At the launch of Kweyol Heritage Month on Sunday, September 22, 2024, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Investment, Creative Industry, and Broadcasting, Dr. Ernest Hilaire, called for more support and initiatives from the private sector.
Kweyol Heritage Month is held in Saint Lucia in October and is a major cultural event that derives economic activity in the country.
On Tuesday, Saint Lucia Times caught up with the director of the Monsignor Patrick Anthony Folk Research Center (FRC), Melchoir Henry, as the month-long celebrations unfold.
Henry highlighted the packed calendar of activities for Kweyol Heritage Month this year as well as the lack of financial support the event was receiving from the private sector.
“What we have done is to prepare a calendar reflecting our own activities, those being staged by the host communities as well as some fringe events and fund raisers being put on by private groups and entities,” Henry said. “So what we now find is that the FRC itself is engaged in fewer activities and this allows us to lend more support to the community events. For example we used to do our own Kweyol story telling, but if a community is already doing this, we would not want to duplicate it,” he explained.
According to the FRC director, activities related to Jounen Kweyol will happen throughout the island on any given day this October.
Among some of the activities will be river-side washing, creole cookup and rowboat competition in Anse La Raye,a Woulelaba Festival in Vieux Fort, Creole Exhibition In Dennery, a Jeunese Kweyol Pageant in Castries and a Creole Games night in Jacmel.
The host communities of Anse La Raye, Mon Repos and Dennery will also be staging several events throughout the month.
Henry disclosed that while he is happy that the public and community support for Kweyol Heritage Month continues to be encouraging, he is not satisfied with the backing from corporate Saint Lucia.
When asked whether the FRC was getting any financial support from the private sector for hosting Kweyol Heritage Month this year, he replied, “Not really.”
“The main sponsor of Kweyol Heritage Month and Jounen Kweyol is the Government of Saint Lucia. And while we are thankful for that, sometimes it can be challenging when you have delays in getting the money from treasury to do what we have to do,” he explained.
Melchoir Henry recalled that a few years ago, the FRC tried to get the private sector involved in getting their employees to dress up in Kweyol wear on a particular day, but the support was not quite there either.
“This year the Minister has said that he will take this on board to encourage the business sector and the public sector to support the initiative of a Kweyol wear day and we should have something out on that soon,” Henry revealed.
In the meantime, the FRC director says that the organisation will continue to advance the cause for greater appreciation for our culture and Kweyol Heritage this month and throughout the year.
Henry is also encouraging Saint Lucians to visit the communities throughout the month during the staging of some of the activities.
“Some of these are very engaging and interesting like the solo and can sometimes get lost, during the grand finale of Jounen Kweyol which will be observed on Sunday October 27, this year,” he stated.
PHOTO: Courtesy Ronald Raoul
