‘Teach them to treasure the culture’

AS JAMAICA prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary of Independence, Letna Allen-Rowe, who hails from Clarendon and now lives in Canada, is wishing she could be on the island to be a part of the festivities.

At the top of her list of desires is enjoying some “mackerel run dung with sussumba and Gros Michel green bananas, along with two flour dumplings with a tups ah cornmeal”.

Commenting on the expected celebrations, Allen-Rowe said: “I certainly will miss all the fantastic fanfare. My great and authentic Jamaican food and beverages, the church services, the Grand Gala and fashion shows, the pageants, you name them. But most of all, my friends from the School of Drama, the ‘Panto’ crew and my friends from James Hill and Trout Hall.”

Allowing herself to reminisce on her life while growing up in the Jamaican countryside, Allen-Rowe, who has been featured in the Pantomime and several plays with theatre icon Oliver Samuels, went down memory lane with The Gleaner.

“I miss my freshly cut piece a sugar cane and freshly picked naseberry and two Julie (St Julian) mangoes or ‘Blackie’ mangoes. My good cow tail and fresh soup bone and steak from Mr Card, the butcher in Frankfield Market. He would butcher the cow on Fridays and sell in the market on Saturdays,” she shared.

Allen-Rowe, who starred in her first play, the 1983 National Pantomime General B, alongside Oliver Samuels, went on to share stage with him in other plays such as Me Yuh an Mi Taxi, Full House and Front Room.

She also went on extensive tours with him to the other Caribbean islands, Canada, United States and England.

“It has been a great run with Oliver. He is a genuine person, one who is ready to give his life and love for those he cared for. Oliver is good company to be around,” she said of her working relationship and friendship with the veteran actor.

Allen-Rowe, who migrated in 1994, shared how liberated she felt when she became an adult, leaving from under her mother’s watchful eyes and her sister meddling in her private life.,

“Hallelujah! It was freedom, it was liberating, and it was ‘I am on my own, I can do anything I want.’ I was happy to leave home. No stress, no cursing me out or thinking that I was ‘less than’ and ugly. I got to turn my own key and put on my own pot. OMG! How free I was. I could see who l (want) to see. That move has changed my life for the better. I was living in an abusive atmosphere: physically, mentally, and sexually,” the jovial diasporan shared of her only blight on her experience in Jamaica.

Born in Morgan’s Pass, Allen-Rowe spent a short time in Bryan’s Hill then moved to James Hill, before settling in Trout Hall.

There, as a teenager, she remembered not being able to go anywhere but school, getting groceries on a Saturday morning, and going to church. “But listen nuh, I have to tell you this one. I was going to Clarendon College (CC), I was about 16 or 17 and still getting licks from my mother. Anyhow, I had a friend name David Blake, who I’ve met when I did the Grade Nine Achievement Test, he turned 18 and was working in Kingston, and we secretly kept the relationship private,” she related. Her younger sisters who knew about it, would use the information as a weapon.

She recalled receiving a letter from him, which was sent to CC, in which he asked her to meet him in May Pen for lunch on a particular Saturday, with the notation to ‘dress nice’.

“See yah! I hid the letter in my school bag bottom. I (had) never gone to lunch with anybody before, except at school at lunchtime with yuh friends in the dining room. I start to wonder what to wear, then I remember my aunt in Canada did send me a sexy, sleeveless dress with all the trimmings. My mother hid the dress because she did not want me to wear the dress, fearing that I would go find boyfriend,” Allen-Rowe informed.

Determined to have a good time, she searched and found the dress, informing everyone that she was going on a Girl’s Brigade trip. Leaving the house in her Girls Brigade uniform with the dress in her bag and her mother’s high-heel shoes, when she got to Trout Hall Square she went to her girlfriend’s father shop and changed into the pretty dress and shoes. Meeting with her young love at Guinep Tree in May Pen, she had lunch, held hands and kissed.

He went back to Kingston and she to Trout Hall.

“Only, when I got to Trout Hall my sisters came to meet me. I saw them, but not before they saw me. I ducked my head, but it was too late. They waited for me until the bus went to Frankfield and returned. I had no choice but to get off the bus and tell them the truth. For years, I had to give them my meat for them not to tell my mother,” she shared with a laugh.

Allen-Rowe, who cherishes her memories of growing up on the island, is urging fellow Jamaicans to treasure the culture and ensure that they teach it to the next generation.

“Teach them to speak and appreciate the Patois, appreciate the local foods. Wear the national garment. The bandana, the green, gold (or) yellow and black. Learn and remember the national anthem, motto and pledge of the island. Learn to appreciate the music, and, most of all, the people of the wonderful island we call Jamaica. Jamaica, land we love.”

Commenting on the negative news about the island regarding crime, Allen-Rowe said the country is no different from others and that her love and loyalty remain, pointing out that in the US alone, there have been over 365 mass shootings since 2022, and it hasn’t prevented long lines at the embassies.

Allowing herself one last reflection on the food, the veteran actress said she would give anything for a cup of Junction cow cod soup and Boston jerk pork.

“I miss Jamaica yuh see, but water more than flour. But what fi do?”

cecelia.livingston@gleanerjm.com