ON HEARING DENNIS JOSEPH: Fascinating Lecture In The Context Of A University Space

When I heard Dennis Joseph say that he tried Tim Durand as a Creole broadcaster before he struck platinum with the talent of Felix Henderson, I reflected. Thought of calling Tim because even though he did not become that quintessential KwÉyòlcaster that Felix became, he would go on the same DBS Radio to host Cadence-Lypso (Kadans) every Saturday morning for years.

“It was called Genesis and Beyond,” wrote Tim Durand. “I do not remember the exact dates of the period during which I hosted the show, but it was somewhere between 1975 and 1977. I tried to feature all Dominican bands/artistes with Kadans recordings at the time including Exile One, Midnight Groovers, Black Affairs, Liquid Ice, Mantra, Belles Combo, Milestone, Black Machine, Black roots, Black Blood, Wafrikai, Naked Feet, Ophelia etc.”

Tim in his usual style and desire to be thorough, even precise in his presentations, provided a realist picture of those involved in Cadence-Lypso then, reading from LP sleeves, letting us know who those musicians were who had succeeded in manufacturing or creating that rich genre. In those days, it was necessary to highlight not only the hitsong, but the bassman, keyboardist, drummer, lead guitarist and to announce their names from the inscriptions forming parts of the textand graphics on the back of those longplaying records. Tim Durand presented those Cadence-Lypso musicians with a qualified attention characteristic of introductions made to European classics such as Chopin, Back and Beethoven. He never spoke over its instrumentation nor its lyric. Instructive.

Another matter emerged from Dennis’ thoughtful and naturally-flowing presentation. Creole as language, remained French/African, though the matter was being discussed in a university context. Kokoy and its English Creole, its Anthony Gussie and Steady Vibes hits, did not figure. They’re easy to forget when we think majority-speakers and the fact that Dominicans always thought Creole to be French, not even a French/African linguistic encounter. Holland, Portugal and Spain encountered Africa too and languages emerged from their exchanges and tensions. At the very least, let us say it for students of linguistics, languages, history or creole cultures. Let us recall Gordon Henderson calling for Dominica State College to initiate a BA in Creole Music!

Let’s be careful. Dennis Joseph is vast imagination, creative intelligence and forthrightness. He makes it known and possibly, out of a sort of audacity, that he presented that lecture even without a doctorate or PhD. We need encourage the young to engage in sociolinguistics even at the PhD level. Such an engagement would surely consider Dr. Alwin Bully’s concern regarding consistency in spelling KwÉyòl words.

In fact, when the World Creole Music Festival (WCMF, took off in 1997, D’Jamallah Fontain among others coordinated a Creole Language Symposium on the Thursday before Creole Day (Jounen KwÉyòl). Mentioning sociolinguists brought to mind too, sociolinguist Hubert Devonish who we invited from UWI, Mona, Jamaica as a lead speaker at that first symposium. Hubert Devonish PhD found Marcel D’Jamallah Fontaine an amazing thinker. He spent his non-presentation time speaking with D’Jamallah. There was a language symposium.

Dennis was absolutely correct when he stated at that lecture that the WCMF was never a siwo event. It was we presenting ourselves to the world. It was our thing, packaged and presented to the world and it was rooted in KwÉyòl culture. It found its lifeforce in Dominica’s rural/country people, those same Dominican people who gave Ferdinand Frampton a slice of hospitality when he visited them in the early 70s to find out how they were receiving DBS and its language experiment. Hospitality.

In the context of a university space, I may add that hospitality was identified by Walter Rodney as one of three distinct features of Africans and people of African descent. The Guyanese historian noted that we never liked theves and we respected elders.

Another matter of research interest emerged when Sonia Akpa asked Dennis whether that same hospitality continues to this day. This is loaded!

I must say that Dennis has been adamant as he was on Tuesday night that Creole was not to be used simply to tell jokes and make people laugh. While the best jokes, like the best cuss words were better pelted out in KwÉyòl, he sensed inherent in the language, an intellectual tendency a la negritude or Black consciousness. And he is correct.

In 2008, Rev. Dr. William Watty delivered a lecture on visionary thinking at Fort Young Hotel to mark the end of Reunion Year. He told the gathering and radio audiences, “If you study patois, you will see that it is an African language into which French words were inserted.” He continued, “I suspect that the language was very sophisticated, because I have found close resemblances between the structure of sentences in Patois and Biblical Hebrew. . . . The most important word was the word that was spoken first. Not back to front. The Hebrew would never say ‘I am going to Roseau’ unless he meant that I, was different from somebody else. If it was not that he meant, he would say, ‘to Roseau I am going.’ And that is how we speak Patois. And, the repetition, ‘is run I running’ is Hebrew. . . . These are not broken languages we’re speaking. These are sophisticated languages into which French words have been inserted. There are resemblances in sentence structures between the Marigot Kokoy and the St. Joseph Patois — the words are different. One speaks it in English and the other speaks it in French, but the structured sentences show these people have come from the same tribe.”

