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#402: Haitian Prejudices: Vedrine comments (fwd)
From: Emmanuel W. Vedrine <evedrine@hotmail.com>
"It is my humble opinion that some haitians are more fluent in
english or french because they are in positions to practice these
languages more than the creole language." (yves pierre-louis)
- Let me add some clarifications to Pierre-Louis' quote - First, English is
not the native language of Haitians (born in Haiti) like it or not, they all
speak Kreyol as native language though many would claim French (as a
trompe-l'oeuil), trying to get some prestige (one example of Diglossia and
Sociolinguistics in Haitian society). It's a foreign language to them and
for those who learned it as second or third language, their competence or
fluency varies due some factors such as age, education and certain
opportunities (some of them may have over others). However, I do know
certain Haitians with very high level of education (from Haiti) and who have
been in the US for many years, but who skill lack certain communicative
skills in English (e.g, lexicon, pronunciation..., due the environment that
influences them the most [in terms of language use]).
The young generation of Haitians (e.g, those in their early 20's or even
younger) master the English language faster than Haitians who come to the US
at an older age. Why? R- They have more contacts with "the American culture"
(notice that I put the American culture here
in quotations since some people would argue that such a culture
does not exist, but rather a "sub American cultures"). This generation has
less problem to associate with young Americans their age (e.g, in high
school, college, sports, dating...) whereas older Haitians have a tendency
to socialize (more) with people from their own community where language
factor can play an important role here.
I also want to be specific when mentioning "young generation of Haitians"
(above). First, I refer to youngsters born in Haiti and who migrated to the
US. There is also the "generation one and a half" (who is a type "young
genetion of Haitians) with ethnic identity problem which in turn creates a
self-identity problem. Why? R- Maybe lack of information from their Haitian
parents (who may know very little of Haitian glory/triumph in history), lack
of knowledge of positivity in the Haitian society, negative role models. So,
psychologically speaking, all this come to have a great impact on this said
generation.
The last one, also a "younger generation of Haitians", are some
Haitian-Americans (born in the U.S) who (may) master the English language
are proud to be Haitian (either they learn from their parents about Haiti
(mostly the good parts), from friends or people in the community or from
book related Haiti/Haitians (dealing with the positive side of our culture)
and right away, they feel proud to declare that they are Haitians even if
some of them them may not be fluent in Kreyol (the language of their ethnic
identity), but they
don't have any inferiority complex (such as the group mentioned by Nekita
Lamour in her statement) or the "generation one and a half" to identify
themselves as Haitian. And to test that, one can just go to one of these
Caribbean carnivals (in Boston, Cambridge, New York..., you name it) to see
them waiving Dessalines' "bicolore" with pride.
Now, to go back to Mr. Pierre-Louis's statement, I would say definitely say
he is right and below, Nekita Lamour backs up his claim:
..."Regarding speaking French or even English - I have met many
Haitians who address me in English simply to demonstrate a 'social
superiority'. I have been to numerous conferences held in the United
States where presenters address a Haitian audience in English or French as
if speaking in Creole would have undermined their competence in the subject.
The message they really want to send is ' I am a fluent English or French
speaker.'
...One example that remains vivid in my mind occurred in l992 at
City College of New York. It was a conference for Haitian Bilingual
educators regarding teaching Creole in Bilingual programs. The entire
plenary and the keynote address were in English. When I stood up and read a
poem that one of my students wrote in Creole, of course, the entire room was
cold and silent. People were shocked. I don't think they expected to hear
Creole in a Creole education conference. What made matters worse was the
content of that eight year old's poem was about Haiti's political situation
at that time..." (Nekita Lamour)
In her quotes, I would argue that these types of stereotypes are
usually made by the older generation (from the age of 40 and up). They
don't come here at a young age, therefore (most of them) already mastered
the bad habits of our undeveloped bourgeoisie and the
pseudo-intellectuals. It would take some time to clean this type of
colonial mentality.
I remember when I was researching in Haiti back 1996, I went to public
library in Port-au-Prince and told the people that I wanted to look up
some of their documentation on Kreyol. First they look at me from toe to
head (I had sample clothes on) and I spoke my rural Kreyol. They asked for
my library card and I told them I wasn't living in Haiti. "Do you have a
student I.D", one asked. I gave them my Harvard student I.D. I noticed a
drastic change right away and nice conversation followed.
E.W.Vedrine
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