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With the Support of Developing the Minority

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With the Support of Developing the Minority with the support of Developing the Minority Language Creative Writing Industry in Kenya, Haiti, Serbia and Nigeria: An Inter-Regional Research, Advocacy and Development Programme Roundtable Meeting, London, 29 & 30 May 2014 Carles Torner, the Acting Executive Director of PEN International, with Professor Christopher Lukorito Wanjala from Kenya (left) and Oluwafiropo Ewenla from Nigeria (right) Background PEN International has been awarded the UNESCO International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD) grant for the project ‘Developing the Minority Language Creative Writing Industry in Kenya, Haiti, Serbia and Nigeria: An Inter-Regional Research, Advocacy and Development Programme’. This 18-month project, running from May 2014 to November 2015, proposes to strengthen minority language publishing industries in Haiti, Kenya, Nigeria and Serbia through the identification of the main challenges and policy gaps affecting the publishing industry, the development of recommendations on the strengthening of cultural policies to promote minority language publishing industries and the development and strengthening of a network of key stakeholders working to promote minority language publishing industries. On May 29-30, PEN International organised a roundtable meeting on the theme of “Strengthening minority language policies and publishing” in London, the outcomes of which are intended to inform the research project. The first day of the meeting brought together PEN International staff members and representatives from each of the countries involved in the project (Haiti and Serbia were present through Skype, having not received visas into the UK in time). This was an opportunity to discuss the framework of the project and establish the four national contexts in which the project will develop. The second day of the meeting was a first step towards establishing a network of writers, publishers, policy-makers and academics working in the minority language industry as twelve additional guests – three professors whose work focuses on minority/regional languages, advocacy experts who have worked with minority languages, and publishers – were invited to participate. This was an opportunity for PEN International to present the research project to the wider academic field and to explore potential partnerships and linkages with on-going research in this area. Carles Torner welcomes the guests and introduces the project. Overview of the Project The project is divided into three phases – research, advocacy and development. 1. Research a. First, a mapping exercise will be undertaken by the research team in each country to review and analyse the major challenges of the minority language industry and the policy gaps this cultural industry faces in these countries; b. A comparative analysis of the findings will then be undertaken to highlight commonalities of challenges and barriers to market access resulting in a report with findings and policy recommendations. 2. Advocacy a. Develop advocacy strategies for introducing and/or strengthening cultural policies in the publishing sector, building on the recommendations to cultural policy-makers of Haiti, Kenya, Nigeria and Serbia that were submitted following the mapping exercise; b. Carry out four national advocacy campaigns targeting policy-makers and other key stakeholders in the sector to advocate for the support to local publishing industries; c. A model for research, advocacy and development of policies to promote minority language publishing industries will be created. 3. Development (trainings and network development) a. PEN International’s Publishers Circle will provide expert advice and workshops directly to writers and cultural actors through the PEN Centres in Haiti, Kenya, Nigeria and Serbia (at key literary festivals and book fairs) on how to promote minority language publishing and develop the sector; b. Findings from the trainings feed into research. Nigeria: Context There are over 250 identified minority languages in Nigeria none of which is strongly protected by cultural policy, which was formulated in the late 1980s and has not been reviewed since. However, whilst cultural productions in indigenous and minority languages were visible on the radio and television only a few decades ago, there is hardly any material available in those languages today. This has had a profound impact on people's ability to learn minority languages and on their relevance to the younger generation. This means that over the years, indigenous languages and minority languages have receded into the background. In order to help revive the minority language publishing industry, it was suggested that: A database listing indigenous languages, writers and publishers to be constructed. This would be useful in providing a point of reference for future projects, and in bringing writers using their mother tongue to the attention of publishers; More work to be done in order to identify self-published (vanity publishing) minority language contents, bringing attention to already existing materials; Oluwafiropo Ewenla (right) the Secretary General of PEN Nigeria introducing the national context in Nigeria. Kenya: Context The new Kenyan constitution of 2010 has increased the democratic space for languages, offering a strong framework for the support of indigenous and minority languages. However, the reality of implementing language policies on the ground is different from the blueprint. Minority language production receives little promotion and even though the country has a mother tongue education policy, the time allocated for the teaching of indigenous languages is often used for other purposes. This is due in part to a lack of adequate teaching materials in local languages. Haiti: Context If bilingualism is formally established in Haiti - through the 1987 constitution which acknowledges both French and Creole as official languages, and the Bernard Reform of 2000 which reifies Creole as a language of knowledge – the situation on the ground is one of diglossia, where French is favoured at the expense of Haitian Creole. Various actions have been taken in the past 30 years in order to challenge the status quo. As a result, language classes in Creole have been introduced for schoolchildren but have yet to be extended to secondary and university education. Creole is recognised as a national language and a Creole academy has recently been created, albeit with some difficulty. The political administration is French-speaking and there is an identified lack of teaching contents in Creole. The fact that French takes precedence in cultural matters poses a serious problem in terms of cultural production in Creole, as the language is devalorised in the public sphere. It is hoped that this project will help create an impetus for the valorisation and distribution of materials in Creole, as well as their introduction into the school curriculum. There are currently five publishing houses in Haiti, but publications in Creole amount to less than 10% of their output. Proposed solutions to counter these barriers were: The creation of a quota for publications in Creole; The digital redistribution through the PEN network of Creole texts that have previously been self-published; The organisation of literary workshops to help inspire creative writing in Creole. Serbia: Context The Vlach and Roma languages are minority languages in Serbia. Whilst Roma is taught at the University of Novi Sad, Vlach is not taught at secondary or university level. Vida Ognjenović, the president of the Serbian PEN Centre, therefore expects the Vlach language to present more of a challenge in the framework of this project. Vlach is a language boasting approximately 20.000 speakers living in the eastern part of Serbia. It is a colloquial mother- tongue that is often dismissed as a Romanian dialect. However, if the Vlach language shares the same roots and the same alphabet as Romanian, it is a language in its own right with a pronunciation and grammatical structures different to Romanian. Although there is some local publishing in both Vlach and Roma, distribution presents a real difficulty. The project proposes to address this through: The formation of a research board for Vlach and Roma, comprised of people writing in both languages; Encouraging writers who write in Vlach or Roma to submit their work to the Serbian PEN Centre; Multilingual book publishing in Roma/Serbian/English/Vlach; The publication of six books in Roma – two books of poetry, two books of prose and two books of essays – to encourage the teaching by the department of Roma language at the University of Novi Sad; Participants in the roundtable discussion Finding commonalities Bearing in mind the differences of these four national contexts, the project aims at creating a comparative analysis and establishing commonalities so that a set of good practices and recommendations regarding minority language publishing can emerge and be applied to other countries in the future. All four countries participating in the project have existent language policies in place, but these policies do not in reality translate into effective protection and promotion of the local minority languages. In all four cases, a failure to integrate sufficient minority language content into the curriculum was identified. This is a critical issue, as the devaluation of local languages as languages of knowledge and cultural production directly impacts on the levels of creative output witnessed in the language communities at stake.
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