- Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
Miss Lou (centre) is greeted by fans at the Norman Manley International Airport, Kingston, on her arrival in Jamaica in July 2003.

Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer

Even as we said goodbye to Miss Lou, the Honourable Louise Bennett-Coverley, the nation continued to rake over her dead-lef, the legacy that all her hard work had gained us. That legacy sweeps the span of culture, but it rests most heavily in her legitimisation of Jamaican as more than a broken, battered, bastard of English.

Her insightful satire in poetry and celebration of the folk through song, story and proverb helped put shame in the eyes of many Jamaicans who tried to beat a Jamaican identity into submission by calling on the name of decency, which somehow rested in all things European, in particular British.

So, for all her work, the question that comes up is how do we honour her properly for all that she has done? As Miss Lou's work gained ground in popularity and respectability some accolades were piled on her. So today, while every puss have dem four o'clock, Miss Lou has her day, September 7, her birthday, officially established in 2003. Additionally, her burial in National Heroes Park symbolises acknowledgement of her significance to the country's development and the Louise Bennett Garden Theatre bears her name.

At 'Tenky, Miss Lou', held at the National Arena before she was buried, Yasus Afari argued that Miss Lou was never big on statues and instead a centre of language and culture should be built in her name. So the question must be asked is a hero's burial enough, or should Miss Lou be further immortalised through some other tangible or intangible form?

No single way

Fae Ellington explains that there is no single way to properly honour Miss Lou's memory and, as such, the combination of the tangible and the intangible would be most welcome. "She was very modest you know," said Ellington, "so any of these suggestions would have just bowled her over." Among the suggestions Ellington puts forward is naming an Air Jamaica plane in tribute to Miss Lou, thus creating a 'Spirit of Miss Lou'.

Actress Deon Silvera would also like to see a combination of the intangible and the tangible. She notes that she would like to see a statue built of Miss Lou, but she would also be quite proud to have the cultural icon dubbed one of the nation's heroines. Indeed, Nanny would be hard pressed to find better rebel spirit to accompany her. Miss Lou's work can be perceived as no less revolutionary than the national heroes currently named, as sticks and stones may break bones but words cut to the heart of the matter.

Pat Ramsay also believes that a statue of Miss Lou ought to be erected. "Boy, it would be nice to have something tangible," she said. Ramsay perceives a life-sized, realistic recreation of Miss Lou, complete with her being in performance and wearing her national dress. "It would be wonderful to have something to commemorate," she said.

Ramsay argues that creating a statue would help the future generations to know exactly who Miss Lou was and her status as an icon. She recommends that the Little Theatre would make a great home for that statue.

Of course, with the furore that accompanied the unveiling of the Emancipation Park monument and the earlier one that had accompanied the unveiling of Christopher Gonzales' capturing of Marley's spirit, the creation of any monument would have to be very carefully done.

Yet, for some, the physical creation of a statue would not be enough. According to Amina Blackwood-Meeks, the most tangible form of memorial might well lie in the intangible.

"Tangible is in the head; it's how we brought Anansi," she says. "In the head nobody can't take it from you and bird can't do-do pon it."

So Blackwood Meeks suggest that the best way to honour Miss Lou is to continue her work, work which began in the very creation of the language and culture which Miss Lou would later defend. "The best way to honour somebody is to embrace their philosophy and continue their work," Blackwood-Meeks said.

Respect the language

"I would like to see us stop using the term patois for starters and start respecting the language," said theatre practitioner Louis Marriott, who puts forward a similar argument. He notes that though linguists point out that Jamaican Creole is a language rather than a dialect, many Jamaicans continue to address the language as such.

"There's so much self-contempt and self-denial still wrapped up in this business of language," Marriott said. As such, he believes that officially according the language its proper identity would be the most fitting tribute to Miss Lou. This self-contempt can be spotted in the linguistic bleaching that occurs as people dress up their tongues (regardless of the level of their acquaintance with English).

Marriott notes that despite the strides made in Jamaican's acceptance, its success is double-edged. Marriott points out that there are still ways in which 'Jamaican' is denigrated. He argues that through its use in advertising, it is clear that Jamaican Creole is not seen as a 'noble language', the language of serious thought.

Comedy

"There is a tendency among the advertising fraternity that Jamaican Creole is to be used in comedy or situations of classlessness," he said. Interestingly, Miss Lou's own work tends to get co-opted in this portrayal. At 'Tenky, Miss Lou', after Oliver Samuels' well nuanced delivery of Voter's List, Fae Ellington pointed out that too many young actors do not understand that Miss Lou's work can be performed with subtlety. The insistence on broad acting seems to come from the belief that the comic, especially the comically written Jamaican, must be portrayed with great exaggeration.

Professor Rex Nettleford also believes that the best way to honour Miss Lou is to continue her work through investment and development of Jamaican. "The greatest monument is to ensure that her legacy continues," he said. As such, Nettleford believes that her legacy might best be served in the creation of a fellowship that is geared toward theatre arts, or the study of Creole languages or the study of theatre.

Indeed, with the limited funding currently existing for those studying theatre arts, the creation of such a fellowship would be a welcome addition to the educational landscape. Nettleford points out his own close relationship with the late Miss Lou, and notes that his editing of her first collection of poems resulted from his commit-ment to seeing her 'liberated from minstrelry'.

Struggle

Nettleford's comment points to the struggle Miss Lou had in getting her work accepted as a legitimate form of poetry. There was a refusal to take her seriously, as too many did not see her language of choice for expressing her art as legitimate. Interestingly, several of the suggestions as to how to best honour Miss Lou impact on currently existing shortcomings in Jamaica's cultural industry.

Another suggestion comes from playwright Trevor Rhone. Rhone notes that when Miss Lou was migrating in the 1980s he had attempted to raise funds to buy the house she lived in and create a museum celebrating the work, but the funds were not forthcoming. "Now there's just memory and memory fades quickly," Rhone said.

As such, Rhone notes that despite the volume of words written and spoken about Miss Lou on her passing, if we are not careful in documenting the impact of her work and the work of other important Jamaicans and without a museum to document them, then they will fade. "In another couple of years people will come and ask, Miss Who?" he warned.

Museum

An action such as turning Miss Lou's former Gordon Town home into a museum and writer's retreat, the creation of a fellowship in theatre or creole language study, accepting that Jamaican is a language, or creating a cultural centre are all about making investments in Jamaican culture and by extension the Jamaican people.

As Blackwood-Meeks argues, Miss Lou was not an accident of history. "Miss Lou did not begin her work," she said. "What came before Miss Lou allowed her to be." As such, it would be rather fitting that in memory of the indomitable woman, Jamaica's African-Caribbean heritage is continued and it also enhances the country's development.

"I do think that the investment in people would have pleased her most," Nettleford said.

It's left to Miss Lou's duppy to tell us whether he is right or not.