Mwen mete o gadavou tout kritik ki ta kouri di: «Poukisa se an fransè Tontongi ekri liv sa a?». Repons lan fasil pou mwen: premyèman, pou moun ki poko li liv la, otè a ekri 3 dènye chapit yo an kreyòl; donk li gen yon mesaj dirèk e trè fò tou pou tout natifnatal kote li vle mentni yon sèten esans. Dezyèmman, otè a gen yon konpetans lengwistik avanse an tèm abilite l nan ekri kreyòl, fransè ak anglè (kote l pwouve sa deja atravè zèv li pibliye). Twazyèmman, Tontongi gen yon mesaj pou tout gwo chabrak entelektyèl ayisyen, e menm mesaj sa a pral sèvi tou kòm modèl pou tout rès mond kreyolofòn nan ki te anba grif Lafrans ak sa yo ki anba l toujou.
 
Nan mond kreyolofòn nan, n ap jwenn menm tras sistèm neyokolonyal la ke nou jwenn Ayiti (manman peyi kreyolofòn). Donk, Critique de la francophonie haïtienne se yon kokenn gato kote tout moun jwenn ti moso. Liv sa a se yon bwalong (defi) tou pou tout entelektyèl ayisyen aprann apresye lang natifnatal la ke anpil nan yo itilize kòm «matyè premyè» pou y al ekri bèl pawòl an fransè e anpil fwa, koze ki pa menm an rapò ak reyalite Ayiti ap viv la. Wi, yo itilize kreyòl menm kòm matyè premyè paske, toudabò se nan lang sa a yo panse epi transpoze panse yo an fransè; se kreyòl ki lang matènèl yo e yo pa fouti nye sa nonplis. Donk, yo sèvi ak kreyòl kòm yon sòt «bouyon devwa» pou y al mete o pwòp an fransè. Men malerezman, anpil jete bouyon sa a aprè dekwa pou «kritik konsyan» pa wè tras li, dekwa pou yo rete tann glorifikasyon nan men Lafrans pou montre kolonizatè a yo toujou rete fidèl a li. Se tou yon «sik jòn»  moun sa yo fè tounen «sik blan», men sa yo pa konnen sèke sik jòn nan pa pèdi nan vitamin li (kòm powèt ayisyen Kesler Brézault ta di).
 
Kòm edikatè ki gen yon ventèn ane esperyans nan ansèyman (segondè, siperyè), mwen te apèn konplete 2 liv ki an rapò ak Ayiti: A healing paradigm for a new Haiti,A look at the problem of schools in Haiti. Liv Tontongi a rive a tan kòm dènye dokiman mwen te dwe revize nan kad bibliyografi rechèch mwen an. Sa vin ajoute yon diplis nan epis la kote, nan nouvo liv sa a, mwen etone li sèten temwayaj kèk konpatriyòt te konn obsève sou pinisyon kèk elèv te konn jwenn nan klas poutèt yo t ap esprime yo an kreyòl, pwòp lang matènèl yo. Mwen etone tou pou «abi fizik e sikolojik» anpil pwofesè lekòl fè elèv sibi. Nou nan venteyinyèm syèk tandike abi sa yo poko fin disparèt. Tanzantan lè nou jwenn ekriven konsyan kouwè Tontongi k ap pote eklèsisman, k ap fè demistifikasyon sa k pa bon nan sosyete ayisyen an, sa va elaji travay egzamennkonsyans kèk ekriven angaje ap eseye fè pou pote chanjman nan sosyete pa yo ak plim yo.

Nòt

1. Tontongi, Non plim Eddy Toussaint.
2. Neyokolonyal. (n). Yon fòm kolonizasyon tounèf ki enpoze dominans ekonomik a yon ansyen koloni ki vin endepandan. 2. (adj) ki an rapò ak fòm kolonizasyon tounèf sa a.

