Long before she conceptualised and hosted Ring Ding, the first local television show developed for Jamaican children, Louise Bennett aka Miss Lou 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 “de pickney-dem learn de sinting dat belong to dem.” A novelty 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 that nourished their minds and gave them a sense of self-worth and pride. One of the proverbs that she collected states: Marga 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 pome 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 where 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: 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. 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 the telephone. 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 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 warming and reminding, Come See me an come life wid me a two different sinting and You cyaan teck mout-water so 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 the native pride and development, with an active and effective village that 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…”

*Selected Poems – Louise Bennett, edited by Mervyn Morris, Sangster’s Book Store, 1983.

“ The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children.” Nelson Mandela

As a feminist and gender advocate and as a mother of two girls and one boy, I believe it is important to unite and protect all our children and not create a gender divide by advocating to protect women and girls only. While data supports that the vast majority of rape cases are against girls, from speaking to mothers and other organizers in various communities, I have learnt that a large number of our boys are being raped, trafficked and abused but because of the homophobia in the society their suffering has been silenced, and those cases are not being reported.

We must no longer feed the divide and pit girls against boys or we will reap the consequences down the road. W must begin to be inclusive and insist that we protect all the children in our society that is steeped in violence, where men and boys are some 80% of  the perpetrators. As we celebrate Child Month under the lofty, but important theme: “Children Need our Love and Protection- Get Involved,” let us ask and answer these questions: From what and whom does our children need protection?  How can we re-energize and activate the concept of a village raising a child that is wholistic and meaningful? What systems must the government put in place to ensure that our children, on a daily-basis, are protected? What guidance and instructions do parents need to be more effective, daily demonstrate love, commitment and protection? What steps need to be taken to ensure that the rights of every child are protected?

The Thursdays in Black Initiative to end gender-based violence, of which I am the Coordinator, for the last three years has been working weekly to bring awareness and education to this issue in Jamaica, to get all Jamaicans involved as it requires our collective will and determination to end this plague. Violence against our children is part of the larger violence in society and we must get to the root cause if we desire to live in a Jamaica where such acts are seen as heinous, and not just another incident to shake our heads over and move on.  In this month of celebrating the achievements of children as well as their precarious situation, concerned adults and parents must sit down and talk with our children and listen to them. They can provide alternative solutions that we might not have thought about.

We must be mindful of the trending disparity between boys and girls in educational achievement and look at alternative best practices that will keep our boys motivated to advance in academic status with the girls.  We must also simultaneously examine and rectify GBV against our girls and also provide them with sufficient information to stem the tide of teenage pregnancy and the spread of HIV and other SIDs among girls 15 and older. Girls and boys need to be informed of their fundamental rights and how to ensure that those rights are protected. We need to engage them more in protecting the environment on which their future hinges. We need to involve them in the political process so they can be agents of change who will not only protect the environment, but ensure we have a democratic society that is home-grown and governed for the benefit of all the people and not just a minority.

All our children are in need of love and protection.  They must be assured that they are valuable and can and must contribute to the development of our society. We must socialize and allow boys to express the full range of their emotional landscape; we must give our girls a voice to speak out against and stop sexual and other forms of abuse. We must penalize those men and women who target underage children for sexual exploits, and we must introduce in the school system and other institutions a process to promote true equality and fairness for our girls and boys, and teach them how to effectively communicate in non-violent ways, and treat each other with respect and dignity.  It is our job and obligation as adults to model and reinforce these foundational practices.  I concur with Nelson Mandela who asserts, “Safety and security don’t just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.” 

 My fellow Jamaicans, let’s be intentional and love and protect our children not just during Child Month but 365 days, 24/7. We must build a solid foundation for our future.

 I am here to inform you that your daughters, not just your sons, need you to be actively present in their lives. A girl needs her father too. The most indelible memories of my father are all before I was ten years old and then there is a blank. Not one scrap of an image after that period as my father migrated to the United States of America and  was absent from my life for the next nine years.  His leaving and not communicating with us left a vacuum that took three years of therapy to come to terms with my issue of abandonment  and to make space for me to have a meaningful relationship with a man and prepare to be a mother to my children.  Daniel Flint, a paediatric psychologist, says girls who have healthy relationships with their fathers are less likely to develop depression. While I was never diagnosed with depression, I do believe that my tendency during that time-frame to go off by myself and live primarily inside my head might have been related to my father’s absence.

