HISTORY will be created here tomorrow evening (Thursday, October 22, 2020) when Dame Pearlette Louisy will deliver the first-ever National Reparations Lecture in Kweyol, ahead of Sunday’s observance of International Creole Day, celebrated here as ‘Jounen Kweyol’.
Dame Pearlette, Chair of the Saint Lucia Nobel Laureates Committee and the island’s longest-serving Governor General, will deliver the unprecedented online Kweyol lecture three days ahead of Sunday October 25, when International Creole Day will be observed in other countries where the language is also spoken.
The lecture, third in a year-long series sponsored by the National Reparations Committee (NRC) and the UWI Open Campus (Saint Lucia), will introduce Kweyol-speaking Saint Lucians and online viewers, through You Tube and Facebook, to the elements behind the Caribbean government’s decision to approach the UK and European governments for Reparations for Slavery and Native Genocide.
The lecture is also expected to put the CARICOM Reparations quest within the context of observance of Kweyol here, across the region and internationally, within the context of International Creole Day.
The theme for Dame Pearlette’s Online Kweyol lecture is: Jistis wanvoyé sé jistis wifizé: Wépawasyon pou lèsklavaj èk jennosid an sépéyi Kawaib-la(Justice delayed is justice denied: The case for reparations for slavery and native genocide in the Caribbean).
The lecture will be delivered from Saint Lucia and followed everywhere across the Caribbean that Kweyol is spoken or understood, wholly or in part, including: Dominica, Grenada, French Guiana (Cayenne), Guadeloupe, Haiti and Martinique.
International Creole Day will also be observed Sunday in Africa, Indian Ocean, New Orleans (USA) and the Kweyol Diaspora in Europe and The Americas, including Canada and South America.
The online lecture can be followed on www.open.uwi.edu/livestream and www.facebook.com/uwiopencampuscaribbean and starts at 7pm sharp.