A Special Interview with my Grandmother

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 4^th 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