Michel Degraff reponn Robert Berrouët-Oriol

Ki moun ki Robert Berrouët-Oriol?
Èske se yon «lengwis tèminològ» pou lang kreyòl?
Oswa se yon enpostè mantadò k ap sèvi
gwojemoni frankofolis?

@MichelDeGraff | 21 desanm 2022, revizyon 30 desanm 2022
Pwofesè lengwistik @MIT
Grenadye @MITHaiti
Manm fondatè @Akademi_Kreyol

Sa fè plis pase 2 lane depi Robert Berrouët-Oriol ap plede atake m kòm lengwis e kòm edikatè k ap goumen an Grenadye nan Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti — yon inisyativ k ap ede nan tabli fondasyon lengwistik e pedagojik pou lekòl tèt an wo, pou peyi tèt an wo. Objektif MIT-Ayiti se valorizasyon kreyòl kòm lang ansèyman ann Ayiti e kòm zouti ki nesesè pou aprann lekti ak ekriti epi tout lòt matyè yo: syans, matematik, dezyèm lang tankou franse, angle, panyòl, e latriye. MIT-Ayiti se yon bèl konbit edikatè, yon rezo k ap grandi tou lè jou ann Ayiti e nan dyaspora a epi n ap pote kole pou n kreye bon jan kalite resous an kreyòl ki disponib gratis ti cheri nan fòma nimerik. Travay an konbit sa a mete MIT-Ayiti nan nannan mouvman kreyòl la ki se yon mouvman liberasyon pou n rive chape an ba bòt neyo kolonyal frankofolis ak yankifolis.

Enben, genlè objektif sa yo vin deklannche yon menas kont idantite plim e ank ak otorite frankofil yo.Epi sa vin lakòz se chak semenn — pafwa se tou lè jou !— Berrouët-Oriol ap ekri imel ak atik difamasyon, an franse e ann angle (men, PA an kreyòl!), voye bay milyon ven moun ak tout kalite òganizasyon tou patou nan monn lan depi yo gen koneksyon ak Ayiti, lengwistik oswa edikasyon, sitou sila yo ki ka ofri apui bay MIT-Ayiti: MIT, National Science Foundation (Etazini), National Academy of Sciences (Etazini), Linguistic Society of America, USAID, UNESCO, UNICEF, Society of Caribbean Linguistics, Comité International des Études Créoles, Asosyasyon Etid Ayisyen, CUNY Haitian Studies Institute, Inivèsite Leta d Ayiti, Akademi Kreyòl Ayisyen, FOKAL e latriye. Epi li pibliye difamasyon li yo prèske chak semenn nan jounal Le National ann Ayiti.

Sanble objektif kanpay difamasyon sa a se pou Berrouët-Oriol eseye trangle MIT-Ayiti pandan l fè kòm si atak li yo se sou baz lengwistik ak sou baz moralite. Atak Berrouët-Oriol se yon echantiyon yon malèz frankofòl ki lontan pi laj pase Berrouët-Oriol. «Linguiste terminologue» se yon egzanp estwòdinè pami entelektyè frankofil ayisyen sa yo ki, depi twò lontan, derefize rekonèt enpòtans total kapital kreyòl kòm sèl lang nasyonal peyi d Ayiti. Jounen jodi a, y ap fè wont sèvi kòlè devan kontradiksyon prejije anti kreyòl a yo. Kanpay anti kreyòl sa a se konsekans politik neyo kolonyal Lafrans depi nan kòmansman 19yèm syèk la. Ki donk sa merite yon analiz pwofonde pou n konprann epi konbat fonksyonnman laboratwa pwopagann ak difamasyon nan divès sektè soyete Ayiti a —pami entelektyèl, politisyen, medya, rezo sosyal, lekòl ak inivèsite, e latriye. Fenomèn sa a sanble ak sa Edward Herman ak Noam Chomsky rele «Fabrikasyon konsantman».

Atik manch long sa a pral dokimante jan Berrouët-Oriol kontinye ap envante yon «naufrage de la lexicographie créole au MIT-Haïti Initiative». Se kòm si MIT-Ayiti te gen yon grenn objektif ki se pwodiksyon glosè. Sanble, depi tout tan sa a l ap pase nan atake nou, li pa janm li dokiman ki esplike misyon nou. Epi li vin envante yon kout lang politik: «appui public au cartel politico-mafieux du PHTK néo-Duvaliériste».

Atik sa a se 3yèm atik n ap ekri pou demanti manti Berrouët-Oriol yo. N ap kontinye demontre atak sa yo pa ko janm chita sou okenn rezon ki valab — n ap montre klè se kout lang ak difamasyon! Mwen te ekri 2 premye atik yo — an jiyè 2020 epi an fevriye 2022 — nan lespwa Berrouët-Oriol te gen yon minimòm entegrite, respè ak konpetans pwofesyonèl lakay li. Men, kounye a, mwen vin reyalize se twòp optimis ak jantiyès ki te fè m gen espwa sa a kòm ki dirè Berrouët-Oriol ta ka gen kapasite kòm «linguiste terminologue» vre. Jodi a, pa ka gen dout sou sa: Berrouët-Oriol ansanm ak sòlda li yo (gen «Chevalier» ladan tou) ap patisipe nan yon laboratwa reyaksyonè difamasyon kont MIT-Ayiti pou avantaj Lagrandyab.

Ki donk, jodi a, fòk nou mande tèt nou: Ki VRE ajannda ki kache dèyè voye wòch sa yo? Nan analiz mwen, kanpay difamasyon Berrouët-Oriol sa a se miwa yon rayisman k ap sèvi gwojemoni neyo kolonyal kont objektif fondamantal Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti a nan nannan mouvman kreyòl la. Mouvman sa a te kòmanse depi anvan 1804 an ba lidèchip Jean-Jacques Dessalines lè li te deklare kreyòl se «lang a nou» ki fè li te ensiste nou pa bezwen franse ki se «lang lèzòt» epi li te mande, nan deklarasyon endepandans Ayiti nan dat 1e janvye 1804, pou n pa janm mete konfyans nou nan «l’eloquence des agents de la France».

Pou n analize rasin rayisman sa a, nou pral dokimante pratik 2 pwa 2 mezi lakay Berrouët-Oriol: yon pwa ak yon mèzi pou l devalorize travay mwen kòm grenadye kreyolis nan MIT-Ayiti nan mouvman kreyòl epi yon lòt pwa ak yon lòt mezi pou l valorize sòlda frankofolis tankou Dany Laferrière nan Académie Française; Michaëlle Jean, ansyen Sekretè Jeneral nan Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF); epi Lyonel Trouillot, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres pou Lafrans. Jan mwen pral demontre sa nan repons mwen, mi wo mi ba lakay Berrouët-Oriol konsènan kreyòl kòm lang nasyonal peyi d Ayiti makonnen ak  divès pratik rejte nou jwenn pami klas mwayèn lan an ba enfliyans elit sosyo ekonomik, politik ak entelektyèl, dwat e gòch, k ap sèvi Lagrandyab (egal: puisans enperyalis frankofolis ak yankifolis) ansanm ak oligaki lokal la. Pratik rejte sa yo derefize aksepte kreyòl kòm fondasyon konesans, libète ak jistis ann Ayiti. Sosyològ Jean Casimir ak Antwopològ Philippe Richard Marius ka ede n konprann dimansyon lengwistik prejije kont moun nwa ak moun an ba nan pratik rejte sa yo pami elit dwat e goch yo, kèlkelanswa koulè po a yo, ann Ayiti.

Pou sila yo ki p ap gen tan pou yo li atik manch long, n ap jwenn 2 ti rezime  sou Facebook — la epi la —k ap ede n reyalize Berrouët-Oriol se yon enpostè depi nan tit «linguiste terminologue» li bay tèt li rive nan jouman «PHTK» l ap simaye nan imel difamasyon li yo. An reyalite, pandan Berrouët-Oriol pran pòz li se yon anti PHTK, li twò kontan flate patizan PHTK (tankou Dany Laferrière ak Michaëlle Jean) ansanm ak enstitisyon neyo kolonyal frankofolis (tankou Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie) k ap goumen kont souverènte Ayiti e kont pwomosyon lang nasyonal la — kreyòl. (Detay yo an ba la a.)

ROBERT BERROUËT-ORIOL: “LINGUISTE TERMINOLOGUE”? GWO TIT KI TOUYE TI CHEN!

Kounye a, pou sila yo ki gen tan pou yo gade atik manch long sa a, an n kite kantik pran priyè. An n pran san nou pou n devwale taktik voye wòch kache men nan atik Berrouët-Oriol yo.

Konsènan tit «linguiste terminologue» la, mwen vin sètoblije gen dout sou konpetans Berrouët-Oriol apre apèl mwen te lanse depi jiyè 2020 epi, ann apre, mwen vin reyalize «linguiste terminologue» la pa konn «a» nan malanga dosye lengwistik ak tèminoloji! Sanble li pa menm metrize konsèp ki nan nannan domèn leksikografi kote li deklare tèt li kòm ekspè. Pa egzanp, mwen deja eksplike, depi an fevriye 2022, jan li derefize konprann metòd ak objektif Glosè MIT-Ayiti ki pa menm, ditou pyès, ak metòd ak objektif diksyonè tankou Larousse, Robert, Merriam-Webster e latriye. Epi li kontinye ap repete menm erè yo kòm si analiz mwen yo depase kapasite li pou l konprann domèn anpirik ak objektif leksikografi ki pa menm ak domèn ak objektif Glosè MIT-Ayiti.

Mezanmi o, an n gade jan Berrouët-Oriol nonmen tèt li kòm pòt pawòl «communauté des linguistes haïtiens» nan lèt li ekri Linguistics Society of America (LSA) pou l mande LSA retire tit «manm selèk» (LSA Fellow) mwen pral resevwa nan konferans anyèl LSA an janvye 2023 nan vil Dennvè (Kolorado). Lè m mande Pwòf Renauld Govain, Dwayen Fakilte Lengistik Aplike (FLA) nan Inivèsite Leta d Ayiti e ansyen etidyan Berrouët-Oriol nan FLA, si l konnen nan non ki kominote Berrouët-Oriol ap fè demann sa a, Dwayen an reponn: «Mwen pa konnen egzistans yon “communauté des linguistes haïtiens”…».

Epi tou, kòm mwen tou, mwen se yon lengwis ayisyen, èske mwen se yon manm nan «kominote lengwis ayisyen» sa a k ap mande pou LSA retire tit LSA Fellow a nan men m? Sanble «linguiste terminologue» la pa fin metrize semantik pawòl «communauté des linguistes haïtiens» sa a.

