Lecture, Session 7
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The Linguistic Situation of Haiti, by Albert Valdman
Haitian Creole
The colonial language was the official language of Haiti. Only recently did Haiti recognize Creole as an official language (under Duvalier, but the law did not go far enough in recognizing that most Haitians only speak Creole). Sadly, as one Creole speaker remarked, when Haiti seized its independence from France the Haitians chose a “bought” language, yon lang achte, rather than their own. They should have chosen Creole.
P. 82 Franse se pa lang pa nou. Se lang
achte. Ti moun fèt pou konen Kreyòl paske se lang ni, li pa achte
li.
There are slight variations in spoken Creole, owing to regional
differences between the North, Center and South and the influence of
French. However, these are relatively minor, Valdman insists, and
don’t need to be reflected in orthography–-or they should not undermine
the move toward a standard orthography. The question is how much
spoken variation should influence an orthography. At the same
time, children should be allowed to write the sounds as they use
them. English allows this in “should not” and “shouldn’t.”
The United States became new colonial power at beginning of 20th
century. Haiti served as a neo-colony of U.S. The
subsequent affect on language is that English is more and more mixed
in. Of the almost 1/5 of all Haitians who are living abroad, most
are in the U.S. Today English is more prevalent and useful in
Haiti. Links between Haiti and France are very weak, compared to
US-Haitian relations.
There has been occasional resistance to American
influence in the orthography debate. Valdman argues that
American policy makers have no stake in promoting English rather than
French, spoken by their allies in the elite. Written Creole
promoted by North American Protestant missionaries, whose translation
of the bible into Creole greatly aided missionization.
Education
- Give up on idea of Creole as a bridge to French.
- This means finally respecting Creole as a language in its own right.
- There are enough materials in Creole to support it as the main language of instruction.
- Creole has made its way into official discourse since Aristide’s
1990 campaign and election.
These examples demonstrate how speakers of the vernacular acquiesce to
the dominant or hegemonic view of their language as an inferior
idiom--not a language. Yet there have always been those who
resisted the view of their speech and themselves as inferior.
Language provides a means of resistance–counter-hegemony-a language of
protest, critique. Speaking Creole means asserting one’s
anti-colonial, Afro-Caribbean identity as a means of resistance–-A
rejection of colonial domination. Using Creole for
artistic expression is an act of resistance. The late
twentieth century has seen a move to empower people through promotion
of Creole in literature and music, daring to compose in an idiom that
signifies ignorance, poverty, illiteracy.
Recently Aristide, a linguistic genius, promoted
Creole in the White House and proudly introduced a new language to the
UN in September, 1991. When he returned from that heady meeting,
the violent coup to oust him was already underway. US media
portrayed his ability to communicate with the masses in the “darkest”
terms–-his mob, incited by his Creole rhetoric was to be feared.
His multilingual competence undercut criticisms of his use of
Creole.
