Le Matinal: Blog: Militant Creole

Blog: Militant Creole
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M. Rafic Soormally (Guest Author) on Friday 19th of February 2010 - 04:14:00
 
Mr Virahsawmy bases his model on Haitian Creole, which they spell ‘Kreol’, a
language which has little to do with Mauritians so many thousands of miles away,
around 70% of whom are of Indian rather than African ‘slave’ origin. First
and foremost, he produces no linguistic, anthropological and sociological
empirical evidence to show how the slave ancestors of a section of the Mauritian
population spoke and wrote in Creole, a language which has always been regarded
as imposed by White slave masters and regressive. Such a language can never be
considered as a language of civilisation.
When I was at St Jean Bosco R.C.A. primary school in the 1960’s, the word
‘Creole’ was regarded as a swear word. Those who uttered the word ‘gagne
coute rotin bazaar’, as we said in patois mauricien. My Headteacher, Mr
Grassy, even advised us to speak French rather than patois.  Being of Indian
origin, my patois obviously contained many Hindi and Bhojpuri words and terms. I
never spoke creole. It is neither my mother tongue, nor that on my parents,
grand parents and their ancestors. Miss Kenneth, my teacher of the Petite Bourse
always spoke French with us and encouraged us to do the same, except in classes
of English. The new invention of militant creole was one which excluded most
Hindi, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Urdu, Mandarin, Telegu, Marathi, even English words
which people would use in varying degrees depending on their communities and
regions around the country. Many argue that it is a racist form of creole. In
its phonetic writing format, French words are atrociously wrongly spelt and
deformed; rules of grammar and exception to those rules are ignored.
Dev Virahsawmy even went to the extent of alleging that « A pidgin becomes a
Creole language when it becomes the mother tongue of a group», and argued that
English is in fact a ‘Creole language’, which is utter nonsense [Mauritius
Times, 5 Feb 10, « Mauritian Creole, Identity and National Development »]. A
pidgin is normally a mixture of two languages used, for example, in trade -
Chinese Pidgin English. But in colonies of slavery, they tend to equate this
with Creole because a Creole is normally a mixture of two languages, that is,
the language of the slave master and that of the slave, but not necessarily the
mother tongue of the slave. The English language was not born in slavery.
Professor McWhorter, a linguist, tried to argue that when a pidgin is used
daily, it becomes a ‘Creole’, such as « Black English », rather than
English itself, although his comments were open to interpretations. Perhaps Mr
Virahsawmy should explain how that ‘Kreol morisien’ (MILITA3NT CREOLE) he
has invented is a mixture of which slave master’s and which slave’s
languages, what pidgin slaves spoke and how it developed into a Creole and how
that Creole, which he writes so badly, is the ‘mother tongue’ of 80% of
Mauritians. Linguists are not expected to teach people how to write, but they
are expected to know about the structure of languages, about their limitations
and how to overcome those limitations through speech therapy. If Mauritius
adopts Dev Virahsawmy’s ‘Kreol morisien’, it will certainly require
numerous speech therapists.
The agenda of the protagonists of the imported concept of créolité in the form
of militant creole, is more far-reaching since it aims at political recognition
and power. People must ask themselves why the Catholic Church is backing such
créolité, rather than Catholicism, with such fervour. In order to gain votes,
a government may recognise anything which has nothing to do with truth and
empiricism. But it is up to parents who are serious about their children’s
education to refuse for their children to be taught in any form of slave
language. Moreover, we, as civilised Mauritians, have the right to refuse to
converse in any form of slave language both at home and in public. We have to
lead by example. Our children must only speak to their school friends and
colleagues in French or English or Bhojpuri, for example. This should wipe the
smile off the face of slavery and militant creole, which is not the mother
tongue of Mauritians.
However, in the early primary years, depending on the region, Mauritian patois
is already used as an adjunct in teaching with the view to doing away with it in
later primary years, and certainly not in institutionalising any form of slave
language in the education system. Suttyhudeo Tengur, president of Government
Hindi Teachers Union, points out that under the Education Act, pupils from
Standard IV to VI of the Government and aided primary schools have to be taught
in English and that teachers and pupils must converse in English. [Le Matinal,
11 Feb 10, «Suttyhudeo Tengur veut l’anglais comme medium»].