Luckily, positive males figures were filled by my two maternal uncles,  Lloyd, a painter, and Cecil, a soldier, both of whom visited regularly and took my sister and I  on outings, the latter always protective, warning his friends when he took us around them, that we were his nieces and that they had to respect and protect us. Once, Cecil spoke angrily at one of his friends who cursed in our presence, warning him, “Nuh cuss nu bad words in front of dem.” Lloyd was more cultural and spoke to me kindly but passionately about Africa,  Egypt civilization in particular. It was the love and grounding of both of these uncles that cushioned the privation of my father. As I moved beyond the confines of my home and began dating, it was their guidance and warning that guided my decisions. Studies have confirmed that a girl’s relationship with her father often influences  her romantic choices, but more importantly, a father’s support, praise and active love boost a girl’s  self-esteem and confidence, allowing her to postpone or delay early sexual engagement. I wish I had had my Daddy during that period , but I am thankful for my uncles.

I was fortunate to have a loving, motivated, formidable mother who never seemed to be afraid of anyone or anything; she was amazing. However, I remember an incident of a man threatening  my mother and us, and her evoking my absent father’s presence, “Although, you don’t see a man in this house, just know my children have a father, and if you hurt them you will have to contend with him.”  My parents were then divorced and I know my mother had not heard from my father as I had deliberately eavesdropped on her speaking with her sister and lamenting, “Not a word from Dadda (everyone called my father  Dadda), not a word. Him just gone so.”  I remember crawling into my favourite corner after the threatening man left our gate, wondering what would happen if he were to return to fulfill his threats and neither my mother nor I could produce my father.  I remember being very angry with my father, feeling anxious and abandoned. I silently cursed my father, and I felt deeply ashamed. 

This feeling lingered with me, and while my mother always threw me lavish birthday parties and I had been all along looking forward to my sweet sixteen, I refused her offer of a party and did not celebrate this significant birthday because I did not know where my father was and he did not even send me a birthday card. While data suggest that girls with fathers tend to perform better academically, despite my father’s absence from my life for almost all of my undergraduate education, I was determined to perform to outshine him, the trained chemist and city planner. Despite the presence of my uncles, because there was never a man in the house, I did not witness a relationship between a man and a women close up, and did not know or felt capable to navigate the give and take that is required to grow and nurture a mature, wholesome relationship.

 This is a common topic discussed among many single women with “daddy issues,” especially if they have a strong mother as I did and no father or male role model at home. My father denied me this perspective, when  for whatever reason, he decided to walk away from me, from his children.

My father was a functioning alcoholic until the doctor warned him that his liver was at risk, after he migrated to the USA. This I learned, when I was an adult, was one of the foremost reasons why my mother left him and sought a divorce. Allegedly, he would come home drunk, belligerent and he was also a womanizer. I know this knowledge of his earlier behavior impacted my choice of the man I married, a non-Jamaican, non-drinker, whose parents were married for over forty years until his mother died. He was a man whom I felt would not abandon his children, no matter the circumstances, and he did not/ has not even after our divorce. Also, my forty and thirty-plus years friendship with Jamaican men, Neville, Don, Errol, Peter and Karl, Bilal, whom my children call uncles, was based on their exemplary roles as fathers and devoted husbands, and I thank and applaud them for their friendship and helping to serve as positive male models for my two daughters and a son.

