Balancing Motherhood While Preserving the Jamaican Culture- Part II
By T.D. Bailey
As a mother, I am often disappointed with Jamaican parents living abroad who have raised their children to not embrace the richness of the Jamaican culture What a disservice is being done. Our Jamaican culture is unique on many levels and should be shared with our off springs. I am of the belief that many Jamaican parents who have sheltered their children from their culture do so because they don't fully understand it, fear it, or may have a dislike of it. I am proud to say, there is nothing happening in Jamaica that I have not experienced in the United States or heard about happening. I will not let fear, lack of knowledge or misunderstanding drive me from this culture. My daughter has a greater appreciation for the things she has and the way she relates to people. She has seen economic hardship in certain areas in JA we have visited, but she has also seen how much love and happiness surrounding people who may not have much of the material things we boast about here in the US and have to haves, but she has seen how one pot of food-bubbling on a coal stove, can feed many including herself. She has seen how the giving of a shirt to a child who has none makes her feel great especially when upon her return to the island, this child always seem to keep this gift in such pristine condition, she see how the gift is cherished. She sees how a congregation of church people can all be crammed on a broken church bench, sweating profusely, fanning excessively in the 90+ degree temperature, but they can sing and give praises like no other can. She sees the pride students take in their uniforms, how each pleat and seam is neatly ironed so as to show their compliance with the laws that govern their school. She sees how we celebrate death, the way our ancestors did – the typical country-styled Jamaican wake is filled with tambourines, pot covers, a live band, horns, trumpets, dancing, singing hymns and chants of old – just taking about it makes me want to go home! She sees the island's good and bad. At the end of the day, she has decided she wants more and begs me to go back yearly.
As parents, our role is to guide our children through all caveats of life, and to also expose them to new and exciting things, which I believe includes our culture. If you are one of those parents I'm referring to in this article, why don't you make it a goal to really discover your culture and allow your children to understand their cultural history.
Sent from Christine's iPhone 4.
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