Patwa Is Not Broken English: The African Ties That Bind Us And Caribbean Languages

Centuries later, Jamaican Patwa and US Gullah Creole retain many Africanisms adopted from enslaved people Illustrations by Alexis Chivir-ter Tsegba In 2000, I won a writing competition that awakened me to the depth and variety of Caribbean languages. As the Jamaica finalist for the My Caribbean essay competition, I joined more than 20 children from the region to form the youth delegation of the 24th Caribbean Tourism Conference in Bridgetown, Barbados. I spent days with peers from islands that, until then, I did not know existed, such as the small but brilliant Sint Eustatius and Saba in the Leeward Islands. What I remember most are the simple greetings and phrases the other children and I taught one another in our different Creoles. Every child had an official language they wrote in to win their national competition English, French, Dutch etc but as soon as we were comfortable enough, we ditched those and shared as much as we could in our everyday tongues.