Linivèsité Brock organizé on grankozé asi kont an Amérik ki diré twa jou: 30 é 31 out épi 1é septanm. Lé yo mandé moun toupatou voyé pwopozision pou bokantaj-a-pawol, an réponn prézan; an voyé on artik ki té ni pou tit "Creole, Culture and Orality in the West Indies".
Komité-la touvé'y entérésan, é dé mwa pli ta an té débaké Kanada. Man Irene Blayer, ki té ka organizé grankozé-la, wousouvwè mwen épi lonè é respé. Lè ou ka préparé on tez, ou ka chèché jwenn pis moun ou pé ki ka travay asi menm sijé ki'w apipré. Fo ou tini kontak èvè dot moun ki pé wouvè zié a'w asi on pwoblem ou pòtékò vwè: é pou sa, fo ou ka déplasé kò a'w tibwen.

Mé lè an éséyé mandé CRLA (Centre de Recherches Latino-Américain UMR132/CNRS) -Krey wouchach la mwen adan'y la an Fwans- on ti monné pou rédé mwen, yo di mwen dévwè yo. On ensinifian jis f'an pou la répons an pa té dwet vin an Frans. ¡ Sa ki konpwann, konpwann! ¡An pa mandé chien pen, davwa an pa kréyol pou ayen! An pran ti lajan an mwen ki tan mwen, é an ay fè ti zafè an mwen, menm si an té pou manjé pen rasi. Vini rivé Kanada a prézan, Linivèsité Brock ban mwen on bous san menm an té mandé yo ayen a yo: yo vwè an té on jennn wouchachez ki té bizwen on pal, é si yo ban mwen 150 dola Kanada, an pa'a gè kwè sé pas yo té ni lajan an twop, mé pas yo vwè wouchach an mwen té ni on sans.

Sé moun-la wousouvwè sé grankozè-la bien toubolman. Organizasion-la té o pwal menm. Yo bien espliké nou tou sa nou té pou sav é tou sa nou té vé sav anlè manniè grankozè-la té ka pasé. Yo ban nou bel sak, bel pwennbik, bel biten. Nou té a lez an nou. Mé mwen menm, sel biten an té ka atann, sété jou a palé an mwen. Lè jou-lasa rivé, an pa té ni on pozision: an té présé tou an mwen rivé. An pa té bizwen prézanté mwen davwa té ni on moun la pou sa. Lè an komansé palé, prèmié biten an fè sé prézanté GEREC-F, travay i ka fè asi lang é kilti kréyol, é alèkilé asi CAPES kréyol la. Apré sa an ba sé moun-la on bokantaj-a-pawol an anglé (zò pé touvé'y asi nich-twel la). Lè an fin palé moun bat lanmen. Palé an anglé lasi mwen, mé kè an mwen té kontan pas an té vé tout moun konprann sa an an té ka di. Si ou enki rivé adan on péyi anglopal èvè ti fransé a'w, ou ka plis fosè moun-la ki ayen. Alos an pran'y an anglé é yo mandé mwen onlo kèsion.

Tout biten bien pasé. An bouré èvè onlo moun entérésan, kontel on moun-Brésil non a'y sé Vandercí de Andrade Aguilera. Madanm-lasa sé on doktè-lang (dot moun pisimié di "langannis"), mé i ka travay asi majolay osi. I di mwen aktielmen i ka travay asi sa moun-Brésil ka kriyé "Boitatá". An mandé'y ka sa té yé é lè i espliké mwen, an rété estébékwé, davwa sa i té ka palé mwen la sété on soukougnan. Dayè pou yonn, nou pou fè on konparézon ant Brésil é Gwadloup asi fénomèn-lasa. I envité mwen adan linivèsité Parana pou fè on tikozé asi kilti kréyol. On dot wouchachez anko, ki adan linivèsité Columbia, mandé mwen pou nou fè an artik ansanm. Rété lianné é an ké ba zot nouvel si tou sa ka fet.

¡ An pé pa fin san ba moun-la ki organizé grankozé-la on bel lanmen! Man Irene Blayer sé on doktè-lang ki fè tez a'y asi portigé moun ka palé Lézasor: i travay asi sians-son (phonétique), sians-fonem (phonologie) é sians-langann (dialectologie) pou vwè an ki jan sistem a vwayel la té ka maché. I a'y adan chak sé ti lilet-la èvè on kenbè-pawol. Konnié-la i ka travay asi kont, léjann épi chanté a Lézasor. Se pou sa i organizé grankozé-la asi tenm-lasa. I enmé tou sa ki an rèlasion épi majolay é pawol-palé, é i ka chèché kounet kréyol.

