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Culture Guadeloupe
The
richness and the plurality of the cultures in our islands justify the fact that
something always takes place somewhere in Guadeloupe, in the campaigns or within the
cities and villages.
The Local Fairs, the Cockfights, the Cultural Nights, the " Lewoz
", the Funeral Watches, the Indian Feasts, the festival of the cookers, the pulling oxen
races, are as many occasions which will be offered to you all year long, to appreciate the vitality of the traditions of our islands.
The
Creole
The creole word comes from the Portuguese 'crioullo'. It indicates, at the
origin, the whites born in the colonies of the americano-Caribbean zone and of
the Indian Ocean. It also means a " speech ", coming from the mixture
of several languages, which are French, Spanish, Portuguese, English with native
(the Caribbean) and African languages.
The Creole is spoken in the West Indies, from Haiti to the Grenadines, with only
nuances from one island to another. Thus the inhabitants of French, English or
Dutch islands, with different official languages, separated by thousands of
kilometers easily manage to communicate.
Spoken language
, it results from the oral tradition and conveyed by the story-tellers
who, during the evening meetings, used to listen to the youngs and the olds' tales and stories of tradition.
It is more than a language, it is also a way of life, and the history of people,
evoking at the same time Africa, slavery, but also dance, music, islands, feast...
Hushing, singing, all in vowels and without asperity, with downing
intonations at the end of the words, where the " R " are transformed
into " W " in order to make the unit even more languorous, the Creole,
enamelled some times of pure neologisms, is the link between the islands as far
as La
Réunion.
This language is full with savours, odors, colors and images. It is undoubtedly
the reason why the Creole has an increasing place in the world literature.
By the way the creolity is a movement initiated by authors such as Patrick
Chamoiseau, Raphaël Confiant and Jean Bernabé, whose literature is also
history sociology,
the reality and conscience of people. In the beginning, other authors such as
Aimé Césaire and Edouard Glissant created the bases of the creolity while
insisting on the importance of the whole Caribbean culture. The West-Indian
authors want to defend and promote the Creole.
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