30

Soobrayen

totheirskinslikebeadsof sweat. Hundredsof tongues parchedlikethemouthsof sweetheartsinanarranged ceremony. Sheiskindandruthlessandinsists ontheQueen’sEnglish. AtnightCreoleverveslipsin

andmakesmischief.

With French as its base language, Mauritian Creole has alsobeeninfusedwithcontributions fromEnglish, Malagasy, Chinese and Indian languages. In 1880 Charles Baissac describedtheporousdefiantnatureof MauritianCreoleinhis studyPatoiscrééole:‘Creoleallowsanythingtobesaid,recognises everything.Butafterallits capitulationson thepublicstage, it comes backhome, shuts its door, resumes its personality, its individual originality, soqualitéé mêême, asitsays.’ It has left its pidginstatus to become the stable mother tongueofsubsequentgenerations.TodayitisknownasKreolor Moriysenandis spokenwidelyinMauritius. WhileFrenchis thelanguage of popular cultureandEnglishthelanguage of Government, Creoleremainsinthehomesandstreetsanditis at the heart of people’s lives with its riddling nature and directness. Althougha dictionaryhas beendeveloped, it has resistedattempts tolegitimiseitself fullyintopubliclifeand schools. As a childgrowingupwithEnglishas a first language I developedaninstinct for Creole, out of acuriositytode-code the grown-upspeakaroundme. Creole oftenfelt secretive, slipperyandconfusingAt times I never knewwhichwords wereEnglishandwhichwereCreole, thewords ‘ vomit’ and ‘vomee’ soundedveryclosetomystrugglingear. Withinmypoetryis thestrongresidueof aCreolerhythm and an oralqualitynot strictlyEnglishthatlies underneaththe Englishtext. Itpromptedthefurtherexcavationof twopoems inparticular ‘MoTi Béébéé’ (Mylittleone) and‘Coumaki piti zenfanguetter’ ( As thechildlooks on). Not onlywere these