National Kriol Council
30 Kelly Street
Belize City, Belize
ph: (501) 629-8346
alt: (501) 605-2566; 629-6808
nkcbeliz
The Cultural Arm of the council is responsible for promoting the Kriol culture and does so mainly by assisting students with research and by working with organizations and schools to help children of Kriol descent or any Belizean who is culturally affiliated to the Kriol culture to build good self esteem. The materials produced by the Language Arm are used to promote Kriol culture and language as well as to use and understand the English language. The annual Kriol Festival and an Education Outreach Package are used for cultural promotion on a national and international scale. An Oral History Strategy, which focuses on Kriol lifestyle, story telling, folklores, artifacts and games, is used to produce materials for the language program and cultural promotion.
The National Kriol Council believes that working together, Belizeans can achieve a more equitable and fairer society that respects and values its diversity and that the mistrust and fear of difference which often stem from isolation from other cultures can be overcome by fostering cultural understanding, and by highlighting the common interests that all Belizeans share.
They fit with the Council's motto :"Wan wan okro ful baaskit" [Little by little we will reach our goal]
The Language Arm of the Council executes a language program which creates literature to assist students in using their mother tongue of Kriol as a base to developing literacy skills in both Kriol and English. This program is supported by the SIL Linguistics group in the United States, which is providing two missionaries to assist with the translation of the Bible into Creole. SIL has also worked tirelessly on cataloguing the world's languages. Of the world's 6,906 documented languages to date, 77 are listed as Creole languages. Belize Kriol is one type of Creole language. See the Ethnologue at the following site:
Lewis, P, M. (Ed.). (2011). Ethnologue: Languages of the world. (16th ed.). Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/ (accessed 7/30/2011).
Council members are trained in the translation, using the standard spelling as promoted in the officially accepted dictionary. The language arm also publishes a weekly column in The Reporter newspaper called "Weh Wi Ga Fi Seh"" and which is carried on the website
http://www.belmopancityonline.com/kriol-language.aspx
The Kriol Counci. In 2006, through the Bileez Kriol Langwij Projek, completed a one week ethno-musicology workshop with Ethno-musicologist Jo- Ann Richards from Jamaica . Through this workshop 15 songs based on readings from the Bible were composed. They were in Kriol and the Kriol music and other local sounds were used. See the following:http://www.wycliffe.org/
Give/thepowerofyourgift/
worshipintheheartbelize.aspx
A Christmas CD was also completed using passages from the bible to create Christmas songs.
Copyright 2019 National Kriol Council. All rights reserved.
National Kriol Council
30 Kelly Street
Belize City, Belize
ph: (501) 629-8346
alt: (501) 605-2566; 629-6808
nkcbeliz