-according to Alan Fenty (Part I)
(Extract of an interview with Alan Fenty, Georgetown, Guyana, April 2011 a few months after he launched his book, ‘A Plate-a Guyana Cook-up’ in February 2011. Fenty is an educator, folklorist, editor, television producer and columnist.) PP: Publications of this nature [‘A Plate a Guyana Cook-up’] are becoming less frequent. Is it because our oral traditions are becoming less relevant, or are there other reasons? Why have you done this book at this particular time [Republic 2011]?

AF: I was attracted to English from childhood, growing up in Alberttown, Georgetown. Yes. I was attracted to English and disliked Arithmetic intensely. I used to get butterflies in my tummy when it comes to mental [arithmetic]; we didn’t have kind teachers then to teach the subject, so I had an aversion for it. On the other hand, I always loved expression: Speaking and writing. As a matter of fact, the only GCE [General Certificate of Education] subject I have is English; and I did it during the 80-day strike. I had nothing else to do, so I went on my own, where I met a cousin, who was trying for English a third time, and I passed it. Later on, I was told, ‘You don’t take one subject only; you take five/six.’ So, well, yes! I like English expression and writing; trying my hand at essays and short stories. I even did a course in England: Correspondence course…

PP: In?

AF: In short-story writing. But you know, I was also attracted to the Creole; the casual. You see me here with my old shirt? It has a pin in it because I couldn’t find the button, so I used a safety pin. I am not doing these things on purpose; they just happen. I don’t care about the shoes I wear now and so on.  I don’t want it be said I’m imitating the late Wordsworth Mac Andrew, but little by little, I see myself doing the things he used to do.

PP: These things are leading up to the answer?

AF: Yes. So that’s it briefly. I was first attracted to English expression, then to the Creolese expression.

PP: What attracted you in that direction?

AF: Well, in my late teens, eighteen/nineteen, I was exposed to folk songs; I loved folk songs and calypso.  And in that small community of Alberttown, I often wondered at its influences on me; like next door was an Indo family selling milk. So I used to know Indian music; especially the religious type.  And then at my school, Bourda R. C. in Regent Street… I grew up in Bourda where they had boxing, steelband and cricket.

PP: Steelband!

AF: Like Quo Vadis on Robb Street, near Orange Walk. All these things influenced me towards the creole and the folk. So I started listening with a keener ear to how we speak. And when country-people come to town, especially from the Corentyne, Oh! I love to hear them!

PP: There is a certain timbre in the way they talk…

AF: Yes. And I’ve lived to see, fortunately or unfortunately, that Jamaican Dancehall music is what the young people of this country like. When dem seh. Is so my Corentyne Afro and Indo-Guyanese used to speak in my days of the 50s and 60s. If you listen to the Jamaicans now, that’s what you’ll hear. And I say, ‘you cannot laugh at our way of speaking the creole.’
But there is the mesolect and basilect and acrolect: The various stages of creole.

PP: We could go into those terms later. But back to this book, ‘A Plate-a Guyana Cook-up’. You seem to have employed some of those terms in the title of your book.

AF: I’ll tell you straight off: That is strictly Margaret Kellman Lawrence. I was ironically, contradictorily using an English-sounding title as was my inclination towards the teaching of English Language (twelve years in the classroom, and seven years in the curriculum development unit where I wrote supplementary readers). So I was going to say: ‘A Plate of Guyana Cook-up’, but she said, ‘Nah! Nah! I does call fuh ah plate ah cook-up!’  So straightway, I give thanks to Maggie. And indeed, it fits in nicely in the cadence, the lyrical nature of the creole.

PP: In your introduction, you said, ‘This short meal.’ This is a slim volume, but it is packed with words of wisdom and cautionary tales. You also said in the introduction that it was like a rebirth to writing.

AF: This type of writing. Now, now, now! We have to be careful with this word, ‘writing’, in this regard. What I did was to compile; it’s the people’s proverbs, so I just compile them. Proverbs are not ours; not ours to own.

PP: But you must take credit, because you said it was long overdue.

AF: Seven years! Seven long years in the making!

PP: I know. At Guyenterprise, during our Guyenterprise days, how much energy you would put into it.

AF: During that time, I churned out books for other people; but something went wrong with my book. But you know: Nothing before its time! I’ve made the point here that lots of people have done books of proverbs in Guyana, and I salute them. It all started with Ovid Abrams in Berbice. And before that, I have the Reverend James Speirs, who compiled post-Slavery proverbs; more than a thousand. So through the years; through Wordsworth MacAndrew, Peter Kempadoo,  Mark Mathews, and Henry Moottoo and so on… So proverbs have been part of me; and I always wanted to put my version. And luckily for me, I did them on radio years and years, and years ago. ‘Ole people seh’ was the first version; then ‘Words of Wisdom’, then ‘Hear dis wan’.
I always wanted to put my style to proverbs, and people were asking for my style: The translation, and then the interpretation.  Now, people don’t necessarily agree with me…

PP: It’s like reading: The interpretation falls to the individual; each individual with his or her own interpretation.

AF: I don’t mind, as long as I can provoke thought; debate… One of my joys is that the young drivers of minibuses and taxis recognise me now, and would often initiate the conversation with a recent proverb they heard from me, like, ‘If yuh nah like meh berry, nah shake meh tree’. I like listening to this feedback; the way they may say it and make references to day-to-day experiences. I get a joy listening to these young people who are influenced and saturated with dancehall music, and computers, the Internet, video games and the whole gamut of electronics.

PP: This response is indicative that our oral traditions are not altogether lost on the youths.

AF: First, they see them as humour…

PP: Which is what they are, at first glance, but the meaning is deep.

AF: I don’t mind if they laugh at first…

PP: That could be a covert technique to draw them.

AF: After the laugh, I would ask them their interpretation, and we would ‘Yes, boy! and ‘Oh, boy!’ until something clicks. So you see the operation: They laugh, and learn. That’s why I want this book in the school.
I heard the former President Desmond Hoyte, in Parliament, say, ‘Tom drunk, but Tom nah fool.’ He took proverbs into Parliament.

PP: This would be a good time to look at the definition of proverbs.

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