creole / criollo

Creole Culture(s) and language(s)? By Hector Poullet, Creolist www.lameca.org

Lecture given at LAMECA on 24th october 2001.

Hector PoulletWe, Creole-speaking West Indians, have grown so accustomed to burying our heads in the sand (everyone here has heard Pontious Pilate’s expression: “An ka vwè, an pa ka vwè, an ka tann, an pa ka tann" [“I see, but I don’t see, I hear, but I don’t hear”] or even "mélé-w, pa okipé–w"["mind your own business, don’t worry about others"] ) , so accustomed to swallowing any and everything (bwè tout, manjé tout, pa di tout ) ["drink everything, eat everything don’t tell everything"] that when we want to express our honest opinion about a subject as fundamental to us all, like ‘is there one or several Creole culture(s); is there one or several Creole language(s)?” we either remain wary (kwa si bouch) ["make a cross on your mouth" – meaning "don’t say a word"] or we vociferate: “that the existence of Creole Culture and Language are self-evident and should henceforth be taken into account in Education”.

I invite you on a quiet discussion of these gripping questions: What is a Creole Culture? Of what interest could the study of the Creole language be? What is the objective of the teaching of Creole Culture and language, and, as such, how should the programme be structured? Almost fifteen years ago, when Laurent Farrugia and myself, during a regional electoral campaign, created the group which we called ‘Culture and Development’ and proposed the creation of a Higher School of Caribbean languages (among them Creole) we did not win the 5% needed to get this program off the ground.

This means that fifteen years ago, less than 5% of adults in Guadeloupe understood what we were speaking about. It is obvious that today things have changed, and that the majority of Guadeloupeans acknowledge the need to link Develop to Culture. In fact, we believe that approaching the problem of Culture from the perspective of its relationship with Development would be more relevant than seeking the eternal debate between Culture and Nature, provided that we agree on what we mean by ‘Culture’ and on the notion of ‘Development’.

First, we all have some well-known clichés about Culture which act as a smoke screen, when we try to give a definition of it. There is, for example “Culture is what is left when all is forgotten”, “Culture is like jam, the less there is, the better it spreads”, and “when I hear people speaking about Culture, I reach for my revolver”.

I would prefer we got rid of these expressions at once, so as not to be tempted to use them in our debate. We will not be trying to spread our jam or to reach for our revolver, but instead of forgetting, we are going, on the contrary, to try to remember all that we may have in common. The term ‘Culture’ is often associated with ‘knowledge’, and we say that someone is very ‘cultivated’ or that he has a ‘wide culture’ when his knowledge extends to such areas as Literature, Theatre, Opera, Music, Painting, Architecture, Sculpture.

In short, Culture is very often artistic. But we also speak of ‘Scientific Culture’, of ‘Technological Culture’, and even of ‘Corporate Culture’, or simply ‘General Culture’. But what do we mean when we speak of ‘Creole Culture’? When we speak of teaching Creole Culture in schools, and especially if we specify ‘Creole Culture and Language’, what should we understand by this? Josette Faloppe quite rightly reminded us recently that the expression ‘Creole Culture’ was born at the end of the 18th century and this term was mainly used to speak of South American Creoles.

It was a matter of opposing the culture of the populations originally from Europe, which had taken root and adapted themselves in the New World, and whose lifestyle and economic interests were unlike those of their homelands (Portugal and Spain). This awareness of a ‘Creole culture’, that is, of a different identity and of differing interests, was to be at the origin of the Liberation Movements in South America.

If today it seems obvious that the inhabitants of this sub-continent, in direct contact with totally different realities, and victims of colonial exploitation from relatively small, poorer European countries, had a community with an objective and a Culture, can we transfer the problem of the ‘Creole culture’ to our isles, French over-seas departments in the Americas or Indian Ocean, small, fragile and immersed in French culture for so long? And even if this analogue were possible, what is there in common between the cultural behaviour of someone from French Guiana, someone from the Reunion, from Guadeloupe, from Martinique? Worse yet, can we claim that the Culture found in the generation of those over fifty is the same to be found in those under thirty? Can we honestly speak of one ‘Creole culture’, or of several ‘Creole cultures’? To speak objectively of an object we wish to study, we must be able to step away from this object on one hand, and on the other accept the idea that we would not be able to speak about it in its totality.

To speak of ‘Creole culture’ or of ‘Creole cultures’, we must be willing to step away from it so as to better study it, and know that our point of view will be fragmentary and simplistic. We believe that there is well and truly ONE CREOLE CULTURE. In any case, the Cultures of Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana share numerous common cultural features, the first being that these ultra-marine departments speak Creole, thus justifying the adjective ‘Creole’ which we associate with Culture.

Common features in Creole cultures. Apart from the fact that we speak these languages that linguists have grown used to calling Creoles, our countries have common cultural characteristics which, seen from the point of view of Development, can be classed as either positive or negative. Let us begin by looking at the negative aspects.

A culture of the colonised : We have all inherited a painful history. Sons and daughters of plantation societies, stamped with the seal of slavery, and, as the Creole proverb says, "Koul kouto géri, mak a-y la" ["the cut from the knife has healed but the scar remains"]. This poorly orchestrated common history has moulded a character which Albert Memmi described well in his book ‘Portrait of the Colonised’.

We are fleeced, touchy, quick-tempered, unpredictable. We are ‘bitter’, i.e. ‘aggressive’, yet at the same time beggars. This image is also given of the Corsicans. We demand acts of charity. It is true that we want it all - to have our cake and to eat it too. But whose fault is it? And should we try to overcome this? Why? And how?

A culture of Fate and of the Magico-religious : Would independence help us get over this? I’m not too sure. Long, sometimes very long after independence, societies that have suffered through a history of colonisation, still bear the stigma of this history.