    

ANONS RESAN | RECENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Ayiti: pou yon edikasyon pratik lè vandredi (atik | article)
   
• An defans yon ‘frankofoni vivan e popilè’, yon tèks Nicolas Sarkozy (vèsyon kreyòl + nòt: E.W.Vedrine) [Nicolas Sarkozy on “francophonie” Haitian Creole version + notes : E.W.Vedrine]
   
• Kisa pati politik Ayiti yo kontribye nan devlopman l? (atik | article)
   
• Vedrine committed to bridging language gap (atik | article)

NOUVO LIV | NEW BOOKS (ki nan wout | coming up)

• A healing paradigm for a new Haiti (esay | esè)
   
• A look at the problem of schools in Haiti (essay | esè)
   
• Ideas to found a private Haitian High Schools in Boston (debate | deba)
   
• Season of drought in Haiti (roman | novel) dwadotè © copyright E. W. Vedrine

      

Tontongi’s clarification and demystification in his book,
Critique de la francophonie haïtienne

 Emmanuel W. VEDRINE
May 2, 2008

It’s not when someone who did good things dies and then to keep on crying, keep on talking about what that person used to do, but it would also be good to learn to appreciate the person’s works while alive by showing admiration and respect for his efforts to encourage the individual more, and see what we can learn from his works. In this sense, I believe it should be the whole Haitian Community of Boston, it’s surroundings and the mother country - Haiti that should have supported Tontongi’s publication, Critique de la francophonie haïtienne (2008). They would find out what’s in it in terms of clarification and demystification that Tontongi has done in relation to language issues in Haiti.

Sometimes it’s not easy for an author to take a certain position, specially when that author remains slave of a neocolonial system, particularly when this author wants to please a small group of people in a given society; this type of author, in a sense, continues to nourish a corrupted system, exploiting secretly a mass of people who is thirsty for change.

I make all critics, who would rush saying: why does Tontongi write this book in French?, come to attention. The answer for me is easy: first, for people who have not read the book, the author wrote the last three chapters in Creole. So, I believe he has a direct message for all native speakers where he wants to maintain a certain “essence”. Second, the author has an advanced linguistic competence in terms of his ability in writing Creole, French and English (where he has already proved it through his published works). Third, Tontongi has a message for all the big shots Haitian scholars, and this same message will also serve as model for the rest of the creolophone world¹ that used to be under France’s domination and those that are still today.

In the creolophone world, we will find the same neocolonial behavioral trace that is found in Haiti, the mother of creolophonie². So, Critique de la francophonie haïtienne is a big cake where everyone gets a piece of it. The book also  challenges all Haitian scholars to learn to appreciate the native language that many of them use as “raw material” to write further down beautiful words in French and many times, things that are not even related to the reality that Haiti is living. Yes, they do use Creole as raw material because first of all, it’s in this language they think and then transfer their thoughts to French. Creole is their native language and they can’t deny it. So, they use Creole as a sort of assignment’s “rough draft” of which they will have the final draft in French. But unfortunately, many of them throw that rough draft away after using it so that “conscious critiques don’t see its trace - a way for them to receive praise from France to show the former colonizer that they remain faithful to her.  Using Creole as ‘raw material’ is also a “brown sugar” that these scholars turn into “write sugar”, but what they don’t know is that the brown sugar does not lose its vitamins as the Haitian poet,  Kesler Brézault (Brezo) would say.
 
As educator who has some twenty years of teaching experience (at high school and college level), I have just completed two books of essays dealing with Haiti: A healing paradigm for a new Haiti, A look at the problem of schools in Haiti. Tontongi’s Critique de la francophonie haïtienne arrives on time as the last document I had to revise for my research’s bibliography. This adds up a supplement to the spice where, in this new book, I was stun to read certain testimonies by some compatriots who used to observed punishment that some students were receiving in class just they were speaking Creole, their native language. I was also stun when I read about the “physical and psychological” abuses many schoolteachers in Haiti made students endured. We are in the 21st century, nevertheless these abuses have not totally disappeared. From time to time, when finding conscious writers like Tontongi, who is bringing clarification, who is demystifying what’s not good in the Haitian society, this would broaden the consciousness-raising campaign that some committed writers are trying to do in order to bring changes in their own society with their pen.

Notes

1. Creolophone. Creole speakers. This includes various Creole languages.
    
2. Creolophonie. Community of Creole speakers (that speak a Creole language).