Loss of Amerindian languages, an erosion of Guyanese Culture

Guyana Chronicle editorial, 22 November 2007

EDITORIAL

Loss of Amerindian languages, an erosion of Guyanese Culture
The loss of Amerindian languages represents perhaps the greatest
erosion of
Guyanese culture today. There have been sporadic attempts to reverse
this.
In 2005, for example, the Ministry of Culture launched a project to aid
in
the restoration of the use of Amerindian languages.
"I believe it will call," said then Minister Gail Teixeira, "for a
tremendous amount of work and a tremendous amount of dedication, and we
hope
that the agencies such as the universities and the communities
themselves,
the Amerindian villages, the Toshaos, their Elders and the young people
will
be part of this project and many others to come."
One of the main campaigners for the preservation of indigenous
languages has
been academic, linguist and now Minister within the Ministry of
Education,
Dr. Desrey Fox. Beginning as a researcher and following up through her
appointment as Head of the Amerindian Affairs Unit at the University of
Guyana, ensuring that Amerindian languages survive has been a personal
passion and academic mission for Fox. And for good reason too.
"Indigenous language extinction," says one website on indigenous
language
preservation, "has accelerated rapidly in the modern period. Scholars
now
estimate that 90% of the world's languages are spoken by only 10% of its
population, that 6,000 languages are endangered, and only about 600
'safe."
When it comes to Dr. Fox's ministerial appointment last year, it can go
either way for her activism in preserving indigenous languages in
Guyana.
She may, as she has done in the past, still use the strengths of her
professional advancement to consolidate academic attention towards her
major
personal passion. This would undoubtedly been a boon for the language
preservation efforts locally. There could not be a better patron for
any
cause than one who is an actual position to influence or even create
policy.
The downside of her appointment, however, is that the education sector -
even with two ministers - is a large and increasingly complex one.
Whereas
the study of Amerindian culture and society occupied the greater
majority of
her time as an academic, her ministerial portfolio is undoubtedly
occupied
with many pressing things.
Additionally, there are other factors which take away from the
possibility
of Amerindian language preservation being given more serious attention
than
it is currently being given. An obvious one would one which affects the
entire education system in Guyana: an increasingly severe shortage of
trained teachers. Another problem would be the cost and time involved in
developing and implementing a school curriculum.
The biggest problem in preserving Amerindian languages in Guyana,
however,
has to do directly with the Amerindian people themselves: their relative
poverty. Cut off from the urban commercial centres of the coast, and
from
ownership of most of the resources surrounding their own communities,
the
preservation of languages not connected to their economic empowerment
has
meant little for the Amerindian people. For those seeking integration
into
the economic framework of their country, the English taught in schools
is
more useful than the Wapishana spoken at home. Others in Lethem and
nearby
villages like Yupukari speak the Portuguese of neighbouring Brazil.
The preservation of Amerindian languages therefore has to be deeply
integrated into a general multifaceted programme of Amerindian
empowerment
taking into account the culture as well as economic needs of our
indigenous
people