I recall the days when leftist ideals ran
strong as a student at Collez Royal and
I would pick up an edition of Lalit
from no other than Lindsay Collen en ba
lagar Curepipe. It was initially strange and funny, but I picked the
written creole quickly and soon enjoyed the articles and even the rare books in
creole, such as Dev Virasawmy’s “Li”. And I could educate my friend that by
Kuler, late Bam Cuttayen in his wonderful album “Pei Larm Kuler” meant colour,
not flow.
It is probably unfortunate that advancement of
creole was associated with the leftist political movement – and its adoption as
a proper language met resistance, especially since capitalism and globalisation
prevailed and not much was left with the left. So, I moved on to Shakespeare,
Camus and Naipaul for more creole-free education. But I was among the very
lucky ones – out of the 30,000 who went through “petite bourse” (the earlier
incarnation of CPE), which roughly 10,000 did not clear, only 10% made it up to
HSC and a handful got a university degree. The figures are not as bad today,
but still alarming – and is reflected in a labour force that seems lacking in
basic skills. Our education system is probably doing its job at producing an
elite, but fails quite miserably for training the rest. And talking of elite, it
is a crime to declare a child a success or failure at the age of 10 –
especially after teaching three new languages and two other subjects without
adequate usage of the mother tongue in the instruction process. When students
make statements like “he put his friend in a circle to triangle his money”,
clearly there is a language overload. The government’s initiative to introduce
creole in the instruction at primary level is a positive step, building up on
the work by Virasawmy, Hookoomsing, Baker,
Carpooran and others. The inclusion of kreol Morysien on Google speaks volumes.
Creole is a generic term to describe a group of languages that arose in
the last 500 years, as a result of the worldwide European colonization. So there are English, French, Portuguese and
Spanish creoles. I was pleasantly
surprised and fascinated when I could fluently speak our national language all
across the other end of the world to Haitians or in New Orleans. The term in
fact originates from the Spanish word criollo
(or Portuguese crioulo) both stemming from
the Latin verb creare (to create).
Creole languages have generally been regarded as degenerate dialects of their parent
languages. This led to the demise of many of the variants of creoles. But the
status of creole languages has improved, even to the status of official
languages, and as objects of linguistic studies. In fact, the way creole
evolved seems to be an important aspect in the formation of any language, and
not just a trend in the European colonial period. Interestingly, Germanic
languages had a creole-like origin, as postulated by Sigmund Feist.
Promoting creole in Mauritius is not just
about getting education right. It is also high time we give the language its
due as the unifying force of the nation – far more powerful than
unity-preaching rhetoric of political and religious leaders (or should I say in
spite of it?). Creole is a huge blessing for the nation, and it is
unfortunate how many would resist the growth of the “trezor nasyonal”, let it
mature into a full-fledged language and a powerful vehicle not only for
learning arithmetic in primary school but as a literary and art form. Creole is
more than a lingua fraca. It has
become the mother tongue of the vast majority of Mauritians. Many complain
about the strange phonology and orthography. For instance, the invariance of
nouns and verbs, or the fusing of articles with nouns, such as the evolution of
“temps” into “letan”. Well, many languages have evolved this way, and there are
no absolutes; a consensus is what we
need, and we are getting close.
Teachers do teach in creole already. And we use it in most of our conversations. Of
course, we start with French or English in a formal conversation – to signal
clearly that, as a man of substance, you are well versed in the language of
Shakespeare and Moliere. Once the point is made, you would resort to some good
old creole to convey familiarity and break the ice.
Creole is dynamic, vibrant and innovative. Few
languages can boast such rich and colourful expressions. For instance, where
else would sentences like “This 32 has a 35, a 22 with a great 40, but her 14
is 28” make perfect sense? So after a
few years abroad, I was intrigued when I was told “to pe pran nissa ar mwa” or
“mo gagne twa fraise”.
And it is not only about popular parlance at
street corners, but you can be scholarly and eloquent in creole too. In due
time, I think it can make its way to parliament and other formal forums,
alongside English and French, not at their detriment. Of course, we cannot teach quantum computing
in creole, but at primary school at least, a well developed creole-based
curriculum will go a long way to enable students learn better (in fact learn
foreign languages better) and be more creative. As I read on a creole blog
recently, “langaz morysien la ene lot mem sa! Topo net sa man!”
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