as “imagined communities” which arose in response to the decline of national sovereigns at the
dawn of the modern age.^39
Anderson’s text and the “ethno-linguistic” identity invoked by Nemoinau lead to adiscussion of the language issue which Chamoiseau and others have initiated in relation to
Haitian writing. Although the issue of adopting the colonizer’s language has sparked numerous
debates not limited to the Caribbean and certainly not to the nineteenth century, it is nonetheless
important to point out a few facts regarding the use and status of Haitian Creole during the
period in question. Anderson points out that language was a non-issue in new world struggles for
national liberation, with the United States and Spanish-speaking Latin America being the chief
examples.^40 One could quickly argue, however, that the majority of Haiti’s population, perhaps
as high as 90%, did not speak French but only spoke and understood Haitian Creole. This
means that the number of people who did not speak the official national language was higher
than in other New World regions. The ethnic and linguistic identity of Haiti’s population makes
Haiti different from other “Creole Pioneers” Anderson studies in his chapter on New World
nationalisms and fundamentally different from the United States.^41 As I explain in chapter two,
however, it is important to keep in mind that the largely illiterate population of Haiti would not
have read in French or in Creole, and, that Creole was not considered a true language in the
nineteenth century. Chamoiseau, too, cites this problem. As an oral language also spoken by
descendants of the white colonial class born in Saint-Domingue, Creole posed numerous
difficulties in writing:
(^39) Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism (New York:
New Left Books, 1991) 7.
(^40) Anderson 47.
(^41) Anderson 47-65. In discussing the new states in the Americas, Anderson states that “All, including the USA, were
Creole states, formed and led by people who shared a common language and common descent with those against
whom they fought” (4). This is certainly less true in Haiti’s case and is at least debatable in Latin America.