An tou ka, kòm lengwis ayisyen, mwen vle mande: Ki sa Berrouët-Oriol, li menm, janm pwodui nan lengwistik KREYÒL ak tèminoloji KREYÒL? Se 2 kesyon sa yo — 2 kesyon byen klè — m ap mande l sou dosye sa a. M espere l ava rive reponn dirèk dirèk — san kabre:

1. ÈSKE BERROUËT-ORIOL AP KA PATAJE, TANPRI SOUPLE, KICHÒY LI PIBLIYE NAN JOUNAL OSWA FOWÒM SYANTIFIK SOU CHAPANT LENGWISTIK LANG KREYÒL LA? Èske l ka pataje tèz doktora li oswa tèz metriz li oswa menm yon memwa lisans nan syans lengwistik oswa nan tèminoloji? M espere l ava reponn kesyon sa yo byen jantiman kòm se li menm ki te deklare, nan yon imel nan dat 26 desanm 2022, «la traduction est une profession, elle s’acquiert par la formation universitaire et la pratique professionnelle qui s’ensuit».  Pou n pa antre nan 2 pwa 2 mezi, sa li mande kòm kalifikasyon pou bon tradiktè, li dwe mande kòm kalifikasyon pou «linguiste terminologue», pa vre? Kesyon sa yo vin parèt pi enpòtan toujou apre m remake yon ti moun ki gen 5 lane kounye a (pitit fi m, Èzili) sanble li konn chapant lang kreyòl la pi byen pase Berrouët-Oriol. Mezanmi, ki jan fè yon «linguiste terminologue» ki gen lontan mwens konpetans nan lang kreyòl la pase yon ti moun 5 lane ta ka evalye tèm teknik an kreyòl k ap sèvi pami pwofesè ayisyen k ap anseye syans ak matematik an kreyòl? La menm, nou ka wè jan Berrouët-Oriol se yon blofè san parèy!
    
2. ÈSKE BERROUËT-ORIOL AP KA PATAJE, TANPRI SOUPLE, ZOUTI AK RESOUS (GLOSÈ, LEKSIK, DIKSYONÈ E LATRIYE) LI JANM PIBLIYE POU L EDE NAN DEVLÒPMAN VOKABILÈ SYANTIFIK NAN LANG KREYÒL LA? Berrouët-Oriol ap pibliye atik an FRANSE chak semenn nan jounal Le National, Rezo Nòdwès, sou rezo sosyal e latriye kote l ap fè evalyasyon ak kritik sou divès aspè tèminoloji ak amenajman lengwistik. Li ak kòlèg li ekri epi kowòdone liv kolektif sou didaktik kreyòl, amenajman lengwistik ak sou dwa lengwistik ann Ayiti. Nan plizyè atik, Berrouët-Oriol mande «parité statutaire» (!) ant 2 lang ofisyèl Ayiti yo — kreyòl, ki se lang nasyonal la, ak franse, ki se lang yon ti 5% pale fen e byen. Men, kote KONTRIBISYON KONKRÈ Berrouët-Oriol nan VOKABILÈ lang KREYÒL la — KONTRIBISYON ki ta ka sèvi nan devlòpman materyèl pou edikasyon an kreyòl? Mwen rive jwenn referans sou travay Berrouët-Oriol nan tèminoloji pou lang FRANSE; men, mwen pa ko rive jwenn okenn resous leksikografik li janm pwodui pou n laji vokabilè lang KREYÒL la nan domenn syantifik…

Lè Pwòf Marc-Kensen Curvinglines mande Berrouët-Oriol si l ka pataje travay syantifik li kòm lengwis tèminològ, repons Berrouët-Oriol, nan dat 5 desanm 2022, pa ofri anyen menm — apa 2-3 pawòl an kreyòl ak erè òtograf ki montre li pa menm metrize grafi fonemik lang kreyòl la! Mezanmi, ki jan fè yon «linguiste terminologue» ki pa menm metrize chapant fonemik grafi kreyòl la ta ka evalye kalite Glosè MIT-Ayiti a? La ankò, Berrouët-Oriol se yon blofè san parèy! Epi li pa ofri anyen menm ki ta ka ede n entwodui pi plis tèm teknik nan vokabilè lang lan oswa ki ta ka ede n amelyore tèm teknik ki deja ap sèvi ann Ayiti, tankou sila yo ki nan Glosè MIT-Haiti sa a l ap kritike depi plis pase 2 lane. «La critique est aisée, mais l’art est difficile»? Tout atik Berrouët-Oriol pataje nan repons li pou Pwòf Curvinglines se atik ki ekri an franse— ki ka parèt yon jan dwòl an ba plim yon «linguiste terminologue» ki di l ap defann «parité statutaire» ak «bilinguisme pour l’équité des droits linguistiques» kreyòl-franse. Epi li pa ko janm pibliye ni okenn analiz syantifik sou chapant lang kreyòl la, ni okenn envantè tèminoloji ki ka ede n nan devlòpman vokabilè kreyòl la.

KOTE JÈVRIN LENGWIS TÈMINOLÒG LA NAN LENGWISTIK AK TÈMINOLOJI?

E poutan Berrouët-Oriol tèlman rapid (twò rapid!) pou l lonje dwèt sou tèm teknik kreyòl ki koule klè kon dlo kòk nan bouch moun ki pale kreyòl. An n gade kritik li nan emisyon «Haiti autrement» 6 fevriye 2022 sou tèm teknik «rezistans lè» nan Glosè MIT-Ayiti — men, an reyalite, tèm teknik sa a te antre nan vokabilè kreyòl la lontan anvan li te antre nan Glosè MIT-Ayiti! Se nan emisyon «Haiti autrement» sa a, nan mikwo Henry Saint-Fleur, Berrouët-Oriol te fè gwo erè lè l te deklare, an grann ponp, ke «rezistans lè» se yon pawòl ki «n’est pas créole», «qui est agrammaticale», «asémantique», «une catastrophe lexicographique», «qui ne désigne aucune notion dans un domaine scientifique et technique», e latriye. Ata pitit fi m, Èzili, ansanm ak lòt moun ki konn pale kreyòl e ki pa ni lengwis ni tèminològ ofri bon jan done ki pwouve «rezistans lè» se bon jan kreyòl. Pawòl «rezistans lè» sa a antre nan yon kategori gramatikal nou menm lengwis rele «gwoup nominal». Lè Henry Saint-Fleur mande Berrouët-Oriol ki sa li ta sijere kòm miyò tradiksyon kreyòl pou «air resistance» ann angle, «linguiste terminologue» la pa menm gen jèvrin ase pou l rezoud fo pwoblèm li envante a.

Malgre sa, se chak semenn Berrouët-Oriol ap depanse tan ak enèji nan pibliye atik an FRANSE (!) epi pafwa ann ANGLE pou l atake MIT-Ayiti e pou l chache bloke jefò n ap fè pou n pwodui bon jan resous an KREYÒL pou tout piti peyi d Ayiti.

Jounen jodi a, pifò ti moun ann Ayiti pa ko janm rive jwenn ase materyèl bèl kalite pou yo aprann nan sèl lang ki rele yo chè mèt chè mètrès — sèl lang nasyonal peyi a, ki se kreyòl. Pifò manyèl ak lòt materyèl lekòl, sitou nan klas siperyè yo, egziste sèlman an fransè — ki se youn nan 2 lang ofisyèl Ayiti, ansanm ak kreyòl. Malgre pa gen 5% nan popilasyon an ki pale franse fen e byen lakay yo, se franse ki, an jeneral, sèvi kòm lang prensipal — e souvan kòm sèl lang ki kouche sou papye — nan liv lekòl, nan dokiman ofisyèl, nan administrasyon, e latriye, ata nan kominikasyon ofisyèl UNESCO Ayiti, UNICEF Ayiti ak lòt òganizasyon nan sektè edikasyon, jistis ak dwa moun tankou: Université d’État d’Haïti,  Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, Ministère de la Justice, Ministère de la Culture  et de la Communication,  Office pour la protection du citoyen, Bureau des Droits Humains en Haïti,etc. Baryè lang sa a (egal: ansèyman nan yon lang ti moun yo pa metrize) ap bloke 40% ti moun nan monn lan.

Ki donk mwen panse sa t ap vreman ede peyi a (sitou anseyan ak aprenan ki bezwen lang kreyòl la kòl lang ansèyman ki ka ede ti moun yo reyisi lekòl) si Berrouët-Oriol ta finalman jwenn yon moman pou l travay kòm yon vre «lengwis tèminològ» ki ka pote kontribisyon ki djanm nan pwodiksyon tèm syantifik an kreyòl. Nou menm nan @MITHaiti, nou t ap twò kontan konsidere tèm sa yo nan kad zouti n ap devlope pou n ede tabli fondasyon lengwistik e pedagojik pou lekòl tèt an wo nan peyi tèt an wo.

BERROUËT-ORIOL SÈVI AK 2 PWA, 2 MEZI POU L DESIDE KILÈS KI PHTK EPI LI VIN BLIYE «L’AMI LAFERRIÈRE» ET LA PRÉFACIÈRE MICHAËLLE JEAN NAN KAN PHTK

Gen yon lòt seri difamasyon nan atik sa yo Berrouët-Oriol ap plede pibliye chak semenn e nan mesaj imel l ap voye bay milyon ven moun prèske chak jou: li deklare mwen bay «appui constant au cartel politico-mafieux du parti PHTK au pouvoir en Haïti depuis onze ans». Mezanmi, wo, sa se yon gwo manti sal, wi, pou difamasyon! Erezman nou ka demanti manti sa a fasil si n chache mo kle sa yo sou paj Facebook mwen: «Michel Martelly», «Jovenel Moïse», «LaSalin», «masak», «PetroCaribeChallenge» e latriye. Non sèlman pawòl PHTK sa a se manti; men, tou, sa parèt kòm 2 pwa 2 mezi lè n analize admirasyon Berrouët-Oriol pou pèsonalite ki bay PHTK bèl apui piblik tankou Dany Laferrière nan Académie Française ak Michaëlle Jean ki se ansyen Sekretè Jeneral Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Enben, sanble pwomosyon enterè jeyo politik Lafrans ann Ayiti konte pi plis pou Berrouët-Oriol pase santiman anti PHTK li esprime nan kout lang li kont kreyolis tankou m — ki fè nou ka di klè se pa PHTK Berrouët-Oriol rayi vre. N ap tounen sou sa pi ba nan atik la.

An tou ka, nou menm nan MIT-Ayiti, misyon nou se pou edikasyon ak byennèt ti moun yo ki pa ta janm dwe sèvi kòm pyon nan echikye pati politik. Misyon sa a depase fwontyè politik dwat e goch. Depi n lanse inisyativ la an 2010, nou fè tout jefò ki posib pou n tabli kolaborasyon ki djanm ak tout kalite aktè k ap feraye nan sektè edikasyon ann Ayiti — kit se nan sektè prive, kit se nan sektè piblik, aktè tankou: Agence Espagnole de Coopération (AECID), American Institutes for Research (AIR), Anseye pou Ayiti (APA), École Supérieure d’Infotronique d’Haïti (ESIH), Embajada de España en Haïti, Foi & Joie, Fondasyon Konesans ak Libète (FOKAL), Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (University of Notre Dame, Indiana), Haitian Response Coalition (HRC), Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Kalfou Richès Ayiti, Kean University, Lekòl Kominotè Matènwa (LKM), Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale et de la Formation Professionnelle (MENFP), MIT, MIT Jameel World Education Lab, MIT OpenCourseWare, MIT Open Learning, MITx, Open Society Foundations, Primature du Gouvernement d’Haïti, Pwofesè pou Ayiti (P4H), UNESCO, UNICEF, Université Caraïbe, Université d’État d’Haïti (Rectorat, Faculté des Sciences, École Normale Supérieure, Faculté de Linguistique Appliquée, Campus Henry Christophe Limonade), Université Quisqueya, USAID, U.S. Embassy in Haiti, Wade Foundation, World Bank e latriye.

