Arnaud Carpooran – épanouir, diversifier ou coup d’état créole ?

[Rafic Soormally]

Arnaud Carpooran – épanouir, diversifier ou coup d’état créole ?

Why did the Ramgoolam government introduce a non “épanoui” and a non “diversifié” creole language in our education system, when Creole spokesmen like Arnaud Carpooran are still screaming for its “épanouissement” and “diversification”? Is this not an admission that the language is regressive and not fit for purpose ?

Dr Arnaud Carpooran wants the ‘creole language’ to “épanouir” and “diversifier”

There definitely is a ‘Creole Cultural War’ going on in Mauritius aggravated by some Creolist media and politicians, including the Prime Minister who had a very confused and confusing sectarian creole dialect introduced in the public school system without proper nationwide debate and without any independent linguistic, anthropological and sociological reports showing how the creole of slaves was spoken and evolved in an overwhelming Indian Mauritian community for over 177 years, slavery having been abolished in 1835.

When University of Mauritius educated Estella Printanière claims that « WE ARE ALL CREOLES », is she not insulting and provoking Indo-Mauritians who form the majority of the Mauritian population? It is conceded that a Creole person is one identified by the creole language of African slaves, but this does not mean that if an Indian or Russian speaks creole, they are Creoles too. Indian Mauritians have their own languages, cultures and ways of life, distinct from African Mauritians, very many of whom do not regard themselves as Creoles.

Why do Mauritians need to help the French politics of ‘Creolité’ or the newly fabricated political Creole language « à s’épanouir et à se diversifier », as stated by Dr Arnaud Carpooran in his interview published in the Défi Quotidien of 6th August 2012? Is this not an admission that the language is regressive and not fit for purpose? Why did the Ramgoolam government introduce a non “épanoui” and a non “diversifié” creole language in our education system? Dr Carpooran feels they now have a licence to demand that it infiltrates all our spheres of life at the social, cultural, religious, regional and government levels, including the Mauritian Parliament in what looks like a COUP D’ÉTAT CRÉOLE? The government has clearly sown the seeds of discord in the country.

Communities in Mauritius are based on racial types (Indian, African, Chinese, European) and religion (mainly Hinduism, Catholicism, Islam), and their respective cultures are so dictated. On the other hand, a so-called Creole, (meaning an African-Mauritian) cannot truly claim a race or culture of its own since a Creole may be a Hindu, a Muslim or a Catholic. If anything, Creoles would have several cultures and religions, and several communities too.

Misnomers
A patois is a spoken language - « Les patois se parlent mais ne s’écrivent pas pour former des œuvres littéraires » (ref. Larousse). This does not mean that it cannot be phonetically written in any script of your choice, but it is clearly not a written language. It is a habit amongst Mauritians to use terms wrongly because of the serious limitations of the patois they speak. Often, it is difficult to pronounce a word properly. For example, in common parlance, they use « communalisme » instead of « communautarisme ». Paul Bérenger often says in patois something to the effect : « Zotte tenir banne propos communal », when the proper word is ‘communautaire’. ‘Communal’ has nothing to do with ‘communautaire’. As such, they are misnomers. Another recent misnomer in the context of the temporary shelving of the « Remake 2000 » reached between Bérenger and SAJ/Pravind in an MMM-MSM alliance is the use of the term « cooling off period » when the proper term is « in abeyance », which is too big a word for a patois speaker.

The patois speaker
Although Mauritius ceased to be a French colony in 1810, other islands, such as Martinique, have continued to be French colonies, now the Overseas Departments of France, while in Mauritius there has been massive immigration from the Indian Subcontinent under the British. Through interaction with Indians, African-Mauritians ceased to speak slave creole in freedom. They were speaking a Mauritian Patois (MP) made up of a variety of words coming from several languages, including English, Hindi, Urdu, Mandarin. It is spoken differently in different parts of the island and in different communities too. An African-Mauritian may borrow terms from Bantu, Zulu or Swahili. An Indo-Mauritian may borrow terms from Hindi, Urdu. Hindus tend to use several religious terms from Hindi and Sanskrit, while Muslims tend to use several terms from Arabic, and so on. However, when a Muslim speaks to a Hindu, he would tend not to use those Arabic terms, and vice versa. Similarly, when an Indo-Mauritian speaks to an African-Mauritian who tends to regard his patois as a creole, he would tend to leave out Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit and Arabic terms. But this does not mean that the Indo-Mauritian is a creole speaker, although the term is indeed used in common parlance. That too is a misnomer.

Let’s face it, historically, creole is a term born in slavery and racism. This is a historical fact which, for political reasons, many want to hide or to revise history. But Mauritians must know their history properly. There is no evidence to show that a language of slaves could have taken over a whole country with 70% Indo-Mauritians, well educated in their culture and languages, to the extent that even the Mauritian Parliament should adopt it, if we listen to Dr Carpooran.

