Language and Liberation: Creole Language Politics in the Caribbean

One of the original stated aims of Language and Liberation was to explain the language question to those involved in the fight to free the populations of the Creole speaking Caribbean from external political and economic control. The other was to provide a historical, political and socioeconomic context within which supposedly value-free official language policies and practices could be understood. Both these aims remain relevant twenty years later. The context within which official language policy operates has, however, become more complex, both internationally and within the Caribbean. The new chapter written specially for this updated edition addresses this. The new extended chapter, Chapter 9, entitled The Historical Present, does three things. It tries to bring the reader up to date with many of the developments in language policy and practice within the Creole-speaking Caribbean. It also explains the new situation, both internationally and within the Caribbean, and puts these into historical perspective. A revised approach to the concept of diglossia emerges from this discussion. This provides us with a much clearer sense of how diglossia should be tackled in order to improve the language rights, and by extension economic and social rights, of the large majority of the population. The chapter documents some aspects of the increased levels of assertiveness by speakers of Creole languages in the region. It describes the paths by which many of these languages are invading domains which were previously the preserve of the official European language. Speakers of Caribbean Creole languages are demonstrating increased confidence about the value of their own languages and associated cultural identities. These speakers are, therefore, now much more likely than before to assert their language rights and to impose their linguistic and cultural identities on the nation states within which they live. On the other side of the divide, however, those who benefit from the linguistic status quo remain strong, and are showing themselves to be very capable of adapting their own tactics to the new linguistic and socio-political realities. Those who benefit from a system will seek to maintain it and will give up nothing except that which is taken from them. The struggle continues. This second edition of Language and Liberation represents an ongoing contribution to this struggle.