The Dikté Kréyol in Martinique
October is the month in which the October 28 dictations blossom, almost to a climax. For some, the day is reserved for this language, for others for a part of our heritage: the Creole language. Like the French language in its day, today's Creole language awaits a fine effort from all of us, one that will unashamedly recognize its richness. It's high time it was accepted without any inferiority or superiority complex, and spoken for real, just as we speak French for real, to make a lie of the proverb that says: " lè milat rivé i ka bliyé sé nègres ki manman'y " which can also be understood in this form: " Lè neg rivé i ka bliyé manman'y palé kréyol ba'y!" (The upstart forgets his origins).
On Saturday May 9, 1998, Martinique's first Dikté kréyol was held in the main auditorium of the Université Antilles-Guyane, and broadcast live by the public television networks of Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana. The text was taken from an interview with Samaritan storyteller Martin-Valet, read by writer Térèz Léotin, and entitled Man Doudou épi bèlè-a. The event was organized by RFO-Martinique and writer Nady Nelzy, GEREC and members of the Bannzil kréyol Matinik association. Participants were mainly primary and secondary school pupils, as well as personalities from the world of culture and education, such as Creole language educational consultant Josette Burlet-Miatékéla, who coordinated the correction. The event was hosted in Creole by Flyy from RFO-Martinique.
This first event was to give rise to a tradition of Dikté kréyol in Martinique, around October 28, International Creole Language Day (a celebration first organized in Dominica, then adopted in all Creole-speaking areas around the world). In addition to the interest in practicing Creole spelling, the Dikté included questions on the history, literature and culture of Martinique in general. Writing doesn't save languages for sure, but the tradition of the Dikté kréyol, offering participants works by established authors whose Creole has been worked on by writing, can be an important element in the preservation of authentic Creole.
In the wake of this "historic" Dikté, a number of other events have taken place and continue to do so:
The Dikté of the L.L.K.M. association (Liannaj pou Lanng Kréyol Matinik). LLKM is a group of associations from the worlds of education, literature and bèlè, whose common ground is the Creole language.
The Dikté of the Foyal-based Dinamik Jenn Matnik association, with its 3 levels of difficulty: Mapipi (experienced practitioners of Creole writing), Manmay nef (beginners), Timanmay (children).
The Dikté organized by the Sanblaj pou fè kréyol lékolassociation of Creole language teachers, which are not limited to the October 28 period, and are held in partnership with local authorities. Creole-language books are awarded to the winners.
Last but not least, we should mention the Dikté kréyol organized by the city of Trinité, or the original initiative of the KM2 association and the municipal library of Le François, which renews the exercise by proposing a translation from French into Creole or an essay in Creole on a theme.
From folklorism and doudouism to identity claims
Slave society, as we imagine it, left little room for Belles-Lettres. Throughout the 19th century, and well into the first half of the 20th, the production of literary texts in Creole was the work of white colonists. The ideology reflected was that of the masters: negrophobia, even apology for slavery, and a more or less open nostalgia for this system. François Marbot's collection Les Bambous, fables de La Fontaine travesties en patois martiniquais par un vieux commandeur, published shortly before the anti-slavery revolution of May 22, 1848, is a revealing work in this respect. From the mid-20thcentury onwards, a more authentic form of Creole-language literature began to emerge, with authors such as Gilbert Gratiant(Fab Konpè Zikak, 1958), Marie-Thérèse Julien-Lung Fou and Georges Éleuthère Mauvois. In 1966, with Agénor Cacoul, Mauvois inaugurated a bilingual Creole-French political theater in Martinique, which gave a voice to the working classes. In his theater, Mauvois shows how language ("grand français") can be an instrument of domination, in the context of diglossia. More generally, in the last third of the twentieth century in Martinique, Creole was seen as having the potential to become, in politics and literature, an instrument in the service of the quest for identity and emancipation. For example, the newsletters of the various sections of AGEM (Association Générale des Étudiants Martiniquais) bear names in Creole, even though most of their content is written in French.
