Letters & Opinion, Politics

Why Labour Would Get My Vote Over UWP

Kensley Peter Charlemange
Independent Eye by Kensley Peter Charlemange

LET’S face it. Our nation, our society, is one of mere dichotomy and it’s not helping us. Consider it. We were seven times British and seven times French and the division has continued. We have two major political parties; the Saint Lucia Labour Party and the United Workers Party. We have two rival flower festivals, La Rose and La Marguerite, and a bicameral parliamentary system. We have two languages, Creole and English and they are dividing us, which in this article will be my focus this Creole Heritage Month.

Why the heck is something so core to our national identity not taught in our schools? It is time that our political parties enunciate their stance on the universal teaching and writing of Kwéyòl in our schools and declare it in their political manifestos.

As far as the UWP’s history and current dilemma go, I am not hopeful. These foreigners don’t seem to get it. Self assertion is integral to wellness and balance in personal and national development. Who are the foreigners you may ask? John Compton, who relegated Kwéyòl as insignificant as it is not the language of commerce. A stance being propagated by his successors, Allen Chastanet and my political contender Dominic Fedee. You (Allen and Dominic) have not found it fitting to immerse yourself into my culture? Kwéyòl seems not to be the language of intelligent people like Chastanet and Fedee. But the smart guy immersed himself in the culture. In as much as he was not born here, he became us. He was of the ground and to the ground. He was not afraid to get himself dirty. He toiled the ground. He was a farmer. He knew our strife. We would often get a ride in his humble pick-up. And he was able to communicate to us ‘anlanngmanmannou”. He was us. He became us. He identified with us and that’s important. I am sorry I do not think that Chastanet and Fedee identify with us.

The joy, the pride, the connection I feel when the Governor General so ably elevates that significant part of me, in her speeches in parliament.

There is a proposal being advanced in the ongoing constitutional reform endeavours that the Prime Minister must be a native born Saint Lucian and I support that. I reviled when my parents and guardians would try to shut us up and say, “PaléAnglétibway”. English, the vestige of our colonial masters seems to be the language of the intelligent. Really?

Why would Labour get my vote over the UWP? Because by the acceptance of Kwéyòl in parliament they have done more to elevate that part of me that is Creole. A party whose leader has lived here for so many decades and have not seen it fit to become fluent in my language does not augur well to the elevation of this holistic part of me that is Creole. The Folk Research Centre and the Kwéyòl Language Committee and ordinary Saint Lucians must clamour for the universal teaching of Kwéyòl in our schools.

33 Comments

  1. Sir, you were able to see the relevance of Kweyol (Creole) because you are an intellectual. Mind you, it is the nonintellectual who is afraid to speak another language. Listen to the notable linguist, Norm Chomsky, and he will tell you that Kweyol is a language. I repeat, Kweyol is a language and not a dialect. I do not want to elaborate but if you read the works of Norm Chomsky you will draw an intelligent conclusion.
    Now the two clowns you referred to are the epitome or the embodiment of colonialism. I don’t want to lecture you but you are quite aware that the colonialist had to rob us of our culture and language in order to effectively control us. He had to make us feel inferior so he could elevate himself. He taught us that our language was bad, our complexion was bad and anything we do is bad. Having said this, don’t you see why the two clowns you alluded to wouldn’t want to learn far less speak Kweyol. To you I say, sir, a little learning is a dangerous thing.

  2. KWEYOL

    Kweyol is so free and sweet.
    It is mother’s melody from her lips.
    When it is spoken, you can’t find any sleep,
    only jumping to its beat.
    Being beaten, with a stick.
    On your feet, till you brake
    your hip.

  3. Now, is there an idiot in this local Galaxy of ours who would be such a nincompoop to challenge the eloquence of this argument tendered by Kensley ? Of course we have imposters like Allen Chastanet whose parents, in their arrogance looked down on the people who had avoided the full degradation of colonialism, preserving their African heritage in my mother’s tongue, and teaching Allen Chastanet that he should not be like “like these country bookies” or like us Jean Bitasscion.

    So the brain-damaged Negroes like a Rick John Wayne, a Peter Josie or the little fellow Dominic Fedee, afflicted with the inferiority complex perceive themselves closer to the ignorant Caucasian who encounters a multilinguistic African conversing in kweyol and shouts, SPEAK ENGLISH ! as I completely ignore the ignoramus and continue my conversation on the elevator with someone from the African continent or from Trinidad.

