Louise
Bennett Coverley is generally regarded as one of the representative poets of
Jamaica and prominent literary of the 20th century. She was a
poet, folklorist, comedienne, TV commentator, and social activist, and
performer. According to The Guardian, she "brought
indigenous language into the forefront of West Indian life more than any other
single writer." "And I know that a lot of folks I knew weren't nasty
at all - they were good people who spoke this language," she once said.
The poem ‘Bans a Killin’’ is satirical and the poet justifies
his decision to write in Jamaican creole in this poem. It was
composed in 1944, during the decolonization of Jamaica, as a reaction to
various detractors, who were represented by a fictional Mr. Charlie.
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The Question may be asked; Discuss Louise Bennet’s “Bans a Killing” as a satirical poem written in Jamaican creole or ‘patois. Unlike Derek Walcott in “A far Cry from Africa”, how does she confront the colonizers by defending her choice to write in Jamaican creole?
He mocked native Jamaican English by expressing the colonial elite's ideology: "creole conversation, both in pronunciation and diction, [was] anything but beautiful."
Miss Bennett composed the poem in
an attempt to clarify what it meant to be a Jamaican, and she intended for the
poem's tone to encourage Jamaicans to perceive themselves in a good way.
It stressed the significance of
the patois language in shaping the
Jamaican nation's cultural background and people's identities. The formation of
a unified national identity was about to begin.
In “Bans a Killin,” a guy
named Mr. Charlieplots to eliminate all dialects,
emphasizing patois' social ineptitude. Thomas Russell, on the other hand,
described Jamaican vernacular speech with frank observation and no arrogance or
derision.
The poem was used to entertain and educate this emerging republic on the
significance of embracing the patois legacy that was woven into the social and
moral fabric of Jamaica without losing its political and rebellious nature.
Bennett vehemently reminds the ruling class authority that ‘patwa' is not
simply chaotic or corrupted English, but production of enormous life and humor,
and most significantly, its duty as “a defense against the dominant society's
assimilationist encroachment”
This discussion can be summed by these words that Bennet artistically use the widely used creole to represent his local culture and people’s aspiration. She was successful in doing so but on the other hand, Walcott writes his work in Standard English. This type of creole is correct or not, is not part of our discussion but the credit goes to Bennet who explores the culture in the local language.
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