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#1181: Reaction to a Kreyol article : Vedrine comments
From: E Vedrine <evedrine@hotmail.com>
[ "Nekita's reaction to 'Vid ki merite konble nan lang kreyol la' "
"Emmanuel Vedrine raised some interesting points in a post he sent in
Creole. One of them is the hardship that those who write in Creole have to
go through. There is no publisher that will publish a Creole manuscript
without asking advanced payment. Most writers as many of you know don't have
money..." (Nekita)
- Well, as Nekita paraphrases from my article ("Vid ki merite konble nan
lang kreyol la"), posted in http://windowsonhaiti.com), these problems do
exist and Kreyol writers have been facing them. But it's a challenge for us
to make a difference in a society where our so-called "leaders" and
"intellectuals" (for the majority) never value what is part of our culture
and heritage.
Through my 3 years intensive research (1996-99) , reviewing publications on
Kreyol (from colonial times to the end of this century) for the most
extensive Kreyol bibliography ever existed, I discover a great number of
important publications (on / in Kreyol) by both Haitian and non-Haitian
authors. The questions are: Do our so-called intellectuals and leaders know
about them? If yes, what are
they going to do with them for the advancement of the vernacular language?
"My point is as a person who has been writing in Creole for the last 20
years, I can see and understand all those "intellectual" discussions. But
the reality is it is not encouraging to write in Creole. The majority that
speak Creole don 't have the money to buy books. Writing in Creole does not
have as much prestige as writing in French or English does. There is nowhere
to publish your work" (Nekita)
- Here, I can take some from Nekita's points and reject the rest. As I
already mentioned, it's a challenge for Kreyol writers and a tough one also.
With my 10 years experience as a Kreyol writer and Haitian (100%), I would
advise Kreyol writers to continue their works and looking for other avenues
also to expand them (e.g translation of their works in other languages for a
larger market). The question is: who do we write for in the first place? or
toward whom our writings are directed? R- My answer is "Haitians" (in the
first place) therefore I choose Kreyol, not only as the target language but
also the language in which I express myself the best though I am polyglot at
the same time.
Kreyol has as much prestige for me as any other language. If we are proud of
ourselves, then we must be proud of our native language and culture. First,
we have to believe in ourselves and what we are doing (at all levels). If
Franketienne is one of the most well-known Haitian writers of this century,
it is due to his writings in Kreyol that hit the reality of our society and
most critiques (that I know of) focus on the production of his literary
works in Kreyol rather than in French though he writes in both languages
without any problem. Leon Francois HOFFMAN (Princeton University), in one of
his recent publications on "Haiti' Literature" comments on Kreyol Literature
where comments on Franketienne's works covers many pages.
Again, it's a challenge for us (Kreyol writers) to make a difference in our
society and this challenge can be applied in all other areas to change
Haiti's face in the next century and also a great path for Haiti's Second
Independence (of which real Haitians dream). Also, remember that language is
part of our soul and blood. A person who is not proud of his/her native
language is a "zombie". A zombie has no soul. Once one can think/write in
her/his native language, that person is free. Let's rid of colonization in
our writings to liberate the mind.
E.W.Vedrine ]
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