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July 26, 2006
Water Come A We Eye, MS Lou Dies At 86
The Hon. Dr. Louise Bennett-Coverley died in a Toronto hospital in Canada after collapsing at home. She was 86 years old.
The woman, affectionately known as Miss Lou by fans and admirers, was installed as a fellow of the Institute of Jamaica in 2003. She has a sterling record as a folklorist, writer and pioneer in the performing arts in Jamaica, and was the recipient of several accolades from the Institute of Jamaica. Among these are the Silver and Gold Musgrave Medals. She was awarded the Silver Musgrave for Dialect and Folklore in 1965 and the Gold Medal for Poetry and the Arts in 1978.
She was also the recipient of the Norman Manley Award for Excellence in Folklore and Art. She had migrated to Jamaica in the early 1980s where she lived overseas with her husband.
She was last in Jamaica as a guest of the government at that year’s Emancipation and Independence celebrations in 2003. During that time, she addressed an audience at the Little Theatre during the presentation of the Michael Manley Award for Community Self-Reliance award, making an impact that will not soon be forgotten. Eyewitnesses who were there said that it was a special event that will live on in the lexicon of Jamaican culture.
"When she stood up and with the assistance of a few persons, made her way to the front of the stage, a murmur of excitement ran through the crowd like an electric current, and they began to clap rhythmically, anxious now that they were about to witness something special," one source told YardFlex.Com.
By the time she took the microphone and sang the last few bars of the song, 'Water Come ah Mi Yi', along with the LTM Pantomime group, most persons in the audience were already standing.
"Howdy and tenky no bruk no square," Miss Lou greeted them, before bursting into her version of the folk song, Water Come Ah Mi Yi.
"But whem mi memba sweet Jamaica...," she crooned.
"Water come a mi eye," the crowd chimed in loudly. Then they applauded. Emphatically.
Miss Lou implored the gathering to speak 'Jamaican' whenever the opportunity presented itself.
"We must celebrate our culture, it is ours...when you talk, talk Jamaican," she said.
It is not clear whether her body will be flown back to Jamaica and accorded a state funeral.
Image provided by: www.louisebennett.com