I don’t remember my mother ever once speaking negatively about my father or trying to keep us from him. After they divorced when I was almost five years old, and while he was in Jamaica, he would always come to get us and I remember us spending a few weeks during the summer at his house.  I remember Sunday drives  in his grey Morris Oxford car.  When we moved to New York to attend college, in my fourth year, Daddy sent us a letter, having secured our address from his mother, saying he would like to see us.  I refused, still angry and feeling neglected and promptly said I was not going even though my older sister was eager. My mother did not insist, but she pulled me aside and urged me, “Give him a chance. Go see him and hear what he has to say. ” I relented and my mother drove my sister and I to the station to take the train to see Daddy in White Plains. That awkward reunion was surreal as Daddy acted like nine years had not elapsed.  That first visit made me even angrier.  I wanted an apology; I wanted him to go on his knees and beg our forgiveness.  I wanted from him what I could never have, those lost years returned.

I’m writing a book about my father that I began a year after his death, 2012,  entitled, The Scent of My Father, that I hope to complete this year.  Part of my challenge is trying to fill in the gaps and piece information from older cousins who knew him. There is so much I don’t know about my father even though we reconciled and I took my children to see him whenever I could.   We never lived in the same place again before his death, and he wasn’t big on talking via the telephone, preferring to write. I would ask him some questions about his life and he would write me letters which I still have. I truly miss those almost ten years of his absence…The sense of loss is still a big pit that I will carry to my grave. I don’t remember ever dancing with my father as a teenager or adult; he could not and did not attend my wedding.  He did not attend my children’s naming ceremony. There are so many events he did not attend, so many crucial moments in my life for which he was absent. The smell of my father is absent.  What does that smell like; like having a bad cold and losing your taste buds.

Once, when visiting my father at his home in White Plains, New York, he took me upstairs to his office and I was shocked to see photos of my sister and me on the walls. He also had copies of a few of my books. We went back downstairs, and were sitting in the kitchen by the window when I braved the question, “Why  didn’t you send me birthday cards for nine years?”  He looked away then stood up and removed the plates from the meal he had prepared for me that we had eaten. Then he sat back down and said, “I always remembered your birthday, but I just didn’t. I have always loved you…” Tears came to my eyes then, as they do now as I am allowing these moments to wash over me. Then he said nothing else even though I prodded, saying his life was complicated then…his first several years in the USA.

I suspected he might not have been legal even though when I visited him he was working as a chemist at one of the leading candy factories in the area, from sugar making to candy…a natural evolution. I had to tell myself what was lost was lost and could not be retrieved. I missed out and so did my father.

I want to think we both have holes that will never be filled. I love my father and two of my fondest memories of him are him swimming me out to sea on his back many Sunday mornings at the now defunct Gun Boat beach off the Palisadoes Road, and how safe and connected to be on Daddy’s back and the water enfolding us…Perhaps that is why the sea still soothes me. The other memory is of Daddy showing me how to clean Pretty Parrot’s cage and not being afraid to hold out my arm and have the parrot stand on it while feeding him peppers. I close my eyes now and try to imagine my Daddy’s arms embracing me, try to see if I can excavate  a memory of him dancing me on his feet, him telling me about what to look for in a good man and how to live a meaningful life.  The slate is clean. I have to nurture what I have and continue to love him despite the fact that he did not give me many things that I needed.

As I reflect on Father’s Day, I thank Vinnie, my father-in-law, who is/was a wonderful father figure to me, and never stopped calling me his daughter nor broke off communicating after his son and I divorced and I moved away.  Thanks Vinnie for your enduring love. So I appeal to all men who are fathers to not walk away from your sons or daughters.  We need you too and your absence leaves a chasm that no one can fill and no time or therapy can heal.  Your presence must be a constant  garden from which sun-flowers grow. Be an engaged, loving father to your daughters.  Help us to grown whole and strong. Happy Father’s Day, Daddy; A Blessed Father’s Day to all fathers.

                        Daddy I need you

                        the left side that grounds me

                        in masculine strength and assurance

                        with your love my feet are planted

                        not a path I cannot navigate…

The notion of single-parenting, especially by women, has dominated the parenting discourse and many

might believe it is the norm in Jamaica.  However, there are some men who are single- parenting their children, and many who are co-parenting with wives or partners and have not skirted nor withdrawn

from their responsibility. Often these progressive fathers are not showcased and their positive involvement in their children’s lives is not recognized nor noted as a viable and important cultural contribution to the development of the entire society.

