Jamaican dancehall singer Tanya Stephens has joined the ongoing controversy surrounding a social media rant by female Deejay Ishawna who posted a rant which is considered disrespectful to Jamaica’s foremost cultural icon, Louise “Miss Lou” Bennett-Coverley.
Stephens supported Ishawna who was last week hauled over the coals for posting on her Instagram page that she did not wear tablecloth like Bennett-Coverley, who is affectionately called ‘Miss Lou’.
‘Miss Lou’ has been credited with making the Jamaican dialect of patois fashionable and accepted worldwide as part and parcel of the Jamaican identity.
Self-imposed limitations
But in her defense of Ishawna, Stephens posted a video in which she declared that “Jamaicans really need to stop mandating their self-imposed limitations.”
She also challenged those criticizing Ishawna to post a photo of themselves dressing like ‘Miss Lou’ or a video of themselves reciting one of the icon’s poems.
Stephens elaborated on her stance in a video posted on her Instagram page. In response to the argument that Miss Lou allowed the Jamaican patois dialect to be generally accepted from people like herself, Stephens said: “She didn’t liberate me… as soon as I was born, I was talking patois.”
Her position has brought her squarely under attack by Miss Lou’s supporters. Some took to social media to air their disagreement with Stephens’ position.
“Tanya Stephens has done a fine job of regulating herself to the fool’s corner, wearing the dunce cap and all. You are wrong on this one. You are doing an excellent job of diminishing your already minute fan base. Stop now. We hear your voice crying out in the wilderness,” one social media user posted.
Dissed Simpson Miller
Tanya Stephens was recently under fire for her criticism of former Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. She lambasted Simpson Miller on social media the same day she was being honored by politicians on both sides of the aisle in Jamaica’s House of Parliament.
