Staff Notices

In commemoration of International Creole Day (Mwa Kwéyòl Toupatou Asou Latè-a) on October 28, the French and Linguistics Sections of the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics (DMLL) presents Patois Film Afternoon, supported by students of the UWI Linguistics Society and the UWI French Society.

Patois Film Afternoon features film screenings focusing on Trinidadian French Creole and its modern day speakers and promoters followed by a Q&A and quiz session. The films include: Linguistic Landscapes (25 mins); The Road Less Travelled (15 mins); C’est Quitte (59 mins) and Sèptant Lanné Ansanm (15 mins).

The event takes place October 26 from 1.30 to 3.30pm at the Centre for Language Learning (CLL) Auditorium.

About International Creole Day

International Creole Day is celebrated annually on 28 October, having started in St Lucia as Jounen Kwéyòl in 1983, and October was later designated as Creole Month. French Creole/Patois in the Caribbean is the second most spoken language after Spanish, with over 13 million in 10 countries in the region and throughout the diaspora (English and English Creole following in third place). In France, French Creole is the most widely spoken of the 10+ regional languages of France, with almost 3 million speakers. 

Here in Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidadian French Creole is at least as old as the second Cedula de Población of 1783, and the first grammar of any French Creole anywhere in the world was produced by Trinidadian John Jacob Thomas in 1869. The UWI, St Augustine Campus was the first of the four campuses to offer French Creole/Patois as an Extra-Mural course and later a Linguistics course for credit, and the campus has speakers of varieties of French Creole from Dominica, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Mauritius, St Lucia, and more. 

Some famous Caribbean French Creole speakers include Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Sylvester Devenish, Léon de Gannes, the three Nobel Prize winners Sir Arthur Lewis, Saint-John Perse and Derek Walcott, Aimé Césaire, Phyllis Stand Allfrey, Jean Rhys, the Mighty Sparrow, Holly Betaudier, Dame Pearlette Louisy, Baroness Scotland, Thierry Henry, Marie-José Pérec, Wyclef Jean and many more, in all walks of life, across the Caribbean Sea.

Other International Creole Day Activities

The month of October is filled with nationwide celebrations from Paramin to Talparo to Port-of-Spain, find out more on DMLL’S Facebook page by clicking here.

To view the Patois Afternoon event’s Facebook event page, please click here.

For additional queries, please contact Dr. Jo-Anne Ferreira at Jo-Anne.Ferreira@sta.uwi.edu for more information.