All too often we hear about the negative impacts of absentee fathers and the widespread “baby-mother” man who is nothing more than a sperm dropper, who has fathered several children with several different women and is not bearing any financial or emotional responsibility. While fatherhood and fathering can vary from man to man, I believe there are some basic values or even norms to which active fathers ascribe. My definition: a father is a man who is actively involved in the daily life and welfare of his child or children, offering love, guidance and protection. While, historically, emphasis was not placed on the importance of fathers, equal to the importance of mothers, researchers, over the last three-plus decades have been advocating and promoting the daily involvement of fathers in every aspect of their children’s lives.  Dads play a necessary and pivotal role in the lives of  boys and girls, helping to bolster their self-esteem and confidence, providing guidance that results in better academic performance, and producing overall well-rounded individuals.

As an academic, I value data generated from research, but I also know that lived reality is of paramount importance. Hence, I sought out three fathers to learn how they see their role as fathers in their children’s lives. Each was asked the same 3 questions, the first,” How do you define your role as a father?” Roderick, married with five boys, ages 20, 17, 14, 11 and 8, responds in what some might consider a more traditional manner. “My role is the authority figure, the one who demonstrates manhood to my children. The father’s role is to teach, correct, provide, protect, to give security and guide his children and to help them to make wise decisions.” Roderick  admits that he is still learning how to be a good father, especially with regard to his oldest son, whom he defines as very intelligent, “ yet he is still finding it difficult to make certain wise decisions when his youthful adrenaline kicks in.” Roderick is always there “to support and help him to balance his life.” Roderick wants fathers to understand that their children need them at all ages, as they go through different phases of their lives.

Charles, the father of 2 boys, ages 11 and 12, believes his role as a father is to understand his children, then adds, “also guide, protect and discipline  them because love sown from a father to a child is  also inclusive of discipline and corrections.” In response to my second question:”Why is it important that fathers are present in their children’s lives?” Charles offered this insight. “One of the most important aspects of being a father is that of celebration. I love to celebrate with my children when they get something right so that the feeling will last a long time. I will try whatever to make the celebration memorable.” This practice of celebrating your child’s life, not just on birthdays, is really a caveat that I encourage more parents to incorporate into their practice. Charles invites fathers “to experience life through your children, but not to grow them to be you or to do all the things that you wanted to be.”  Although he recognizes that your child won’t listen  and might consider you antiquated, he has discovered that they do listen and that parents “can sit back and watch them [children] heed  many of the things that you told them before.”

Jayson, father of twins, a boy and a girl, age 7, and a 14-year-old daughter is a Counselor and sees his role as a father as a four-pronged involvement: “Making sure all of their basic needs are met, having “resources to capitalize on their educational opportunities at a minimum to university and to protect my children.”  Jayson also believes there is an essential male role as a socializing agent, “ by expressing my emotions in a healthy and acceptable way; respecting, managing disagreements and conflicts between us in a harmonious way and being very intentional.” Jayson knows that fatherlessness can result in maladaptive behaviour that leads to crime and violence, so he urges those fathers who are home, but not involved in their children’s lives to get up off the sofa and be psychologically present. Acknowledging that “parenting is the toughest job,” he also appeals to those men who might not have had positive father role models “to break that cycle and be present in your child’s life.”

The three fathers echoed a similar appeal  to absentee fathers, “Don’t relive what was handed down to you and what is becoming the norm; you have the power to break the generational cycle.”  Roderick acknowledges that unhealthy fatherhood has been modeled for far too long, so he says “ Remember that your child/children need you and you also need them, if not now, then later.”

Today as we rightly pay homage to fathers and acknowledge their roles as equal to that of mothers, I invite all men who have fathered children to be mindful of Charles’ appeals, “Get present! No matter how hard it is, no matter if you having problems with the mother or have to take her to Court. Make sure you’re in your child’s life because it is the most important award  and reward that you can  give your child.”

Happy Father’s Day to all men who are fathering their own children as well as others, and many joyous blessings.

