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<span style="font-weight: bold">The Louise Bennett archives: What is this country worth?</span>
Thursday, February 17, 2011 Observer
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">WE would not presume to tell McMaster University or the estate of our cultural heroine, Mrs Louise 'Miss Lou' Bennett-Coverley what to do with her archives.
But we are extremely relieved by the reassuring words of national librarian, Ms Winsome Hudson of the National Library of Jamaica (NLJ), that a substantial amount of Miss Lou's personal archives still resides in Jamaica.
This follows news which, we are certain, would have been hurtful to many Jamaicans that McMaster had acquired the bulk of the archives. This would have meant that what is true Jamaican patrimony, from the breast of a woman who gave her soul to her island home, Jamaica, would have resided beyond her shores.
Ms Hudson tells us that on the eve of her migration to Canada, Miss Lou had invited her predecessor, Mr John Aarons, to take all but a small portion of her papers and recordings for the National Library of Jamaica.
"Indeed, the NLJ has the bulk of Miss Lou's papers, and as brawta, the papers of her husband, Mr Eric Coverley," says Ms Hudson.
She went on to further reassure that the portion of Miss Lou's archives acquired by McMaster was smaller and that the university had offered to the National Library the possibility of collaboration regarding access to their holdings.
To be fair to McMasters, they understand something that Jamaicans often don't: that there is great value and worth in our local creations. So we don't fault them for wanting to acquire something of the unique works of a woman for whom the best we can do here is a mere Order of Merit, after a lifetime of bringing us the confidence of nationhood and language.
Indeed, our story of resource poverty might have rendered us entirely without Miss Lou's personal archives, had she not done that last bit of patriotism by leaving us this indelible part of our national character and personality.
In this regard, we note that even at that, <span style="color: #FF0000"><span style="font-weight: bold">access to Miss Lou's papers at the National Library will be limited until the collection is fully catalogued and indexed, which is estimated to take another two years, according to Ms Hudson.</span></span>
This is shameful. Miss Lou migrated shortly after the 1980 elections. If she had given the papers to the library from then, why has it taken this long to catalogue them?
The real question we need to ask ourselves is how much is this country worth? And are we surprised that our luminaries, like the late Miss Lou and her husband, had to leave Jamaica to find solace and live out their final days elsewhere? </span>
Thursday, February 17, 2011 Observer
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">WE would not presume to tell McMaster University or the estate of our cultural heroine, Mrs Louise 'Miss Lou' Bennett-Coverley what to do with her archives.
But we are extremely relieved by the reassuring words of national librarian, Ms Winsome Hudson of the National Library of Jamaica (NLJ), that a substantial amount of Miss Lou's personal archives still resides in Jamaica.
This follows news which, we are certain, would have been hurtful to many Jamaicans that McMaster had acquired the bulk of the archives. This would have meant that what is true Jamaican patrimony, from the breast of a woman who gave her soul to her island home, Jamaica, would have resided beyond her shores.
Ms Hudson tells us that on the eve of her migration to Canada, Miss Lou had invited her predecessor, Mr John Aarons, to take all but a small portion of her papers and recordings for the National Library of Jamaica.
"Indeed, the NLJ has the bulk of Miss Lou's papers, and as brawta, the papers of her husband, Mr Eric Coverley," says Ms Hudson.
She went on to further reassure that the portion of Miss Lou's archives acquired by McMaster was smaller and that the university had offered to the National Library the possibility of collaboration regarding access to their holdings.
To be fair to McMasters, they understand something that Jamaicans often don't: that there is great value and worth in our local creations. So we don't fault them for wanting to acquire something of the unique works of a woman for whom the best we can do here is a mere Order of Merit, after a lifetime of bringing us the confidence of nationhood and language.
Indeed, our story of resource poverty might have rendered us entirely without Miss Lou's personal archives, had she not done that last bit of patriotism by leaving us this indelible part of our national character and personality.
In this regard, we note that even at that, <span style="color: #FF0000"><span style="font-weight: bold">access to Miss Lou's papers at the National Library will be limited until the collection is fully catalogued and indexed, which is estimated to take another two years, according to Ms Hudson.</span></span>
This is shameful. Miss Lou migrated shortly after the 1980 elections. If she had given the papers to the library from then, why has it taken this long to catalogue them?
The real question we need to ask ourselves is how much is this country worth? And are we surprised that our luminaries, like the late Miss Lou and her husband, had to leave Jamaica to find solace and live out their final days elsewhere? </span>