Are Kanak languages to be taught? Social demands and linguistic dilemmas in contemporary New Caledonia by Marie SALAUN* ABSTRACT RÉSUMÉ The 1996 census in New Caledonia reveals that there Le recensement de 1996 en Nouvelle-Calédonie révèle are more than 53 000 speakers of the 28 Kanak langua- l’existence de plus de 53 000 locuteurs des vingt-huit ges spoken there. Of these 28 languages, only 6 are langues kanak qui y sont parlées. Sur ces vingt-huit taught at school today, although the Noumea Accord langues, six sont enseignées à l’école aujourd’hui, alors (1998) officially states that Kanak languages are tea- que l’accord de Nouméa (1998) stipule officiellement ching and culture languages, together with French. This que les langues kanak sont des langues d’enseignement paper discusses the complex institutionalization of ver- et de culture, à côté de la langue française. Cet article nacular languages in formal education, after decades of traite de la difficile institutionnalisation de la présence repression in the name of assimilation, and the French des langues vernaculaires dans l’éducation formelle, republican egalitarism (and Jacobinism). On the basis après des décennies de répression au nom de l’assimila- of field data, it explores how even these days the reco- tion, de l’égalitarisme républicain (et du jacobinisme). gnition of Kanak languages has to overcome a multitude À partir de données de terrain, il interroge la multitude of obstacles. It addresses the subtle shift from the condi- d’obstacles que la reconnaissance des langues kanak tions under the former colonial domination to the new doit surmonter aujourd’hui encore. Il aborde le subtil requirements of the postcolonial «common destiny’. glissement qui s’est opéré, des exigences de l’ancienne domination coloniale à celles du futur « destin com- K: Kanak, school reform, vernacular educa- mun » postcolonial. tion, indigenous education, New Caledonia. M- : Kanak, réforme scolaire, éducation ver- naculaire, éducation autochtone. On the utility of the ecological metaphor: New Caledonia as a «hotspot» plethora of rather vague characterizations, many qualitative uncertainties, as the only Qualifying the contemporary linguistic situa- French is spoken, read or written by 97 % of the tion in New Caledonia is a real challenge. Are we total population, while approximately 75,000 witnessing a «multilingual», «plurilingual», Melanesians (Kanak) are active or passive spea- «diglossic context», or a «linguistic conflict»? A kers of one of the 28 remaining vernaculars, * Université Paris et 2835 Nouvelle-Calédonie. Enjeux sociaux contemporains, [email protected]. Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 125, année 2007-2 262 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES according to linguists’ estimations whereas the The colonial experience in New Caledonia: an 1996 census mentions 53 000. Of those 28, ele- uncompleted frenchification ven are spoken by more than 1000 people, and five are spoken by more than 5000 people. The conditions under which French has been An ecological metaphor appears to be notably imposed create a contemporary situation that is accurate here: New Caledonia is famous for more diglossic than bilingual, and some recent being what is nowadays called a «biodiversity linguistic surveys (Barnèche, 2004; Fillol and ff hotspot», and, as are most of the «hotspots»,is Vernaudon, 2004) underline the e ects of these seriously threatened by the gravest aspect of the unilingual and glottocentric politics in a plurilin- biodiversity crisis: the extinction of endemic spe- gual context: linguistic insecurity, rejection of cies. New Caledonia is thus an ideal area for the dominant culture, symbolic overestimation «conservation» projects. of an indigenous language which is no longer Applied to the linguistic field, the general opi- fully mastered, construction of a local French nion is that unification is under way, considering vernacular in reaction to standard French, etc. how fast linguistic skills seem to vanish, from The unequal status of languages has favoured a one generation to the next one: in 2000, while situation in which each language is invested with 33 % of their parents declared a vernacular to be distinct communicative functions and social their «primary language», 70 % of sixth grade roles; it is therefore common to hear Noumeans children affirmed not knowing any vernacular refer to vernacular languages as «the languages (Veyret and Gobber, 2000). of the heart» while French is considered «the Even if the «biological» metaphor is useful, it language of reason». keeps the debate within the constricting confines It is important to make a detour through the of a framework which revolves around terms process which has led to the minimization of such as «endangerment», «extinction», «conser- indigenous languages, for this really is an issue of vation», «revitalization», etc. without providing minimization and not eradication. guidance as to how conservation politics should What happened in New Caledonia during the be focused on the ground. This requires a more colonial era (1853-1946 strictly