Curacao weighs Papiamento as official language

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao - For years Roxanne Tore has pushed the use of Papiamento, arguing that for dignity's sake the local language should be taught in Curacao's schools instead of Dutch.

Now, with her 6-year-old boy at a linguistic crossroads himself, she finds herself strangely undecided.

She could send Denzel to the sole private school that teaches in his mother tongue. Or there are the regular schools, where he would suddenly be immersed in the language of the Dutch colonizers who enslaved his African ancestors - but who provide the elite of the island with nearly free university education in the Netherlands.

"Emotionally I've decided for Papiamento," said Tore, a radio producer in her 30s. "But intellectually, I haven't yet made the leap!"

As elsewhere in the Caribbean - where African-descended populations often retain emotional ties to former colonial powers - language has become a symbol of national identity in Curacao. The use of Creole and dialects at the expense of an arguably more practical colonial tongue is a matter of pride.

Strange hybrid

Papiamento is one of the more bizarre hybrids. According to the Caribbean Islands Handbook, the language originated with the Portuguese spoken by Sephardic Jews who were once numerous here. Developing since the 17th century, it has taken on elements of Spanish, English, a few African words and Dutch, with the latter providing much of the accent.

Hispanic and Dutch place names coexist in a startling jumble: The "Roodeweg" cuts through the district of Otrabanda. A home's "mesa," or table, stands beside the Dutch "stool," for chair.

But Papiamento remains a largely spoken language - by perhaps 300,000 people in the Dutch Caribbean, the former colony of Suriname in South America and the Netherlands itself - and many here fear that abandoning Dutch-language schooling is unwise considering the reliance on Dutch universities.

The Netherlands basically subsidizes about 350 students from this autonomous Dutch territory who go to Holland annually for various levels of higher education, said Yvette Michel of SSC, the quasi-governmental foundation that administers scholarships.

Could Dutch be sufficiently mastered if studied merely as a foreign language? Curacao's government thinks so, and is pushing to convert the island's schools - especially the Roman Catholic schools that educate most pupils - from Dutch to Papiamento.

Charine Isabella, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, said a government committee is preparing to begin shifting schools to Papiamento next year. The change will be made one grade at a time, over 12 years.

Parents will be allowed to choose Dutch or bilingual schooling, too, but the government plans a campaign on "why they should choose for their own mother tongue."

Conflicting opinions

The debate has divided and unsettled a normally placid society.

The teachers union supports Papiamento, blaming difficulties with Dutch for relatively high dropout rates.

"We think Dutch had its time here in Curacao and now it's time to move on," said union president Bicho Justiana. "You have to let a child feel himself at home."

"I cannot agree with this," said Ingrid de Maayer, director of Amigoe, a Dutch-language newspaper with a Papiamento name. "I already speak Papiamento at home to my kids. We have to be sensible. Who will pay for all those new books?"

Isabella said one possibility is the Netherlands itself, but there's a certain lack of enthusiasm from that quarter.

Frank Wassenaar, spokesman for Gijs de Vries, the undersecretary for kingdom relations in The Hague, the Dutch capital, said Papiamento "is a matter for the Netherlands Antilles to figure out."

But he cautioned that "someone who speaks only Papiamento will not be able to get along very well in the labor market" and that Antillean arrivals under 25 must take a "naturalization course" in which Dutch language classes are central.

The Catholic school system also is lukewarm.

"Papiamento isn't developed enough for secondary education," said Ronald Statia, superintendent of Curacao's 103 Catholic schools, noting the language lacks many scientific terms. "Papiamento will always have its limitations."

Still, the Catholic schools are offering a compromise: They would teach pupils in Papiamento for the first four years, then switch to Dutch.

Tore's husband, an Internet buff, dismisses the university issue as irrelevant in tomorrow's virtual world.

But Tore has trouble with this concept. As she struggles, she condemns her conservative instinct for sticking with Dutch.

"It's a matter of how you think of yourself, your self-worth. It's thinking more of the colonizer, looking up to the Dutch, considering them in some way superior."

Her boss, radio-station owner and local commentator Orlando Cuales, is more upbeat about the prospects for Papiamento. "This place moves in Papiamento," he says. "Dutch is dead here."

Outside the 19th century mansion housing the station lies the main route for the annual carnival, an explosion of color and revelry and thumping local "tumba" music. The songs are in Papiamento. The signs are in Papiamento.

The beer - Amstel and Heineken - comes from Holland.