    One of the most insidious acts of the Caucasian Christian Slave Masters was the severing of the Mother Tongue, along with Name and Religion, hence Negroes with names like Fedee and Rick Wayne – SLAVE MASTER’S NAME TAGS. Negroes in the UWP, are the most disgraceful cabal of the modern version of the “House Niggers”. Just imagine these Negroes electing Allen Chastanet to be their leader — a man who needs an interpreter to speak to my mother.

    https://www.facebook.com/truthandedutainment/videos/1585936088336784/

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  4. “The Folk Research Centre and the Kwéyòl Language Committee and ordinary Saint Lucians must clamour for the universal teaching of Kwéyòl in our schools.”
    ——————————————————————————————————————————-
    Not a good idea. Our forefathers didn’t need schooling to learn the Kweyol dialect; yet, they spoke it eloquently. So why should it be taught in schools today?

    Honestly, I would rather my tax dollar go towards the salary of a computer science or engineering teacher over a Kweyol teacher. So if the Department of Education has the extra funds to hire school teachers, they should be looking into hiring computer science and engineering, teachers; not Kweyol teachers.
    You can’t force Kweyol down the throats of people just because it means so much to you; after all, I am madly in love with Kweyol too; coming from Monchy, I speak it just about everyday; but, with limited resourses, I don’t think it should be taught in schools.

  5. I hope that the SLP supervised polling station, and other similar polling stations do not allow you to stuff in your ‘valid’ ballots.

  6. We all grew up speaking Patois, Kweyol or Cweol, spell it which ever way you like
    it’s still the same. I love to joke in Patois because it sounds better to me and the one listening.
    There is no way of trying to express the some joke in English and getting a kick out of it.
    But to teach it in schools? not just yet, because we have not lost it at all; maybe in a 100 yrs
    from now when it begins to fade away, maybe.
    Now I wish to say something about your article. You mentioned Fedee as your political
    contender, so in fact, you do have an Ax to grind politically. (never a dull moment) what else
    is new. I thought this was all about we folks speaking Kweyol, a heritage to cherish, but as
    red blooded St. Lucians, politics had to, and I say, had to creep in. O.K. you’ve made your point, could’ve fooled me. Now you Mr. Racist Son-of-a something else, hater of Christians
    I cannot see you growing up in St.Lucia, and joining a religion well known for murdering
    anyone who is not a moslim, raping women and children as young as 4 yrs, girls forced to
    much older men strangers to them, I could go on but to you, you are already so bigoted it
    wouldn’t bother you, but it bothers 80% of the world’s population. As a Christian, I say
    may God have mercy on your poor Soul. There is time left for you to change, and return.

  7. I can say some of these people in this blog have been perfectly described by S O M as self haters and sick. One house NIGGER says teach Engineering, as if engineering was a subject. Before you can study a major course in engineering you have to study Whitemans history. But thee madman citizen kane and COCO FLO don’t want to see the Blackman language of kweyol taught in a formal curriculum. THESE SELF HATING SLAVES.

  8. I have told you retrograde Negroes who worship a naked Caucasian as your God to have some human dignity and stop practicing the cannibalism of drinking blood and eating human flesh to obtain eternal life — a religious practice given you by a so-called Whiteman who raped and sodomized your mothers and fathers to produce self-hating offspring who see themselves as inferior, bleaching their skins, chemicalization of their hair to make it strait and dead like the no-color caucasians’, while refusing to teach the African language of Kweyol in schools because it is not white enough like French and English.

    They are a cabal of sick and mentally deranged negroes. Walking around the island with names like PETER, ABIGAIL, ADOLPHUS, BRITTANY, WAYNE, FEDEE, WASHINGTON, MCKENZIE, THOMAS… NOT ONE NAME REFLECTING THEIR AFRICAN HERITAGE. Walking around with SLAVE IDENTITIES with all kinds of white supremacist degrees to teach them they are worthless black slaves.

    Many of you black Negroes are an embarrassment to the stellar legacy of the African. An ignorant people like the retrograde Negro from Monchy calling himself TOM TOM and KANE, walking around the Island with his pale skin trophy child-mother from the brothels of New York, telling Lucians how BLACK LIVES ARE WORTHLESS IN NEW YORK USA .

    HERE’S A MESSAGE FOR THE DRY COCONUT:

    https://www.facebook.com/mzeyara/videos/408318702620490/

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    1. “But thee madman citizen kane and COCO FLO don’t want to see the Blackman language of kweyol taught in a formal curriculum.”
      ————————————————————————————–
      You racist Muslim idiot; Kweyol is NOT the Blackman language. Kweyol came about as a result of your futile attempt to immitate the French masa spoke. In other words, it’s Broken French; it didn’t get its start in Africa.

  9. And the war continues,even on social media. Why the insults guys?
    I am guided by this deginition of education and try to leave up to it: education is the ability to have a discussion without getting into an argument. Be guided
    Thanks for the contributions and feedback. There are a few things that have arisen in the discussion that I want to shed some light on even challenge.

