Y.M.C.A. Students Complete Kriol Program

One of the pillars of the Y.M.C.A. is character development, which promotes the building of good families, and the Kriol culture is a part of who we are. So, the lessons learnt from the course are what the Y.M.C.A.’s Executive Director, Doctor Clara Cuellar says she hopes the students will take with them, regardless of what field of study they enter, because it represents where they come from.

Clara Cuellar

Dr. Clara Cuellar, Executive Director, Y.M.C.A.

“We are already seeing the benefit of it, and I say that in English for your international audience, and in a Kriol ah wa seh, yoh kud see the pikni dehn di feel the vibes. They’re happy, they’re coordinating better as a team, and they behave. They even come up with, beside what was required of them of the class in a presentation, dehn come up with mek wi do some braata and talk bout different things like the phrase yoh da dead yoh pa. See the young man, your cameraman laugh cause he know if they tell ah that weh that mean. But that’s just it. They’re learning that I can be proud and actually I feel good when I can express things in Creole. When Bob Marley tell we emancipate wiself from mental slavery, all of us who are educated in English and speak it fluently need to remember to tell ourselves and those around us that one does not hold back the other. We cannot continue to spread the colonial myth. We have to emancipate wiself from mental slavery, especially with the celebration of Emancipation Day, that all things Kriol nuh bad. All things Kriol good. Da wi culture. Dan uh just the food and the drink da wi culture.”