Enben, se kon sa nou vin kolabore ak leta Ayisyen tou (egal: gouvènman Martelly / Lamothe ansanm ak Minis Vanneur Pierre epi Minis Nesmy Manigat nan Ministè Edikasyon Nasyonal an 2013–2015).

Nan analiz nou nan MIT-Ayiti, kolaborasyon sa yo — ak enstitisyon k ap feraye nan sektè edikasyon, sitou ak Ministè Edikasyon Nasyonal — sa nesesè pou n ede nan ranfòse kapasite enstitisyon nasyonal yo epi kreye fondasyon ki DIRAB pou lekòl tèt an wo. Nou menm nan MIT-Ayiti, nou pa kwè nou dwe kenbe ti moun yo ann otaj ajannda politik patripòch — ajannda k ap toujou varye depi gen yon gouvènman an plas ke n pa renmen. Fòk nou sonje se Minis Joseph C. Bernard, an ba gouvènman diktatè Jean-Claude Duvalier, ki te rive ban nou refòm edikatif ki pi pwogresis nan tout iswa peyi d Ayiti.

Epi Lyonel Trouillot («Chevalier des lettres et des arts» pou peyi Lafrans) ak plizyè lòt konpatriyòt ki rele tèt yo «de goch» mete ak Berrouët-Oriol k ap akize m de «appui public au cartel politico-mafieux du PHTK néo-Duvaliériste en Haïti». Akizasyon malatchong sa a tonbe sou do m paske nou menm nan MIT-Ayiti kwè nan pwovèb ki di «rayi chen di dan l blan» ki fè n nou toujou disponib pou n kole zepòl ak Ministè Edikasyon Nasyonal e ak lòt antite nan sektè edikasyon pou n fè konbit pou enterè ti moun yo.

PITO N «RAYI CHEN, DI DAN L BLANCH» POU AYITI OLYE POU N BAY «APPUI PUBLIQUE» AK «SCABREUSE FALSIFICATION» POU PHTK AK FRANKOFOLIS

Enben, an n gade kèk lòt done epi an n poze kèk kesyon pou n kontinye demaske ajannda ki motive atak malouk Berrouët-Oriol yo konsènan PHTK. Objektif kesyon m sa yo se pou m envite lektè a analize yon seri kontradiksyon nan yon seri egzanp «2 pwa, 2 mezi» ki demontre mank entegrite lakay Berrouët-Oriol. Analiz egzanp sa yo ka ede n devwale estrateji «voye wòch, kache men» ki nan nannan kanpay difamasyon dwat e gòch sa yo k ap eseye sal repitasyon m ak repitasyon MIT ak MIT-Ayiti. Kesyon sa yo ka tou ede n konprann ki jan Berrouët-Oriol ap patisipe nan yon rezo frankofolis reyaksyonè ki lontan pi laj pase Berrouët-Oriol. Sa pa dwe etone nou si n byen gade analiz Sosyològ Jean Casimir ak Antwopològ Philippe Richard Marius sou dimansyon lengwistik gwojemoni ann Ayiti.

Depi ane 1990 yo pase nan ane 2000 yo rive jounen jodi a, Noam Chomsky toujou esprime apui li pou prezidan ayisyen Jean-Bertrand Aristide (Pati Lavalas). Sa pa t anpeche Chomsky brase lide ak Laurent Lamothe an 2013–2015; epi, an 2016, Chomsky te felisite Lamothe pou liv «The Hands of the Prime Minister» ki vin pibliye an 2021 an 4 lang (kreyòl, franse, angle, panyòl). An 2013–2015, MIT-Ayiti te kolabore ak Biwo Premye Minis la ansanm ak Ministè Edikasyon Nasyonal pou n amelyore ansèyman syans ak matematik an kreyòl pou Ayiti. Epi se an 2015–2016 mwen te ede — an benevòl, wi, pou lanmou peyi m! — Fedo Boyer ak ekip li nan CreoleTrans nan tradiksyon ak editing vèsyon kreyòl liv la. Tèks ak foto ki nan liv sa a dokimante travay Lamothe te fè pou Ayiti an 2012–2014 kòm Premye Minis nan gouvèman Michel Martelly ki te chèf «cartel politico-mafieux PHTK néo-Duvaliériste» (dapre deskripsyon Berrouët-Oriol). E poutan, fòk nou sonje objektif Chomsky, nan tou sa l ap ekri e tou sa l ap fè konsènan Ayiti, se kore jefò pèp souvren an nan pwoteje souverènte l epi chape an ba bòt elitis toupizis pilonnis frankofolis ak yankifolis. Sa se objektif pa m tou kòm Ayisyen.

Mwen pa ka konpare tèt mwen ak Chomsky ki se youn nan entelektyèl ki pi enfliyan nan monn lan; men, mwen toujou ka poze kesyon sa a: Èske Berrouët-Oriol pral ekri Linguistic Society of America (LSA) pou l mande LSA retire tit «manm selèk» («LSA Fellow») yo te bay Noam Chomsky tou? Oswa èske se sèlman tit LSA Fellow pa m lan Berrouët-Oriol vle pwoteste?

Ann atandan, si gen moun (tankou Jetry Dumont nan AyiboPost oswa Websder Corneille nan RaccourSci) ki gen pwoblèm ak liv Laurent Lamothe la, sa yo ta dwe fè se kritike liv la selon bon jan prensip deyontoloji. Kòm Widlore Merancourt, ki se editè an chèf nan AyiboPost, ap travay pou Washington Post tou e kòm Websder Corneille ap travay pou #VulgarisationScientifique ann Ayiti (an franse, wi!!!), petèt yo ka ede aplike fact checking ak evalyasyon syantifik sou kontni liv la — yo ka menm pran foto pa yo pou yo evalye foto ki nan liv la. Sa ta rann peyi a pi gwo sèvis pase pwopagann difamasyon sou Facebook.

Mwen ka mande tou:

Èske Berrouët-Oriol pral mande revokasyon Dany Laferrière nan Académie Française paske Laferrière pran defans ansyen prezidan Michel Martelly — ki se chèf «cartel politico-mafieux PHTK néo-Duvaliériste» (dapre deskripsyon Berrouët-Oriol) e ki vin tonbe an ba sanksyon Kanada? Apre Premye Minis kanadyen Justin Trudeau anonse sanksyon sa yo kont Martelly, ansyen Premye Minis Laurent Lamothe ak Jean Henry Céant, se Laferrière ki, devan gran piblik la, evoke yon prensip fondamantal jistis (pwosedi lalwa) pou l defann PHTK. Mwen menm tou, mwen dakò ak prensip jistis sa a kèklelanswa moun k ap soufri konsekans enjistis sa yo. Men, kòm n ap analize pratik 2 pwa 2 mezi ki nan difamasyon Berrouët-Oriol, fòk nou mande: Èske Dany Laferrière, apre apui piblik li pote pou PHTK depi plizyè ane, se toujou «l’ami Dany Laferrière [de Berrouët-Oriol]»?

Èske Berrouët-Oriol pral mande Académie Française pou yo revoke «l’ami Dany Laferrière» kòm li responsab «une obscure opération de manipulation et falsification» sou done demografik ak sosyo lengwistik lè l te deklare nan jounal Le Monde (13 desanm 2013) li te kreye yon pon ant Kèbèk ak Ayiti ki se «deux pays où 10 millions [!] de gens parlent le français». Jounal Le Monde te evalye done «10 milyon» sa a kòm «imparable argument» — ki vle di: yon agiman yo pa ka bloke! — sou wout Laferrière pou l entegre Académie Française. Èske sa se pa ta yon «scabreuse manipulation» dapre tèminoloji Berrouët-Oriol la lè n sonje ka gen mwens pase yon demi milyon moun ki pale franse ann Ayiti?

Sanble pafen imòtèl la nan Académie Française retire move sant katèl mafya politik PHTK neyo Divyaleris ki nan nen Berrouët-Oriol lè l ap fè difamasyon kont Michel DeGraff nan Akademi Kreyòl… Epi, sanble, nan analiz Berrouët-Oriol, lè Laferrière envante plizyè milyon moun ki pale fransè ann Ayiti, fo nouvèl sa a pa dwe konte kòm «scabreuse manipulation» — tou senpleman paske se yon manti k ap sèvi gwojemoni frankofolis.

E Michaëlle Jean, kòm ansyen Reprezantan Espesyal UNESCO ann Ayiti epi ansyen Sekretè Jeneral Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie(OIF), ki envesti tan ak enèji nan karyè ofisyèl li (nan UNESCO 2010–2014 epi nan OIF 2015–2019) pou l kore gouvènman PHTK ann Ayiti?? Sonje se Michaëlle Jean ki t ap ede PHTK nan menm sektè yo, tankou edikasyon, ki, dapre Berrouët-Oriol, te chaje ak magouy an ba lidèchip «cartel politico-mafieux PHTK néo-Duvaliériste» nan 11 lane ki sot pase yo. Èske Berrouët-Oriol pa pral rele chalbari dèyè l? Michaëlle Jean, li menm tou, te «open for business» ak PHTK. Lè li te reprezante UNESCO ann Ayiti, li te byen fèt deklare apui piblik e ofisyèl pou pwogram edikasyon PHTK ki rele «Programme de scolarisation universelle gratuite et obligatoire» (PSUGO) — yon pwogram ki te gen bèl anbisyon dapre metòd finansman inovatif ki bay rezilta pozitif pou lòt peyi. Se menm Michaëlle Jean sa a ki te resevwa apui piblik e ofisyèl PHTK ki te ede l jwenn pozisyon Sekretè Jeneral Frankofoni (OIF) an 2014.

Epi se menm Michaëlle Jean sa a ki ekri prefas pou liv Berrouët-Oriol ak Hugues Saint-Fort an 2017 sou amenajman lengwistik ann Ayiti. Sa se yon prefas ki bay Berrouët-Oriol anpil fyète, malgre koneksyon piblik e ofisyèl ant Michaëlle Jean ak «cartel politico-mafieux PHTK néo-Duvaliériste» (dapre deskripsyon Berrouët-Oriol)! Nan prefas liv la, Michaëlle Jean, kòm Sekretè Jeneral Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), mande OIF apui pou politik lengwistik peyi a — an 2017, ki donk an ba rejim PHTK. Epi Berrouët-Oriol, li menm tou, tonbe flate «compétences et expertise» OIF (kèt!) epi li mande pou OIF akonpaye menm leta ayisyen (PHTK) sa a!

