Creole & Creativity: Self Evaluation

Nekita Lamour
December 1999

As the millennium approaches, I am reminiscing on my close to twenty years in the education field, twelve of them spent working with Haitian students in Creole at the elementary level. I started to teach a year after Creole Orthography was legalized and the early days of the education reform that the Haitian Education Minister Joseph C. Bernard at that time wanted to implement.

The hostility that Bernard encountered in Haiti was also present among the educators in the U.S. There were violent threats. Collegiality was quasi-nonexistent. Some advocates of Creole as the native language component for Haitian students in Bilingual Education programs had their cars vandalized. Many engaged in unprofessional behaviors such as vilifying and gossiping about those who championed Haitians' first language.

Over the twenty years, the physical and verbal violence has subsided, but a more subtle prejudice and negative attitude vis-a-vis Creole permeates. If a Haitian person wants to receive faster and or better service in an office, speaking French is one of the vehicles. Linguists, educators, social scientists have written numerous books, articles, on-line messages regarding the Creole/French dichotomy. Linguists may disagree on certain morphological, phonemic and other scientific features, but current linguistic data support that Haitian Creole is a language like all "standard" languages. It has its grammar, syntax and rules. The negative attitude is purely social and political.

The stigma is implicitly directed towards the monolingual Creole speakers. They are usually poor and pertain to the lower social economic strata of society . Many have addressed the social and political situation in Haiti. I will not elaborate on this. Rather I will give personal anecdotes to demonstrate that Haiti's logo "L'Union fait la force" (United we are strong) has not yet been applied during Haiti's 196 years history.

Haitians, as a growing minority, need to gather their resources, know what's available and disseminate what they are doing among themselves and to the non-Haitian community. I have been in the internet, calling, seeing, e-mailing, talking to writers, publishers, librarians in the U.S. and in Haiti for the last two years, searching and/or revising literary materials about Haiti for children and younger adolescents. I have revised the children's books list originally compiled by HAPPT ( a Haitian Parent Project at City College in New York) in the early 80's. I have added 23 books written in English for children and adolescents about Haiti. I am continuously updating this children's bibliography.

As part of the Haitian literary search, I was able to find names and addresses of more than 30 authors, and writers mostly in the Boston area and in Canada. I was told there should be 300 Haitian writers living in the U.S. and Canada. My list includes writers who have published books and those who are like me, constantly writing, but have not published any books yet. During workshops and presentations in my school system, educators, libraries, community leaders often ask me literary information concerning Haiti. If Haitians were working collectively such information should have been available. Haitians teaching Haitian culture, Haitian literature, subjects in bilingual education, policy making in higher institutions can have students compile such data as a course paper. If such work were done, the products of countless hours graduate students spend on a project would not become the college's or the professor's property. As an elementary educator, I am only compiling children and young adolescents' Haitian books written in English. Others can do similarly in their fields.

In one of my graduate classes I had in the early 80's, a professor had me compile all Haitian organizations and churches in the Boston area. Though only one of these organizations remains in existence and the number of particularly protestant churches had increased, someone should compile something like this for each major city with a large Haitian population. Haitian college professors can have their students engage in such project. Haitians from various professions be it as doctors, lawyers, teachers, college professors, writers need to write and be intellectually more vocal. The general image is that Haitians are poor, black, illiterate immigrants. The Haitian professionals have done nothing to challenge this image.

Women have a lot more to do - Haitian women for this purpose write less. In an analysis I did of Max Manigat's compiled bibliography called Haitiana 1991-1995 (CIDICHA 1997), out of 765 titles, Haitian women authored 65 of them, about 8%; from those 65 titles, 3 were research based documents about Haitian women's lives -Two of those researches were conducted by men, the other by a Caucasian woman.

