University Daily Kansan, November 16; 1981
Page 7
KU offers Haitian Creole language course
By ANNE CALOVICH Staff Reporter
He says Haiti may seem like another universe, but Bryant Freeman brings it closer to KU with the unusual language of its people.
A professor of French and teacher of Hawaiian Creole at one of only two universities in the United States that teach the language (Indiana University campus), Freeman said he feels a responsibility to teach knowledge of the language to KU students.
"The United States has almost no citizens who speak Haitian Creole," Freeman said. "There are only a few hundred white persons who speak it in the world. It is sometimes called a private language."
THE LACK OF knowledge of Creole has become more than an economic problem as Coast Guard and immigration officials cope with thousands of Haitians who emigrate to the United States seeking economic opportunity. The Reagan administration has acknowledged that boats suspected of carrying Haitians because of the difficulty of assimilating the Haitians that have already arrived.
"When these boats come along, very often the Coast Guard is unable to communicate with the people on board." Freeman said.
The Coast Guard often has to rely on foreigners to translate what the Haitians say, and this complicates the matter, he said.
He explained that the translators may lie about what the Haitians say, especially if what they say is unfavorable to the United States, because part of the translator's code of ethics is to be polite.
Freeman said the communication problems carry over to Florida.
"The misunderstanding and violence that occurs in refugee camps in Miami) is through simple elementary ignorance of the language," he said. Freeman described Haitian Creole as intolerable. French, responducible with
Freeman described Haitian Creole as "essentially French vocabulary with African grammar structure."
"It's a beautifully efficient language, expressive in its simplicity," he said.
Although French is the official language of Haiti, 90 percent of Haitians soak only Creole.
Eric Hausler, Iowa City, Iowa,
junior, and Glinda Grina, Overland
Park senior, are the two students now
taking advanced Haitian Creole at KU.
Their semester-long assignment has
been to prepare a reader for English-
speaking people who want to enrich
their knowledge of Creole.
SHARING EQUALLY in the work, Freeman, Hauser and Griner are using a novel written in Creole and are preparing an English glossary defining its vocabulary words, writing introductions to each of its chapters, composing text questions, and making grammatical, cultural and historical footnotes to the novel. The reader will be published in Haiti in December.
Freeman said that the reader will be the first of its kind, and that the need for a book caused him to start the project. He says it is in his second semester Creole class.
Freeman is also preparing a work of his own, which he describes as a handbook of Haitian Creole grammar and topical phrases with a dictionary in French. The book was published in Haiti and Quebec for international use but will be especially suited for foreigners in Haiti, the majority of which are medical personnel, missionaries and tourists, Freeman said.
When Freeman presents the two works to the Haitian publisher in December, Hausler and Griner will be there too.
FREEMAN VISITS Haiti two or three times a year. Hauser will be returning for his second visit; he took classes at the Haitian American Institute and taught at a mission school in spring. It will be Grener's first visit.
Thumbling through pictures of Haiti, Haasler said he can't wait to go back. Freeman said Haiti is the most advanced country of the 50 to 60 countries he has visited.
Why are they so enchanted with the poorest country in this hemisphere?
"The best thing about Haiti is the Haitians," Freeman said. "They are the nicest, friendliest people."
Because Haitians are untainted by prejudice, Freeman said that "whites are embarrassingly welcome" in Haiti.
“What bothers me is that Haitians that come to the United States uninvited are dumped on, while Cubans and Mexicans who are in the same situation are not,” he said. “It has been blamed on the fact that Haitians are black, and if that is true, to me it is highly highly unust.”
He said that it was important that the United States take care of the Haitians who are already here. Freeman last spoke to Haitian refugees last Christmas at a Haitian mission in Miami.
VOODOO IS practiced to some extent by the militants and it is now suspected that some may be losing their lives on treacherous boat trips from Haiti to the United States because of it. Some Haitians may recognize the
danger of their plight on rough seas as a call for a human sacrifice.
Freeman says that the "last verified official human sacrifice was in 1863." He says none of his Haitian friends has ever witnessed a human sacrifice nor has he at the 20 to voodoo ceremonies he has attended. He added however that her nor his friends have experienced the situations the emigrants have.
A desperate situation might call for a more important victim of sacrifice than the usual chickens, goats and pigs they usually sacrifice. Freeman said.
He said it was important to increase American knowledge of the language and situation of the Haitians. He said that many Americans thought Haitian immigration was a recent phenomenon and it now touches the United States.
"People ask 'How come (Haitians are emigrating)' now." Freeman said.
"Many Americans never heard of Haiti until recent times."
"Haitians used to seek work in Cuba, but shortly before Castro, Haitians were no longer permitted to go to Cuba. Since then they've been going to the Bahamas, but the Bahamas now have an unemployment situation of their own and no longer permit Haitians. Now they've left the United States. It's nothing new at all. From the 1800s, they've always been getting on boats.
FREEMAN ALSO said that Haitians' problems would not be solved by revolution, in the near future.
"It's seldom been less likely," he said. "Most of the political opposition has either exited or silenced."
Photo contest deadline set
Deadline for the 15th annual University of Kansas Photography Contest is p. 5pm, Wednesday, according to Gina Stevens, Student Union Activities photography committee chairman.
The judging of the 10 photo categories will take place Thursday in the Big Eight Room in the Kansas Union. Winners will receive certificates and their work will be exhibited in the Kansas Union gallery.
The contest, sponsored by the photojournalism sequence of the School of Journalism, the School of Fine Arts and to all currently enrolled KU students.
Stevens said that entrants without access to a darkroom should contact Gary Mason, associate professor of journalism.
Museum to sponsor
A slide lecture, "Marcantonio and the Italian Renaissance," will be shown today at 3:30 p.m. in Room 211 in the Spencer Art Museum.
lecture on engraver revolutionized engraving techniques and spread the influence of Raphael and other Renaissance Roman artists throughout Europe.
The show, sponsored by the museum in conjunction with the engraving workshop now on display, is about the evolution of engraving at Raumstein, the century Italian engraver who
Innis Shoemaker, assistant director at the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, is the featured speaker.
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