Haitian Literature - The Language Issue

The Language Issue

Two hypotheses exist on the birth of creole, a language whose history is intimately linked to colonization. One suggests that creole was born from the necessity for different communities to communicate among themselves. Under this theory, Haitian creole developed in the 17th century on Turtle Island, where enslaved Africans, buccaneers, privateers and European settlers lived together. The other theory suggests that creole was born on the Portuguese Atlantic coast of Africa in the fifteenth century and it was then "exported" via the slave trade.

In any event there are more than 200 creole or creole-related languages. Whether based on English, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch or French, as in Haiti, creole is the language of collective memory, carrying a symbol of resistance. Creole is found in stories, songs, poetry (Saint-John Perse, Aimé Césaire, Derek Walcott), and novels (Patrick Chamoiseau, Raphaël Confiant).

Despite Haiti's independence, French has remained the country's official language. French, a language of great cultural prestige, was spoken by the elite, and creole did not enter the literary field until the second half of the 20th century. The indianists of the 1930s and the Négritude movement (incarnated in Haiti by Jean Price-Mars) emphasized the African origins of Antillean people, giving it an identity lost in deportation and later colonization. But, for them, Creole was still considered an impure language of slavery.

The Créolité movement, which succeeded them, rehabilitated the Creole, which no longer was only the language of slavery, but "that which we made together to survive". A shift was brought about in Haitian literature, from French to Creole, or du français vers le créole, or rather a dialogue between the two languages.

Creole is used frequently in poetry and drama. Frankétienne, for example, writes his plays only in Creole. An oral language, Creole is particularly suited in these genres elevating the voice. (Even if many Haitians speak and understand Creole, not all can read it.) In novels, the two languages are sometimes used together, creating a new and original way of writing.

The choice of language for writing is an important issue in contemporary creative writing, especially for writers residing in Haiti.