From Oral to Literate Culture

314 Pages·2000·16.59 MB·English

by  Peter A. Roberts, Peter Roberts

From Oral To Literate Culture
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From Oral To
Literate Culture
Colonial Experience
in the English West Indies
PETER A. ROBERTS
THE PRESS UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES
Barbados • Jamaica • Trinidad and Tobago
The Press University of the West Indies
1A Aqueduct Flats Mona
Kingston 7 Jamaica
© 1997 by Peter Roberts
All rights reserved. Published 1997
Printed in Canada
ISBN 976-640-037-7
01 00 99 98 97 5 4 3 2 1
CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Roberts, Peter A.
From oral to literate culture : colonial
experience in the English West Indies /
Peter A. Roberts.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 976-640-037-7
1. English language - Caribbean,
English-speaking - History. 2. Creole dialects,
English - Caribbean, English-speaking.
3. Literacy -Caribbean, English-speaking.
4. Education - Caribbean, English-speaking -
History. I. Title.
PE3310.R63 1997 427.9729
Set in Atlantix 10/14 x 27
Cover and book design by Robert Harris
Cover illustration: Oil on cotton, The Book Lesson, 1996.
Reproduced courtesy of Stafford Schliefer
Contents
List of Illustrations / vi
Preface / vii
Acknowledgements / xi
1 An Introduction to the Language of West Indians / 1
2 Nonlinguistic Methods of Communication and
Transmission of Information in the Plantation Slave Society f 16
3 Aspects of Oral Culture in the Slave Population / 34
4 Political and Social Influences on the Development of
Vernacular English / 69
5 Literate Communication in the Plantation Slave Society / 110
6 The Rise of Printing and Publishing in the West Indies
and its Effects / 132
7 Intellectual and Literary Activity and its Effect on Literate English I 160
8 The Rise of Schools and their Effect on English / 192
9 English Language and Literacy in the Early Schools / 236
10 The Legacy of Colonial Literacy in the West Indies / 268
Bibliography / 279
Index / 297
List of Illustrations
Figures
1.1 Forms and structures of West Indian English /15
3.1 A Negro Festival drawn from nature in the island of St Vincent / 36
3.2 Negro funeral in the time of slavery I 64
6.1 A letter written in 1687 by a Quaker in Barbados to a friend in
Pennsylvania / 134
6.2 A modern printed version of the same letter / 735
6.3 The start of printing/] 37
6.4 Page 4 of the Weekly Jamaica Courant, 15 April 1719 / 144
7.1 Catalogue of Books remaining at the General Depot, Kingston /167
8.1 Rules and Regulations for the government of the National schools
of Port of Spain /209
9.1 Plan of a School-Room / 255
9.2 Present State and Proficiency of the Boys' and Girls' School,
29 March 1831 / 259
Preface
The period 1624-1850 saw the emergence of English in Britain from disparate
dialects to a standardized, authoritative language as a result of the expansion of
British dominance over a vast area of the world, a dominance which started with
English colonial spread into the New World and specifically into the West Indies.
The years 1625 to 1834 were also the formative phase of West Indian society during
which English colonialism established itself upon a base of African slavery. The
relationship between the colonies in the Caribbean and Britain was a two-way
relationship in that the existence of the West Indies and the produce therefrom
indirectly spurred on the standardization of the English language, which in turn
dominated the path of development of language in the West Indies. There was no
history of literature in the West Indies before 1625 as there was in England; the
West Indian colonies started out as oral societies in which neither colonist nor slave
had any use for and little competence in writing. By the first decades of the
nineteenth century, however, education was being seen as necessary not only for
the whites but also for the slaves.
The historical growth in literacy in West Indian society is reflected currently in
the varieties of British regional dialects which have been preserved up to now, in
the structure of education, and in the philosophy and language of the Church of
England, for these imprinted themselves in West Indian life from the earliest times.
On the other hand, West Indian language and literacy represent a variety which
developed out of a multilingual and multicultural situation through a process of
acculturation. West Indian English, like other geographical dialects of English, has
its own particular characteristics, not only those which reflect the language and
culture of the West Africans who were brought to the region but also those which
emerged through interaction in the West Indian situation itself. Literacy in the West
Indies has always been an economically and politically functional force and there-
fore differs significantly in range from literacy in Britain.
viii / Preface
In the British colonies, English was regarded as the language of communication
and known to be the language of control. West Indian English, as a distinct dialect
of English, was one of the earliest varieties of English outside the British Isles. What
distinguishes it from all other varieties of English outside Britain is that it developed
in a context where the British and their descendants were not demographically the
majority, but where at the same time the non-British part of the population did not
have a general language of communication. In addition, there was no homogeneity
