Voices from the Caribbean basin: Bible Translation and the Creole sphere

Extracted text from SBL_Voices_from_the_Caribean_Basin2012.pptx:

The Role of Bible translation in the

Formation of Creole identity: Voices from the Caribbean basin. Marlon Winedt United Bible Societies

Kwame Bediako and Andrew Walls The focus on Africa engendered by the theologies of

Walls and Bediako hinges on five convictions:

1. That the centre of gravity of Christianity has shifted

from the north to the south and that Africa in particular has a crucial role to play in the future development of Christian faith. 2. That African Christianity is potentially the

representative Christianity of the twenty-first century.

 3. That originally the Christian faith was formed in

Africa and therefore the notion that Christianity first came to Africa with the missionaries is false. 4. That Africa is a laboratory for Christian faith in the

dual sense that it is a testing ground of the viability of the faith in its impact on society, and that it is the arena for new and innovative forms of Christian faith.

THE VERNACULAR SHAPES THEOLOGY 5. That the gospel is anterior to culture but finds its

expression through culture and it is in the processes of vernacular translation of the faith that the liberating potencies of the gospel are made manifest.

SURVIVAL THROUGH TRANSLATION Andrew Walls reminds us so poignantly: Christian

faith must go on being translated, must continuously enter into vernacular culture and interact with it, or it withers and fades (2002, 29).

Latin America The current state of affairs is clearly not desirable. When

Scripture affirms of God that "from one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live" (Acts 17:26 NIV), Paul is announcing that God has been active in all cultures everywhere. This affirmation, coupled with the principle of the translatability of Christianity, means that the church in Latin America needs to take the indigenous cultures and their languages seriously. The national church needs to take the lead in helping the indigenous churches to develop vernacular Scripture-based theologies that make sense to them and that they can comfortably use in their cultures. Even though the larger national cultures belittle and sideline the indigenous cultures, the church cannot follow suit. (Bill Bivin SIL Panama)

 To use Creole in churches, in the liturgy, and to

employ Caribbean Creoles as sacred text, is to Let in the light Caribbean styleCalypso and Reggae stylecheerfully maybe, culturally different maybe, but not less scholarly or, more important, not less existentially, and for sure, with no less spiritual impact than the celebrated Authorized Version.

CREOLIZATION

1. Creole Language: Linguistics 2. Creole Identity and Orality

2. Creolization as Ideological Critique

3. Creole Bible Translation 5. Conclusion: Voices from the Carribean

Creole Language: Linguistics A Creole is believed to arise when a pidgin, developed

by adults for use as a second language, becomes the native and primary language of their children a process known as nativization.

CREOLE GENESIS Universalist approaches (Bickerton) Theories focusing on European input

(Superstrate/Lexifier) Theories focusing on non-European input (Substrate) Gradualist and developmental hypotheses.

ORALITY

ORALITY The way hermeneutics is undertaken today indicates

that authority is invested in the written text. This reflects the current bias towards the printed word and its analysis. In all faith traditions, including Christianity , the original authority is not the text but the word that is heard. [t]he oral word takes precedence over the written word. It also has the power to sensitize people (Sugirtharajah, 1991:435).

CREOLE ORALITY TENSION BETWEEN ORALITY AND THE NEED TO BE

ESTABLISHED AS PRESTIGE LANGUAGE. NEGOTIATING OF MULTIPLE OR COMPOSITE

PEFORMING IDENTITIES . WRITTEN TEXT BENEFITS LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT.

WRITTEN TEXT UNDERMINES ORALITY BECAUSE IT IS

PLACED IN THE FRAMEWORK OF EUROPEAN LANGUAGE TRADITION AND CULTURAL HISTORY.

