quarta-feira, 29 de março de 2017

Portuguese, a language of power (in Cabo Verde)

It has become common today to refuse the importance and necessity of Portuguese in Cabo Verde. Who knows me knows that I honestly defend the (real) use of Portuguese in Cabo Verde (not only as formal/official language but as an everyday natural/native idiom), and I think that is possible because I (always) reminisce the great things my friends and I did in Portuguese in those early days in CV. 
In recent article Abel Djassi Amado argues Portuguese is a language of political power that unlocks much of the doors in Cape Verde, and I agree that Portuguese is indeed a powerful language because like many other romance languages it is a lingua franca, and if it is a key language (that unlocks the doors), this is a good reason to be "the language of the people" (too!).
His argument that Cape Verde has a critical fighting between Portuguese and Creole is supported by the idea that although Portuguese is the "dominant language" and the language of the Constitution, "with very few (privileged minority) fluent speakers" (Portuguese and Brazilian citizens at most), it is not the "language of the people", which is used during the election process to elude and convince the voters.
But I have a mixed of feelings about it.On the one hand, I agree that Portuguese is a very powerful language in Cape Verde, and I experienced it by myself, during my professional experience in Cabo Verde, trying to persuade and explain my students the justification to speak Portuguese as law students and future jurist. On the other hand, I still insist that we are barking up on the wrong tree if we still continue to oppose the Portuguese as some (kind of) barrier to reach the (soul of the) Cabo-Verdean people. The struggle to bring Creole to a status it deserves does not come to reality just turning down the role and importance that Portuguese plays in Cabo Verde (and other Portuguese countries). Moreover, It is important to say that the statement that fluent speakers of Portuguese in Cabo Verde is only Brazilian and Portuguese citizens is erroneous, because the utterance confuses monolingual (L1) speakers with fluent (B1-C2) speakers. Many of us in Cabo Verde really speak Portuguese (see my conclusion below).
The Amado's idea deals with a false common sense (nurture by some fetish feeling), which seems to dictate that Portuguese is only a language of rich or well-positioned person/families in CV. I don't know why, and it is not my intention to attend to that now, but a spectrum of fear and ignorance hunt some minds in our islands, especially Santiago, motivating many people to affirm we only can learn (better) in Creole.
What I mean is, I haven't found yet any good reason to support the idea of a better learning process when it is done in creole. Well, if you don't know Portuguese, you can't learn in Portuguese (or any other language you don't speak) of course. But why in Cape Verde you don't learn/speak Portuguese at all? Simply, because nobody has taught you. It's obvious? "It's not", someone replies, "you learn better or faster in Creole because is your mother tongue". "Even if I were deaf?" I can reply. What is the mother tongue of a deaf person? He also dreams in Creole as Common Sense used to say?
Anyway, "mother tongue" is some kind of "joke" I heard when I was in 4th grade (primary) school. The teacher was teaching us about the human body and the subject was (small and large) intestine. Suddenly another teacher enters the class and is astonished seeing her teaching us in Portuguese. "Did you say 'intestino delgado?' How do they understand it?" She asked. "Why not?" my teacher replied. Then she (the other female teacher) explained the question, "with my students they only know what I am saying if I say "tripinha" and "tripona" (creole words to the small and large intestine, which contrast with the Portuguese words "intestino delgado" and "intestino grosso", respectively).
Moral of the story, this is not a joke, but what happened in fact in my class when I was in the 4th grade. But why those students "didn't understand" the human body in Portuguese? Because nobody taught them Portuguese (I am supposing they didn't understand Portuguese). However, if we want a country that speaks Portuguese, we need to teach Portuguese in everyday situations (it is a matter of education and habit). Yet for me, it's confusing because though (some) enlightened minds state that we don't speak Portuguese, we are all capable of understanding Brazilian and Portuguese soap operas, and we all repeat what they say on TV in Portuguese.
Although I know that Amado is concerning about the real value of Creole, not just a lower standard language, but so important and valuable as Portuguese, my preoccupation is with what some full motivated creole defenders could do with the filigree of his arguments. My own view is that Portuguese is the most valuable inheritance we were left by the colonialist domination. Therefore I admit that Portuguese is still the liaison that keeps us in the lusophone nation, and I still maintain that it is not only important but also essential to Cabo Verde. For example, in terms of Literature and scientific access and actualization, and connection with other Portuguese speakers countries. Although some might object that Cabo Verde is Creole, not lusophone, I reply that we are both. And the issue is important because we must fight this kind of dualistic vision that defends the eradication of Portuguese as a sine qua non conditio to set up the right standard of Creole, and a sort of "popular freedom". Creole is also valuable of course, e.g., we can speak and understand more than 60% of Papiamento, because we are a Creole country; and as a Portuguese country, we can continue to relate with Portugal, Brazil, Angola and all other Portuguese countries in a way we couldn't do without it.
Portuguese like any other language is a tool for subjugation or freedom, it all depends on what we propose to do with it. The cheapest solution is just a question of political interest and national involvement with the use of Portuguese, which begins with the simple courage to speak, as I did with this article, writing it in English as though it is far from perfect, and hard to me.

Nenhum comentário:

Postar um comentário