Èske se frankofoli frankofili ki fè yon «linguiste terminologue», ki deklare tèt li kòm «anti PHTK», ta vin alye PHTK nan pwomosyon ajannda OIF? Nan lojik gwojemonik kolonyal Berrouët-Oriol ak Michaëlle Jean, se OIF ki pou ede PHTK devlope yon «politique linguistique cohérente» kòm solisyon pou «La question linguistique haïtienne». Sanble Berrouët-Oriol bliye se OIF, menm jan ak «l’ami Laferrière», ki toujou ap envante zonbi ki pale franse — ki fè m pa kwè OIF, k ap defann enterè Lafrans, ta gen ni «compétences et expertise» ni entegrite pou kreye yon politik lengwistik ki konsekan pou yon nasyon ayisyen ki souvren kote se kreyòl ki rele tout moun chè mèt chè mètrès. Wi, dapre analiz Pwòf Frenand Leger, OIF rive envante 4 453 567 zonbi frankofòn ann Ayiti — egal: 42 % popilasyon an. Sa se yon lòt «scabreuse manipulation»!

Done sa yo klè: Berrouët-Oriol pa vreman rayi PHTK e li pa rayi manipilasyon non plis. Men, sanble li ta prefere yon PHTK frankofòl k ap fè manipilasyon pou lang franse tounen «idantite Ayiti», yon PHTK k ap envite pwofesè retrete nan peyi Lafrans antre ann Ayiti pou rebati «mounite ak mantalite nou kòm Ayisyen» — jan Prezidan Hollande ak Martelly te pwopoze an 2014. Oswa li ka prefere yon PHTK ki mande pou se franse ki sèl «lang ofisyèl» ann Ayiti — jan Prezidan Jovenel Moïse te di Prezidan Emmanual Macron an 2017. Lè Berrouët-Oriol ap joure m kòm si mwen ta PHTK, se pa PHTK li rayi. Sanble sa l rayi se mouvman kreyòl la k ap vanse — bon gre, mal gre — nan Ministè Edikasyon Nasyonal PHTK a tou…

E Lyonel Trouillot menm ki vin mete ak Berrouët-Oriol pou l atake m, ki moun li ye? Nan kontèks frankofolis k ap motive atak sa yo, se menmman parèyman: L. Trouillot se «Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres» pou Lafrans epi Berrouët-Oriol ap fè lwanj pou li kòm «l’une des grandes voix de la littérature haïtienne contemporaine». Lè n ap analize operasyon gwojemoni («scabreuse manipulation»!) ann Ayiti, fòk nou sonje se Lyonel Trouillot sa a ki te jwe yon wòl kle nan gwoup «G184» ki te jwenn apui oligachi lokal la ansanm ak Lafrans, Etazini ak Kanada nan kou d eta kont Jean-Bertrand Aristide an 2004 apre Aristide te mande Lafrans remèt Ayiti ranson US$ 21 milya Lafrans te vòlè a. Se menm L. Trouillot sa a ki te lanse «Collectif NON!» kont selebrasyon bisantnè endepandans nou an 2004. Se menm L. Trouillot sa a ki te chèf kabinè nan gouvènman defakto ilejitim Prezidan Boniface Alexandre (2004–2006). Se menm L. Trouillot sa a ki te solidè ak Premye Gérard Latortue ki te envite Prezidan Lafrans Jacques Chirac rejte demann Aristide pou Lafrans ranbouse ranson US$ 21 milya — epi Latortue te sipliye Chirac pou l rekòmanse «amitye» Lafrans ak Ayiti. Se menn L. Trouillot sa a ki te solidè ak yon gouvènman ilejitim ki, nan ane bisantnè endepandans nou, te envite okipasyon Nasyon Zini («MINUSTAH ») ki te pote kolera, kadejak ak lòt malè ann Ayiti. Se menm L. Trouillot sa a ki te solidè ak yon gouvènman ilejitim ki te fè abi (masak, kadejak e latriye) sou plis pase 8 000 pami konpatriyòt nou yo ant 2004 ak 2006. Sanble pafen Lafrans sou «Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres» pi fò pase move sant 8 000 kadav ak sant kolera nan nen Berrouët-Oriol…

Epi konsènan dosye frankofoli a, se menm L. Trouillot sa a tou ki, menm jan ak Berrouët-Oriol, panse fòk tout Ayisyen rive gen franse nan patrimwàn yo pou n ka rezoud pwoblèm prejije anti kreyòl nan sosyete a! Kèt!!! Se kòm ki dirè fòk franse tounen lang rasin ann Ayiti pou n rive kaba prejije kont kreyòl ki se lang rasin nou! Egal: remèd kont frankofoli k ap toupizi dwa moun ann Ayiti se … pi plis FRANKOFOLI!?! An n sipoze yon entelektyèl ameriken nwa oz Etazini ta deklare solisyon kont rasis se ajoute idantite blan nan patrimwàn chak moun nwa. Èske sa se pa maladi «foli je ble» kòm konsekans prejije rasis dapre analiz Toni Morrison nan liv «The Bluest Eye» la!?! Enben, sanble se tou sa ki fè L. Trouillot — entelektyèl de «goch» k ap pwomote gwojemoni frankofolis — se «l’une des grandes voix [de Berrouët-Oriol]»!

AN N DEVWALE MEN KACHE K AP VOYE WÒCH NAN ATAK BERROUËT-ORIOL YO

Wi, fòk nou mande pou ki sa se sou yon kreyolis tankou m, Berrouët-Oriol ak chevalye li yo ap pibliye jouman piman bouk difamasyon? Lè n konsidere lwanj Berrouët-Oriol pou Dany Laferrière, Michaëlle Jean ak Lyonel Trouillot, nou wè klè atak li yo pa chita sou okenn prensip syantifik, pwogresis oswa nasyonalis.

Enben, an n mande:

Èske vre rezon pou manti ak difamasyon Berrouët-Oriol ak akolit li yo se pa paske, depi 12 lane, MIT-Ayiti ap travay pou kraze baryè lang k ap bloke pifò moun ann Ayiti depi syèk?

Èske vre rezon pou difamasyon sa a se pa paske MIT-Ayiti ap travay pou bon jan kalite edikasyon ka rive jwenn tout pitit peyi d Ayiti?

Èske vre rezon pou difamasyon sa a se pa paske Berrouët-Oriol ak akolit li yo mare sosis yo ak lang franse kòm «butin de guerre», yon biten k ap peze souse richès yon popilasyon kote pifò pale kreyòl sèlman?

Èske vre rezon pou difamasyon sa a se pa paske Berrouët-Oriol mete ak Anbasad Lafrans ann Ayiti pou yo eseye enpoze yon objektif tèt an ba «parité statutaire» ak « bilinguisme [kreyòl-français] de l’équité des droits linguistiques nan yon peyi kote tout moun pale kreyòl epi se sèlman yon ti zuit pousantaj ki pale franse? Epi mwen ak kòlèg mwen William Frager ak Haynes Miller nan MIT-Ayiti vin demontre objektif «parite legal» ak «bilengwis» sa yo se estrateji gwojemonik frankofolis pou enterè Lafrans ak enterè yon ti elit kote ti moun yo deja pale franse ak kreyòl.

Èske vre rezon pou difamasyon sa a se pa paske MIT-Ayiti ap patisipe nan yon mouvman kreyòl k ap pran pi plis fòs tou lè jou e k ap menase prestij «dwat e gòch» yon ti elit frankofolis reyaksyonè ki toujou ap pliye devan enterè jeyo politik neyo kolonyal ansanm ak meday, pri, bous ak lòt rekonpans puisans kolonyal yo. Ki fè elit sa a ap chache toupizi ajannda nasyonal ak pwogresis pou enterè Pèp Souvren an?

Nan analiz sa a, Berrouët-Oriol se sèlman yon egzanp pami plizyè lòt k ap defann yon ajannda frankofolis ki rasanble entelektyèl ak lòt otorite ni nan lagòch ni nan ladwat, kèlkelanswa koulè po a yo. Gen plizyè sosyològ ak antwopològ ki analize mòd dominasyon sa a k ap depafini nasyon an — youn nan liv ki fèk parèt sou pwoblematik sa a se liv Philippe Richard Marius, pwòf antwopoloji. Youn nan faktè ki rasanble otorite dwat e gòch sa yo — ata sèten òganizasyon ki di y ap defann dwa moun! — se yon seri pratik frankofòl k ap vyole dwa lengwistik (egal: dwa moun) Pèp Souvren an kote se kreyòl ki rele tout moun chè mèt chè mètrès. Pafwa frankofoli sa a konn mennen nan gwo foli.

Frankofoli sa a se youn nan tematik nan analiz kritik literè Andrew Leak:

«… entelektyèl frankofòn sa yo swaf akolad Manman Lafrans. (Epi yo swaf finansman k ap wouze ekriven ayisyen sa yo k ap pwomote ‘bèl’ relasyon ant Ayiti ak Lafrans.) Ki donk entelektyèl ayisyen tankou [Lyonel] Trouillot ap resikle imaj Ayiti ki soti nan sant pouvwa enperyalis ak neyo-kolonyal yo epi swa yo reyaji devan imaj sa yo ak rekonesans (si imaj sa yo flate ògèy yo), swa yo reyaji ak yon kòlè yo pa fouti kontwole (si imaj sa yo blese ògèy yo)…»

Nou ka gade egzanp «kòlè san kontwòl» sa a nan Berrouët-Oriol yo — se prèske chak jou atak sa yo ki montre yon obsesyon pou @MichelDeGraff ak @MITHaiti. Berrouët-Oriol siyen atik li yo ak tit «linguiste terminologue» epi l pran pòz l ap pale nan non «communauté des linguistes haïtiens» alòs ke pi fò nan travay li se an franse, sou franse, nan sèvis moun ki pale franse. Sa se yon lòt done ki devwale se sou yon bit frankofolis anti kreyòl Berrouët-Oriol kanpe.

«VERITE SE KON LWIL NAN DLO» EPI «BATON KI NAN MEN W SE AK LI OU PARE KOU»

Done sosyo lengwistik ak bon jan pratik pou edikasyon ann Ayiti ansanm ak respè dwa moun ann Ayiti mande pou n valorize kreyòl la kòm lang nasyonal e kòm fondasyon konesans ak libète ak jistis. Wi, fòk nou sonje PA gen ni 10 milyon ni 4 milyon moun ki pale franse ann Ayiti, ditou pyès, malgre «les scabreuses manipulations» de l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) et de «l’ami Laferrière»! Sanble pa ta menm gen plis pase yon demi milyon ayisyen ki pale franse! Se pou sa, nou menm nan MIT-Ayiti, nou kontinye ap ofri apui pou Ministè Edikasyon Nasyonal (MENFP). Se kon sa tou nou toujou pare pou n kolabore ak lòt enstitisyon nan peyi a paske nou rete kwè avansman sosyal ak ekonomik ansanm ak souverènte peyi d Ayiti depann de enstitisyon nasyonal ki solid ansanm ak yon sosyete sivil ki djanm. Ki donk fòk enstitisyon leta yo ansanm ak tout lòt enstitisyon nan peyi a louvri aksè a bon jan kalite edikasyon nan sèl lang sa a (kreyòl) ki rele tout Ayisyen chè mèt chè mètrès. Se rezon sa a ki fè nou nan konbit lajman laj ak tout enstitisyon sa yo — Ministè Edikasyon Nasyonal ladan tou.

