To officially launch Creole Heritage Month 2019, an oversized panel of women and George “Fish” Alphonse readied to tell the press what’s in store for what has been the country’s biggest cultural celebration for decades. But what was meant to be a press conference seemed like the Msgr. Patrick Anthony Folk Research Centre’s cry for help under the pressure of all the other Creole Heritage Month stakeholders. The big players in what we now know as Jounen Kwéyòl include Cultural Development Foundation (CDF), Events Company of Saint Lucia (ECSL) and the Government of Saint Lucia, all with their own mandate.
According to ECSL CEO Lorraine Sidonie, it was “such a pleasure to collaborate with so many organisations. And though we are each pulling off our individual objectives, they are all intertwined. We are positioning Saint Lucia as a world event destination, as a culturally rich and exciting place to discover, and Creole Heritage Month is doing that for us.”
For Culture Minister Fortuna Belrose, the current administration aims to prove to Saint Lucians that their culture matters to the government by providing more funding for Creole Heritage Month activities. However, there are some terms and conditions that the FRC has to keep. “I laud the efforts of the FRC in mobilizing and creating the awareness at the base,” said Belrose. “They continue to do that very well but I think it’s also important for them to realize their stakeholder base has expanded. It’s important that we use all means necessary to ensure the key parties are engaged and then the final decision is relayed to the people. We cannot just take it on our own and run, which we used to do in the past because we were alone doing it. Now we’re doing it collectively. We are a team so we need to ensure we get it right.”
What weighed on the minister’s conscience is the community of Choiseul, which was told just two weeks before the start of Creole Heritage Month that it would no longer be a host for Jounen Kwéyòl events. Belrose implied that FRC’s confirmation of Choiseul in August was premature.
“I first want to apologize to the communities that we left standing,” said FRC’s Programme Director Alphonse, “Probably we went too far in our planning because Jounen Kwéyòl has become so popular.” But the centre’s Executive Director, Louise Victor, thinks FRC was innocent in the miscommunication that was the problem. “Creole Heritage Month was birthed by FRC,” she said, “and if you have to look at the empirical evidence, the one thing that resonates with everyone is Creole Heritage Month and Jounen Kwéyòl. Mr Alphonse, ahead of my coming in as Executive Director, had done his work, as required, to mobilize communities and to start the planning process earlier. While we understand and respect the collaboration, we have to recognize that while other partners may be engaged, the FRC’s work has to continue.”
Victor went on: “In light of certain budgetary constraints, we’ve had to withdraw not only Choiseul, but other events we initially planned, and that is what it is. What you have seen circulating is what we would have ideally liked to put on but the reality is that this is our situation with a set budget, and we’re working within those parameters.”
Asked whether the Creole Heritage Month budget is still the $600,000 promised by the government earlier this year, Victor promptly responded: “That is false.” In a scurry, Belrose pulled back the media’s attention, explaining that last year her government had made a decision to make Vieux Fort a fixed host community for years to come. Choiseul’s close proximity would have stretched the resources if it also had to be a host.
So, does this mean in the future no other community but Vieux Fort can host Jounen Kwéyòl in the south? How much money is really being invested in Creole Heritage Month? Belrose set the record straight: “Creole Heritage Month is not just FRC. The $600,000 does not belong to FRC, so get that out of your heads.”
Concerning who Creole Heritage Month is for, the minister’s mandate angled closer to ECSL’s: “The Government of Saint Lucia is working with the FRC to ensure that we develop the product in a way that all Saint Lucians can be happy with it. Importantly, visitors coming to our shores can also experience the culture that we want in a way that we would not be disappointed.”
In what sounded like a buffered chastisement of Belrose, Alphonse said: “It brings to question the lack of funding for what is Saint Lucian, that culture of ours. Most of the organisations involved in events know the cost of stage, they know the cost of lights, they know the cost of entertainment. So the same cost that applies to carnival also applies to Creole Heritage Month. If carnival could have that kind of budget . . . Creole Heritage Month has been starving regardless, even if they tell you we have five or four or $300,000. We still starving. We still need some attention.”
This year’s government budget for Saint Lucia Carnival was $3 million, which the Allen Chastanet administration regularly promises to boost when necessary. Is this evidence of which aspect of Saint Lucian tradition is important? According to Belrose: “My government in particular knows that the essence of our country is our culture.”
