Hubert Devonish lives in Jamaica
Today’s diaspora column on Caribbean nation languages, is dedicated to the memory and life’s loving work of Kamau Brathwaite, who died last week in Barbados, aged 89, and who is described by Jamaican Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies, Carolyn Cooper, as a “silk cotton tree”, “historian, poet, literary critic, publisher, Caribbean man of myth and magic “.
Free movement of people is a central policy of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) set up amongst the member countries of Caribbean Community (CARICOM). When people travel to work or to play, they travel with their language. Without their language, neither work nor play is possible. So, what are the languages of CARICOM, who speaks them, when and where? This information has to be at the heart of any policy on free movement of CARICOM citizens. You might think, therefore, that CARICOM’s official website might be the most obvious place to get this information. Sadly, however, on that site, one is greeted with ‘information’ that is mystifying to anyone with a basic knowledge of language in the Caribbean. The Community, the website grandly announces, has ‘English as the major language complemented by French and Dutch and variations of these, as well as African and Asian expressions.” (https://caricom.org/ about-caricom/who-we-are and https://caricom.org/ about-caricom/who-we-are/our-culture/)
So, the 11 million Haitians speak ‘a variation of French’? If so, why then does the Haitian constitution, in Article 5, state, ‘Haitians are united by a common language: Creole. Creole and French are the official languages of the Republic’? If Creole is a mere variation of French, why would explicit reference to it be made in the constitution and it be declared an official language along with French? Furthermore, Haitian Creole and NOT French, is recognised by the constitution as the only language that all Haitians speak. Why is the website providing us with the linguistic equivalent of ‘fake news’?
Assuming a total population of 18 million for all of CARICOM, the 11 million Haitians in Haiti make up 61% of the CARICOM population. Therefore, if one is using the number of speakers as a basis for this statement, Haitian Creole and not English is ‘the major language’ of CARICOM. Maybe CARICOM’s designation of English as ‘the major language’ used less obvious criteria. It would, however, have been very helpful if these had been stated.
Along similar lines, if Jamaicans spoke a ‘variation of English’, why would the Draft Language Education Policy for Jamaica in 2001 declare, that ‘The Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture recognises · the Jamaican language situation as bilingual; · English as the official language; · Jamaican Creole as the language most widely used in the population …’? Jamaican Creole is not an official language. However, it and not English is recognised as the language most spoken by the population. The part of the homepage with the caption, ‘Our Culture’ announces with great authority, ‘For many member states, the English Language is a major unifying factor.’ One wonders which member states the website has in mind. From Belize to the Guyana location of the CARICOM headquarters, it is an English-lexicon Creole or sometimes a French-lexicon one, which unifies citizens of these countries, not English.
Let us get back to some numbers. If we add the 11 million of Haiti and the 3 million of Jamaica, we already have 14 million speakers of languages other than English within CARICOM. This means that 78% of the CARICOM population are not using English in the course of their daily lives. This calls even further into question the idea of English as ‘the major language’ of CARICOM. Even if we focus on the former British territories, with an approximate population of 6 million, the population of Jamaica is 50%. Of course, there are Creole languages spoken right across the remaining 50% as well, further making the notion of ‘English as the major language’ of CARICOM a nonsense.
Interestingly, the CARICOM website informs us that within CARICOM, ‘variations of Dutch’ are spoken. One can suspect that this is with reference to Suriname, the sole country in CARICOM with Dutch as its official language. This suspicion is confirmed by a statement made on the website’s homepage under the caption, ‘Our Culture’. With reference to Suriname, we are told, ‘in addition to Dutch, Sranatonga,(sic) a Dutch-based Creole, is widely spoken.’ This is misinformation about a country and a language 110 miles down the road from the CARICOM Headquarters in Georgetown, Guyana. The fact that the official website could not trouble itself to get the name of the language right, says a lot. The language referred to in the quote is Sranantongo’ or ‘Sranan Tongo’. The name literally means ‘Suriname Tongue’. The use of ‘tongo’ in the language name immediately hints at the fact that this is a Creole language with English influence. In fact, Sranantongo takes the bulk of its vocabulary from English. ‘Tongo’ coming from English ‘tongue’. The explanation for an English Creole in Suriname is that it was first an English colony before it became a Dutch one. An English Creole developed early and no Dutch Creole ever emerged.
Ironically, it is in what is now Guyana where Dutch Creoles emerged. The colonies of Berbice and Essequibo were Dutch for over a century and half before they became British. Berbice Dutch Creole developed and was widely spoken in the Dutch colony of Berbice, now part of Guyana. Quite distinct and separate from this language was Skepi or Essequibo Dutch Creole spoken in the then Dutch colony of Essequibo, also now part of Guyana. There was, as well, a Creole related to Skepi, known as Negerhollands, spoken in the Danish Virgin Islands, now the US Virgin Islands. No Dutch Creoles, however, have ever been reported for Suriname. Given the complex history of the language situation in the region, guessing the language situation in the Caribbean in the style of the CARICOM website is not a good idea.
Mysteriously, with reference to Guyanese Creole or Creolese, spoken in the country where the CARICOM headquarters are located, we are told that use of this ‘English-based dialect’ ‘is based on geographical location and race and ethnicity’. Isn’t that true for English in the UK and the USA and of any language for that matter? Why the need to add that information here as if to suggest that there is something unusual or sub-standard about these facts? This effort to denigrate the non-European languages continues with reference to the languages of the indigenous peoples of the region. We are told that, ‘Among the descendants of our indigenous peoples their original languages, as well as variations are still spoken.’ The implication is that somehow, they are not languages proper because ‘variations’ are in use. Other references, notably to Hindi being spoken and to ‘African and Indian expressions’ suggest that they are the product of a combination of guesswork and condescension rather than the outcome of research. Patronising attitudes towards the non-European languages of the region are literally written into the text by the lowering of the case on nearly all the occurrences of the word ‘Creole’, as in ‘Guyanese creole’, etc. Sranantongo, however, in its erroneous labelling as ‘a Dutch based Creole’ is lucky. It has its description crowned with a capital ‘C’.
Complete ignorance dominates the public communication on language by the website of the CARICOM Headquarters. This totally undermines any promotion of freedom of movement between CARICOM territories. Understanding what languages people will bring with them is a necessary part of facilitating the movement of people across the region. It is also crucial in encouraging interaction amongst the ordinary people of the region. The misinformation or perhaps disinformation on language as seen via the CARICOM website reflects an elite perspective on language. The formal activities of organisations such as CARICOM do take place primarily in English, and to a lesser extent in other European languages such as French and Dutch. These activities are, however, carried out on behalf of the mass of the population of CARICOM countries. The people do not, as a matter of course, operate in these languages. This elite substitution of its own language practices and beliefs, for those of the people of the region on whose behalf they operate, just puts another barrier in the way of genuine regional integration.
Fault finding should be accompanied by fault mending. I recommend that the CARICOM Secretariat get in touch with Dr. Jo-Anne Ferreira of the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, who also happens to be the President of the Society for Caribbean Linguistics, the regional and international scholarly society that has as its focus the languages of the Caribbean. She should be asked to produce for the CARICOM website an accurate, informative and reader friendly presentation on languages within CARICOM. I have no doubt she would welcome the opportunity.