An tou ka, an n sonje sa, wi: «Verite se kon lwil nan dlo». Ki donk n espere repons sou kesyon sa yo ki nan atik la ava monte kòm sa dwa — kon lwil nan dlo! Nou deja poze kèk nan kesyon sa yo e yo pa ko janm jwenn repons.

An final, kesyon FONDAMANTAL yo se:

Pou enterè ki nasyon w ap travay: Èske w ap chache kraze brize mouvman kreyòl la pou benefis gwojemoni Lagrandyab ki nan toupizis ak pilonnis pou enterè frankofolis ak yankifolis? Ki lè w ap pote KONTRIBISYON pa w — kontribisyon KONKRÈ —pou byennèt Pèp souvren an? Ki lè w ap kole zepòl an konbit nan mouvman kreyòl sa a k ap kore jistis ak dwa moun dapre ajannda pwogresis nasyonalis? (Nouvo vokabilè kreyòl sa a: «gwojemoni», «toupizis», «pilonnis», «yankifolis», «frankofolis» … se kreyasyon Pwòf Serge Madhere ki PA rele tèt li «linguiste terminologue».)

Epi tou, lè n sonje se 40% ti moun ki pa ko rive jwenn ansèyman nan lang manman yo, enben, Konba Vètyè sa a pou demen miyò pou tout pitit d Ayiti ka sèvi kòm modèl pou lòt pèp ki toujou ap soufri an ba bòt diskriminason lengwistik ki gen rasin nan gwojemoni kolonyal.

Ki donk an n kenbe lespwa «linguiste terminologue» la ava sispann kopye kole pawòl an franse nan atake MIT-Ayiti chak semenn. E pou ki sa l ap ekri tout atik sa yo an franse oswa angle alòs ke l ap preche «parité statutaire» ak «bilinguisme pour l’équité des droits linguistiques» ant franse ak kreyòl? Petèt yon jou vyendra l ava envesti yon ti minimòm tan nan pwodiksyon bon jan vokabilè ak lòt bèl kalite resous an kreyòl — pou objektif «parité» ak «équité» l ap chache a…

Ann atandan, ekip MIT-Ayiti a kontinye ap fè konbit lajman laj, san pran souf, nan kreyasyon materyèl didaktik ak lòt resous an kreyòl — pou lekòl tèt an wo, pou peyi tèt an wo. Enben, se kon sa, wi, «… la caravane [de MIT-Ayiti] passe …» epi Grenadye ak Grenadyèz nan ekip la ap kontinye travay pou n simayen konesans ak lespwa alawonn Badè nan lang nasyonal la…

Vreman vre, nou pa dwe kite jouman piman bouk san fonnman ralanti nou nan travay pou n tabli fondasyon pou bon jan edikasyon pou tout pitit peyi a. Berrouët-Oriol jwenn tan pou l voye wòch tout la sent jounen san pran souf. Nou menm, djakout travay nou chaje kon Legba. Se pou sa m ekri repons manch long sa a—pou m byen klarifye sou ki bit mwen ak Berrouët-Oriol kanpe — 2 bit ki diferan nèt, sitou lè n konsidere preferans Berrouët-Oriol pou manti ak difamasyon. Si «linguiste terminologue» la vle fè deba an pwofesyonèl, se nan jounal syantifik pou l montre li gen ekspètiz ki nesesè a epi n ava gade kontribisyon li yo lè yo pibliye — sitou si l ka kontribye kichòy ki KONKRÈ nan deskripsyon chapant lang kreyòl la oswa nan vokabilè kreyòl la.

Pa gen ni wout pa bwa ni rakousi nan mouvman kreyòl la  ki se yon mouvman pou liberasyon total kont fòs kolonyal ak neo-kolonyal, fòs lokal e lòt bò dlo. Ki fè mouvman sa a pa gen plas pou enpostè ak demagòg mantadò non plis. An n travay nan objektif pou n tabli lekòl tèt an wo pou peyi tèt an wo. MIT-Ayiti se yon konbit lajman laj ki ka akeyi kontribisyon tout konpatriyòt ak edikatè selon espesyalite yo ak nivo konpetans yo. N ap kontan jwenn ekspètiz nan lengwistik ak tèminoloji kreyòl tou.

*

What’s his line? Who’s Robert Berrouët-Oriol?
Is he really a “linguiste terminologue” at the service
of our Kreyòl-speaking nation?
Or is he an impostor and a liar at the service
of French hegemony?

@MichelDeGraff | 12/30/2022

Pwofesè lengwistik @MIT
Grenadye @MITHaiti
Manm fondatè @Akademi_Kreyol

For more than a couple of years now, Robert Berrouët-Oriol has become the epitome of the fraudulent pseudo-intellectual in the course of his relentless attacks against me as a linguist and educator for my work in the MIT-Haiti Initiative—an initiative that’s contributing to the pedagogical and linguistic foundations of rightside-up schools for a rightside-up country (“lekòl tèt an wo pou peyi tèt an wo”). One of MIT-Haiti’s main objectives is the valorization of Kreyòl as primary language of instruction in Haiti—as a necessary tool for children to learn to read and write, then to learn all other subjects, including science, mathematics and second languages like French, English, Spanish, etc. Our MIT-Haiti team is a rapidly growing network of educators, in Haiti and in the Haitian diaspora, who are co-creating high-quality online open-access resources in Kreyòl. So we find ourselves at the heart of the Kreyòl movement, which is a liberation movement to escape age-old neo-colonial yokes!

Judging from Berrouët-Oriol’s non-stop slander against myself and against the MIT-Haiti Initiative, my hunch is that the steady progress of this Initiative, alongside the global progress of the Kreyòl movement, has become a source of existential angst among Haitian francophiles who rely on French qua “butin de guerre” as a source of political and socio-economic advantages, including social prestige.

This hunch might help us elucidate the root cause of Berrouët-Oriol’s weekly—and, sometimes, daily!—attacks for the past couple of years. These fraudulent attacks (defamation, really) are hurled through unsolicited email messages sent in bulk to thousands of colleagues and to various kinds of organizations all over the world—as long as they have any connection with Haiti, Linguistics, Creole studies or education—especially those who might support MIT-Haiti in various ways, including: MIT, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the Linguistic Society of America, USAID, UNESCO, UNICEF, the Society of Caribbean Linguistics, the Comité International des Études Créoles, the Association of Haitian Studies, CUNY’s Haitian Studies Institute, the State University of Haiti, Akademi Kreyòl Ayisyen, Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty in Haiti, and many MANY others. Berrouët-Oriol also publishes his lies almost weekly in the Haitian newspaper Le National. It’s quite telling that these attacks, like most of Berrouët-Oriol’s writings, are generally circulated in French and English, but NOT in Kreyòl—this detail will gain significance in my analyses below…

My contention is that the purpose of Berrouët-Oriol’s persistent fraud over the past couple of years is to try to block the path of MIT-Haiti as part of the Kreyòl movement. The latter is seen as an existential threat against deeply entrenched French hegemony in Haiti. While Berrouët-Oriol writes as if his critiques rest on linguistic and ethical grounds, the reality is that his defamation campaign and the rampant intellectual fraud therein can be analyzed as one extreme manifestation of a general malaise among Haitian Francophiles who have, for far too long, failed to duly acknowledge the crucial importance of Kreyòl as Haiti’s sole national language and who, now, have to face the ugly contradictions of their prejudices and self-loathing. This age-old anti-Kreyòl campaign, with geo-political roots going back to French neo-colonialism in the early 19th century, deserves a thorough analysis so we can start understanding and demystifying the mechanics of fraudulent propaganda and defamation in various sectors of Haitian society—among intellectuals, politicians, media, social networks, schools, universities, etc. This phenomenon is reminiscent of what Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky have labelled as “Manufacturing consent.”

This article will document Berrouët-Oriol’s fraudulent manufacturing of some “shipwreck of Creole lexicography at MIT-Haiti” as he tries to make the case, contrary to widely available evidence, that MIT-Haiti has failed its “objective” as posited by Berrouët-Oriol, namely Kreyòl lexicography—it’s as if he believes that lexicography is MIT-Haiti’s main goal. In trying to make his case, he shows how little he understands what “lexicography” actually means. Worse yet, his uncontrollable fury against the MIT-Haiti Glossary suggests that he has never read any document that describes our actual mission though he has spent so much of these past couple of years on weekly articles about MIT-Haiti. Or he might have misunderstood the description (in Kreyòl and English) of the MIT-Haiti Glossary’s methods and objectives—a puzzling state-of-affairs for a “linguiste terminologue.”

Another aspect of Berrouët-Oriol’s fraud is his misleading claim that his critique is based on some sort of progressive nationalist ethics as he postures himself against another product of his manufacturing, namely some alleged “public support [on my part] to the neo-Duvalierist political mafia cartel PHTK [Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale] in power in Haiti.”

This present article is the third, and hopefully the last, refutation of Berrouët-Oriol’s weekly lies. As we’ll see below, his lies straightforwardly amount to fraud and defamation. I wrote the first two articles—in July 2020 then in February 2022—hoping that Berrouët-Oriol had a minimum of integrity, professional decency and competence. But I’ve now come to realize that I was much too optimistic and perhaps too kind to think that he might actually be a “linguiste terminologue.” Today, there can be no doubt about it: Berrouët-Oriol along with his soldiers (including his “Chevalier”) are reactionary pseudo-intellectuals for hire, engaged in fraud and defamation against MIT-Haiti for the advantage of empire.

As I build my case to document the fraud in Berrouët-Oriol’s critiques, my main question is: What is the REAL agenda behind his underhanded attacks? In my analysis, this smear campaign reflects a widespread anti-Kreyòl animosity among a certain class of Haitian intellectuals and other authorities in the service of neo-colonial hegemony against the fundamental objective of our MIT-Haiti Initiative, namely the valorization of Kreyòl as one key tool for access to quality education for all. This anti-Kreyòl animosity started as early as the end of the 18th century when our ancestors were fighting France’s colonial army during the Haitian Revolution. Witness Jean-Jacques Dessalines’s insistence, while fighting Napoleon’s colonial army, that Kreyòl is “our own language,” distinct from French as “the language of others,” then his warning, on our Independence Day on January 1st, 1804, that we should never trust “the eloquence of France’s agents” in Haiti.

The veil on Berrouët-Oriol’s animosity against the Kreyòl movement will be lifted as we document the recurrent double standards (contradictions, really) in his writings: one standard to devalorize my work as a Haitian Creolist leading MIT-Haiti vs. a different standard to valorize iconic agents of Francophonie in Haiti such as: Dany Laferrière of the Académie Française; Michaëlle Jean formerly at the helm of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF); and Lyonel Trouillot, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of France. Berrouët-Oriol lionizes the eloquence of these neo-colonial agents of France in Haiti even when some of them offer very public support to former Haitian President Michel Martelly’s Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale (PHTK) which Berrouët-Oriol describes as a “neo-Duvalierist political mafia cartel”! (Details below.)