12% (55) of the 460 authors listed in Haitiana 1991-1995 were Haitian women authors, Nine (9) of them had published at least two books in the four years. The Haitian women write primarily poetry, novels, tales. The non-fiction stories are about Haiti's sociopolitical condition, and history; only 13 out of the 55 Haitian women found in that bibliography write non-fiction. I wrote a more comprehensive paper on Haitian women writers in Creole, including some Haitian women's related writings after 1995. Excerpts of this paper were published in Ti Gout pa Ti Gout, Haiti en Marche's Creole rubric in March 1999.

Haitian women are not in the Haitian on-line discussions either. In the 2 Haitian oriented discussion lines that I know of, a handful of women frequently write. What is happening? Are Haitian women not using technology or not writing for this purpose?

In regards to writing, I have come to the conclusion that most people, Haitian in this case , don't read or write , keep contact, respond to letters, or even send "thank you" notes . For instance, I have written several Haitian women's organizations , both in Haiti and the U.S to solicit help in compiling data about a research I have been doing on Haitian women. I sent them copies of the survey and have included self-addressed, stamped envelopes that would facilitate mailing. The only evidence I have of their receiving my letter and questionnaires is the returned checks. I never heard from those women. I have crossed paths with some of them . They never asked me how this research is progressing. These women's attitudes are one example of Haitians not working together or supporting other individuals' endeavors. As a woman, I am embarrassed and ashamed by such behavior. It's very discouraging. Members of many Haitian "organizations or associations"are usually a "coterie" of three to six friends who decide who will be actively involved , who will be invited in their functions, and sometimes whom they will provide their services to or help. These are ill behaviors and those who think of posterity should not manifest them.

I also noticed that a linguist called his dictionary "Haitian-English Dictionary" in lieu of "Haitian-Creole or Creole-English Dictionary". I vehemently oppose his and other academia's attitudes in trying to change the name of my language. Haitians will always say they speak Creole.

I have heard those debates in conferences and in informal conversations and read countless on-line messages on that issue. It's about time Haitian and linguists working on Haitian Creole stop that senseless discussion. Books on science, mathematics, and non-fiction subject areas are urgently needed in Creole as well as dictionaries of various technical fields. It's about time that the academia stop talking, discussing, arguing about orthography or whether Creole is a language and what the proper name of the Haitian people's primary vehicle of communication is. The name of the Haitians' language was Creole, is Creole, and will always be Creole.

Field research should also be a priority in Creole. As I worked in the women's research I mentioned earlier, it came to light that a good number of educated Haitian women are presenting the Haitian women situation in the same way the non-Haitian, usually European-Caucasian American academia address it, because most Haitian writers do not do systematic, empirical research.

They go to libraries, read materials written mostly by non-Haitians, look at the American women's issues, listen to Haitian amateur radio programs, and make interpretations of the Haitian woman which are not always accurate.

In other instances, many tend to duplicate, translate, or change orthographies from French or English works. Therefore some creativity is needed when working in Creole or about Haiti. I am glad I am doing this research on Haitian women's lives. However due to lack of support and collaboration, the findings and the reports have not yet been finalized. Other projects I have done, like 10 children books ( 6 in Creole, 4 in English )are still in my drawers as well as the hundred or so papers I have written about some aspects of Haiti.

It is therefore crucial that we Haitians stop working haphazardly into cliques. That sectarianism business has to stop, just for the sake of the coming generation, for the Haitians' reputation, and for those who have some integrity and still want to positive contributions. As a Haitian person, I see myself sharing my skills and knowledge mainly with a non-Haitian population, although I am actively engaged in the Haitian community.

As we celebrate the 196th anniversary of Haiti's independence, the systematic application of Haiti's motto "L'Union fait la force" should be a goal. This accomplishment may be a possible solution to the Creole/French 300 year debate. Effective usage of Haiti's motto "Together we are strong" will have its positive impact on the rest of the Haitian society.

I finally and firmly believe that sharing, working collectively, and being creative like many developed nations is imperative to Haiti's social, linguistic, political and economic development.

Nekita Lamour
December 1999