Dr Rita Pemberton

Some of Tobago's traditions have fallen victim to the cultural erosion that results from modernisation. The first casualty has been language, the Tobago creole, which was dubbed 'broken English': it was the business of the schools to teach children 'good English' and eliminate the 'inferior' language. The Tobago creole was 'educated out of the population,' but it remained alive among the unschooled population and the older Tobagonians.

The language loss became painfully evident when both populations dwindled in size, and as yet there has been no attempt to inject life into the language in the interest of heritage preservation.

The second tradition that has lost visibility on the Tobago landscape is the African tradition of using proverbs to raise children and develop communities. Out of this tradition, there developed a number of expressions which are typically Tobagonian and which spanned the realm of human interaction.

They were in common usage during the early 20th century to develop desirable social habits in children and adults. These social pillars can best be appreciated in the language in which they were used, so no attempt will be made to defile them with 'standard English.'

Respect was seen as the base for the development of other desirable social traits, so children were taught respect for adults with the requirement that they greet all adults that they encountered on the street at any time of day or night. All adults were to be addressed with their appropriate title: Miss or Mr, Nen Nen or Nennie, godmother or godfather for godparents, cousin if a relative - and you dared not pass them straight, because it would be reported and the offending child would be in hot water at home. In addition to being a sign of respect, it was a means of fostering unity, equality and cohesion in the society. A child passing an adult straight could be interpreted as if the adult was an inferior person, or something negative had been said at home which could create tensions among the adults.

Children were expected to obey their parents and all adults. Those who would not listen were upbraided as being 'too harden,' and an irate parent would ask if 'Stick break in yuh ears or what?' or if 'Yuh have bucket ears?'

Children were guided to handle friendship and warned to choose their friends carefully, because: 'A good friend hard to find.'

They were exhorted not to allow themselves to be misled by bad company, because 'Friends does carry yuh, but they don't bring yuh back': if you go out with them, when trouble comes, those very friends would abandon you and you stand alone. When that happened you would be reminded that: 'Where yuh catch yuh cold, go and blow yuh nose,' or 'Yuh buy yuh shoes, yuh must wear them'; 'Where yuh stop you stand,' and 'Where yuh hang you swing, where yuh drop yuh stay.'

But don't try to run away from your responsibilities, because: 'Yuh can run as much as yuh like, daylight go ketch yuh,' and when trouble comes, 'Crapaud smoke yuh pipe.' In other word