  10. While I may not have studied Chomsky as indepth as Ras Biko, Kweyol is not a dialect or a patois. I wish we would educate ourselves and dispell this misconception. Kweyol is a full fledge language. While it borrows a lot from the french lexicon much of the morphology and syntax are African.

  11. @Citizen Kane
    I find your argument so conflicting and contrary. You want to save kweyol only when it becomes endangered. There are now lots of threats of us losing the language if you open your eyes. Look at what happened to Trinidad and Grenada. And your argument that you can’t force kweyol down people’s throat because you like it so much but on what basis should you shove down computer science and engineering down the throat of others. What if i want my tax dollars to go onto the teaching of kweyol so that our people are not self haters but self embracing, clinging to what makes them distinct and raise their self conciousness. You don’t think that’s important?

    1. “I find your argument so conflicting and contrary. You want to save kweyol only when it becomes endangered.”
      ——————————————————————————
      When the sun Burns out, or when it has no more hydrogen to turn into helium, it will start to collapse on itself … and the same goes for the Kweyol dialect; when the interest in it dies, it too will collapse on itself.

      Kensley, the best way to save Kweyol is by speaking it at home, especially around the dinner table, so the kids can absorb it from a very tender age. For some reason, I can’t see you doing that. And I would bet my last dollar that you, Kensley, have not uttered a word in Kweyol to your kids in the last 12 months. You are too busy preping them for a career in (English) journalism.

      If the people of St.Lucia want to carry-on the tradition, then, they will speak Kweyol to their kids at home; from the moment they are born. Don’t expect the schools to do it. It’s your responsibility.

      1. Kweyol is not a dialect. It’s a full-fledge language. Come to our Kweyol anthology launch this Tuesday at the Library I will be doing my poem, Wè Kwéyòl especially for you.

        1. What is the difference between Language and Dialect?

          • Language is the mode of expression of thought by means of articulate sounds.

          • On the other hand, a dialect is a form of any language spoken in certain parts of the globe.

          • A dialect is a subset of a language.

          • Linguists consider that dialects are often impure forms of the main or the principal languages.

          • There are two types of dialects as geographic/ regional dialects and social dialects.

          These are the main differences between language and dialect.

          1. what a mentally deranged Lucian Negro. So this ignorant jackass from Monchy, Citizen Kane just told us that English is a dialect of Latin – Misye malad ! brain-damaged self-hating ignoramus, producing kaka from his sister’s basement in Brooklyn, garcon las semen gwen, sackwey salo-pwee

          2. English frequently makes use of loanwords originating from other languages such as Latin; but it is not a dialect of Latin you stupid a–hole.

            English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects and was brought to Britain by Germanic invaders (or settlers) from what is now called north west Germany and the Netherlands. It uses a vocabulary unlike other European languages of the same era. A large portion of the modern English vocabulary comes from the Anglo-Norman languages.

            With all of your empty city education, you have nothing on this Monchy boy. Now, go read your Quran; go make Muhammad and Bin Laden proud; you Muslim idiot.

      2. This ignorant retarded shameless Negro who thinks God is a Caucasian and the World is 6,000 years old now gives his own version of Nuclear Fusion. This retarded Negro seem to have no limit to the depths of his ignorance – any wonder the evil Caucasian Christian in the USA have given this disgrace a trophy girl friend.

        First the Negro CITIZEN KANE, looks us in the face and denigrates our Language of Kweyol to gain favor with brown nosing the leader of idiots, Allen Chastanet, telling us Kweyol is NOT A LANGUAGE.

        Then this retarded Negro tells us that After our star/Sun depletes its hydrogen fuel it collapses and goes out/burns out(his words). Any individual with a scintilla of sense would know the star actually expands in diameter after depleting its hydrogen fuel; an expansion that will place the Earth inside the very fire of the Sun in a phase known as the RED GIANT. I have told you that this idiot from Monchy is a very sick and self-hating lowlife, who lives a perpetual lie, inundating these blogs with nothing but deceit and falsehoods.

        Here’s what our Sunrise will look like when the Sun depletes its hydrogen fuel.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r35EooK-vFs

        Don’t allow this Black Sambo TOM TOM CITIZEN KANE to fool you readers of this respectable Newspaper. This idiot really belongs in the company of the rag Star home of the Naked Stripper, John Wayne.

        1. How on earth can you, a Sunni Muslim; I’m sorry, I meant Shiite Muslim; allow an ignorant retarded shameless Monchy Negro to take you to task? After all, you went to RC Boys and Sir Arthur Lewis Community College. Maybe you should have moved to Monchy and attend the Monchy Combined School with me where Earl Huntley’s mother, Ms Mary-ann, was my teacher. It’s not too late; there are night classes you can attend. There’s even a ramp for your wheelchair to make it all the way to the classroom..

