New institute to promote Creole language and culture |27 October 2016
The University of Seychelles (UniSey) has launched a Creole Language and Culture Research Institute under the banner ‘Nou kiltir, nou konnesans, nou lidantite’.
This forms part of the university’s mandate to be a recognised knowledge hub in the Indian Ocean delivering solutions to issues of the 21st century and also to build the human resource capacity required to help Seychelles achieve its development goals.
The Creole Language and Culture Research Institute was launched yesterday morning at the UniSey’s auditorium at Anse Royale.
The mission of the Creole Language and Culture Research Institute is to create an academic forum for the advancement of the Seychellois Creole language, culture and society within the context of, and in collaboration with, Indian Ocean and other Creole societies in the world. This will be through research and dissemination of information, the creation of databases, publications, and engaging in and promoting academic activities such as debates, criticism and intellectual creativity.
Present at the launch ceremony was the Minister for Tourism and Culture Alain St Ange, the Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Change Didier Dogley, the principal secretary for culture Benjamine Rose, the institute’s director Penda Choppy, the UniSey’s vice-chancellor, Professor Dennis Hardy, Dean Joëlle Perreau, among other guests.
Mrs Choppy stated that such initiative is to promote our Creole language, by adding something new
that will enable all the students, among other people, to do research on our culture.
“The purpose of this research institute is to create an academic forum to promote the Creole language, but it will focus more on research. The university has its own research unit. As we are aware in Seychelles we take great pride in protecting the environment that surrounds us, so an institution for the Blue economy has been created. So it is totally normal to create an institution for the Creole language besides promoting it,” she said.
She added that the mission of the existing Creole Institute is to act like an institute for the development of the Creole language.
“The Creole Institute does research by necessity, for a specific reason, to develop the Creole orthography. This new institute is not limited to research but will take on all aspects of the Creole language such as the history, the origin, among others. But both institutions will work together. We still don’t know our true identity and origin, but with the help of such research sector, we will be able to widen our knowledge,” she said.
Everyone has their own definitions of what the word Creole means. Whether they are from or part of a Creole culture, speak a Creole language, have some influence of a Creole nation in their upbringing or not, they will still have their own definition.
Minister St Ange added that we need to value more our Creole language, defend it and value its importance in society.
The proposed areas of research are: the Creole linguistic development, origins of Seychellois Creole culture, slavery and its aftermath, theatre and performance, Creole architecture, among others.
Creole, which is mainly derived from the French language, is the native language of the Seychelles islands and resulted from the descendants of settlers from Europe, traders from Asia and former slaves from Africa, who later intermarried forming the melting pot of culture which exists today.
Colonised by the French and the British at different times, Seychelles eventually adopted French and English along with Creole as its three official languages.