There were never any doubts about the affection the nation felt for Louise Bennett-Coverley. And if there were any, they were interred yesterday as this folklorist, cultural icon and decent human being was laid to rest.
Miss Lou's life was celebrated in fitting fashion at her official funeral service at the Coke Methodist Church, downtown Kingston, not far from the Ward Theatre where she gave generations of Jamaicans so much pleasure and inspired to new ideals and a greater sense of self and community. Fittingly, too, Miss Lou, who held Jamaica's third highest national honour, the Order of Merit, was buried at National Heroes Park, the place we reserve for the select few whom we deem have done much in the building of the nation.
Hopefully, in time, but sooner rather than later, an appropriate monument will be erected to Louise Bennett-Coverley, reflecting her role, through the use of the people's language, in the rise of the Jamaican people.
But while Miss Lou would appreciate and be thankful for any monument we build in her honour at National Heroes Park, we believe - and many people have concurred since the issue was raised in these columns this week - she would
readily forgo any such shrine if it were in exchange for
keeping the park and National Heroes Circle in decent condition. For Miss Lou clearly understood the value of heroes and people who have contributed, from every walk of life. She erected lasting shrines to them through her songs and poetry. These monuments are burnished every time someone recites one of Louise Bennett-Coverley's verses.
We have not done a good job in maintaining spaces in which we honour our heroes. National Heroes Park, the old Race Course, was in relatively decent condition for yesterday's welcome and burial of Miss Lou. That is, in large measure, the result of hectic preparation. The flower beds at the eastern, outside perimeter of the park were hoed and weeded; freshened after a long period of neglect and overgrowth. Verges were trimmed and the curb walls were white-washed.
It will be argued that while the larger portion of National Heroes Park and Heroes Circle is unkempt and gritty, the
section enclosed with monuments and graves is pristine. Pristine, of course, is relative.
We remind naysayers that not only has a portion of the park been hived off as a car park for the finance ministry, most of the rest is being transformed into a dust bowl. And even if we accept as fact the pristine quality of this declared area of heroes, it is not sufficient. Our heroes deserve it, and we owe it to ourselves, that the entire National Heroes Park and Heroes Circle be maintained with decency and dignity; an area of reflection, recreation and re-creation.
We will be told that there is no money. That is nonsense. Unless we continue to lock ourselves in the trap that everything in Jamaica must be horrendously expensive. We persist in the view that government contracts must not be occasions for feeding frenzies by political friends. The fact is that maintaining the park is a job for a handful of people on minimum wage, not at big bucks for the political boys. It is, as Miss Lou would know, as simple as that.
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