An Article From Aruba on Papiamentu

About 20 years ago when I was researching my book on the history of the Papiamentu creole language of the Dutch Antilles (The Story of Papiamentu- A Study in Slavery and Language, University Press of America, 2002), I interviewed Ramon Todd Dandaré, who is a scholar on the history and evolution of Papiamentu on the island of Aruba.

By chance, I came across this article in Diario, the Papiamentu-language newspaper of Aruba featuring an article on a talk Ramon gave at the Aruban National Library. I thought I would translate it, partially because it just gives me a little more practice in the language. The article itself is brief, so it only gives a brief overview of what Ramon had to say, which I am sure was in much more detail. 

Papiamentu became very quickly the language of the entire population, including also the Caquetio indigenous people

March 17, 2025

Ramon Todd Dandaré, teacher of linguistics: The evolution and emancipation of Papiamentu

Oranjestad (Aruba) In the framework of the International Day of the Mother Language, a very interesting talk took place today at the Aruba National Library given by Ramon Todd Dandaré, teacher of linguistics on the topic: The evolution and emancipation of Papiamentu-from language of the slave to language of the university.

In relation to this talk, which was offered during the past two nights, Todd Dandaré elaborated on the origin and evolution of Papiamentu and indicated the following: Papiamentu is an Atlantic creole language and is the official national language of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao (the ABC islands). It is a language born and evolved in slavery, and, the same as the slaves, Papiamentu had to fight and is still fighting to achieve its complete emancipation and total recognition.

Same as the majority of the territories of the Caribbean, the ABC islands are multilingual and multicultural. In the case of multilingualism, which concerns the local national and official language, Papiamentu, the majority language on all three islands, the colonial language, Dutch, and the languages of the former colonized and immigrant population: English and Spanish. In addition to a large quantity of other languages spoken on the islands. Multiculturalism not only pervades the Aruban culture itself, rather along with this, is a culture that lives alongside and together with the Aruban (culture).

Origin of Papiamentu

Considering that Papiamentu arose and evolved principally on Curaçao, we can deduce the following: Papiamentu originated as a so-called proto-African-Portuguese creole on the West Coast of Africa, particularly Cabo Verde, from where, together with the African slaves, it arrived on Curaçao, continuing to evolve after which it spread to Aruba and Bonaire for its later evolution on all three islands (and later also in the Netherlands) taking on over the course of time, the necessary influences of all the ethnic-social groups of inhabitants of the islands up to the present day and of the island population in the Netherlands.

Evolution of Papiamentu

From the beginning, Papiamentu rapidly became the language of all the people of Curaçao and later the general language of the other two islands. In the 17th century, the population of Curaçao consisted of 4 ethnic-social groups: The ruling Dutch Protestant class, the ruling Portuguese-Jewish class, who arrived on Curaçao in 1654, the Caquetio indigenous population, and the African slaves, who were under the domination of and in contact with the two ruling classes and the Caquetios. 

Among other things, because of their native languages, the Dutch and the Jews could not communicate easily with each other and/or did not want to lower themselves to communicate in the language of the other group. Aside from this, in the streets of Punda, Dutch, Jews, as well as slaves, lived near each other and next to each other.

As a result, the two groups, the Jews and the Dutch, made use of the slave language, as they themselves called it, as a lingua franca to communicate with each other. In contrast to what generally happens, the governing upper class did not impose its language on the lower slave class, nor did the colonizers  initially impose their language on the location that was colonized. That is the principal reason why Papiamentu very quickly became the language of the entire population, including also the indigenous Caquetios.

 

  

           

Source: http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2025/03/an-article-from-aruba-on-papiamentu.html