C’est Creole

About the Book

C'est Cre΄ole, It is Creole: Say Creole - Say the name! This work is a tribute to the Creole language spoken in the Caribbean Islands. Creole is the first language of the Caribbean people, but alas! It is not generally accepted as a language by its native speakers and by Caribbean educators and is often referred to by derogatory terms such as bad English or French, broken English or French, ghetto language, gutter language, and dialect. My claim is that if a people's language is a 'non-language', not normal, then their identity is one of a 'non-people', not identifiable. The perception of a people's language is seminal to the defining of their identity and charting the course of their development. A major source of the crisis, both social and educational, for the descendants of the Africans in the diaspora, resides in their language situation. Yet, not only school teachers but also university lecturers still insist that students "speak properly", implying that their mother tongue, Creole is improper! The book is a collection of poems. The signal poem is the award winning Meh Own Tongue. Say Creole!

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