Orality The relative rarity of Creole novels in a literary

landschape which includes much interest can be explained both by the difficulties arising quite simply from the lenght expected for a novel and by the fact that the novel is the literary genre furthest removed from oral speech . While poetry is based on rhythmic, melodic and more generally prosodic features which presuppose production of speech, the novel is the written genre par excellence, in which everything must be explicit (Hazal-Massieux, p. 86)

IDEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE

HETEROGLOSSIA CREOLE IDENTITY AS POSITIVE LIMINALITY. CREOLE IDENTITY AS IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCT

THAT EMPOWERS COMMUNITY HERMENEUTIC. CREOLE IDENTITY WITHIN SEA OF

HETEROGLOSSIA. NOT CONFLICT MODEL BUT HARMONY

MODEL BECAUSE OF MULTIPLE IDENTIES.

 CREOLE BIBLE TRANSLATION AS EXPRESSION OF

ONE IDENTIY CREOLE PERFORMANCE AS EXPRESSION OF

OTHER IDENTITY CREOLE CULTURAL CRITIQUE:

DECONSTRUCTION OF THE PURE

Micheal Bakhtin 1935 [For traditional stylistics] the unity of a style

presupposes on the one hand a unity of language (... normative forms) and on the other hand the unity of an individual person realizing himself in this language... The novel, however not only does not require these conditions but ... even makes of the internal stratification of language, of its social heteroglossia and the variety of individual voices in it, the prerequisties for authentic novelistic prose (p. 264)

Bakhtin The philosophy of language and the novel as analogy for

social experience

Philosophy of language, linguistics and stylistics... have all

postulated a simple and unmediated relation of speaker to his unitary and singular "own" language, and have postulated as well a simple realization of this language in the monologic utterance of the individual. Such disciplines actually know only two poles in the life of language, between which are located all the linguistic and stylistic phenomena they know: on the one hand, the system of unitary language, and on the other the individual speaking in this language. (p. 269)

 "Discourse in the novel" in The dialogic

imagination. Tr. by C. Emerson and M. Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press. 1981

 PERFORMING IDENTITY

Antropological notion Psycological notion Ideological notion: positive unity from the performer

Performing Identities All of them are important to me; they have a reason.

Now stop minding my business. In her characteristically temperamental style, Miss Maria, an ex-schoolteacher in her late sixties, replied to my observation that although she considered herself a local , she also displayed national allegiance to Anguilla and Curaao. There was no contradiction according to her, since she was born in Anguilla and had lived practically all her life in Curaao. Furthermore , as a local she claimed both Saint Martin and Sint Maarten as her own , the national boundary not withstanding. (2009:32)

 Chanting down the New Jerusalem: Calypso,

Christianity and Capitalism in the Caribbean. (Francio Gaudeloupe , University of California Press: 2008)

Diversity vs Similarity Different island nations with different European

colonizers. Different Creole language formation Different racial and ethnic mix ( Afro, Indo, Euro, Sino) Creole language identity (lingua franca) European Language identity

Slave trade + plantation society Strong Afro presence Relation to the Metropolis

POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT

1. (Re)discovery of the value of individual

Creoles 2. Discovery that Creole (oral) translation is exactly confirming the family of Creoles as the lingua franca of all Caribbean peoples and beyond that, expressing their multiple socio-cultural identities. 3. From pejorative use to valued use (Creole, mixed, value of hyrbidity.)

 4. Translation: Bible translation community

merging with wider local linguistic community. 5. Focus on orality in Biblical Studies! (in Bible Translation) 6. Focus on narrative: (the visual can only have meaning as part of an ongoing oral narrative of some text.

 7. Translation as cultural expression:

away from linguistic turn. 8. New trends in Translation Studies: Turn to Power. 9. Move of Creole from informal to formal register. 10. Dismantle the sacred language myth

ANTI CREOLIZATION FORCES IDENTITY VS SOCIAL MOBILITY POLEMIC GLOBAL MONOCULTURAL FORCES

INTERNAL MOVE TOWARDS DECREOLIZATION

IN THE POST-CREOLE CONTINUUM

 basilect

pure creole

mesolect urban dialects

acrolect adaptation to the European language

VS NAIPAUL (Criticism) He regards the Trinidad of his childhood as an absurd

society, where Africans and Indians had been moved by force or persuasion to work on the sugar plantations, torn away from their homes, their traditions and their cultural authenticity, fooled into believing they were a kind of Britons through colonial schooling, and then forced to reinvent themselves almost on an everyday basis upon discovering that they were not (see for example, Naipaul 1963, 1987). [Erickson 2003:226]

