This Sunday is about the Antillean Caribbean writer: I invite you to sit with the mind, characters, and storytelling of Frank Martinus Arion. Admittedly, I had not sought out much literature from the Dutch-speaking Caribbean islands before this challenge, but Arion’s writing immediately spoke to me and made me excited to seek out more. Immediately it was more of his style than his prose or poetry, the rawness that is, to me, so reminiscent of the wit of James Baldwin casually critiquing Europe, or Ousmane Sembène in his glorious ‘Europe is not my center’ response. Arion remains one of Curaçao’s most renowned essayists, poets, language advocates, and novelists. His debut novel Dubbelspel (Double Play, 1973) was a great success and set the tone for literary career. Outside of writing, his language advocacy saw him as a founder of a Papiamento secondary school based on humanistic principles: the Kolegio Erasmo. I’m sharing Arion’s work as someone excited to begin reading him. I think Arion sits in the category of writer deeply aware of the humanity and complexity of being Antillean; the historical triumphs and griefs are made equal to the personal ones in his writing.
Similarly to my discussions about the archiving of Belizean Kriol by Ms. Leela Vernon or Saint Lucian writer Derek Walcott’s relationship to English, Arion made firm decisions about his use of colonizer languages. There was intentionality behind his usage and withdrawal of it and his preference of Papiamentu. Reclamation of the tongue seems to be a clear unifying thread in the Caribbean, and it is not surprising since we are a people who are architects of creoles and self-blended languages; we will find a way to speak back.
Here is one of my favourite quotes:
“If you cannot get rid of Dutch, then you are obliged to feel at home in it as much as possible. You must know the language so well that you can be an Antillean in it. While Dutch in the Antilles is constantly influencing Papiamentu, I turn this one-way traffic around in my work. I Antilleanize Dutch." as said by Arion in 1974.1
I also really enjoyed this paper titled ‘Righting Wrongs With Words: The Caribbean Dilemma of Frank Martinus Arion’. It’s relatively brief and quite an interesting introduction to Arion, full of curiosity and surprise.
Have you ever read anything by Arion? Do you have any favourite quotes or books to recommend from Arion or Curaçao?
Photo Credit: Vincent Mentzel
On Sunday 30th June I’ll be hosting the Writing from abundance:: Writers resisting survival mode workshop. I cannot wait to write and resist with you. This will be a chance to consider and challenge survival mode which contrasts the freedom needed to truly tell our stories as writers. It’s not too late to join! Tickets are $10.10 USD and I have made space for sponsored tickets if that would be helpful. Feel free to ask me any questions or sign up using the link below.
Love this detail on reclaming language in Caribbean writing - you're so right and I would have never thought of it like that. Also love that quote - Arion put it nicely: "While Dutch in the Antilles is constantly influencing Papiamentu [...] I Antilleanize Dutch." For me language learning has been so important in tracing our interlaced heritage and similarly I guess this is why.
Love this detail on reclaming language in Caribbean writing - you're so right and I would have never thought of it like that. Also love that quote - Arion put it nicely: "While Dutch in the Antilles is constantly influencing Papiamentu [...] I Antilleanize Dutch." For me language learning has been so important in tracing our interlaced heritage and similarly I guess this is why.
I also just love that quote. Thanks so much for sharing your perspective too Aliyah!
ooh i really appreciate you calling attention to Vernon, Walcott, and Arion’s intentionality in writing in the colonizer’s language. powerful!
super powerful! Thanks for reading and noticing my love