We are sometimes surprised at what we hear about Haitians, though so long been freed of the yoke of colonisation. Their fatalism strangely resembles our " sipéradyé" ["God willing’], "sidyévé" ["Please God"]. Faith in a God who alone can deliver us from this situation, is to be found in all layers of our population, including among the young people.

It is true, we too are awaiting the Messiah and this explains the difficulty we have in convincing through argument. We are for X, as if we are for God, or against X who we must treat as the devil; and our politics are part of the domain of Faith, almost never of the domain of ideas. A culture of insularity : Even French Guiana is a land surrounded by water or forest, a land of confined populations which, with this isolation, develop a character of "chak bougo ka halé zékal a-y" ["Each sea turtle must pull his shell" – meaning "everyone for himself"].

There is no common organisation for heavy migrations, no long-term vision after the Crossing of the Desert. This frenzied individualism favours neither teamwork nor co-operative development. To really be successful, we must strive for success alone and first leave the island - only exile can save us from the insular curse.

A culture of despair : Yesterday alcohol, today drugs and alcohol. What lack of common future, perspectives, or plans push our youth to drugs today, or our fathers and brothers to rum yesterday? What need for an artificial paradise, and to ease what pain of solitude? And what scorn for those who keep “lèspwa a mal-papay”["dashed hopes"]. ! .

And we can go on speaking of the weaknesses of our Creole societies, of our relationship with time which does not correspond to modern life, which means that the driver that sped past five minutes ago doing 150 km/hr around a bend has stopped on the road 10 km away to flirt with a young lady walking past, and whom he is obviously bothering.

This relationship with time is a calamity of which we must rid ourselves, because by continually planning meetings which begin one hour after the scheduled time, everyone gets discouraged and we will eventually have no one at our rendezvous. We can speak of our relationship with work, and with money and with gambling, and so our inability to invest in the long term.

We can speak of the quality of our Man-Woman relationships, of the affective poverty which produce phantom fathers and matri-focal families. Women are the main pillars of our societies, but is this a good thing? If we look around us, in Basse-Terre… But our Creole societies do not have only negative aspects. Numerous advantages should allow us to avoid the tragedies which haunt certain cultures in countries which seem more advanced than ours. American, Japanese, Korean, but also German and Canadian intellectuals seem interested in our ‘Creolity’. A culture of religious tolerance : We believe that God is God, that there is one God who can have several names and can be adored in several ways.

Creole societies do not seem to be ready to kill each other for any God, and from where we are, the Holy War seems even more ludicrous. A culture of racial diversity : It is true that we are still weighed down by the flaws of colonisation; it is true that because of this sort of collective shame, accumulated resentment can spring up at any moment.

Yet, our society does not seem to believe in the racial superiority of one ethnic group, does not seem to adhere to the ideas that would make some people all white, and others all black. The hutu/tutsi tragedy really appalled us all.

A culture of fete, laughter and the joie de vivre : Numerous are the Creole proverbs encouraging us to take advantage of the present moment. " Bwè dlo a-w, pa néyé kè a-w" ["drink your water, don’t drown your heart"], " dèmen sé on kouyon " ["tomorrow is a fool"] etc..

We are great consumers of Champagne, and why not, if this is how we can manifest one day’s wealth, an aspect of generous festivity, even when we know that “apré fèt sé graté tèt” ["after the fete, problems begin"]. Not too long ago “chomaj” ["unemployment"] still meant ‘fete’ (hanging around, idle)’. "Zouk-la sé sèl médikanman nou ni !" ["Zouk is the only medicine we have"]. I remember these words from a song I heard when I was young : " Bonm atomik vini lanmòd, annou dansé an atannan, an atannan bonm atomik" ! " Papiyon volé, sé volé nou ka volé "["The atomic bomb is the rage, let’s dance while we wait for the atomic bomb”! “The butterfly is flying, we’re flying, we’re flying"]. Vive Vaval ! ["Long live Vaval!" - Vaval is the King of Carnival in the French West Indies]

A culture of solidarity : This is in obvious contradiction with what was just said on frenzied individualism. This solidarity is no doubt in is embryonic stages, but is sufficiently exemplary to be a model of society. Lending a helping hand, helping each other, solidarity in the face of the misfortune of cyclones or at wakes, prove that we, French West Indians, we know how to share: “kannari plen, kouvèti ka trapé” ["The rice pot is full, the lid doesn’t stay in place"].

It is obvious that, without this solidarity in our families or neighbourhoods, Creole societies with their high unemployment rate, would have disintegrated long ago. An oral Culture : Everything here is metaphor; words are beautiful when they relate, narrate, sing, advise, encourage. Speech is commitment: " Pawòl a granmoun sé papyé tenbré " ["The words of adults are as sure as stamped documents"].

But here too, everything can be tongue-lashing,, slandering, gossip, tittle-tattle, escape mechanisms; " Wi pa ka monté mòn " ["Laughter does not climb hills"]. As with Aesop, the tongue can be the best and the worst of things. This is what should be taught in our Creole Culture classes. Of course, this would not be all.

There should not only be a better knowledge of our society, but we should also have a better understanding of our history, our geography, that of our Caribbean region, our architectural and archaeological patrimony, our environment, our fauna and flora.

There should also be better knowledge of our writers, researchers, politicians, artists, painters, musicians, our people in show business etc. … Yes, but for what purpose?. To withdraw into ourselves? Not at all, because we can only know ourselves when we compare ourselves with the Other, and contrary to what is proposed to us today, we should be open to others, all others. The objective is to have a society where individuals are more open and joyful, more sure of themselves, more serene, a less dangerous society: our individual well-being is closely dependant on the well-being of others. Our personal objective is, as you can see, purely selfish – to live better in a more balanced society.