Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley, Miss Lou (1919-2006) – unwavering champion, creator, performer and icon of Jamaican culture – was the unrivalled ambassador of the Jamiekan Langwij (Jamaican Language) in which she offered poetry, Anansi stories, proverbs and songs to a grateful nation. On the hundredth anniversary of her birth, the contributors to this collection—along with the Jamiekan/Jamaican nation and its many diasporas—paused to honour Miss Lou’s contributions and to engage with the continuing evolution, impact and international influence of the Jamiekan Langwij that lay at the heart of her life’s work. 

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Louise Bennett-Coverley tek Jamiekan langwij put it pon worl map. Shi shuo we se fi wi langwij ful a powa an wi a fi rispek it. Dis ya buk big an braad. Aal a di raita dem gi tangks fi di legisi shi lef wi.

Louise Bennett-Coverley put the Jamaican language on the map across the globe. She demonstrated the power of our language and urged us to respect it. All of the writers in this far-reaching book give thanks for the legacy she has left us. 

Carolyn Cooper, Professor Emeritus of Literary and Cultural Studies, University of the West Indies (Mona).

Louise Bennett and Jamiekan Langwij is a formidable collection of essays on the single most influential person in my work as a writer and educator, the Honourable Dr. Louise Bennett-Coverley. How wonderful it is that this volume was written by noted scholars and cultural workers who continue Bennett’s legacy in the country of her birth and the diaspora and situates her work within the scholarly rigor of the academy, as it should. Yet, in true Miss Lou fashion,this volume possesses the love of Jamaican culture, passion, and infectious expressiveness toscale the walls of the institution and live in the hearts and on the tongues of the people. I “bigup” and “boastify” this most necessary collection.                               

Nadia Hohn, author of A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her Voice.

About the Editor

Michele A. Johnson, ed., is a Professor in the Department of History at York University, where she previously served as the Director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas. 

World Rights

Category: Sociology, History, Language Studies, Cultural Studies/CARIBBEAN                                                                        

Page count: 244

Trim size:  5.5 x 8.5"

Publication date: 2023