The Kriol Culture

What is a "Creole" 

There are many answers to this question and we do not intend to present a complete definition. The following categories discuss cultural qualities that are identified as Creole. However, in the final evaluation, while an outsider might look at someone who embodies many of these characteristics and say that person is a Creole (and there are people who will say that a certain person doesn’t embody one of these qualities enough, i.e. he isn’t black enough to be a Creole), anybody who holds to some of these qualities and wants to identify as a Creole — can be a Creole.

Culture is the sum of all the things that a group of people do, believe, and value. Not everyone in the cultural group does, believes, and values all the things of everyone else in the group, but there is a shared general commonality of these features among the people. Some of the activities, beliefs, and values may have been adopted from other cultural groups, but once they are adopted by a significant portion of the cultural group, then those features are a defining part of the adopting group.

The Term "Creole"

According to Holm (1988:9) the term ‘creole’ comes from Portuguese ‘criar’ meaning to raise, such as a child, or a servant born into one’s household. As the Portuguese were expanding their empire into Brazil the term ‘crioulo’ came to be used for African slaves born in the New World, and later was expanded to include Europeans born in the New World. Finally the word came to refer to the speech and customs of Africans and Europeans born in the New World. It was borrowed by Spanish as ‘criollo’, French ‘créole’, Dutch ‘creol’, and English ‘creole’. In 1994, Belizeans at the first Creole (Kriol) orthography workshop decided that they would like to promote the spelling ‘kriol’ for reference to the language in Belize.

The Dance: Di Daans

The Drums: Di Jromz

The Music: Di layt, grayt Mista Peetaz (The late, great Mister Peters)