Christine
Clarke was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1935, the youngest of three children. When World War II broke out, she left her
parents and home town to live with her grandmother. She was only 6 years old. At
16 she moved to France for a year as an au pair, where she learned to speak
French. At 18 she moved to Cambridge, England to work as a nurse, and met her
future husband, a student from British Guyana. There was some opposition to the
marriage because they were from different ethnic back grounds, but they married
anyway. In 1967 she moved to Barbados and graduated with honours in French and
history from UWI. She later went on to teach at UWI, St. Michael's School, St.
Winifred's School and Queens College. Mrs. Clarke currently resides in
Barbados, and agreed to an interview for the Lockerbie blog. We believe that
the stories that elders in our society have to tell can help us to understand
our history from different perspectives, and to guide us in our own lives.
How did
growing up during WWII affect your view of life and the world?
Until
I was 14 years of age I was so scared of fire I could not even strike a match.
I was hungry and cold and afraid for a long time because people were dying
around me, neighbours and people whom I loved. In some instances it taught me to love people
whoever and whatever they are for themselves. I never was taught to hate
anyone. I never hated the Russian soldiers. When I was 11 I helped a French
soldier carry a heavy basket and as a thank you he gave me a loaf of bread
which was very scarce at the time. I lost my reputation…I was told that I was fraternizing
with the enemy.
How is life
different in the Caribbean than Europe?
There
a lot of very good things in the Caribbean that people here do not seem to
appreciate. They always think that abroad is better which is not true. What struck me initially after arriving was
that everyone treated me with very great kindness, even people who did not even
know me, and that was so in Guyana, Dominica, Trinidad and Barbados.
What was your
life’s passion?
To
become a teacher, a good teacher. One who, against the beliefs of times long
ago, used love and not humiliating people or beating them. But, my own
grandmother was trained by Friedrich Fröbel at the time when the only teaching
aids were a stick and she taught with love. She died at the age of 99 and 11
months, still writing in every letter ‘’I don’t want to be a burden to anyone’’
and she never was.
What would
you like to see change in education in Barbados?
Not
beating children, no humiliation, not interfering with hairstyles. I also would
change if a headmaster who has been a well -respected good head resigns, they
should bring his deputy into that post who knows the running of the school.
You were once
a deputy principle of a secondary school. What is your opinion on the current
debate on hairstyles at Harrison College?
History
is repeating itself. There was a boy from Harrison College in my Alliance
Frances class who came to one of my classes wearing a hat. I said to him, ‘‘are
you that cold, should we turn off the air conditioner?’’ The other students in
that class said, ‘’don't ask him to take off his hat.’’ He looked at me, smiled
and removed his hat to a completely bare head. He had shaved his hair off. The
principal at the time had told him to cut his hair. He was a black boy, he
never had long hair, but the white boys in his school could have hair down to
their shoulders. So he shaved his hair and went to school wearing a hat. The principal shouted at him in assembly to
take it off and he did. The roar that went up in the hall could have raised the
roof.
Personally
I think that it is an infringement on human rights. I have come from Germany
where you never had these problems. We learned from small that a government may
be corrupt and so the blind obedience to something that does not make sense is
not right. It is not only the Jews that Hitler killed, Germans died in
concentration camps too. (Because they refused to participate in his scheme.)
What are you
most proud of?
In
human achievements, I think of two things that made me happy; the publication
of my book Lizards Under the Roof in
2007 and the erection of a peace pole in Queens Park in mine and my late
husband’s name on the 4th of October 2012. I am also proud of
people, family and others whom I may have had a hand to raise or teach.
What advice
would you give to your 17 year old self?
Don’t
be afraid of anything; just love everything that God has made. People, animals,
plants, our planet earth. Don’t do anything to harm them.
What is the
most valuable life lesson that you have learned?
That
God never lets you down.
Article by: Olive Stevenson-Clarke
