WKND Spotlight: Finding creole influences in Middle East

Academic Ananya Jahanara Kabir and writer Ari Gautier are beautiful, ignited minds who are researching our “disappearing and disappeared pasts”. Their digital outreach Le Thinnai Kreyol “enables encounters between artistes, intellectuals and entrepreneurs of disappeared or disappearing pasts, to build solidarities through sharing creativity and cultural heritage”.

The cultural cross-connect because of the Middle East’s long encounter with colonial Europe has deeply influenced our language, food habits and lifestyle. English and several Western European languages have seamlessly incorporated Arabic words in their everyday vocabulary. For instance, textile fabric names, such as cotton, damask, gauze, macramé, mohair, muslin and taffeta, all trace their origins to Arabic. Similarly, cuisine words, such as baba ghanoush, couscous, falafel, fattoush, halva, kibbeh, kebab, shawarma find a pride of place in Western European languages, thanks to Arabic via Turkish.

Kabir, professor of English Literature at King’s College in London, has done extensive research on creolised cultures — multicultural communities that came to the fore following the intermingling of local people and Europeans during the colonial era.

Gautier, who lives in Oslo, Norway, is a Franco-Tamilian author from the former French colony of Pondicherry in south India. His novels Carnet Secret de Lakshmi (2017) and Le Thinnai (2018) are a celebration of the dynamic encounter of diverse cultures — the germane thought behind Le Thinnai Kreyol.

“Le Thinnai Kreyol takes its name from ‘thinnai’, a verandah-like structure in Pondicherry homes where people hang out informally and exchange news and stories, and ‘kreyol’ is resistance through innovation and adaptability. While Ananya has been working with ideas of creolisation for a long time, ‘thinnai’ is the subject (and title) of my second novel. The trigger was certainly the pandemic. The idea of creating a virtual thinnai came after a friend of mine wanted to present readings of my texts during the first month of the pandemic. She dropped that idea, but it sat in my head: I wanted an international reach for my ideas by opening the thinnai of my book to the world,” says Gautier.

The initiative came into being on May 26, 2020 on Facebook amid the raging coronavirus outbreak. “We are a multilingual cultural platform. So far, we’ve hosted two full seasons of curated events (‘katcheris’) on alternate Fridays through Facebook live, and improvised conversation sessions (‘addas’) between ourselves every other Sunday. Our third curated season commences today. Since our inception, we have been invited to speak at events worldwide,” says Kabir. “Since we could not travel to meet each other, we decided to combine virtually Ari’s vision with my ‘Creole India’ project, and call the co-founded platform Le Thinnai Kreyol. We restore awareness of India’s creolised histories, which are eclipsed by various nativist, purist, and majoritarian agendas.”

Gautier was born in Madagascar, and moved to Pondicherry as a child. He left for France at the age of 16 and returned to South Asia years later. He’s been living in Norway since 2005. Kabir was born in Kolkata, and spent her formative years in Nagpur and Hyderabad. She moved to her hometown to pursue undergraduate studies from Presidency College before leaving for the UK.

joydeep@khaleejtimes.com