Refer to
Colonization In Reverse (1966)
Wat a joyful news, miss Mattie,
I feel like me heart gwine burs
Jamaica people colonizin
Englan in reverse.
By de hundred, by de tousan
From country and from town,
By de ship-load, by de plane-load
Jamaica is Englan boun.
Dem a pour out a Jamaica
Everybody future plan
Is fe get a big-time job
An settle in de mother lan.
What a islan! What a people!
Man an woman, old an young
Jus a pack dem bag an baggage
An tun history upside dung!
Some people doan like travel,
But fe show dem loyalty
Dem all a open up cheap-fare-
To-Englan agency.
An week by week dem shippin off
Dem countryman like fire,
Fe immigrate an populate
De seat a de Empire.
Oonoo see how life is funny,
Oonoo see de tunabout?
Jamaica live fe box bread
Out a English people mout’.
For wen dem ketch a Englan,
An start play dem different role,
Some will settle down to work
An some will settle fe de dole.
Jane say de dole is not too bad
Because dey payin she
Two pounds a week fe seek a job
Dat suit her dignity.
Me say Jane will never fine work
At de rate how she dah look,
For all day she stay pon Aunt Fan couch
An read love-story book.
Wat a devilment a Englan!
Dem face war an brave de worse,
But me wonderin how dem gwine stan
Colonizin in reverse.
Poem © by Louise Bennett Coverley, from Jamaica Labrish, published by Sangsters (1966). With permission from Louise Bennett Coverley Estate and Coverley Holdings Inc.
Image © With permission from Louise Bennett Coverley Estate
Refer to
About the poet
Louise Bennett was born in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, and raised by her mother after her father’s death. She began writing at a young age, having her first poetry published in the national newspaper The Daily Gleaner. Bennett was a pioneer of writing in a literary version of Jamaican patois. This is a rich and creative language, with English and West African influences, that emerged from the troubled history of British enslavement of African people. She experienced criticism for this, as at the time it was rare for British and Jamaican readers to encounter anything other than standard British English in mainstream literature. Her first book of poetry was called Dialect Verses. In 1943 Bennett was awarded a British Council scholarship to study at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the first black student to do so. Shortly after, she began working as a BBC radio host hosting a thirty-minute programme called Caribbean Carnival. She returned to Jamaica in 1954.
On her return, Bennett immersed herself in studying Jamaican folklore and oral tradition. In Jamaica she became known as ‘Miss Lou’. The nickname originated from a radio show she presented from 1965 to 1982, which showcased the country’s culture and invited guest performers. Her most famous collection of poetry, Jamaica Labrish, was published in 1966. Instantly recognisable by her traditional way of dress and her catchphrase ‘walk good’ – a patois expression for ‘goodbye’ – Bennett-Coverley became one of the most famous people in Jamaica. She was a passionate advocate of the country’s artistic expression and the adoption of patois as a national language. She served as a national Cultural Ambassador and in 2001 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Merit of Jamaica. Her career path and trailblazing use of Jamaican patois in her poetry is said to have influenced numerous poets such as Linton Kwesi Johnson, Valerie Bloom and Kamau Brathwaite. She died in Toronto, Canada, in 2006.
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