St Lucia
St Lucia Culture & Language
Culture
Saint Lucian culture is creole in the technical sense: a genuine fusion of African, French and British elements that produced something none of them would recognise alone.
Kwéyòl
Saint Lucian Creole is French-lexicon with West African grammar, and it is what a great many people speak at home and among friends while English does the official work. It was long dismissed as broken French and has been actively promoted since the 1980s, with a standard orthography, a dictionary and a place in broadcasting. Jounen Kwéyòl in late October is a national day given over to it, with communities cooking, playing and speaking creole across the island.
The flower societies
La Rose and La Marguerite each have a full hierarchy of kings, queens, doctors, nurses, soldiers and policemen, elaborate costumes, their own songs, and rival feast days. They organise mutual aid, rehearse for months, and represent the closest thing the island has to a national theatre.
Music and dance
Kwéyòl song, the quadrille danced in madras cloth, and the chak-chak band with banjo, shak-shak and guitar. Soca and dancehall dominate the contemporary scene, and the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival has run since 1992.
Food
Green fig and saltfish — boiled green banana with salt cod — is the national dish. Alongside it: callaloo, bouyon, breadfruit, cocoa tea made from local beans, and a Friday night fish fry at Anse La Raye or Gros Islet that functions as the week’s social event.
Walcott
Derek Walcott’s poetry took this island, its language and its divided inheritance into world literature, and Omeros in particular recasts Homer among Saint Lucian fishermen.
Language basics
English is the official language, used in government, schools, business and all signage, and spoken by everyone. A visitor needs nothing else.
Kwéyòl — Saint Lucian Creole, sometimes called Patois — is what most people speak informally. Its vocabulary is largely French, so French speakers catch words without following sentences; its grammar is West African.
The result catches visitors out in place names, which are French and pronounced in a local way: Soufrière, Anse La Raye, Gros Islet, Vieux Fort, Choiseul, Micoud.
A few creole phrases are warmly received: bonjou in the morning, bonswa after midday, mèsi for thank you, sa ou fè for how are you. Greeting before asking anything is the local convention, and skipping it is noticed.