THE IDEOLOGY OF THE PURE IN EACH COMMUNITY THERE IS AN

IDEOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL CONSTRUCT OF THE PURE WHICH WILL END UP BEING CREOLIZED IN ONE WAY OR THE OTHER, WHETHER LINGUISTICALLY, CULTURALLY, PHENOTYPICALLY. AFTER A WHILE THAT CREOLE REALITY WILL BECOME THE NEW PURE.

LIDEOLOGIE DE LA NEGRITUDE (CESAIRE) INFLUENCED BY THE NEGRO CARRIBEAN MOVEMENT

(NICOLAS GUILLEN) AND THE MARCUS GARVEY MOVEMENT. DEFINITION OF NOTION OF PURITY FOR AFRO-

CARRIBEANS. LEAVES OUT OTHER ETHNIC GROUPS IDEALIZED AND COLONIAL CONCEPT OF NEGRITUDE .

Glissant (1981:15) Creolized people do not need the idea of genesis, because they do not

need the myth of the pure lineage.

CREOLIT AS IDEOLOGY In multiracial societies, such as ours, it is urgent that we

abandon the habitual raciological distinctions and that we resume the custom of designating the people of our country by the one term that, whatever their complexion, behooves them: Creole. Socio-economic relations within our society must henceforth be conducted under the seal of a shared creolity [Crolit] without that obliterating in any way whatsoever class relations and conflicts. (Creole Manifesto) Jean Bernab, Patrick Chamoiseu and Raphal Confiant

(1989),

Creolism as fugitive power against monocultural force. Creolism as positive expressions of

hybriditiy and liminality. Creolism as a positive expression of an incarnational contextualized theology.

Tensions

1. VS. Naipaul vs Derek Walcot
2. Glissant/Fanon vs Csaire. 3. Performance vs disembodied analytical

reflection 4. Motherland hermeneutics and the search for the pure vs Out of many nations: One nations 5. The Amsterdam is closer than Georgetown reality : Geographical and psychological space.

CREOLE BIBLE TRANSLATION

CREOLE (BIBLE) TRANSLATION SPIRITUAL/RELIGIOUS NEED STANDARDISATION NEED CULTURAL NEED FOR LITERATURE DEVELOPMENT OF CORPUS

DICTIONARY AS AN IDEOLOGICAL WEAPON EXPRESSION OF CREOLE IDENTITY RESISTANCE AGAINST THE EXTERNAL AND THE

INTERNAL COLONIAL VOICE TRANSLATION AS EMPOWERMENT

Practical in the field outcome

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Oral t0 oral adaptation (From Creole to another) Move from colloquial domain to sacred and academic domain. Bilingual education (e.g. Haiti, Curaao) Media and new media in vernacular Linguistic attention and development Linking Cultural identity to language New translation outcomes: a. Belize Kriol translation (2013) b. Jamaikan NT (2012) c. Papiamentu Study Bible (with DC books 2013)

CONCLUSION: VOICES

Recognition from The Other Hence, if translation is to take place at all, it must do

so within the context of expectation: that in return for ones submission, one gets back the others acknowledgement of the value of ones word and behavior. In this way one finds for oneself a place on the social map. (Vincent Rafael 1993:210). Sacred text translation in Creole and indigenous

language situations is equal to the social mapping of the group to outsiders, but most of all to itself.

SALMAN RUSHDIE (1991: 394) [The Satanic Verses] rejoices in mongrelization and fears the absolutism of the Pure. Mlange, hotchpotch, a bit of this and a bit of that is how newness enters the world. It is the great possibility

that mass migration gives the world, and I have tried to embrace it.

