Local Language in Saint Lucia Schools

The government of Saint Lucia announced two weeks ago that beginning this school year, the local language Kweyol, commonly called patois in other Caribbean islands, will be taught in schools.

This is a major development for which many St Lucian patriots have long campaigned. It arose from the concerted efforts by European colonists to prevent communication between slaves in their native language by separating common language speakers as well as forbidding them from communicating in their own languages. As in neighbouring St. Vincent, the indigenous people, the Kalinago and Garifuna had resisted European colonisation, in this case that of the French.

Part of the resistance was to develop a common means of vocal communication. Thus, kweyol developed using the vocabulary of the colonisers, French, but in the context and structure of the various African languages of the slaves. It was similar to what happened in the English slave colonies where a local dialect developed but using the English vocabulary.

The kweyol had been highly developed in Haiti and following the Haitian Revolution, serious efforts were made to suppress its use. However, it continued to spread in the French colonies to the extent that it became the native language not just in Saint Lucia but in Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe and even spread to Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago along with French colonization.

In all these countries, and in the English colonies as well, a social stigma was attached to the speaking of creole languages and though in Saint Lucia and neighbouring states, kweyol was the most widely spoken, it was frowned upon especially by the middle classes as they sought acceptance in colonial society. Kweyol, in the case of the French colonies, and dialect as in the case of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Antigua and other islands colonized by the British, was considered an indication of inferiority and even level of civilization (or lack of it).

So, while the mass of people continued to communicate in their own kweyol or creole, it was forbidden in the school system. “Educated” Saint Lucians even forbade their children from speaking the language which was in fact the common language of Saint Lucia. Similarly, our middle classes stressed the need to “speak the Queen’s English” and rather than use the opportunity to get a real understanding of both languages, they were placed on differing levels with the language of the people being considered inferior. In our country, the local dialect was even mocked as that of “country people”.

Despite the collective move to national independence, this part of the decolonization process was never tackled and the more “educated” we became, the greater was the distance from our language roots. The school system, especially the elite schools to which most aspired, played a significant role in this and in spreading an alternative narrative about our language roots.

Saint Lucia is now attempting, albeit belatedly, to change all of this and spark not only recognition of the kweyol but also of its own history. It is a bold step from which we can learn, not only in relation to our own creole dialect, but, interestingly, in learning to communicate with our neighbours. We teach French and Spanish, even Mandarin now in our schools, but if our children go to Saint Lucia or Dominica, sister countries of the OECS, they face great difficulty in communicating with their kweyol-speaking neighbours.

We should view the Saint Lucia process with interest as it could have some bearing on us too.