From the balcony of her old plantation estate house on the north coast of Jamaica, managers once kept an eye on slaves working the sugar cane.
She spoke nothing but patois until she was 12. "The damage is deeply psychological," she insists. "The patois-speaker feels inferior, full stop.
"Because the model is the white English man, his language and educational standards… and we have not been able to attain it.
"Out of this sense of inferiority will come violence, illiteracy, disturbed behaviour and damaged emotional attitudes. All those spring from the idea that my identity is inferior." . . continue reading
10-year effort finally comes to an end
JIS: The Jamaican Patois translation of the New Testament of the Holy Bible had its official launch in London recently at the Jamaican High Commission.
General secretary of the Bible Society of the West Indies, the Reverend Courtney Stewart, told JIS news that the launch, held on October 9, was an acknowledgement of the strong ties between Jamaica and the United Kingdom (UK).
Rev Stewart, who is promoting the translation in the UK, said it was a bit like "colonisation in reverse". He noted that the Jamaican language came out of the country's British colonial experience, and that the Patois translation was done by Jamaicans for Jamaicans in "our own language".
"We have come of age. We are doing the launch (in the UK) because of the strong ties. Our relatives live here and the Jamaican community is quite strong. . . continue reading
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