THE YEAR OF THE CREOLE NATION HAS COME
(Posted 17th July 2015)
When the Seychelles host the 30th edition of their annual Festival Kreol in October this year – the dates provided are 23rd to 27th inclusive – is it widely expected that the byline for the capital Victoria, baptized as the Kreol Capital of the World, will get a further boost when the Kreol Nation is born.
The launch of a formal global union of Kreol people, on the Indian Ocean islands, the Caribbean and parts of the American south, is long overdue and many have spent time and resources to unite the global community of Kreol’s to safeguard their language, culture, cuisine, art, poetry and more. While many festivals of this kind are held across the world is the Seychelles’ Festival Kreol broadly considered as the most significant event of its kind and normally attended by delegations from every single country where Kreol people have maintained their common language and culture.
When two years ago the Seychelles’ government elevated the Kreol Institute to the level of the International Kreol Institute, a first pointer was given how important this focal centre is ranked and rated. The new format was to allow the institute to act as a catalyst but also as a resource base for Kreolism the world over. Book collections, preservation of poetry and paintings are just a few of the tasks the institute carries out, besides educational programmes and research into all things Kreol.
Culture, indigenous Kreol culture, has come in recent years increasingly to the fore in the Seychelles and has taken a lead role in driving the archipelago’s tourism agenda with the Seychelles’ Minister for Tourism being among the main promoters to combine the two, a lead the UNWTO has now also embraced.
The eyes of the Kreol world will this October all be on Victoria and the Seychelles and will with bated breath wait to hear, if indeed the formal launch of the Kreol Nation will be announced and fingers are crossed the world over that this milestone will coincide with the 30th Festival Kreol.
