Dánica Coto July 01, 2021 - 7:24 PM
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) â The elementary school student stood up, pulled down her face mask and leaned into the microphone. She swallowed hard before trying to spell the word âdiscoverâ in French Creole.
âD-E-K-O-V-Iâ she tried as she clasped her hands behind her back while standing in front of a row of gleaming trophies.
Seconds later, the teacher announced: âSorry, thatâs incorrect. The word, she said, is âdékouvè.â
The student pursed her lips and sat down, temporarily felled at a Creole spelling bee in the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica. Her difficulty with the language is far from unique on the tiny nation, which is trying to preserve and promote that centuries-old creation by Africans who melded their original tongues with those of the European plantation owners who held them in slavery.
Dominica fights to save Creole forged by slaves in Caribbean
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Dominica fights to save Creole forged by slaves in Caribbean
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Professor Hubert Devonish
A trade union representing more than 1,000 staff members at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona campus is proposing that private sector companies pay an increased tax of half of one per cent to help fund the running of the region’s premier education institution.
The West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT) Jamaica also proposes that the number of postgraduate students at the Mona campus be increased in order to bring in more money for the institution.
The proposals were included in a response to the UWI Chancellor s commission on governance report which recommended, among other things, that students pay 40 per cent of tuition costs, up from the current 20 per cent, while government’s share of tuition costs be lowered from 80 per cent to 60 per cent.
THE EDITOR, Madam:
I read Nigel Facey’s letter on Friday, December 18, and I am in full agreement with his beliefs. He has made some fantastic points, and has concurred with our Jamaican idol and iconic emerita of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Carolyn Cooper, on her unending belief in our language. Emeritus Professor Hubert Devonish of the UWI should also be lauded for his groundwork contributions. The Jamaican Creole has long been rejected by the wider Jamaican populace, for no good reason at all, simply because it did not originate in US, UK or Canada. Anything originated in those countries is considered by Jamaicans to be right, good or cool, even their despicable slangs. We need to make some revolutionary changes in our mode of thinking and embrace our culture with more steadfastness. We are not pursuing our lives with any form of assertiveness to show ourselves some self-love.