                                                                  –30–

The theme for this year’s observance of Child Month is “Children Need our Love and Protection –Get Involved”  and that is certainly appropriate, especially in light of the fact that in the last 2 months, two seven-year-old girls have been raped, one murdered and the other one left for dead. Violence against our children has escalated and the data supports this alarming trend. While the majority of crimes are committed against girls, boys are also sodomized, probably more than is reported due to our homophobia, and they are certainly equally abused physically, verbally, and emotionally.

As we contemplate this lofty theme, I hope that we can each demonstrate that loving and protecting our children is really a lived experience. We have to probe and ask ourselves why, overwhelmingly,  many Jamaican children are treated so cruelly and what do we expect will happen if we continue to nurture and raise a generation whose lived reality is one of abuse and who do not believe that their life is valued?

 I firmly believe that a society that is unable to protect its children ostensibly is a society that is doomed. Data shows that violence begets violence and abused children/adults often end up abusing others as their survival often dictated that they internalize their pain. So we have to ask these difficult but necessary questions: 1. What support do parents need in order to effectively love and protect their children? 2. What is it that the government needs to do in order to ensure that children are loved and protected? 3. How do we ensure that children and parents know what children’s rights are and that those rights are monitored and protected in very real and tangible ways? Children are the future and it takes a village to raise a child are maxims that are not widely practiced in Jamaica anymore.

 One of the most basic and profound things that need to happen – since most of these incidents of child abduction/ trafficking and child abuse occur when children are on their own to or from school– is that the government needs to provide transportation for children in all areas throughout the island, especially in inner-city communities and rural areas, with a driver, male or female, who has been vetted and trained to transport children safely.

 Further, parents should be advised, (and this might be difficult for some working-class parents) that no child under the age of 10, no matter how close to the school he/she lives should be sent to school alone. Somebody must and should always accompany that child and ensure that they are inside the school gate because the two incidents of the girls being abducted and raped were close to their homes. Quite frankly, sending a 7-year-old child on their own, regardless of how much information they have about predators/abductors, is negligible. I think there needs to be legislation that children under 10 should not be on the streets unattended. Further, it should be compulsory that predators and mentally ill persons living in communities with children, be identified. In many of these cases, the perpetrators – rapists and murderers– are known to the community which then remains silent until an atrocity happens. We cannot and must not allow this to continue.

My fellow Jamaicans, we must work to protect our children. It is no longer enough to give lip service to these maxims; they have to become our collective lived reality. Our children need to feel and know that they are going to be protected from physical, verbal, and mental abuse and from pedophiles who seem to be increasing in our society. It is our job as respectable concerned citizens to ensure the protection of all children by lending support to those parents who don’t have the means to do so, and to demand that the government puts in the needed resources to protect all our children regardless of the socio-economic disparities. Jamaica, if we truly desire a future that is not plagued by violence and disregard for humanity, then we must begin today to make sure all our children know they are valued, loved and protected to enjoy a safe, violence-free life.

Before you felt the life in your womb
Before your child was born
Did you think about what motherhood entailed?
Did you understand that you would be a role model
that unselfishness would be required of you?
Did you truly understand what it would mean to care for another 24/7
and how you would have to adjust and adapt to your child’s needs?

Before you became a mother did you understand
the sacrifices that you would need to make?
Did you understand unconditional love was a requirement?
Before you became a mother had you healed from your own
woundedness so you would not pass on your hurts to your child?
Before you became a mother did you love yourself?
Had you forgiven your own mother for whatever indiscretions
and failures she might have had?
Before you became a mother were you able to hug and to forgive yourself?
Did you know that your needs would often have to become secondary ?
Before you became a mother had you fulfilled any of your dreams?
Had you thought about what you wanted to gift your child
what kind of a person you wanted to unleash upon the world?

Before you became a mother did you understand the astounding
responsibility you would be taking up?
Did you think about what stories and memories
you wanted to implant in your child and how to teach your child
to love and respect Humanity?
Before you became a mother did you know motherhood
was not a job nor occupation but rather a way of life?
Did you fathom that motherhood is a gift to the world
assuring our continuity?
How lucky you are to have been chosen for such a responsibility…
And how fortunate is the world when you honour your role
and mother another to maturity.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers, regardless of gender.

