Copyright 1993 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
POPULATION: Guyana tries to save indigenous languages
an inter press service feature
by bert wilkinson
georgetown, oct 21 (ips) - university of guyana researcher desrey
fox knows that with each passing day, the battle to save major
amerindian languages is being lost, mainly through increased
contact with english-speaking coastlanders, teachers and religous
leaders.
preliminary research has shown that only a few elderly
amerindians from carib and arawak hinterland reservations are
still able to speak in their native tongues.
''a lot of young arawaks don't even bother to learn the
language much less speak it because they attend schools where only
english is taught and this has certainly not helped,'' said fox,
an akawio from the western upper mazaruni district.
fox aims to change that situation by launching a national
awareness campaign to preserve the languages.
the strategy is to lobby education officials and at the same
time work on compiling a dictionary of the languages spoken by as
many of the nine tribes here as possible. the tribes are spread
throughout the hinterland of this english-speaking south american
republic.
she heads the amerindian research unit at the university of
guyana and is effectively the caribbean's best known authority on
indigenous peoples.
indigenous peoples are the third largest ethnic group in guyana
behind the descendants of east indians and africans. numbering an
estimated 55,000 they account for seven percent of guyana's
population.
fox said she will campaign to have the school curriculum in
amerindian-dominated areas changed to include compulsory teaching
of tribal languages, as a form of preserving an important aspect
of indigenous culture.
''it is the only way the younger ones will learn. they have to
learn to read and write it or we are wasting time,'' she said.
catholic priests working in the hinterland or on government-
protected reservations have, from time to time, attempted to
compile dictionaries, but little official support has made the
task difficult, if not impossible.
some help has also come from other researchers, but it merely
scratches the surface says leonard fredericks, an amerindian
captain and school principal at the great falls district, 144 km
south of this capital city.
in the meantime, village elders are being encouraged to formally
pass on the languages to the younger generation, many of whom have
fled to the city to enjoy the luxuries of modern living.
fox thinks there is some hope for language preservation but
this is greatest in villages so remote that contact with
coastlanders is at a minimum.
in the southwestern savannah region near the brazilian border
the carib people there speak portuguese in addition to their
native tongue.
however on the northcoast where this capital city is located
and in central guyana, prime areas for mining and logging by
multinational companies, the amerindians living there have
virtually abandoned their culture and their languages.
fox says she plans to involve vibert desouza, the country's
first amerindian affairs minister in the language preservation
project.
it is not clear, however, what she expects of desouza as he has
been making it clear in recent months that although the government
has set up his ministry it has not given him the money to run it.
(end/ips/ot/bw/da/93)
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[c] 1993, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
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[ Redistributed to NATIVE-L and soc.culture.native with permission. ]
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