As this article demonstrates, Berrouët-Oriol’s ambivalence vis-à-vis Haiti’s sole national language is related to a deeply rooted refusal by the Haitian State and Haiti’s upper and middle classes to accept Kreyòl as the universal foundation of knowledge, liberty and justice for the Nation. This refusal cuts across all segments of Haiti’s socio-economic, political and intellectual élites, throughout the political spectrum from left to right. This pernicious anti-nation stance among Haiti’s élites of all political (and skin-color) shades is well documented in Historical Sociologist Jean Casimir’s and Anthropologist Philippe Richard Marius’s analyses of State-against-Nation and class-based discrimination in Haiti. In turn, Haiti’s local élites and their middle-class counterparts are in the service of oligarchy and geo-political hegemonic power in France, the U.S., Canada and so on.

NB: Readers who, understandably, can’t spare time to read long articles will find two short summaries on Facebook—here and there—which hint at the fact that the (so called) “linguiste terminologue” is actually an impostor who uses an apparent anti-PHTK political stance to spread defamatory lies against MIT-Haiti while he happily flatters and consorts with prominent PHTK supporters, such as Dany Laferrière and Michaëlle Jean, and neo-colonial pro-French institutions, such as Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, that undermine Haiti’s sovereignty and the overdue promotion of Haiti’s national language—Kreyòl. (Details below.)

ROBERT BERROUËT-ORIOL: “LINGUISTE TERMINOLOGUE”? REALLY???

For those who have time to look at the present article, let’s start unveiling Berrouët-Oriol’s hidden agenda, starting with his murky professional credentials. I do have doubts about these credentials, especially after a call for linguists and terminologists that I published since July 2020. My doubts doubled when I realized that the “linguiste terminologue” seems to not even understand fundamental concepts in linguistics and terminology—concepts that pertain to the very field of lexicography that he has declared himself to be an expert in. For example, as I explained in a previous response dated February 2022, he thoroughly misrepresents the methods and objectives of the MIT-Haiti Glossary while (apparently) confusing its scope with that of dictionaries like Larousse, Robert, Merriam-Webster, etc. It’s even more striking that he keeps repeating the same mistakes as if the analyses in this response went beyond his capacity to understand the empirical domain and objectives of “lexicography” vs. those of the MIT-Haiti Glossary.

Yet Robert Berrouët-Oriol has anointed himself as spokesperson for what he calls the “community of Haitian linguists.” As such, he has written a letter asking the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) to rescind the LSA Fellowship to soon be awarded to me in the LSA Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, in January 2023. When I asked Prof. Renauld Govain—Dean of the Faculty of Applied Linguistics at the State University of Haiti, and a former student of Berrouët-Oriol at the FLA—if he knows about this “community of Haitian linguists” that Berrouët-Oriol purports to represent, the Dean replied: “I don’t know of the existence of a ‘community of Haitian linguists’…” [my translation from the Dean’s Kreyòl].

As a Haitian linguist myself, one might suppose that I too am a member of this very “community of Haitian linguists” that, according to Berrouët-Oriol, is asking the LSA to cancel my LSA Fellowship! Such contradiction—a direct result of Berrouët-Oriol’s “scurrilous manipulation,” borrowing some of Berrouët-Oriol’s vivid terminology—is yet another data point demonstrating terminological sleight of hand on the part of the “linguiste terminologue”…

In any case, as a Haitian linguist, I have, indeed, become curious about what the “linguiste terminologue” himself has ever produced in KREYÒL linguistics and terminology. I’ve been looking in vain for anything that he might have authored that could actually be of use in the production of scientific or educational materials in Kreyòl. So I now have two questions for him in this respect which I hope he’ll be able to answer without any further obfuscation:

1. WILL BERROUËT-ORIOL PLEASE SHARE HIS ARTICLES IN SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS OR CONFERENCES ON THE LINGUISTICS OF KREYÒL? Can he share his doctoral thesis or perhaps his master’s thesis or even a bachelor’s thesis as part of his university-level training in linguistics or terminology? I hope he won’t take offense at this request since he himself recently wrote, on December 26, 2022, in yet another unsolicited bulk email, that “la traduction est une profession, elle s’acquiert par la formation universitaire et la pratique professionnelle qui s’ensuit” (“translation is a profession that’s duly learned through university training and subsequent professional practice,” my translation). Presumably, what he demands as requirements for bona fide translators, he would also demand of himself as a bona fide “linguiste terminologue”, wouldn’t he? Meanwhile my (now) 5-year-old daughter, Èzili, seems more fluent in Kreyòl than Berrouët-Oriol who seems to have no clue about the basic structure of nominal phrases in Kreyòl. So how can a “linguiste terminologue” who knows less than a 5-year-old about Kreyòl syntax judge the validity of Kreyòl technical terms that are in use among Haitian faculty who are experts in their STEM disciplines. At this rate, Berrouët-Oriol’s fraudulent audacity reaches comical proportions!
    
2. WILL BERROUËT-ORIOL PLEASE SHARE ANY TOOLS AND RESOURCES (GLOSSARY, LEXICON, DICTIONARY ETC.) THAT HE HAS EVER PUBLISHED TO HELP IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCIENTIFIC VOCABULARY OF KREYÒL? Berrouët-Oriol publishes articles most every week in the Haitian newspaper Le National. In these articles—written in FRENCH, not Kreyòl—he evaluates and criticizes various aspects of terminology and language policy. Together with his colleagues, he has (co-)authored and (co-)edited volumes on Kreyòl didactics, language policy and linguistic rights in Haiti. There Berrouët-Oriol advocates, strangely enough, for « statutory parity » (!) between Haiti’s two official languages: Kreyòl, which is legally recognized as our SOLE national language, and French, which is a language that no more than 5% speak fluently. But where are Berrouët-Oriol’s concrete CONTRIBUTIONS to the vocabulary of KREYÒL—contributions that could be of actual use in the development of educational resources in Kreyòl? I have found references to Berrouët-Oriol’s work on terminology for the FRENCH language alongside his literary productions in French, but none for any lexicographic resource or translation he has ever written for Kreyòl…

When Berrouët-Oriol was asked by Prof. Marc-Kensen Curvinglines if he could share his scientific work as “linguiste terminologue,” his answer, on December 5, 2022, offered very little, outside of a couple of Kreyòl terms, that could help us expand the inventory of technical terms in Kreyòl or that could help us improve on technical terms already in use in Haiti, as documented by the MIT-Haiti Glossary which Berrouët-Oriol has been relentlessly complaining about for more than two years now. Surprisingly enough, some of the very few Kreyòl words, as they appear in Berrouët-Oriol’s texts, suggest that the “linguiste terminologue” does not even master Kreyòl’s phonemic orthography. So if the “linguiste terminologue” cannot even spell simple Kreyòl words like “gradyasyon,” what competence does he have to evaluate the quality of the MIT-Haiti Glossary? “Criticism is easy, but art is difficult”? Here again, Berrouët-Oriol shows himself to be nothing but a fraud! Also surprising is the fact that all the articles he shared are written in French—not one in Kreyòl. Yes, this too is rather surprising coming from a seemingly staunch advocate of Kreyòl-French “statutory parity” and “[Kreyòl-French] bilingualism for the equity of linguistic rights”! And, still, he has not shared any scientific analysis he has ever published on Kreyòl’s linguistic structures or any substantial inventory of Kreyòl terms.

WHAT IS A “LINGUISTE TERMINOLOGUE” WITHOUT LINGUISTICS OR TERMINOLOGY?

Berrouët-Oriol is so quick (too quick!) to criticize Kreyòl technical terms that are perfectly acceptable for Kreyòl speakers. Take his spectacularly erroneous and bombastic critique, in the “Haiti autrement” TV show of February 6, 2022, of the Kreyòl technical term “rezistans lè” for the equivalent of the English “air resistance” in the MIT-Haiti Glossary. On that date, he repeated his critique for the umpteenth time, even though this technical term did enter the Kreyòl lexicon long before it was recorded in the MIT-Haiti Glossary. It is in this “Haiti autrement” show, in the microphone of Henry Saint-Fleur, that Berrouët-Oriol declared, quite erroneously and with grandiloquence, that “rezistans lè” is a phrase that is “not Kreyòl,” “that’s agrammatical,” “without any semantics whatsoever,” “a lexicographic catastrophe,” “that does not express any concept at all in any scientific or technical field,” and so on. Yet, let’s recall that robust data from my (now) 5-year-old daughter Èzili and from other Kreyòl speakers without any “linguiste terminologue” title show that “rezistans lè” is as acceptable in Kreyòl as “air resistance” is acceptable in English—both are well-structured nominal phrases in their respective grammar. But, when Henry Saint-Fleur asked Berrouët-Oriol what Kreyòl phrase he himself would suggest as a better Kreyòl translation for “air resistance,” the “linguiste terminologue” did not even have the wherewithal to propose a solution for the problem he invented out of thin air.

Yet, it’s every week that Berrouët-Oriol spends time and energy publishing articles in French and sometimes English to try to block the MIT-Haiti Initiative’s efforts to produce quality resources accessible to all children in Haiti in the one language (Kreyòl) that they all can understand and speak fluently.

Today, most students in Haiti still do not have enough quality materials in Kreyòl. Most manuals and other school materials, especially at the higher grades, exist in French only—which is one of Haiti’s two official languages, alongside Kreyòl. Though French is fluently spoken at home by no more than 5% of the population, it is still the primary language—and, often, the sole (written) language—of textbooks, legislation, administration, etc., even for official communications at UNESCO Haiti, UNICEF Haiti and other organizations working for « education« , « justice » and « human rights« in Haiti such as: Université d’État d’Haïti, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, Ministère , Ministère de la Culture  et de la Communication,  Office pour la protection du citoyen, Bureau des Droits Humains en Haïti,etc. Similar language barriers discriminate against 40% of children throughout the world.

So I think it would really help the country (especially teachers and learners who need Kreyòl as the one language of instruction that can help children succeed in Haitian schools) if Berrouët-Oriol would finally find some time to work productively as a “linguiste terminologue” by contributing to the production of scientific terms in Kreyòl. We @MITHaiti would be more than happy to consider Berrouët-Oriol’s lexicographic contributions, if any, for the resources we are developing to help lay the linguistic and pedagogical foundations for rightside-up schools in a rightside-up country.

DOUBLE STANDARDS IN BERROUËT-ORIOL’S (ANTI-) PHTK LITMUS TEST

In another defamatory line of attack, Berrouët-Oriol’s weekly publications and his even more frequent bulk email messages keep asserting that I give “constant support to the neo-Duvalierist political mafia cartel PHTK [Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale] in power in Haiti for the past 11 years.” This is a blatant lie which can be readily refuted by searching my Facebook wall for these keywords: “Michel Martelly,”“Jovenel Moïse,”“LaSalin,” “masak,” “PetroCaribeChallenge,” etc. Not only is this PHTK attack a lie, but it also contradicts Berrouët-Oriol’s own explicit admiration for personalities who have publicly supported PHTK such as Dany Laferrière of the Académie Française and Michaëlle Jean former Secretary General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. As we’ll see below, the key criterion for Berrouët-Oriol in deciding who to attack is whether or not (alleged) PHTK support aligns favorably with France’s neo-colonial geo-political interests in Haiti.