Motherhood seduced me before I was a teenager. I knew I wanted to be a mother.

I practiced mothering on the other children in my community, dreamed of having children, and wanted to leave a stamp on the world. I did not know then nor did I understand all of the implications of motherhood, that my role was not to put a stamp on this human being I birthed, but rather to learn the lesson the child brings. Every child has an important lesson to teach that mother needs to learn and every mother has a lesson to teach her child:  how the fragrance of compassion can restore the downtrodden, and how confidence can repair the sight of the blind.

Motherhood is not a mamby-pamby emotion. It is the mother of all poems; it is the bass in reggae, the survival instincts in dancehall, the emergence of land from volcano, and the assurance of a people who survived slavery.

Motherhood is getting your hands so dirty they can never be clean again; they will never be the same hands again and you will never be the same you again. Motherhood is the ingenuous taste of ackee and saltfish, the promise of bouganvilla, the glory of yellow yam, the dance of the hummingbird, the strength of lignum vitae, and the nutrients of banana.

Motherhood  is not vain or pompous; it raises no flag to erect barriers; it is an open field, endless, expansive brave, daring, and celebratory.

Motherhood is rolling up your sleeves, bending your back and leaning into the hard work that must be done.

 Motherhood tastes like guava jam in your mouth, smells like pork jerking, sounds like waves splashing rocks, feels like a hibiscus petal and intuits gratitude.

Motherhood assures us that there will be a tomorrow and Jamaica will continue to produce greatness.

Happy Mother’s Day to All Mothers

From History to Herstory (1)

Given the prominence of Jamaican women  today, many might believe their stories have always been shared and heard, but this is certainly not the case. While there are certain  categories of Jamaican women who have attained prominence, especially in middle management, this should not lead us to believe that we have achieved gender equality in Jamaica. In fact, despite significant progress, we are far from it  and so it’s important that women’s stories get told. If equality is to be a reality for this nation of ours, then it’s important to tell the myriad stories of our unsung sisters so our little girls know the path that they’re walking on many before them cleared, often at great sacrifice.  So while we know the male leaders of the Morant Bay Rebellion, how many of us know of Letitia Geoghegan, executed  and Rosanna Finlayson, sentenced to 20 years penal servitude, two  of the seven female leaders of that revolution who were tried for their defiance. Thanks to Clinton Hutton, Political Philosopher and former lecturer at the UWI , who in his book, Colour for Colour Skin for Skin: Marching with the Ancestral Spirits into War Oh at Morant Bay (date?), provides evidence of the active participation of women in that historical battle.

Trailblazing in Public Service (2)

All too often the history books –  his story – forget  women like Iris King, the lone woman who served on the Joint Independence Constitution Committee, and was the first elected female Mayor of Kingston in 1958. How many of our children know of her?  Is there a monument in her honour?  What treatment did she meet with from all those big-egoed men who felt they had the right to draft our constitution?  How many nights did she toss restlessly in bed, charting a strategy to survive yet another day with men, some of whom made endless sexual innuendos, or outrightly spewed words to slash her  and make her question her worth and ability.  Iris King obviously paved the way for Portia Simpson who has been the first and only female Prime Minister to date, 60 years after independence. This indicates how far we women still have to go. Now, for the first time in our history, we  have the largest number of women in parliament.  I hope they are sufficiently woman conscious and will ensure that there is a gender budget and that those men who are associated with gender-based violence are not allowed to take up/hold political appointments, retain seats when wrongdoing is discovered, or represent our people in any position of power.

