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Preserving traditions, arts and cultureBy lonie Benjamin“I have gone to many parts of the world and wherever I travel I notice language similarities,” said the world-renowned social anthropologist and linguist Dr Olive Lewin. “I was so fascinated with the strong Scandinavian influence in Scotland. For example, on one occasion I telephoned the person in charge of heritage protection in Scotland and he explained how during the 19th century there was a very large Scandinavian population there.*Here as guest lecturer at the annual Bndget Jones Conference, hosted by Lancaster University, and guest of Dr Leon Wamwright, lecturer in History of Art at the University of Sussex, Dr Lewin has a iong track record of lec-tunng around the world. And she beat off stiff competition from other experts in their field to be awarded the travel grant from the Bridget Jones Trust to lecture at the Conference.One of Dr Jones’ life long missions is the preservation of traditional music, arts and culture and as former vice president of the International Council for Traditional Music - an organisation she has been affiliated to for over three decades - she continues to pursue her mission.“Members of the organisation meet at different venues and piaces - theDr Olive Lewin (left) receives a gift from Hazel Ramsay-McCluneon behalf of the Jamaica Folk Singers at the launch of Dr Lewin’s book Rock It Come Over: The Folk Music of JamaicaUnited Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) headquarters in Paris, for example. This she finds very productive as “among some of the things UNESCO does is to identify cultures they feel are in jeopardy of being lost to modernity and help to sustain such cultures”.Since 1967, Dr Lewin, who is also a classical musician, has been researching Jamaica’s music, culture.arts and beliefs and has interviewed hundreds of religious groups, Jamaican Maroons, elderly folks and Kumina groups. “The word Kumina originated from the Congo and in the Caribbean it encompasses a complex system of beliefs, music language, rituals and ceremonies found among certain sector of the community in Jamaica,” she explained.“From December 31, to January 1, Kumina groups everywhere get together, they bang the traditional drums and sing and dance throughout the night. The purpose of such rituals is to thank the Creator for the year, ask for pardon and ask for blessings for the coming year,” she said. “The ritual starts at sundown and ends at sunrise,” she added.Apart from the wealth of knowledge Dr Lewin has acquired she has documented some of it in book form with such titles as, Rock It Come Over: The Folk Music of Jamaica.During Dr Lewin’s visit to Britain she will also be doing some story-telling in schools. She is no stranger to Britain’s schools as she previously taught music in Tottenham for a number of years.Just in case anyone is wondering who Bridget Jones is here is something to enlighten you. Bom Bridget Wheeler in London, she did morethan anyone to establish study of francophone Caribbean literature in British universities did.She won a scholarship to Newnham College, Cambridge, and got a first in French and Spanish. She went on to do a PhD at King’s College, London.It was at Cambridge that she met Donald Jones, a Jamaican student of chemical engineering. They married in 1959 and four years later moved to Jamaica. Bridget immersed herself in the country’s life. After a year of school teaching, she joined the staff of the University of the West Indies and became part of a team of young academics.Although she continued to teach 19th- and 20th-century French metropolitan literature, Jones was instrumental in developing an option in French Caribbean writing, which eventually became a compulsory paper for students doing a specialdegree in French, and supervised one of the first PhD theses on French Caribbean literature.Bridget died in the year 2000 from cancer and is survived by her husband and two sons.A fund has been set up in Bridget s memory for students of French at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.
Newspaper Details
Kingston Gleaner
Kingston, Kingston, JM
Wed, Jul 07, 2004
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Susun W.
USA 06 Jul 2018
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