The Many Languages of Suriname

I found an interesting article in the February 12th-18th edition of The Economist (which I have re-typed below) about the many languages used in Suriname and the effect they are having on Suriname's foreign policy today. I was surprised to learn there are over a dozen languages used in a nation populated by 500,000 people. Suriname, and its many languages, is a good example of the inherent diversity in Latin American cultures. The interactions of different people from various regions of the world and the new cultures they produced in Latin America has always interested me. Latin American culture is vibrant and exciting, fluid in its ability to absorb diverse cultures and mold them into something new. For this reason, I'm somewhat saddened to see a push in Suriname to make English the official language (however rational it may be) at the expense of the other languages and Suriname's unique heritage.

A lingua franca for a tropical babel
Belgians, Quebeckers and Basques may define themselves by language. Not so the inhabitants of Suriname. The fewer than 500,000 inhabitants of this corner of South America share more than a dozen languages in daily use. Conversations-and newspapers-switch effortlessly in mid-sentence.

Dutch, the language of the former colonial power, is used at school and by officialdom, but not much at home. Closest to a national tongue is Sranan Tongo. This is an amalgam developed by the former slave population in mixing Dutch and English -Britain once ruled Suriname before short-sightedly swapping it for New York in 1667- with African grammar. In the interior, there are four Amerindian langauages and at least two dialects spoken by bosnegers, the descendents of escaped slaves who set up communities deep in the rainforest. Gold buyers in Paramaribo, the capital, erect signs in Portuguese to attract Brazilian garimpeiros. Descendents of Indian, Javanese and Hakka Chinese indentured labourers have evolved their own local tongues. Guyanese immigrants speak English. Along the border with Guiana, an overseas departement of France, there's a smattering of French Creole. Cable television carries programmes in English, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish and Indonesian Bahasa as well as Dutch.

Last month, Suriname became the third member (after the Netherlands and Belgium) of the Taalunie, a Dutch answer to la francophonie. But relations between Suriname and the Netherlands are mutually unenthusiastic. Suriname has received much Dutch aid since independence in 1975, but dislikes the strings that come with it.

Nowadays, Suriname's closest links are with the English-speaking Caribbean, whose club, Caricom, it joined in 1995. So last month, three senior politicians, spanning the country's fractious political spectrum, called for a debate over whether to adopt English as the official language alongside, or even instead of, Dutch. They talk hopefully of British or American cash as a reward. But if aid is the motive, perhaps they should be brushing up on French.