The Creole newspaper Grif an tè (1977-1982)
It's worth mentioning the role played by the Grif an tè newspaper in promoting written Creole at the widest possible level, in conjunction with the academic work of GEREC (Groupe d'Études et de Recherches en Espace Créolophone) under the direction of Professor Jean Bernabé, at the Université Antilles-Guyane.
For the Grif an tè team, Creole was to be an instrument for exchanging experiences between people from all walks of life, an element that strengthens solidarity and popular unity. In Grif an tè, Creole was also the medium that enabled the writing of a story told by the actors or direct witnesses of the event, or from the oral testimonies of parents or grandparents (even if individual memory or oral transmission are not the source of incontestable truths). In this way, the newspaper has been able to cover, in Creole, events from Martinique's history such as the 1870 Insurrection du Sud, daily life under Admiral Robert - during the Second World War, the Affaire des 16 de Basse-Pointe (1948), or René Beauregard's Grand Marronnage (1942-1949).
The Grif an tè team was made up of intellectuals and teachers (Serge Domi, Serge Harpin, Térèz and Georges-Henri Léotin, Marie-Denise Padra-Léotin, Raphaël Confiant, Monchoachi...) as well as trade union and anti-colonial activists (Lucienne Chéry-Zékoté, Lucien Padra, Claude Clairicia, Claude Larcher, Franck Zaïre, Fred Dubousquet...).
From a more strictly literary point of view,Grif an tè was also a place of expression for young Martinican writers such as Monchoachi, Raphaël Confiant, Djanma (pseudonym of Patrick Cadrot), Jonas (pseudonym of Georges-Henri Léotin) and Adolfin (pseudonym of Térèz Léotin).
The fight for the Creole language today
Creole is more than just a part of Martinique's living heritage, it's essential to its identity: it's present in its craft, agricultural and industrial (sugar, rum) traditions, in its music ( bèlè, kalennda, danmié, but also in zouk, and even in the lyrics of the Commandeurs de la Haute-taille, a dance that originated in Europe but is strongly Creoleized). We're no longer wondering whether it's a language or a patois. But it's vital to remember Jean Bernabé's remark in Fondal Natal (L'Harmattan, tome 1, p. 108): "But the affirmation of language status remains sterile unless, at the same time, the institutional mechanisms and equipment are put in place to enable Creole to participate in the real development of the communities that invest in it".
On this front, education and literature play a decisive role. Associations such as Sanblaj pou fè kréyol lékol are working to promote the teaching of Creole (which, it should be remembered, can in no way be seen as a war against the French language and culture, which are also part of Martinique's heritage). The Association des écrivains en langue créole de Martinique(Krey Matjè Kréyol Matnik, KM2), set up in 2009 on the initiative of writer Daniel Boukman, must also play a decisive role: literature as a place for regeneration and revitalization of Creole.
There are numerous examples of how the Creole language can be revitalized in Martinique, in the literary and artistic fields in general. The whole world knows the group Kassav, the Creole-speaking ambassador of zouk, a music that has conquered the world in Creole. We'd like to mention two other examples of Martinique's new take on the Creole language: poet and wordsmith Joby Bernabé and singer-composer Kolo Barst. The former is especially famous for one of his songs: Fanm. Taking as his starting point what might be called a "Martinican alliterative heritage", which is fairly misogynistic(Fout fant fes fanm Fodfrans fann fon: "Foutre! que la fente des fesses des femmes de Fort-de-France est profonde!"), Joby Bernabé gives it, in good Creole, a new, infinitely nobler content, a hundred leagues away from the first version: Fout fanm fò, lè fanm fè tan fè fos pou fò! ("How strong women are when they take the time to do it!").
Kolo Barst, for his part, puts Creole in the spotlight and at the service of the people's cause, evoking their suffering and struggles. One of his greatest successes is his poignant evocation of the farm workers' strike in northern Martinique, and its bloody repression in Chalvet in February 1974.