An non a GEREC-F an ba'y on bel fos, é an di'y fo i vin Linivèsité Antiy-Giyàn. An lidé an mwen, pli i ki ké ni moun ki ka chèché dékouvè lang é kilti kréyol é pli nou ké ni kontak, pli wouchach-la ké woulé. Fo nou montré moun andèwò ka ki kréyol é ki richès an nou. An dakò pou moun travay èvè nou, mé pa an plas an nou.

Diana Ramassamy
Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches en Espace Créolophone-Guadeloupe.

L'université de Brock a organisé du 30 août au 1er septembre 2001, une conférence internationale autour du thème: Dire les contes aux Amériques.
Lorsque le comité organisateur de la conférence a lancé son appel à communication sur internet, l'an dernier, j'ai tout de suite répondu en envoyant un résumé qui avait pour titre: Creole, Culture and Orality in the West Indies. Le comité de l'université accepta ma communication et quelques mois plus tard, je débarquais au Canada. Madame Irene Blayer, l'organisatrice de la conférence, m'y reçut les bras ouverts.

La préparation d'une thèse nécessite un contact avec les autres chercheurs qui travaillent sur le même thème. Ce contact permet le partage d'idées et bien souvent nous ouvre les yeux sur d'autres réalités.
C'est la raison pour laquelle la participation aux colloques est très bénéfique aux doctorants. Pourtant, lorsque j'ai demandé au centre de recherche auquel je suis rattachée, le Centre de Recherche Latino-Américain UMR132/CNRS-Université de Poitiers, leur appui financier, on me fit pour réponse: "Tu n'aurais pas du venir en France!". A bon entendeur…Je n'ai pas demandé mon reste. Je suis créole, la débrouillardise ça me connaît! J'ai tiré de ma poche l'argent pour la conférence. Manger du pain rassis ne me fait pas peur. Puis, le comité organisateur m'accorda une aide de 150 dollars canadiens, sans même que je ne le sollicite.
A mon arrivée au Canada, l'assistante Kay Palpallatoc me fit un accueil incomparable. Il faut dire que la conférence était bien organisée. Plan, programme, résumés, tout fut envoyé à l'avance. Le comité était prêt à recevoir les invités dès leur arrivée sur le sol canadien.

J'attendais impatiemment le jour de ma communication. Ravie de la qualité des communications entendues. Venu le jour de ma communication, j'étais surexcitée car je présentais ma première communication en anglais. J'ai voulu utiliser la langue du pays qui m'accueillait. Après que le Président de la séance m'ait présentée, j'ai pris la parole en précisant que je faisais partie du GEREC, un groupe très impliqué dans la défense et dans la promotion de la langue et de la culture créoles. J'ai souligné qu'à l'heure qu'il est, le GEREC est en train de mener une "bataille" pour la reconnaissance d'un droit légitime, le droit à la langue maternelle, le créole. J'ai fait la transition avec ma communication et tout s'est très bien déroulé. Après les applaudissements, je fus assaillie par des questions très pertinentes de la part du public. Mon cœur était content malgré la fatigue qui s'empara de moi d'un seul coup.

Grâce à cette conférence, j'ai fait des rencontres très intéressantes. Comme ce professeur du Brésil, Vanderci de Andrade Aguilera, linguiste de l'université de Londrina au Parana. Elle est connu notamment pour la réalisation de la carte linguistique de l'Etat du Parana. Au Canada, elle présenta une communication sur le boitatá qui correspond au soucougnan antillais. Nous allons travailler sur une étude comparée des deux phénomènes. Elle m'a gentiment invitée dans son université au Brésil. J'ai eu également la chance de rencontrer une autre chercheuse, Stéphanie Hinton, de l'université de Columbia. Nous sommes toutes les deux passionnées par les contes et surtout par les conteurs. Nous allons, nous aussi, rédiger un article en collaboration.

Je ne pouvais conclure sans vous parler un peu plus de l'organisatrice, Irène Blayer. Professeur associé au Département de Langues, de Littératures et de Cultures Modernes, à l'Université de Brock. Après avoir consacré sa thèse de doctorat en linguistique, au portugais des Açores, elle porte, désormais, son attention au contenu des paroles qu'elle a enregistrées, les contes, les légendes, les croyances. C'est la raison pour laquelle elle a organisé cette conférence autour de ce thème.
Elle s'intéresse à la phonétique, à la phonologie, à la dialectologie, au système vocalique en particulier. La langue créole suscite en elle un certain intérêt. Elle affectionne, par dessus tout, les études contrastives comprendre le système d'une langue permet de comprendre une autre langue.

