The Seychelles Creole Academy, better known as the Creole Institute which officially opened its doors in January 1987, marked its 35th year of existence with the official opening of a large Hall of Linguistic and Cultural Knowledge at the International Conference Center.

This two-day Linguistic and Cultural Knowledge Salon, which is taking place under the theme ‘Our Creole language as a gift’, brings together different ministries, organizations, agencies or entities of the government and the public and private sectors, especially those that offer different services and products, around 40 The stalls include artisans and farmers who brought their products such as large meals, food and local fried eggs.

Yesterday, to open the event, there were many school children and post-secondary students, parents, ministers, cultural officials and other government officials.

They got a lot of information about a number of services and products in these stalls and at the health stalls, a lot of information and tests like HIV were being sold.

It was Mr. David Andre, secretary general for the National Institute for Culture, Heritage and Land who officially opened the event.

Erica Fanchette, senior teacher for language development at Lakademi Kreol, was recognized and presented with a small token for her 35 years of service.

Ms. Fanchette joined the Creole Institute in February 1987, one month after its opening.

When she retraced her journey with this institution, Ms. Fanchette was very proud of the important work that the institution that is now the Creole Academy has done so that the Creole language is recognized as our mother tongue and one of our three national languages ​​and gives it its true meaning. place in our society.

“I think my passion for language has made me stay in this job for so long because language is not static, it evolves and you never stop discovering new things and these new discoveries make our language more interesting and more alive, ” Ms. Fanchette said.

While reviewing the different works that have been carried out under the different directors of this institution, Ms. Fanchette thought of the codification of Creole orthography and its dissemination in the country under the first directorship of Mrs. Marie-Therese Choppy, research and academic work, revisiting traditions such as associate balls, carpet corners, traditional dance bands under Mr. Leon Radegonde, work to promote the Creole Institute on the international scene under Mrs. Penda Choppy and also the work that is currently being done under Mrs. Flora Bendavid to bring Creole to the masses, for all races of society and for others anyone behind among others would still work.

“My achievements include being among the first people to work on the translation of our Constitution into Creole and another major project that I am doing is the monolingual dictionary that will soon be nearing the final stages. This is a job that has been going on for more than 12 years, Ms. Fanchette said.

He added that he is really satisfied that during this 35 years he was able to contribute to promote our mother tongue and give it the place it deserves.

The current chief executive of the Kreol Academy, Mrs. Flora Bendavid, who joined the institution in 2017, said that the work they do at the academy is not easy.

“It is not easy to promote, develop and preserve our Creole language and Seychellois culture. Our true and greatest challenge at this time was to convince our public service partners of the importance of the Seychellois Creole language in their institutions, especially when they were discharging their responsibilities and functions. At that time there were only four institutions that responded to the call, but today this trend has reversed and there are thirty groups that have emerged for the majority of the public, private sector and even individuals who are interested in helping to promote, preserve and develop our language. and Seychellois culture. Today, more than ever, the determination is there to continue educating, informing and fighting so that our language continues to do so at all levels,” Mrs. Bendavid said.

He expressed his appreciation that these groups have come before the public to educate them and engage them through active participation in all the activities of the program in order to remove all barriers to allow all citizens to flourish, benefit and develop their bodies and gain access to information in the Seychellois Creole language which is their mother tongue.

He asked these institutions to see the Creole language as a tool and value it in all official institutions.

Mr. David Andre, when he spoke before officially declaring the opening of the Linguistic and Cultural Knowledge Salon, said that this event is responding to Unesco’s call to transform the learning and teaching of the Seychellois Creole language.

“Today we are using the Seychelles International Conference Center, ideal for a fast and efficient method to learn, use and gain access to the Seychellois Creole language and culture.

This activity also coincides with two major activities on the calendar of the Institute of Culture. First, the Kreol Academy under the direction of the Institute of Culture is celebrating its 35th anniversary, of course surrounded by its partners. Secondly, what better way to celebrate the 35th anniversary in a friendly, relaxing, educational and informative atmosphere.”

Mr. Andre says that the language of work or administrative, official, parliamentary and judicial language is a freedom to express our body in Creole. This celebration also invites the public service sectors to revisit their legal documents, their mandate; interpret them, explore them and implement them effectively without forgetting the social inclusion policy, which asks us not to leave anyone behind, recognize their right to information and the right to access information content.

The opening ceremony also included different small plays and songs by children who emphasized the importance of having documents and forms in our mother tongue in public services.

In the meantime, all the service and product stalls are scattered in the entrance and the main hall of the International Conference Center, while the Creole Institute stall exhibited its books and other works and where the third-year-olds were exhibiting their work and where the children were group to listen to Creole storytellers, this is found under the entrance of the parking lot.

It is also where the artisans and farmers were showing and selling their work and products.

The public has until today afternoon to come see and get information in this Linguistic and Cultural Knowledge Salon.

Our selection of portraits shows the atmosphere of this activity.

Source: Seychelles Nation