in the British varieties that were used in the West Indies at the time - varieties of
Scottish, Irish and English were probably further apart then than they are now, not
only in terms of their geographical distinctiveness but also in terms of the different
social levels of each one. Africans confronted with Scottish, Irish and English
dialects of the time did not have an easy task making sense out of them and
assimilating them into a homogeneous variety. The characteristic conservationist
tendencies of the frontier colonist also meant that the English of the colonists did
not evolve apace with that of the metropolis. West Indian English is therefore a
special variety of English which incorporates historical and transitional features of
English, regional varieties of British English, language learning and language acqui-
sition strategies, independent language developments, fossilized features, and West
African re-interpretations of English.
English, as the language of literacy in the West Indies, developed in a number
of small islands which were linked geographically and politically under British rule.
Like any other variety, West Indian English is made up of regional and social dialects
which reflect the specific history of each island. The differences between the various
islands, which seem very great to the inhabitants themselves, are generally imper-
ceptible to English speakers outside the West Indies. As part of their history the
islands also had well-known associations which extended beyond Britain. For
example, Antigua and Barbados had a direct connection with New England not
only in terms of migration and commerce but more specifically in the development
of printing and newspapers. St Lucia and Dominica had a long and turbulent
association with France, French culture, the Roman Catholic Church and the
French language. All the islands had a direct connection with India, not because of
the post-Emancipation importation of population from this subcontinent, but
because the education system which was introduced in the West Indies had been
developed in India.
West Indian English is an outstanding example of the development of the
English language in a multicultural context, and is a testimony to the resilience and
flexibility of the English language itself as well as to the people who speak it. From
a geopolitical point of view, in its contemporaneous development with standard
Preface I ix
English, one can see the link between economic power and high language status on
the one hand, and dependence and low language status on the other.
This examination of the development of English, as the language of literacy in
the West Indies, looks at the evolving methods and contexts of communication as
well as the political, social and intellectual background as the matrix within which
both the formal and vernacular varieties of the language developed. It relies on
contemporary works to build a picture of language in society during the period
starting from the time of the earliest English settlement in the West Indies up to a
decade or so after Emancipation. This period was distinct in the development of
communication in the West Indies because it was in effect the period during which
West Indian society moved from a purely oral toward a literate culture.
This examination shows the way in which literacy, as a major feature of British
colonialism, promoted and maintained the English language as an instrument of
control and an index of prestige. It does this by starting with a picture of commu-
nication and its limitations in the early years of the colonies. It then presents a view
of some aspects of the oral culture of the slaves and the acculturation process which
it exemplified. It then shows how a common medium of oral communication
developed and the influences which shaped it. The examination then proceeds to
the needs for literacy in the plantation slave society and the corresponding growth
of writing and printing. With the gradual disappearance of Africans with their
varying, and sometimes conflicting, cultures and languages and the increase in the
number of Creoles speaking the same language, a change in the methods of societal
control became necessary - a change from rule by division to rule by mass
indoctrination. The next few chapters therefore show how literacy was used to
control the mass of the population through a system of bookkeeping as well as
through a school system in which the teaching of obedience and discipline was the
main objective of church doctrine, which was the principal content subject in the
curriculum.
Chapter 1 is used to orient the reader by providing information on West Indian
English as a variety of the English language today, as well as on its role as a literary
medium and its status as a subject of academic study. Chapter 1 represents a
historical point of contrast with chapters 2 and 3, which take the reader back to the
early years of the colonies. After the examination of the development from oral to
literature culture which is the substance of chapters 4 to 9, the book ends with an
assessment of the influences of literacy and the English language on West Indian
societies.
Although this is meant to be a scholarly text, it is not beyond the apprecation of
educated persons interested in the development of the West Indies. In addition,
because it touches on history, sociology, printing, mass communications, educa-