Au nom du GEREC, je l'ai vivement remerciée et je lui ai assuré qu'elle sera toujours la bienvenue au sein de notre groupe. La culture créole est riche. Plus nous serons ouverts, plus nous aurons des contacts avec le monde extérieur, plus la recherche créole évoluera.

Diana Ramassamy

Officially, the French colonial history in the West Indies would begin in the XVIIth century when the French monarchistic state took possession of Guadeloupe and Martinique, and would end in 1946 when those territories became 'overseas departmesnts'. Actually, most of the first hand documents relating West-Indian history at that time were written from a European point of view -by men of church, magistrates, governors, and less commonly by planters- which makes any attempt at getting the slaves' vision difficult. Beyond that difficulty, we tried to make out the specificity of black women through the study of the writings of the said chroniclers.

The slave trade contributed to place human beings having no rights on their own bodies under the authority of white masters. And though men and women had the same living conditions, the latters had no control over their bodies at all, as if their bodies did not belong to themselves: any master could -and would- legally take advantage of a black woman. Not only did masters consider women as production instruments, but they also reduced women to the state of reproduction instruments. However, while reading the chroniclers' accounts, we discover that women questioned the colonial system from the very beginning, that there were strategies of resistance on the part of women who faced the colonial order to notify their existence to the oppressor. And the forms of insurrection, as we shall see, were very diversified.

1. The first meeting: from verbal to physical violence

According to the chroniclers, the first meeting with Blacks caused a deep horror among the Whites. However, though the only feeling black women inspired to the white settlers was a profound disgust, the last-mentioned made systematic and abundant sexual use of those women. In his Nouveau Voyage aux Isles des Amériques, the Reverend Labat explained:

"This is misleading to think that we find any beauty in the diformity of the faces of our negresses, with their big lips and their flat noses (…) for those of us who are not accustomed to it must content themselves with looking them from behind, or the negresses would appear to the masters as flies in milk."(translated by us)

The implicit sexual characteristic contained in this passage from a man of church shows that black women were used as sexual objects in the first instance. Lucien Peytraud thus admitted:

"Instead of applying themselves to giving birth to morality in Negro slaves -which only existed at the rudimentary level in their countries of origin- the Europeans took advantage of their nearly absolute power to satisfy their brutal instinct (…) Women were above all subjected to the masters' brutal passion." (translated by us)

Despite the precepts of Christianity, sexual violence was a common practice during the colonial period, for black people were definitely not considered as persons; the 44th article of the Black Code institutionalized such an idea by declaring that slaves were 'pieces of furniture' belonging to the community. As a consequence, a master could choose any young woman among his slaves:

"Since they were 11 or 12 years old (…), the young Negresses were reserved for the masters, and placed under the responsibility of a "duègne" who looked after them for the masters on the plantations; fearing to be punished and to undergo the tyrants' anger, the young women abandoned themselves to the will of the last-mentioned."(translated by us)

The missionaries received complaints accusing masters of rape as early as the XVIIth century, but sexual attacks only kept on increasing as the years and centuries passed. So that in the XIXth century, the "gendarmerie" major related cases of rape in official reports. But, as Rouvellat de Cussac (1845) pointed out, no master was ever convicted of rape, even though the facts were clearly established. Even in the XIXth century, a sergeant who was accused of raping a 15-year-old slave was acquitted, so as drunken soldiers who looted and beat Negresses. A rape was actually conceived as a punition for a woman's faults, and also for the faults of her slave cohabitant.
Under cover of religion, the masters justified themselves by transferring the blame on the negresses who were said to incite men to debauchery: relying on the Bible, they presented themselves as the unfortunate victims of female slaves who drove them straight away to the kingdom of evil. Doctor Leblond , who officiated in Martinique in 1766, reported that a master declared one day:

"The Creole males abandon themselves to an awful libertinage with these naughty black and mulatto women who try to seduce them by all means."(translated by us)

But, by trying to excuse their sinful attitude this way, and by trying to hide their impure souls behind the argument of the alleged lascivity of black women, white men only confirmed their sexual attraction for those women. And this sexual attraction of masters for their slaves provoked a good deal of jealousy among the masters' wives. The latters resorted to the most monstrous tortures as a means of revenge. One day, a white mistress who saw her husband coming out of the room of a female slave punished that slave with a whip, and had the slave's body scraped with chilli pepper, after what she introduced the chilli pepper in the slave's vagina . Other settlers' wives did not hesitate to torture the female slaves to death, for they were considered as rivals:

"As she was jealous of the slave of a neighbor who had been placed under the responsibility of her husband, a woman had this slave whipped and inflicted upon the negress all the cruelties that the fury of her jealousy inspired her; then, when she grew weary rather than being satisfied, she had the slave untied hoping to satisfy her fury the following day again (…) but the slave fainted and died two hours later."(translated by us)

After having used and abused their female slaves, the masters had them fertilized by a "stallion slave".