The fact that most Mauritians now say they speak creole, they merely do so in common parlance, out of ignorance and because of brainwashing through the Méthode Coué. When asked how they know that they speak creole, the standard answer is that because everyone else and the press say so. Hence, any census data would be incorrect because the right question has not been asked. The right question should be, for example : « As an Indian-Mauritian, do you consider you speak Creole or Mauritian Patois ? », or « As an African-Mauritian, do you …? ». The results would be totally different. In the UK, 200,000 people call themselves Jedi Knights, but it is neither a race nor a religion. It is not a community either but merely an association or society. This is why people like journalist Gilbert Ahnee refers to « société créole » since it encompasses all communities.

Definition
By definition, a Creole is either, (1) a White European born in a slave colony, such as Martinique, Guadeloupe, Mauritius; or (2) an African slave identified by the language they used to speak to their masters, and eventually amongst themselves.

Today’s ‘creole’ is a sectarian political fabrication based on the Haitian model as no one knows how slaves spoke. Moreover, the ‘Creole person’ (identified by the patois) has become only a Catholic of African origin, as the Franco-Mauritian, for whom the term was originally coined, rejected it. As such, the term has become a racist and religiously discriminatory term both in its outlook and application (ref. Robert Fournier’s « Créole, une mystification »). It is this political creole which has been introduced in Primary Schools, again for political reasons. Dr Ajay Busjeet says it is like injecting dyslexia in the mind of the child.

Danielle Palmyre and the ‘Creole Culture’
There is no such thing as a specific ‘Creole culture’, since those Creoles are merely identified by language and they can be Christians, Hindus, Muslims or even Atheists. There is no such thing as a ‘Creole name’ either. In « Culture créole et foi chrétienne à l'île Maurice - Lecture anthropo-théologique », Danielle Palmyre (2004) speaks of « malaise créole », because she argued Creoles are being ignored culturally and socially and suffer from severe economic hardships as if they were the only ones.

Despite speaking about ‘l'anthropologie coloniale et esclavagiste et le racisme qu'elle a engendré’, she promotes slave creole and accuses the Mauritian establishment (the Hindus) of anti-Black racism inherited from the Biblical curse of Ham! She even accused God as being « une figure négative dans le monde créole », saying: « le "Bondie" de la religion (populaire) créole n'est pas un Dieu d'amour. Ne ressemble-t-il pas, trait pour trait, aux colons ? »

Surprisingly enough, she also recognises the Creole as being a « compote » of many fruits and wants them to recognise not only their African and Malagasy roots, but also their Indian, European and Chinese roots, and this is a blatant contradiction!

Conclusion
When Dr Carpooran says : « Quand un politicien mène campagne pour rechercher des votes, il ne le fait pas en swahili ou en chinois, il le fait en langue créole », this means in Mauritian Patois (MP) rather than in Creole. There is no question of introducing any form of patois in Parliament, the English language being the official language of Mauritius.

Today’s Creole is a sheer political fabrication, backed by the Catholic Church, which people are forced to accept as historical fact because they are not allowed to hear the other side of the story, hence their crusade against and demonisation of journalist Darlmah Naëck for having dared to expose them in his editorial « Pourquoi les créoles posent problème » (Défi Quotidien, 8Aug12). Perhaps Mauritians should reflect on the use of terms, as misnomers abound in common parlance and should not be duped by the ‘Mauricianism’ fabricated by the same people.

M Rafic Soormally
London
13 August 2012

[boispignolet]

Le recensement de 2011 vous met un grand coup de pied au cul mon cher Rafic !
Tous vos boniments sur la langue créole sont anéantis, circulez, il n’y a plus rien à ajouter, le peuple est souverain, car c’est lui qui décide quelle langue employer et non un exilé en Grande-Bretagne qui a fui son pays et qui est donc bien loin de la vie quotidienne des habitants de la Nation qu’il a quittée.
Au lieu de mettre votre montre à l’heure en regardant Big Ben, mettez-vous à l’heure des Mauriciennes et Mauriciens, car vous retardez considérablement mon pauvre petit bonhomme, vous n’êtes plus sur le même « fuseau » linguistique, vous êtes tout bonnement déconnecté de la réalité !

2011 POPULATION CENSUS
6. LANGUAGE SPOKEN
More people speak Creole at home
More people now speak Creole and fewer speak Bhojpuri and the Asian languages. Out of every 10 Mauritians, 8 reported that they spoke only “Creole” at home in 2011 as compared to 7 in 2000. Bhojpuri which used to be spoken by 12% of the population in 2000 was spoken by only 5% in 2011.

Figure 6 - Proportion of the population by language most often spoken
at home, Republic of Mauritius, 2000 and 2011 Population Censuses

Whole document in PDF page 8

Whole document in Word page 8

http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/cso/ei977/toc.htm

Bonne lecture Rafic.