Be that as it may, MIT-Haiti’s mission is to support the education, welfare and human rights of children who should never be used as pawns in any political chessboard. This mission transcends any political party and any political boundary between the so-called “right” and “left.” Since we launched the initiative in 2010, we have made every possible effort to establish productive collaboration with as many actors as possible in the education sector in Haiti—whether in the private or public sector, including: Agence Espagnole de Coopération (AECID), Lekòl Kominotè Matènwa (LKM), American Institutes for Research (AIR), Teach for Haiti (APA), École Supérieure d’Infotronique d’Haïti (ESIH), Embajada de España en Haïti, Foi & Joie, Foundation Knowledge and Freedom (FOKAL), Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (University of Notre Dame, Indiana), Haitian Response Coalition (HRC), Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Kalfou Richès Haiti, Kean University, (LKM), Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale et de la Formation Professionnelle (MENFP), MIT, MIT Jameel World Education Lab, MIT OpenCourseWare, MIT Open Learning, MITx, Open Society Foundations, Primature du Gouvernement d’Haïti, Professors for Haiti (P4H Global), UNESCO, UNICEF, Université Caraïbe, Université d’État d’Haïti (Rectorate, Faculté des Sciences, École Normale Supérieure, Faculté de Linguistique Appliquée, Campus Henry Christophe Limonade), Université Quisqueya, USAID, U.S. Embassy in Haiti, Wade Foundation, World Bank, and others.

This is how we got to collaborate with the Haitian government (i.e., the Martelly / Lamothe government and with Minister Vanneur Pierre and Minister Nesmy Manigat at the Ministry of Education in 2013-2015).

In our analysis at MIT-Haiti, these collaborations—with stakeholders that are working in the education sector, especially with the Ministry of National Education—are necessary to help reinforce the capacity of national institutions and create SUSTAINABLE foundation for rightside-up schools nationwide. At MIT-Haiti we don’t think we should hold the children hostage to any fluctuating and (too often) self-serving political agendas whenever there’s a party in power that we don’t like. We must remember that it was Minister Joseph C. Bernard, during Jean-Claude Duvalier’s dictatorship, who managed to give us the educational reform program which, to date, is the most progressive curriculum framework in all of Haiti’s history.

Now Lyonel Trouillot (a Haitian writer with the title “Chevalier des Lettres et des Arts” from France) and several other compatriots who call themselves “leftists” have joined forces with Berrouët-Oriol who’s accusing me of lending “public support to the neo-Duvalierist political mafia cartel PHTK [Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale] in power in Haiti.” This accusation seems due to the fact that MIT-Haiti can remain above the fray of partisan politics and engage in collaboration with the Ministry of National Education, among a variety of other stakeholders, to help improve education for all in Haiti.

INSTEAD OF THROWING THE BABY AWAY WITH THE BATHWATER, LET’S GET RID OF “SCURRILOUS FALSIFICATION” FOR THE SAKE OF PHTK AND FRANCOPHILIA

Now let’s highlight some additional facts and ask a few more questions that can help us further uncover the hidden agenda that motivates Berrouët-Oriol’s fraudulent PHTK-related attacks against me and against MIT-Haiti. The purpose of these questions is to invite you, Dear Reader, to analyze a series of double standards (contradictions, really) that might help reveal Berrouët-Oriol’s duplicity. The analysis of these examples can help us elucidate the ideology behind the surreptitious strategy in the defamation campaign of Berrouët-Oriol and his enablers. My analysis will also demonstrate that Berrouët-Oriol is part of a larger network of reactionary Francophiles—as expected in light of Jean Casimir’s and Philippe Richard Marius’s analyses of the linguistic dimensions of hegemony in Haiti.

From the 1990s onward, through the 2000s and until today, Noam Chomsky has expressed support for Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (Lavalas Party). Nevertheless, in 2013–2015, Chomsky met and discuss with Laurent Lamothe about Haiti. Then, in 2016, Chomsky wrote a congratulatory blurb for Laurent Lamothe’s book “The Hands of the Prime Minister” which was published in 2021 in 4 languages—Kreyòl, French, English and Spanish. Back in 2013–2015, MIT-Haiti collaborated with the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Education toward improving STEM education in Kreyòl for Haiti. Then in 2015-2016, I myself volunteered to help Fedo Boyer and his team of professional translators at CreoleTrans in the translation and editing of the Kreyòl version of Laurent Lamothe’s book. Like Chomsky, I too was impressed by this book’s documentation, through texts and photos, of Lamothe’s work in Haiti in 2012-2014 as part of Michel Martelly’s government. The latter, in Berrouët-Oriol’s description, is a “neo-Duvalierist political mafia cartel.” Yet, the goal of Chomsky, throughout, has been to support Haiti’s efforts toward sovereignty and national wellbeing—against the will of imperialist powers, including the U.S., France and Canada. That too is my own objective as a Haitian.

Though I certainly cannot compare myself with Chomsky who is one of the most influential intellectuals of our times, I can still wonder whether Berrouët-Oriol will ask Prof. John Baugh, President of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), to cancel Noam Chomsky’s LSA Fellowship as well? Or is it only my LSA Fellowship that Berrouët-Oriol wants cancelled?

In the meantime, if there are folks (such as Jetry Dumont of AyiboPost or Websder Corneille of RaccourSci) who object to Laurent Lamothe’s book, what they should do is to use best journalistic practices in reviewing the book’s contents. Since Widlore Merancourt, editor-in-chief of AyiboPost, also works for the Washington Post and since Websder Corneille is a spokeperson for (so called) #VulgarisationScientifique in Haiti (in French, paradoxically!), I think they could and should apply rigorous fact-checking to the book’s contents. They might even take their own photos to help readers evaluate the photos in the book. This would do the country a much greater service than their defamation campaigns on social networks.

We can also wonder:

Will Berrouët-Oriol ask the Académie Française to cancel Dany Laferrière because of Laferrière’s very public defense of former president Michel Martelly, who, along with other former politicians of “the neo-Duvalierist political mafia cartel PHTK [Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale]” (in Berrouët-Oriol’s words), has fallen under the sanctions of the Canadian government? After Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced these sanctions against Martelly and former Prime Ministers Laurent Lamothe and Jean Henry Céant, it’s Laferrière who, in a TV interview, decried the lack of due process in calling for these sanctions. I too believe that everyone deserves due process as a fundamental principle of justice. But, still, in light of Berrouët-Oriol’s view of PHTK as a “neo-Duvalierist political mafia cartel,” we must ask: Does Berrouët-Oriol still call Dany Laferrière “l’ami Dany Laferrière” iin light of Laferrière’s apparent allegiance to PHTK?

Will Berrouët-Oriol ask the Académie Française to cancel “l’ami Dany Laferrière” who has (and here I borrow some of Berrouët-Oriol’s hyperbolic prose) “engaged in an obscure manipulation and falsification of data” in his itinerary to the Académie Française? In this case, we’re dealing with a very public falsification and manipulation of demographic and sociolinguistic data about Haiti when Dany Laferrière declared in the French newspaper Le Monde (December 13, 2013) that he had created a bridge between Québec and Haiti which are “two countries where 10 million [!] people speak French.” The newspaper Le Monde evaluated Laferrière’s claim about French speakers in Québec and in Haiti as an “unstoppable argument” in favor of Laferrière’s entry into the Académie Française. But wouldn’t such claim count as a “scurrilous manipulation” in Berrouët-Oriol’s terminology since, by our most reasonable accounts, there’s fewer than half a million speakers of French in Haiti?

Here it seems to me that, in Berrouët-Oriol’s neo-colonial double standards, the allure of Francophilia in the case of Laferrière at the Académie Française takes priority over his (Berrouët-Oriol’s) professed anti-PHTK righteousness against Michel DeGraff at Akademi Kreyòl. Or is it the sweet perfume of French hegemony that, for Berrouët-Oriol, is stronger than the foul smell of the “neo-Duvalierist political mafiosos” of PHTK? And, then, one is left to suppose that, in Berrouët-Oriol’s analyses, Laferrière’s invention of millions of French speakers in Haiti cannot be considered “scurrilous falsification”—simply due to the fact that said falsification serves French hegemony.

How about Michaëlle Jean, former Special Envoy of UNESCO in Haiti and former Secretary General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie(OIF)? It’s well documented that Michaëlle Jean has invested time and energy in her official capacity (at UNESCO in 2010–2014 then OIF in 2015–2019) to support the PHTK government in Haiti—in the very sectors, including the education sector, that Berrouët-Oriol considers so corrupt under the leadership of what he calls “the neo-Duvalierist political mafia cartel PHTK” of the past 11 years. Won’t Berrouët-Oriol write an open letter attacking Michaëlle Jean as well. She was, indeed, “open for business” with PHTK. When she was UNESCO Special Envoy in Haiti, she (correctly, in my opinion) publicly stated her support for the PHTK education program called “Programme de scolarisation universelle gratuite et obligatoire” (PSUGO)—a program with laudable ambitious goals based on innovative financing methods that have given positive results elsewhere. Note that this is the same Michaëlle Jean who benefited from PHTK support while campaigning to become Secretary General for OIF in 2014.

And this is the same Michaëlle Jean who wrote the preface for Berrouët-Oriol and Hugues Saint-Fort’s 2017 book on “the linguistic question in Haiti.” This is a preface that has given much pride to Berrouët-Oriol, despite Michaëlle Jean’s very public and very official connection with “the neo-Duvalierist political mafia cartel PHTK” (in Berrouët-Oriol’s words). In her preface for the book, Michaëlle Jean, as Secretary General of the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), asks OIF to support Haiti’s language-and-education policies. This was in 2017, under the very PHTK regime decried by Berrouët-Oriol. Yet, the same Berrouët-Oriol wrote that he too relies on OIF’s “competence and expertise” (!?!) in his plea for OIF to accompany the Haitian government!

Is it Francophilia that makes a “linguiste terminologue” contradict his self-professed “anti PHTK” stance by simultaneously and publicly supporting OIF’s hegemonic agenda through … PHTK? In Berrouët-Oriol’s and Michaëlle Jean’s colonial logic, it is OIF that must help PHTK develop a “coherent language policy” to solve “La question linguistique haïtienne.” Berrouët-Oriol seems to have forgotten that OIF, like “l’ami Laferrière,” is guilty of inventing French-speaking zombies in Haiti—4,453,567 of them in Frenand Leger’s analysis (42% of the population—quite a “scurrilous manipulation”!). Such manipulation suggests to me that OIF, whose mission is to promote the interests of France, has neither the “competence and expertise,” nor the integrity to create any language-and-education policy that could ever serve the socio-economic and political interests of Haitians as a sovereign people whose national language is Kreyòl—and definitely not French, notwithstanding the wishes of Laferrière, Hollande, Martelly, Macron, Moïse, etc. Yet, according to Berrouët-Oriol and Michaëlle Jean, it’s the zombi-making OIF that should be trusted to help PHTK establish a “coherent language policy” for Haiti.

