In two days time the beloved Jamaican folklorist and cultural icon, Louise Bennett-Coverley, will be buried at National Heroes Park in Kingston.
It is entirely appropriate that Miss Lou's final resting place will be among those whom we cherish most for their fight for freedom and the dignity of the Jamaican people and the building of our nation. She earned her place in this pantheon.
For Miss Lou through verse, rendered in the language of the majority, affirmed ourselves and our right to be. Her poems and chants, in that sense, were as profound and as liberating and the most revolutionary of speeches by any political leader. And she did it with great humour.
In that regard, there is great poignancy in the fact that Louise Bennett-Coverley died, and is buried, during that period when Jamaicans marked our emancipation from slavery 168 years ago and the 44th anniversary of our independence on Sunday. We imagine that were it possible to ask her about her timing, she would have given her trademark laugh before declaring it was the design of the higher order of things.
But more problematic, we think, would be Miss Lou's comment about the surroundings where her body will be laid to rest. We would hardly be surprised if she were saddened by the state of National Heroes Circle and even that portion of the park reserved for the shrines of the heroes and the burial of important personages.
For Louise Bennett-Coverley understood the idea of heroes. People and societies need them. They are repositories of the ideals and visions from which we start and on which we build. In other words, our heroes simultaneously offer certitude while holding out possibilities in the unknown.
But speaking eloquently about our heroes is not enough. Also of importance are the marks and shrines we establish to our heroes and how we maintain these. In this respect, Jamaica has not done a good job. It has done rather poorly, as National Heroes Park and National Heroes Circle demonstrate.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the upkeep of Heroes Park, for a facility of the kind, is woeful, its unkemptness compounded by the presence of those eyesore buildings fashioned form shipping containers. Occasionally, during a special event, or when the Government is shamed into action, there is a flurry of activity, with the pruning and planting of flower beds and the trimming of verges. In any event, such work is usually contained in a small area around the shrines.
Of course, the authorities will point to work being done inside the park, but that has been puttering along for ages with little visible improvement or clear timetable for completion. Managers complain of a lack of funds.
Even if there is improvement inside the confined area of Heroes Park, that is only a small area of a large open park, that is now a veritable dust bowl, from which the Finance Ministry has pinched a portion for a car park. Developing Heroes Circle as a recreational area can't be beyond us, either in capacity or cost. And basic improvement of what exists now ought not be overly difficult, if there is a will.
The question is whether despite our glib declarations we really care.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily
reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us:
editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer
than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