speaking) is quite contextualized perspective: if identifying conser- unique in the history of the French Empire. vation priorities is crucial, what is at stake in Using a psychoanalytical metaphor, I will argue New Caledonia today? that the suppression of the native population To address the various dilemmas that conser- paradoxically offered a valuable protection to vation policies face, this paper will focus on a their languages. particular aspect of the politics of revitalization Officially, France took possession of New of Kanak tongues: their implementation as ins- Caledonia in 1853. The military had been prece- truction subjects in formal education. ded by missionaries from the London Missio- This needs to be contextualized by mentioning nary Society and the Marist Catholics, together the various «threats» to those languages, which with Franco-British rivalry for the domination brings us back to a paradoxical colonial process of the South Sea Islands. Initially founded as a which both marginalized and contributed to the penal colony, New Caledonia became a pionee- protection of Kanak languages. I will first argue ring frontier for «free» settlement at the begin- that the denial of indigenous cultural realities ning of the twentieth century (Merle, 1995). The was compensated by the absence of an effective mainland French never emigrated en masse to assimilation policy. Identifying these dangers this distant land, which had the bad reputation also brings us back to a more recent postcolonial of being settled by former convicts and so-called context. The second section will demonstrate «cannibals». Unlike other parts of the French how francophonie, seen here as a belief in the colonial Empire, the Melanesians were systema- superiority of French language, has constituted tically pushed out of the way into reserves as a serious obstacle to the revitalization policies, early as the 1890s (Saussol, 1978). Locking up and moreover, how the «francophile» reactions the natives made it necessary to recruit indentu- towards Kanak cultural claims in the last 30 red workers from Java, Indochina and the New years have contributed to highly «politicized» Hebrides, to cultivate the fields and work in the (and therefore obscure) linguistic issues. I will mines. The multiplicity of native languages (rou- lastly examine local perceptions about indige- ghly 30), and the many languages of the impor- nous languages, bringing to light the set of ques- ted populations, «naturally» made it mandatory tions that have arisen after the implementation to use the coloniser’s language as the common of vernacular teaching at the pre-elementary vehicle. From 1863 and up until the end of the and elementary school levels. colonial period, in 1946, French was imposed by ARE KANAK LANGUAGES TO BE TAUGHT? 263 law, and was the only language authorized in From colonial banning to postcolonial native schools and publishing. It is an example of the claims: a highly politicized issue ideological substratum that Louis-Jean Calvet (1974) has called glottophagie in French (linguis- The first decree banning indigenous languages tic cannibalism), which involves replacing all the in the public sphere (schools and publications) vernacular languages with French. Yet, remar- dates back to 1863. The position of the New kably ¢ given the violence of the colonial process Caledonian authorities had the advantage of in New Caledonia ¢ French did not eliminate the being relatively easy to grasp throughout the indigenous languages, rather, it was added on colonial period: French was the sole authorized top; the extraordinary vitality of the Kanak lan- language (Rivierre, 1985). But, as previously sta- guages bears witness to this, since only one out ted, one must not over-estimate French linguistic of approximately 30 has been swept away by imperialism in New Caledonia during that colonisation. period of time, given the form it has taken. Of The colonial government of New Caledonia course, there as elsewhere, official rhetoric decla- never went to the trouble of «frenchifying» the red it was necessary for the colonised peoples to Kanaks. Assimilation, which implies mastering learn the language which would enable them to the language of the Mother-country, was never a enter the «modern» and «civilized» world. Of serious proposition for people who, to use colo- course, there as elsewhere, one could tell that the nial phraseology, were supposed «to bow down native languages were looked down upon and in front of the superior peoples». Alban Bensa never acknowledged as real «languages». But qualifies this colonial relationship as a «racism there was no obsession with «gallicizing». The of annihilation» and as an «ideology of Melane- shift towards the affirmation of the necessity of sian extinction» (Bensa, 1995: 114). But suppres- an «all-French» system would come later, when sing the native element had a direct consequence: «assimilation» became the official goal, after the absence of an indigenous policy, or the mere World War II. implementation of a stand-by policy, until after A continuity between the colonial and the World War One.