2. Strategies of resistance of colonized women

Many quotations from different chroniclers show that women resisted ferociously against the white masters' right to rape. The sanctions for such a behavior were of course very hard. The Jesuit Pelleprat, for instance, gave an account of the stubbornness of two slaves who refused to have sexual relations with their masters: one of the women slapped her master, and the other one threatened hers with an iron brand:

"These two women, born out of infidelity, were very courageous, for they knew perfectly that their happiness and their lives were in the hands of these men of evil. But not only did they resist the masters, they also treated them the way I have just said; this should make Christian women ashamed, for they are very coward in such situations"' (translated by us)

In order to escape from the worst tortures and the incessant sexual abuses, some women preferred killing themselves.

"A female slave was so ill-treated that she ran away with a Negro and asked him to cut her head off with a billhook (…) because she could not bear the cruelties of her master anymore ."(translated by us)

In his La vérité et les faits ou l'esclavage mis à nu dans ses rapports avec les maîtres et les agents de l'autorité, France gave the following example:

"In 1844, another one who was afraid of being punished for having sold on credit a portion of fish that amounted to six francs, drowned herself." (translated by us)

Suicide was one of the solutions slaves found to abstract themselves from a world in which their lives were meaningless. The new Negroes, and especially the women, committed suicide more frequently than the Creoles. Dugoujon tried to describe the desperate act of a female slave coming from the heart of Africa in the following words:

"The mother drowned her two little creatures in a place were there was almost nothing but mud; she kept them prisoner under her knees till they were asphyxiated and would have drowned herself if someone had not prevented her from doing it."(translated by us)

Many black women would rather die instead of giving birth to a child whose fate would be as terrible as theirs. So, by destroying their own bodies as well as those of their children, women aimed at breaking, at putting an end to the infernal cycle of slavery. Their refusal to be mothers may be considered as a form of protest or revenge against the masters. Any woman whose child died was indirectly attacking her master by depriving him of a precious work instrument. The masters were convinced that all the women aborted intentionally. But the hard living and working conditions may certainly have favored natural abortions, which the masters complained about in the XVIIIth century. The masters considered the female slaves to be entirely guilty and did not envisage at all that they could have a piece of responsibility in those desperate acts: as a consequence, women were long punished without distinction.

'When a child dies, the accoucheuse must be whipped and the mother must be whipped and tied up with an iron collar that she will keep till she is plain again. If a Negress who is said to be plain and is recognized as plain has a miscarriage which is not declared, she must be whipped till she is plain again (…) so as a negress who has a miscarriage for an unknown reason.' (translated by us)

Some slaves will assert their personality by replying firmly to the numerous injustices of the slave system. By the way, 'a systematic study of the testimonies of some African American slaves showed that there were more women than men who dared starting verbal or physical confrontation with the whites . Tanc noticed the same in the French West Indies:

"In 1828, a 15-year-old mulatto girl was beaten by her mistress because she was too insolent and always allowed herself to make comments."(translated by us)

Schoelcher corroborated the female slaves' desire to express their dissatisfaction, relating a young woman's case:

"In 1751, Colombe, who was accused of being lazy, fought against the bursar, and cut his lips with a blow of sugar cane." (translated by us)

In the cane fields, the voluntary inertia or the bad execution of the tasks was often the main source of conflictual relationships between slaves and masters. That kind of resistance took the form of different hostile behaviors instead of the mechanical realization of the tasks the masters hoped for. Despite the permanent threat that hanged over the slaves, simulation of illness and self-mutilation remained two common strategies to thwart forced enlisting in the workshops.
The body was the object of the worst tortures to try to stop any desire for physical or psychic liberty of the slaves. There was all the same a strong determination of female slaves to refuse excessive workloads and bad treatment. The field workers did not hesitate to carry on regardless of the threats of being tied up momentarily by the whip of the warder or the whim of the mistress.
A woman who escaped alone was even more severely punished: she risked to be whipped, to be tied up with an iron collar, and to be raped by her master, a warder or a slave. The threat of a violation of the profound intimity that hanged over female slaves was a very dissuasive argument, but it did not prevent women from escaping. According to Dutertre, 'the Negresses escaped in the woods with little children who were seven or eight days old'. The children were not always spared, and shared the excessive punishments imposed on their mothers by the implacable masters. In 1832, the magistrate Tanc reported that:

"If a master fears that a Negress escapes after a punishment, or if a Negress is caught while trying to escape, she is tied up by the neck or the foot with a big chain and one of her children is tied up to the same chain. I saw a 6-year-old little girl dragging along that heavy chain, which is a painful burden; as if the mother's crime (what a crime!!!) authorized the master to punish that young child in such a barbarous way! Her body, so feeble and so delicate at this age, was bruised!" (translated by us)

Women even participated to battles. The historian Auguste Lacour recounted:

"The women participated to one of the hardest battles: that of the 12th of may 1802. They got the guns ready, comforted the wounded persons, and transported the dead persons under a shower of bullets. They sang and vociferated in a circle, sometimes interrupted by the "war" cry "three cheers for death"!"(translated by us)

During the violent confrontations in 1802, a mulatto woman named Solitude embodied the rage of the insurgent's wives to defend freedom. Some unanimous testimonies indicate that women were very courageous and actively took part in the violent fights, braving the bullets to indicate the positions and to transit orders. Oruno D. Lara underlined:

"The women were wonderful. They made the men fanatics, increased tenfold their courage, showed themselves as brave as the men, and died like men. One of these heroic women, the mulatto named Solitude, was going to have a baby; she participated to all confrontations at Dolé; she was put under arrest and sent to jail, and was tortured soon after she gave birth to her baby on the 29th of November 1802. They waited the child to be born so that he could become a slave in his turn!" (translated by us)

In official publications, the "gendarmerie" major France and the magistrate Tanc evoked situations that were very hard for women after that period. Reverend Dugoujon, reported that the masters were more cruel than ever in 1844, as the abolition of slavery was approaching. A master told his slaves:

"If you want your freedom, I will set you free…But you will be free in a grave! I will make you die of tiredness before the government emancipates you!" (translated by us)

Schoelcher said that 'Just before slavery was abolished, women were still given a thrashing, even if they were pregnant. A woman who was going to have her ninth child was beaten on the small of the back and on the legs till she bleeded. Other women who were late were beaten to such an extent that they had a miscarriage.' And, even if they had children to breast-feed, women had excessive loads of work:

"Colombe had pointed out shyly to mister O'Neil that her workload had been doubled, and that her excessive tiredness altered the quality of her milk, which made her infant sick. She was beaten with fury: she was punch and received blows of stick on her body and on her head. Though she was bleeding, she received 29 more blows of whip and was tied up with a heavy chain." (translated by us)

Conclusion

The testimony of the XIIth, XVIIIth, and XIXth centuries chroniclers made us aware of the verbal and physical violence inflicted upon slaves. From the slave trade to the abolition of slavery, black women's bodies were subjected to both covetousness and degradation. Women knew their bodies incurred humiliating, painful, and even mortal sanctions if they opposed the system. Their bodies could be 'lacerated with creepers' (see Dutertre ), and their wounds 'rubbed with chili pepper, salt and lemon juice two or three times per day' (ibid.). But when the obsession for liberty inundated the universe of the plantation, it irrigated silent revolts that changed into insurrections bathed in blood.
The different strategies of resistance itemized in the present essay do not constitute an exhaustive list. Abortion, desertion, suicide, and self-mutilation were conceived as legitimate strategies of subversion and resistance to get freedom. Whether the fall of the birth rate was a conscious or an unconscious reply to the programming of servitude, a manifest or a masked refusal of the appropriation of the slaves' bodies, it was part of a strategy of disobedience and resistance that allowed the slaves to notify their existence to the masters.
After the abolition of slavery, the West Indians thought they had regained their dignity when in 1952 Guadeloupe and Martinique became French departments. But the life of a West Indian woman still is only a succession of challenges. Of the oppression of the slavery period, there subsists the sexual covetousness favored by an omnipresent colonialism. While looking at the past chroniclers' caricatures and the contemporary clichés for tourists with a critical eye, what we see behind is a Woman with a strong personality standing firm. The active presence of the West Indian woman in any place made her the symbol of the fight for freedom that the slaves conducted.

Diana Ramassamy