Mek Patois Official an dun

Lloyd B. Smith renews call for J'can Creole to have language designation

DEPUTY SPEAKER of the House of Representatives Lloyd B. Smith wants the Jamaican Creole to be formally designated as an official language.
Smith, a former English teacher, made the call recently while delivering the main address to launch the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's Hanover Jamaica 50 celebration, at the Global Villa, Lucea.

"We need to declare once and for all that the Patois is one of our languages. Now, don't get me wrong, I am in total support of what the minister of education said, every Jamaican ought to be able to speak the English language. My problem is that there is still ingrained in many of our people the fact that when you speak Patois , it makes you an inferior human being."
Smith said, while Jamaica celebrates 50 years of Independence, the people should not forget who they are, and celebratory activities should seek to reflect our rich African heritage.

Honouring our heritage
"We need to officially put on the map that we have our own language - just like how we have the reggae and the mento, and wi 'dip and fall back', we have our own language, and we need to 'officialise it', while at the same time we extol the virtues of the English language."

Smith highlighted reggae icon Bob Marley whom he said spoke Patois even while doing his international interviews.

"He spoke the common language of the Jamaican people. We need to regularise and formalise it so that, as of this year, no Jamaican will feel inferior if he or she on the occasion that is necessary speaks Patois. We need to get over that once and for all, because it is part and parcel of an inferiority complex that is so pervasive in this society where the average Jamaica still feels that he or she is not, as Rex Nettleford would say, 'sumady'."