  12. Some of the above feedback attributed to citizen kane was meant for cocosek as i seem to have been conflating personalities.

  13. @PROPHET DR OPTICAL, love the poetry. Is it ok to use some of your lines at the launch of our kweyol anthology at the central library on Tuesday night?

  14. /
    Kensley

    One of the identifying labels of the lowlife Negro-acolyte-slaves of white supremacy is the self hatred he extrudes as he goes through life trying to be accepted as being an honorary white. You have a prime example in the person of the self-hating negro who changed his name from TOM TOM to KANE after being excoriated because of the ugliness of his self-hatred and retarded perception of his inferior station in the world of the Caucasian, NY, New York where Black people are treated worse than dogs and can be murdered by the Caucasian with impunity.

    Nothing of African Ancestry is GOOD-ENOUGH for such a despicable lowlife, so in his effort to enhance his status, such lowlife critters goes into the whore zones of NY and recycles a savage Caucasian woman and brings them to St. Lucia as a badge of achievement.
    How then can you Kensley be surprised when such a self-hating lowlife like KANE refuses to acknowledge Kweyol as a LANGUAGE with its roots secured in the African Motherland. We need a “Cultural revolution” where lowlifes like CITIZEN KANE can be purged by Firing Squad.

    Such self-hating displays of ignorance by brain-damaged Negroes are exactly the reasons we should teach Kweyol within the formal curriculum. We teach Religious Knowledge about how this Naked Caucasian-man-god-Jesus came to save Black People from Hitler and George Bush, so why not teach something of value as I learned at the Sir Arthur Lewis College, which only underscores the self-hatred of the Lowlife TOM TOM KANE.

    Here’s a lecture that these self-hating ignorant TOM TOM KANE and his brothel partners should hear before they open their filthy swine eating mouths to bark, from our own Scholar Dr Morgan Dalphinis at S.A.L.C.C.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hap8t6s1f7k

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    1. Engaging you, Son-of-Man, in anything outside of Muhammad’s teachings is like inviting a pig or a stubborn mule to dinner and expecting it to display good table manners.

      So go read your Quran, and then volunteer yourself as a suicide bomber. You would be doing many people a favor.

    2. Thanks son_of_man . The lecture by professor Dr.Morgan taught those of us interested in learning a lot about the language of kweyol. Contrary to some of the ignorant statements being made by the misinformed CITIZEN KANE, the professor substantiated the facts imparted by Mr. Charlemagne and yourself.

  15. Kensley.
    make my day.
    You are very welcome. it is just a pity that I am in V/FORT. otherwise I sure would be there.
    good luck.
    we sure 2 touch base on kweloy poems.

  16. Kensley!!!

    just for the laugh and the humor in Kweloy. (can’t touch this our very life)

    part of the poem.
    THE TRUTH IS I REMEMBER YESTERDAY (Part 2)

    When the movie, Noah’s Ark, was playing
    after the part where all the animals enter the Ark
    one skeptical person in pit asked,
    kote moppon? (where is crab lice?)
    up comes the answer, from Circle,
    Andidan fouk madam Noah ! (inside the crotch of Noah’s wife.)

  17. This is what Muslims Know of the End of time and it is in line with science.

    Surah At-Takwir
    In the name of Allah Most Gracious Most Merciful.
    When the sun (with its spacious light) is folded up; (1)
    When the stars fall, losing their luster; (2)
    When the mountains vanish (like a mirage); (3)
    When the she-camels, ten months with young, are left untended; (4)
    When the wild beasts are herded together (in human habitations); (5)
    When the oceans boil over with a swell; (6)
    When the souls are sorted out, (being joined, like with like); (7)
    When the female (infant) buried alive, is questioned― (8)
    For what crime she was killed; (9)
    When the Scrolls are laid open; (10)
    When the World on High is unveiled: (11)
    When the Blazing Fire is kindled to fierce heat; (12)
    And when the Garden is brought near― (13)
    (Then) shall each soul know what it has put forward. (14)
    So verily I call to witness the planets that recede (15)
    Go straight, or hide; (16)
    And the Night as it dissipates (17)
    And the Dawn as it breathes away the darkness― (18)
    Verily this is the word of a most honourable Messenger, (19)
    Endued with Power, with rank before the Lord of the Throne, (20)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r35EooK-vFs

    /

  18. “There is no tracing the connection of ancient nations but by language; therefore I am always sorry when any language is lost, for languages are the pedigree of nations” – Johnson

  19. With so much happening in the world to arrest the oppression of the blackman, it is a blessing to have conscious people like Ras and SOM who appreciate their African culture on this island. My advice is to inform uncle Ruckus Citizen Kane, that the world is round.

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