Essential Nurture Island-wide

But of equal importance are the women who provide us with food to put on our tables . I refer to these women in the Papine market and elsewhere, who are second generation market vendors, astute and shrewd. Women like Irene who gets up at a 3 am in the early morning to go and buy products and then sits in the market all day selling. Simultaneously, she raised and supported three children, and was able to build a house on her own.  The informal banking system of “partner”  that has allowed many working class women like Irene to start businesses, pay school feels and assist their elderly relatives with medical bills.  Irene is another of our strong, determined  woman who lives by the maxim, “One-one cocoa full basket.”  Following in her mother’s footstep, who sometimes can still be seen sitting by her stall in the Papine Market, Irene and other vendors are our salvation, ensuring that we have quality produce and ground provision to nourish our bodies. Hard-working honest women who are the backbone of our society, who are often treated with disdain  and little respect. Do you know the names of the women you buy from weekly in the market?  Do you ever stop to ask how their children are, and what you could do to help them? To engage them is to be amazed at their resourcefulness throughout long days and small returns. Their propensity to provide for themselves to sustain their children despite meagre earnings is indomitable.

Intergenerational Legacies (4)

There are so many unsung heroines in Jamaica, including many  modern-day formidable women among us such as Joan French, Judith Wedderburn, Joyce Hewitt, Lana Finikin, Shirley Pryce and countless others fighting the good fight for women’s equality and continuing to clear space for the women and girls who are emerging. Nor should we overlook it is likely that having the first Rear Admiral Antonette Wemyss Gorman to head the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), is the reason why women soldiers felt comfortable to come forward with charges of sexual harassment that has resulted in resignation of senior male personnel. Women opening the door for other women to be safe and excel in what was considered male dominated spaces.  In order for shy little girls to grow into confident, assertive women, they need to know the stories of the grandmothers and great-grandmothers on whose shoulders they stand.

Iconic Artistry Forever (5)

Almost all my adult life I have interviewed women, primarily, collecting and preserving their stories.  I am awed at the array of phenomenal women  who exist in Jamaica. I think of someone like Marjorie Wiley, the great cultural icon and percussionist who worked with the NDTC Dance company with Rex Nettleford, and with Miss Lou in the Pantomime and on Ring Ding. Whylie’s pioneering work as a drummer, in a field that was primarily, as she herself stated in an interview, dominated by men. What was it in her upbringing that allowed her to decide so young that she loved the drum and she was going to play the drums and other percussion instruments? Marjorie Whylie has taught many throughout Jamaica, and has done extensive research on our songs and other folk idioms, yet remains  humble and gracious.  She is certainly one of our national treasures who should be revered and her reservoir of knowledge plum and preserved.

Writing Women and Girls (6)

As a cultural and gender advocate and a creative writer I have consistently, throughout all of  my work, documented and told the stories of a diverse range of Jamaican women, ensuring that their lives and deeds are not erased from the annals of history. Like many Caribbean writers, I occupy the role of scriber with reverence and believe it is my duty to reframe, reintroduce and reimagine our lives preceding our enslavement, and in particular since the epoch, by listening to the stuffed cries, seeing our unacknowledged?    worth and beauty, the repeated trauma with no space for healing or reflection. Thus  my very first  short story collection, Bake-Face and Other Guava Stories, 1986, highlights rural woman in Jamaica, women who still don’t have a platform on which to share their stories. My most recent children’s picture book, Pretty like Jamaica gives  nine year old Kathryn, whose mother has migrated to America from she was one year old. a place to tell her story, especially how she’s feeling  about living in Jamaica and getting ready to migrate to join her mother and siblings in the USA and leave her grandmother behind.

From Herstory to Our Story (7)

I urge you to sit with your elderly female relatives and listen to their stories. At first, some might be reluctant to share with you, but sit quietly and gently prod them and their stories will unfold.  In these stories  are stored priceless treasures: wisdom,  knowledge and experiences that can help us to navigate this 21^st century…terrain more easily. Let us celebrate and honour our  women and elevate understanding of their participation in building this nation, as equally as we regal the stories of our men. Let us draw solidarity from the peaceful men who,  in spite of / irrespective of their own troubles/frustrations,   do not resort to violence against women and children. Women are half of the nation, and their journey, struggles and triumphs must be sung and documented as loudly as their male counterparts for Jamaica to thrive. Big up our Women.  Nuff Respect.