The loss of Professor Emerita Dr Joycelynne Loncke is a blow to Guyana and the entire Caribbean’s cultural sphere since she was the embodiment of culture and humanity in the arts, according to literary critic Al Creighton.
Dr Loncke died at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital in Georgetown on December 24. Her cause of death has not been disclosed. She was the last surviving child of renowned musicians Percival and Ivy Loncke.
Growing up in a musical and academic family meant that the life of Dr Loncke was well balanced. During a 2011 interview with Stabroek News, Dr Loncke had related that her academic success was not surprising since she came from a family of teachers.
Though she became a teacher, Dr Loncke’s dream was to become a concert pianist.
“I loved music very much, but in my days there wasn’t an opportunity to do further studies like a bachelor’s in music because we hadn’t a university here in Guyana… the University of the West Indies didn’t have a music faculty and I had gotten a scholarship to the University of West Indies,” she had said during the 2011 interview with this newspaper.
In 1960, she was the winner of the Guyana Scholarship and travelled to UWI in Mona, Jamaica where she began reading for her degree in French. For her, French was her “second love” and while studying the language, she was actively pursuing studies in music on the side. She was taking music lessons on the side and playing concerts while in Jamaica.
During her time at UWI, the young Dr Loncke secured a French Government Scholarship to study at the prestigious Sorbonne at the University of Paris. There she pursued instruction in the French Language, its Civilisation and Literature.
At the end of her studies in Paris and Jamaica, she was granted a scholarship to study for her doctorate in England and at the English university, she got the opportunity to do music and French for her thesis which dealt with music in French literature. She became a Licentiate of the Royal School of Music, London, in 1960 and then a Fellow of the Trinity College of Music, London, in 1971.
After wrapping up in England, Dr Loncke returned to the Caribbean where she spent a few years lecturing at UWI and then returned to Guyana where the University of Guyana was in its formative years and was badly in need of persons to lecture in French. While she returned to Guyana with the intention of contributing to the French department at UG, she never expected to head the department but that is just what she ended up doing.
Her contribution to the arts and languages saw her becoming a decorated citizen. Dr Loncke was awarded the Golden Arrow of Achievement in 1980 and the Cacique Crown of Honour in 1987. In 2010, she was conferred with the title of Emeritus Professor.
Very noble and cultured
During a brief conversation with Stabroek News yesterday, Creighton shared his recollection of Dr Loncke and remembers her as someone who was very noble and cultured.
“Everyone who has had experiences with her, remembers her as a very noble, very cultured person. She has taken with her a certain culture that was so important. She was very cultured. I would say a noble humanitarian. So that is the kind of qualities that she had and when you lose somebody with those qualities, you know, it is felt,” he said.
“In addition to her scholarship and her artistry and the fact that here you had an example of someone who was a practising humanitarian and making an impact because of the kind of gentle persuasion of her manner and her approach to things,” he added.
Reflecting on Dr Loncke’s life, Creighton remembers her as one of Guyana’s leading concert pianists.
“So that in terms of classical music, she was outstanding. She was the leader in classical music in the country and in piano. She was a trained classical musician, so she had that contribution that she had made,” he remembered.
Dr Loncke had a vested interest in the development of Caribbean music as well. While designing the music programme for the University of Guyana, she introduced a course in Caribbean music particularly focusing on steel pan according to Creighton. He noted that she is the one that really carried the music programme at the University during its initial stages.
At one point, Dr Loncke also introduced a course in drumming at UG but that did not survive.
“She also served for a while in the music unit of the UWI Trinidad where she spent some time centred in the Division of Creative and Festival Arts at St Augustine. So that also is another contribution that she made on the regional level in terms of the study of music and research into music.
“Then in as an academic (her) focus was both French and music. Her academic specialty was the French, French language and literature. She was also much responsible for the French programme at the University (of Guyana) for a very long time lecturing in different courses in French and also the study of French Caribbean. As an academic, she has had a number of publications. She has published quite a number of things in the field of literature and French. One of her major publications was the study of Norman (Eustace) Cameron, Guyanese playwright and cultural activist,” Creighton recounted.
Dr Loncke served as head of the Modern Languages Department at UG, then Dean of the Faculty of Arts and also had a stint as Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University. She was also an influential part of the Pan-Africanist Movement in Guyana.
“I did mention her classical contribution in terms of classical music, but she also had this very strong influence in African Studies. She was a member of the National Pan-African Movement and she had a particular interest in African studies as well. And also she really had a great belief in African culture,” Creighton related.
