning and reminding: “See mi an come live wid mi a two different sinting,” and “You cyaan teck mout water to out fire.” Many of our children are being murdered, raped, and emotionally abused at alarming rates. We must stop this tide of abuse. Our stories, riddles, and proverbs can help to guide us back to self and native pride and development with an active and effective village that will help to raise and protect our children.

Let’s return to family time and story time and tell each other Anansi and duppy stories and analyse their meanings together. Equally important is the need to collect and share the new stories that we are creating.

Remember Miss Lou on this her birthday and “clap yuself”. There is much in our folk culture to invent games and television shows to share with our children as well as the world’s children.

Happy Birthday, Miss Lou, and walk good. “Mi heart is singin, ‘Is long time gal me neva see yu…’ “

Opal Palmer Adisa

Cultural and gender activist