French official bans fisherman from speaking Creole

On the French island of Guadeloupe, a scandal broke out over the status of the Creole language. The reason was an incident involving the prefect of the island Thierry Devimo, who made a remark to a local fisherman for using native speech. Video of the conflict, filmed in the coastal city of St. Rose, sparked a wave of outrage on social media, the Associated Press reported.

During the meeting, the official demanded that the black fisherman switch to French. “If you speak Creole, it’s disrespectful to me,” Devimo said. The prefect replied, “Yes, but I don’t speak Creole, so speak French to me.”.

The official later apologized, calling his words "unfortunate" and "clumsy." He explained that he had met with fishermen to discuss their concerns, but could not grasp the nuances of the conversation because of the language barrier.

The excuses did not weaken the discussion. For many residents of the island, the issue was deeper than the personal error of the government. Creole, spoken by more than 370,000 people, was formed during the colonial era among enslaved Africans and later enriched with the words of Indian workers. For a long time it was considered a "spoiled language" and had a low social status compared to official French.

Since the 1990s, activists have been pushing for the recognition of regional languages and their teaching in schools. Today, Creole is seen as a key element of cultural identity. Social media users said it could not be understood as a "kitchen language" and questioned why a state representative was not required to understand local speech.

Some 15 million people in the Caribbean speak various forms of Creole. It has official status in Haiti and is taught in schools in Dominica. In 1989, Martinique writers Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Rafael Confian justified the defense of creole, calling the language a symbol of the preservation of culture despite the colonial past.

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