June 9, 2000

On Martinique, Elevating the Status of Creole

By CAROLYN J. MOONEY

To appreciate Raphael Confiant's novel Eau de Cafe, it helps to know something about the status of the Creole language here. Everyone speaks it, but almost nobody writes it. If French is the language of the educated world, of business, of diplomacy, then Creole is the language of the streets, of the kitchen, of the bedroom. If you're a Martinican adult, your mother probably spoke to you in Creole.

Mr. Confiant is an irreverent and outspoken professor of Creole and linguistics here at