A this rate, the data are clear: Berrouët-Oriol is not really anti-PHTK, nor is he against manipulation of any sort. But what he seems to prefer is a Francophile PHTK that can manipulate reality so that it is the French language that constitutes “Haiti’s identity,” so that it’s retired teachers from France who can help “rebuild the Haitian mentality and the Haitian man”—as Haitian President Michel Martelly proposed to French President François Hollande in 2014. Or might Berrouët-Oriol prefer a PHTK that, contrary to Haitian law, wants French as the SOLE “official language” in Haiti—as Haitian President Jovenel Moïse told French President Emmanuel Macron in 2017? Thus, when Berrouët-Oriol insults me as if I was PHTK, it’s not at all PHTK that he hates. What he really hates is the Kreyòl movement which, against all odds, is gaining grounds, including the movement’s impact on the Ministry of National Education in the PHTK government…

What about Lyonel Trouillot who has now joined Berrouët-Oriol in attacking me? Who is Lyonel Trouillot, really? Well, after Dany Laferrière and Michaëlle Jean, there’s no great change in the ideological francophile background here. Lyonel Trouillot, whom Berrouët-Oriol praises as “one of the great voices in contemporary Haitian literature,” is “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres” for France. In keeping with hegemonic practices, L. Trouillot was one of the masterminds of the “G184” group that, with the backing of Haiti’s oligarchy in league with France, the U.S. and Canada, pushed for the coup d’état that in 2004 toppled democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide after he had asked France to pay back Haiti a well documented US$ 21 billion ransom. It’s the same L. Trouillot who launched a “Collectif NON!” protest against the bicentennial celebration of Haiti’s independence in 2004. It’s the same L. Trouillot who was head of cabinet in the Ministry of Culture and Communication of the illegitimate de facto government of President Boniface Alexandre (2004-2006). It’s the same L. Trouillot who was in solidarity with a Prime Minister (G. Latortue) who, in 2004 after Aristide’s expulsion, reassured French President Jacques Chirac that there was no need to follow up on Aristide’s demand for France to pay Haiti back the US$ 21 billion ransom, and then G. Latortue begged Chirac to please resume France’s « friendship » with Haiti. It’s the same L. Trouillot who was in solidarity with an illegitimate government that, in the bicentennial year of our independence, invited Haiti’s military occupation by UN forces (“MINUSTAH”) that brought rape and cholera, among other ills, to Haiti. It’s the same L. Trouillot who was in solidarity with an illegitimate government that abused through massacres and rapes more than 8,000 of our compatriots between 2004 and 2006. Here again, the love for French perfumes, even in the time of cholera, wins the day for Berrouët-Oriol—this time, over the foul smell of 8,000 corpses!

And when it comes to Francophilia per se, it’s the same L. Trouillot who, like Berrouët-Oriol, thinks that it’s only when all Haitians include French in their heritage that we’ll be able to preempt the ills of anti-Kreyòl prejudices in Haitian society! Wow!!! This seems to entail that the cure for the sort of anti-Kreyòl Francophilia that violates human rights in Haiti is …. MORE Francophilia! Imagine if an African-American intellectual in the U.S. were to claim that the cure to anti-Black racism in the U.S. is to ensure that whiteness becomes part and parcel of the identity of every single Black person’s heritage. Isn’t it such craving for whiteness that drives Pecola crazy in Toni Morrison’s book “The Bluest Eye”? In Lyonel Trouillot’s vision of ideal citizenship for all Haitians, it’s the neo-colonial craving for French that must be satisfied at all costs! I suppose that this enacting of self-loathing hegemony on the part of a so called “leftist” is what makes L. Trouillot “one of [Berrouët-Oriol’s] great voices…”

UNVEILING BERROUËT-ORIOL’S HIDDEN HEGEMONIC AGENDA

So, with all the above in mind, we must ask: Why is it only me, the Creolist, whom Berrouët-Oriol and his acolytes are trying to silence with their defamatory lies? Considering Berrouët-Oriol’s praises for Dany Laferrière, Michaëlle Jean and Lyonel Trouillot, it’s now clear to me that his attacks are not based on any scientific, ethical, progressive or nationalistic principles.

So, now let’s ask:

Could the real reason for Berrouët-Oriol’s and his acolytes’ defamation campaign be at all related to the very objective that MIT-Haiti has been aiming at, for 12 years now—namely, to break open Haiti’s centuries-old French-language barrier in order to make quality education available in Kreyòl, thus accessible to all in Haiti?

Could the real reason for this defamation be at all related to Berrouët-Oriol’s and his acolytes’ attachment to French as a fondest “war bounty” (“butin de guerre”), a war bounty that’s been waging a long attrition war against those who speak Kreyòl only—that is, the vast majority of Haitians?

Could the real reason for this defamation be at all related to Berrouët-Oriol’s belief—on a par with that of the French Ambassador in Haiti—that Haitian authorities should pursue the impossible dream of achieving Kreyòl-French “statutory parity” and “bilingualism for the equity of linguistic rights” in a country where everyone speaks Kreyòl and only a small percentage speaks French? My MIT-Haiti colleagues—William Frager and Haynes Miller—and I have shown that such objectives are part and parcel of a grand hegemonic strategy for the interests of France and of the small local élite whose children already speak French and Kreyòl.

Could the real reason for this defamation be at all related to the existential threat that MIT-Haiti, as part of an ever growing Kreyòl movement, represents for this small but powerful francophile élite that is still subservient to neo-colonial geo-political interests and to foreign medals, prizes, awards, etc. This élite, both on the right and on the left, still participates in reactionary movements that are blocking any truly progressive agenda to benefit the nation as a whole.

In this analysis, Berrouët-Oriol is only one example among many others defending a Francophile anti-nation agenda that unites intellectuals and other authorities from both the political “left” and “right,” and from all shades of skin complexion, all united against the bulk of the Kreyòl-speaking nation, as duly noted by a variety of historians, sociologists, anthropologists, etc.—most recently, by Anthropologist Philippe Richard Marius. One of the factors that link these authorities from a broad political spectrum, including certain human-rights organizations, is a set of Francophile linguistic practices that violate the linguistic rights (that is, the human rights) of most Haitians—those who are fluent in Kreyòl only.

At times this Francophilia verges on the pathological, as analyzed, for example, by literary critic Andrew Leak:

“… it is Mother France whose benign approbation is so craved by the francophone Haitian intellectuals. (Not to mention the generous artistic subsidies handed out to Haitian writers who take the ‘correct’ view of Franco-Haitian relations.) Put simply, Haitian intellectuals of the likes of Trouillot and Co. feed the images of Haiti produced in the centres of imperialist and neo-colonial power and then react to those images with pathetic gratitude (if they flatter their narcissism) or with uncontrollable fury (should they wound their narcissism)….”

This “uncontrollable fury” is instantiated in Berrouët-Oriol’s endless and obsessive attacks against myself and MIT-Haiti — attacks signed by a “linguiste terminologue” allegedly speaking on behalf of “the community of Haitian linguists” while most of his productions are in French, on French, and for the benefit of French speakers. This is yet another set of data points that should help unveil the anti-Kreyòl Francophile underpinnings of Berrouët-Oriol’s true agenda.

«VERITE SE KON LWIL NAN DLO»

Socio-linguistics and best practices for quality education in Haiti, together with respect for human rights, require the valorization of Kreyòl as the national language and as the foundation of knowledge, freedom and justice in Haiti. In fact, there are far fewer than 4 million, and far FAR fewer than 10 million, speakers of French among 12 millions Haitians in Haiti—except in the “scurrilous manipulations” of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) and “l’ami Laferrière”! In various estimates, the number of French-speaking Haitians in Haiti does not exceed half a million. That’s why we at MIT-Haiti have continued to offer our support to Haiti’s Ministry of National Education (MENFP). Indeed we stand at the ready to collaborate with the MENFP and other such institutions because we believe that Haiti’s socio-economic development and political sovereignty depend on strong national institutions and a strong civil society—thus the need for access to quality education in the one language that all Haitians speak (namely, Kreyòl). This is one basic reason why we @MITHaiti keep engaging with all these institutions—including the Ministry of National Education.

In any case, let’s remember the aphorism: “Truth is like oil in water” (in Kreyòl, “Verite se kon lwil nan dlo”). So we hope that the answers to the questions in this article will eventually rise up, as we’ve already asked some of these questions to Berrouët-Oriol and are still awaiting answers.

At the end, the most FUNDAMENTAL questions are:

Which side are you on? The elitist hegemonic anti-Kreyòl side with its destructive, carping nay-saying, without any concrete and constructive contributions for Haiti’s future? Or the progressive inclusive side with its constructive and synergistic alliances that are moving the needle forward on important and practical questions of language-and-education practices and policies toward justice and human rights for all in Haiti?

And also, considering that 40% of the world’s children are still deprived of education in their home language, the contributions of MIT-Haiti toward inclusive education in Haiti’s national language can serve as a model for other communities who are still being impoverished through linguistic discrimination rooted in colonial hegemony.

So let’s hope that the “linguiste terminologue” will stop this seemingly endless cycles of copy-paste of the same invectives to attack MIT-Haiti every week. And why all these articles in French, excluding Kreyòl, in spite of Berrouët-Oriol’s loftily stated desire for French-Kreyòl “statutory parity” and “bilingualism for the equity of linguistic rights” in Haiti? Perhaps one day he will invest a minimum of effort in helping with the production of technical vocabulary and other helpful resources in Kreyòl—toward the “parité linguistique” and “equity” he says he’s looking for…

In the meantime, the MIT-Haiti team continues to collaborate, tirelessly, with colleagues near and far, in the co-creation of didactic materials and other resources in Creole—for rightside-up schools for all learners in Haiti, in order to build sustainable foundations for a rightside-up country.

Well, that’s why “… the [MIT-Haiti] caravan passes…” with serenity and that’s why our MIT-Haiti team continues to work to spread knowledge and hope in the national language. Indeed, we should not let fraudulent ad hominen attacks distract us from our mission to open up quality education for all, and we simply don’t have the time and energy to keep up with Berrouët-Oriol’s non-stop slander—that’s why this response is as exhaustive as possible so the bases of this polemic, especially Berrouët-Oriol’s preference for defamation over constructive feedback, can be clarified once and for all. If the “linguiste terminologue” wants to debate us on professional grounds, he should share his expertise in scientific journals where we’ll consider his analyses—especially if he can make CONCRETE contributions to the linguistic description of Kreyòl or to its vocabulary.

There’s no room for impostors and demagogues in the Kreyòl movement which is a movement toward total liberation against centuries-old colonial and neo-colonial forces both inside and outside Haiti. We @MITHaiti are too busy working with colleagues, near and far, on producing high-quality resources for rightside-up schools, for a rightside-up country. We do welcome contributions from all Kreyòl-speaking or Kreyòl-loving educators, based on their interests and capacities, including those with well-proven expertise in linguistics and terminology.

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