TESTIMONIUM [p. 185] You have to be Jamaican to get Jamaica. The

way we act, the way we live and the way we speak is like nowhere else. If Id written this book in Jamaican Patois, or creole as the linguists call it, most of you wouldnt have understood a word of it. It is not meant to be written down, but it is how many kids and adults speak to one another on the island. We drop letters from the English language and run words together and, while we grow up on it, its very difficult to follow for a foreigner.

 Its so specialized that even in neighboring Caribbean

islands like Barbados or Trinidad they cannot understand us. They have their own forms of it, which are different from ours. When I moved to Kingston and started running professionally I had to take special English lessons that in interviews people would know what I was saying. I had problems with words like three, which I would say as tree . I couldnt work out that you had to roll the words off your tongue.

 The teacher showed me how to set my tongue to say [

p.186] the word properly. I can adapt now, according to who I am speaking to, but with friends and family we always use patois. Some native Jamaicans cannot speak proper English at all, they speak patois all the timeand its raw patois. When I am talking to my mom a normal English-speaking person could probably pick up some words, but raw patois is impossible-you would have no chance.

 Usain Bolt with Shaun Custis.

Usain Bolt : my story : 9.58 : being the world's fastest man

Bolt, Usain, 1986 Usain Bolt. London : HarperSport, 2010

CONFESSION OF CREOLIT I don't have prejudice against meself. My father was a

white and my mother was black. Them call me halfcaste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white. Nesta Robert "Bob" Marley

(6 February 1945 11 May 1981)

THE ANTIOCHEAN PARADIGM 1 In the church at Antioch there were prophets and

teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

IDENTITY: A DIALECTICAL PROCESS IDENTITY IS HEALTHY IS INTRINSICALLY HUMAN THERE ARE DIFFERENT KINDS OF IDENTITY

PERSPECTIVES: FROM THE SOCIAL TO THE SPIRITUAL TO THE PSYCHOLOGICAL. IDENTITY MEANS:

WE ARE ALWAYS BECCOMING WHAT WE ARE. WE ARE ALWAYS NEGIOTING WHAT WE ARE. WE CAN BE WITHOUT KNOWING THAT WE ARE. WHAT WE WILL BECOME DETERMINES WHAT WE ARE

ACTS 2:11-13 UNITY PERPLEXES both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs we hear

them speaking in our own languages about the great deeds God has done! v 12All were astounded and greatly confused, saying to one another, What does this mean? 13But others jeered at the speakers, w saying, They are drunk on new wine!

ACTS 2 PNEUMATOLOGICAL COMMUNITAS 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and

to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Caribean and King James Version To this we may add, the best tribute the Caribbean

region can give to the monumental and historic translation that came to be called the King James Version is to continue the process of indigenization and emancipation which that translation encouraged in the English language of its time and for its peoples. The use of the vernacular will create new theological categories and allow for further developments, on the basis of, in dialogue with, and yes, in contradiction to the ongoing theological work done by theologians of the West as well as Latin American theologians..

COMMUNITY DOES NOT NEGATE IDENTITY (ACTS 7) 1 In those days when the number of disciples was

increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.

PENTECOST VS BABEL: A HERMENEUTICAL KEY

1. EACH TONGUE REFLECTS IDENTITY 2. PELGRIMS IN JERUSALEM WERE ALL JEWISH

BELIEVERS COMBINING DIFFERENT IDENTITIES 3. PELGRIMS INCLUDED THE GODFEARERS 4. PENTECOST LEADS ULTIMATELY TO THE BREAKING DOWN OF JEW/GENTILE BARRIER. 5. THE SPEAKING OF GODs WORD IN THE TONGUES OF THE SAME PERSON . 6. GODs SPIRIT THROUGH GODS WORD BREATHES NEW COMMUNTIES AS PROMISED BY THE PROPHETS. 7. BUT PROTOTYPICAL COMMUNITIES AS THE ANTIOCH CHUCH.