From local Creoles to global Creoles : insights from the Seychelles

In this paper, Seychellois society is discussed from the perspective of a small island society whose smallness and insulation in its early formation contributed to the emergence of a very distinctive type of creole culture and identity. This is symptomatic of other island creole societies in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean, which have been described as culturally hybrid populations, as a result of 17th-19th Century colonialism and slavery. Political connections between these societies have led to the construction of a wider creole identity, based on their shared history. More recently, these plantation types of creole societies have come to realise that they must share their creole identity more widely since, as a result of globalisation and the acceleration of migration, the metropoles of the world are becoming centres of creolisation in the sense of mixing and hybridity. Is this the same process that occurred in places like Seychelles and Martinique, and is this what is happening in Europe, with the advent of immigration from the Global South? Or, should the term ‘creolisation’ be reserved for a particular historical and sociocultural situation resulting from plantation slavery? In other words, is creolisation a global or localised phenomenon? Furthermore, can these new metropolitan centres of creolisation learn anything from the way small creole island states and territories have adapted to their social environment, or should they continue to be seen as the core from which modernity and progress flow to the periphery?peer-reviewe

The pepper in the pot: The uneasy relationship between Creoleness and Blackness

Une discussion sur le patrimoine africain en tant qu'ingrédient essentiel du concept de créolité dans les communautés créoles issu de la traite des esclaves, juxtaposée au déni de l’africanité, avec une référence particulière à l’océan Indien. Les sociétés créoles se caractérisent généralement par une certaine fierté de leur identité et de leur culture créoles. Cependant, la source de cette culture créole est l'esclavage du XVIIe siècle qui, dans la plupart des sociétés créoles, dura bien après l'abolition, bien que sous différentes formes. Cependant, la fierté d’un homme ou une femme créole s’étend rarement aux composantes africaines de sa culture créole, principalement en raison du douloureux héritage de l’esclavage. Aux Seychelles, par exemple, ce déni prend la forme d’une attitude générale selon laquelle l’esclavage et le colonialisme ne sont plus pertinents pour la société d’aujourd’hui, ce qui est en soi contradictoire. Comme dans toutes ces sociétés créoles, il existe un sentiment de traumatisme sous-jacent dans la perception que les Seychellois ont d’eux-même. Ce traumatisme s'exprime dans la langue des gens, dans leurs croyances et leurs pratiques, et plus particulièrement dans leur folklore. Cette étude examine brièvement différents concepts de créolité dans l'océan Indien et la manière dont les peuples créoles de la région s'engagent dans leur héritage africain, en tant que partie intégrante de leur identité créole

Sanson Patrick Victor koman memwar istorik : en komanter lo parol sanson Patrick Victor

Les peuples créoles et, dans notre cas, ceux des archipels du sud-ouest de l’océan Indien sont liés par leur passé colonial et portent en eux un « virus fondateur » : celui du traumatisme esclavagiste. Ce traumatisme ressurgit dans les académies post-coloniales que des militants anticolonialistes trouvent trop « euro-centrés ». Se référer majoritairement à des experts étrangers qui n’ont pas partagé la même réalité que les peuples colonisés a contribué à ce que plusieurs d’entre nous soient devenus des imitations de nos colonisateurs. Cependant, malgré les séquelles de la colonisation dans nos propres mentalités et la dominance des points de vues occidentaux dans nos références historiques et culturelles, nous avons quand même recours à la mémoire traditionnelle qui nous permet de revendiquer une expertise locale. Cette mémoire se transmet surtout par voie orale, notamment dans les histoires, les proverbes, les jeux de mots et surtout les chansons. C’est justement à travers ses chansons et en particulier une comédie musicale que Patrick Victor, que l’on peut considérer comme un griot du peuple seychellois, véhicule l’histoire et la culture seychelloise. La simplicité et la réalité de ses chansons qui retrace la naissance et le vécu d’une nation, démontre la fierté le courage et l’émancipation du Seychellois en tant que peuple qui revendique son passé d’esclavage et même son affiliation occidentale, mais qui dénonce toute forme de domination ou d’oppression.The Creole peoples and, in our concern, those of the archipelagoes of southwestern Indian Ocean are bound by their colonial past and carry in them a “founding virus”: that of the slave trauma. This trauma re-appears in the post-colonial academies which anti-colonialist activists find too much “euro-centered”. Refering mainly to foreign experts who did not share the same reality as the colonized peoples contributed to the fact that several of us became sheer imitations of our colonizers. However, in spite of the side-effects of the colonization on our own mentalities and the dominance of the western points of view in our historic and cultural references, we all the same resort to our traditional memory which allows us to claim a local expertise. This memory is conveyed through orality, particularly stories, proverbs, puns and especially songs. It is exactly through his songs and in particular through a musical comedy that Patrick Victor, whom we can consider as a Seychelles’ griot, conveys the history and the Seychelles creole culture. The simplicity and the reality of his songs which recall the birth and the true-to-life experience of a nation demonstrate the pride, the courage and the emancipation of Seychellois people as being those who claim their past of slavery and even their western membership, but who denounce any aspect of domination or oppression

Attitudes to slavery and race in Seychellois Creole oral literature

Seychellois society is characterized by its people’s belief in the sovereignty of their independent state and pride in their creole identity and culture. The source of that culture however, is sixteenth century slavery, which in Seychelles lasted well after Abolition. Because the Seychellois population has a strong component of African slave descent, the current attitude that slavery and colonialism is no longer relevant to Seychellois society is contradictory. Like in all such creole societies, there is an underlying sense of trauma in the Seychellois’ perception of him/herself, which is expressed in the language and folklore of the people. This thesis explores the trauma resulting from Seychelles’ painful past of slavery, as reflected in its orature. The analysis begins with the local historical factors, then moves on to the wider creole world of the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean, offering some interesting insights into the common experiences of Creoles in ex-slave societies and the complex nature of their identity issues. In the case of Seychelles, three aspects of its creole orature, the proverb, the riddle and a dance form called the moutya, expose past and present trauma. These types of orature also reveal the creativity and resilience of their societies, through the creolization process, which has given them new and more positive identities in the modern world. As such, the recommendations made aims to address the trauma of the past as the beginnings of a healing process