It became even more evident when Jounen KwÉyòl

was launched in the early 1980s with its detailing of the concept Creole. That was no longer the innocent word burgeoning from cominglings of pidgin/patois/patwa. This was a novel product, one with emancipatory and economic potential. As far as I was concerned in “Calypso Drift,” Jounen KwÉyòl “ … remains a real subject for television cameras, photographers, tourists, cultural historians, culture, and economy entrepreneurs and anthropologists.”

Still, the man of the hour was the quiet genius who breathed in confidence, set his eyes and spirit on the mission and pressed on despite the derision. I speak of Felix Henderson.

To this very day, anyone interested in learning KwÉyòl can listen to Felix and hear, feel and somewhere in their soul understand the language for in Felix’s case this is where it belongs. It is alive in his soul. He, over the last forty years has taught us, questioned us, challenged us, made us laugh and caused us to listen to our other history.

When Dennis described that final moment Felix brought the recorder with his voice on for his listening and instant hiring, the lecture lifted. Dominica’s history had lifted its first feathered wing, its first unnoticed breeze — our island would never be the same again.

A young man from Grandbay had risen to embody a peoples language, to tell it to them and to let them tell it to him.

Think this now in the context of a poem titled “codicil” written by Derek
Walcott. Walcott wrote, “{T}o change your language you must change your life.” Walcott did not state it but in order to change your modern life, a change in language is an excellent starting point — another matter of intercultural communication interest.

Felix Henderson’s life and language were profoundly affected by the thousands he met in the field. Indeed, Felix Henderson out in the field is another lecture!

Then following Felix and before Felix there were those who did much to make KwÉyòl

happen on radio. Only a few weeks ago Osbourne Thomas died in Bronx, New York. Dennis mentioned Ferdinand Frampton. Emile Lancelot tried, but was surely not as bold as Dennis when he approached and influenced Patrick John who was profoundly interested in the Creole business too.

Let us recall Mary Williams, Velma Paul, Marcel Fontaine, Avon Royer, Rudy Joseph and Kaywana Fontaine. Millia Joseph herself, in the tradition of Espéweanse KwÉyòl goes too to the field using a pure if not raw method.

She, like Felix when he gathered, presents as it is received save for the intros and outtros and sound used in either case. But people hear themselves as they said it. This collection methodology, this replay as collected in most cases is likely to continue to draw the attention of researchers of the cultural and invariably an accompanying methodology.

In “Calypso Drift” (2014)/Chapter 26, I recorded the following. “{L}anguage is as infinite in its expressions as breath …. I suggest that Dominica’s Creole languaging was a radical linguistic factor, born out of a necessity for peoples of African descent to communicate in a strange land and later cut an unambiguous identity path. It is a mode of resistance featuring ostensibly in Dominican calypso choruses, folk songs, gospel, Kadans, and Bouyon. It is the language of (ra)conteurs/storytellers such as Paix Bouche’s Lawrence Brumant, Damas Challenger of Castle Bruce, Sawill Challenger of Calibishie, David Marcellin of Portsmouth, Prosper Paris of Kalinago Territory, and Grandbay’s Cyril Henderson …. We have an African-English speaking population too in Marigot, Wesley, Woodfordhill, Clifton, roger in Canefield and Zicack. That language—which art you a go—is called Kokoy! That was the one Dr. Cecil Goodridge found smart. Fred Henry’s notes recorded the word art. And of course, we speak English “jazzibly” audibly. The Kalinago greet with “mabrika” influencing our English- and French-tainted tongue! And what when we archaeologize Arawakan? The nation state is truly quadrilingual. In spite of this vibrant linguistic milieu in Dominica, the island does not yet find distinctive reference in language journals and texts in a Caribbean sociolinguistic community. We too must begin to explore its historic roots at home and abroad within and beyond work conducted by Sonia Magloire-Agpa, Joyette Rodney, Marcel D’Jamala Fontaine, Felix Henderson, Gregory and Sinky Rabess, Shalyn Massicott, Philbert Aaron, and others.”

Wadix too is a figure of tremendous interest in the world of creole music and language. How he and OlÉ came to be was featured in part when Leroy ‘Wadix’ Charles spoke with Ferdina Frampton on “in the Spotlight” on Q 95.

Wadix may wish to capture their story in text, maybe in about 100 pages and make it available with images too, for online reading. We need to move this creole experience into a learning environment to find additional issues touching culture and social change, the rise of a creole music industry and the business of music promotion. Students of entertainment education find this discourse groove memorable and stimulating.

Thank you, Dennis Joseph. Merci DBS. Thank you, Raymond Lawrence and Felix Henderson for continuing almost immediately as Dennis recommended. It’s a millennial movement!

• Steinberg Henry is Dominican writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. His 2014 publication titled “Calypso Drift” can be found at calypsodrift.com –.