Danielle de St. Jorre recognised and a bust unveiled in her honour at the Creole Institute in Seychelles
ATP- Arab tourism portal- On the 28th October 2015، the day set aside by the United Nations as the International Creole Day Danielle de St.Jorre was recognised for her work as a leader to gel get the Creole Language and Culture to be where it is today. To mark the occasion a bust was unveiled in her honour at the Creole Institute.
Present for the occasion was President James Michel of Seychelles amongst many family and friends of the late Danielle de St.Jorre including her daughter Anne Laure and her family. Opening the ceremony was Penda Choppy, the CEO of the Creole Institute who presented in detail the works of Danielle de St.Jorre firstly as PS for Education and Information before taking up the office of Secretary of State for Planning and External Relations before being appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Planning and Environment in 1993. Madame Choppy said that it was Minister Alain St.Ange who wanted to see Danielle de St.Jorre recognised and honoured with her bust at the Creole Institute.
Danielle de St.Jorre was instrumental in the development of the Seychellois Kreol and helped develop partnerships with the Creole People from the other Creole Speaking World. In Seychelles she organised for the first time in 1982 a Creole Week and in 1985 the first Festival Kreol.
In 1982 he became the first Secretary General of the Creole Islands Federation (Bannzil Kreol) after having represented Seychelles in 1981 at the meeting in Dominique when the Federation of the Creole Islands was declared. Danielle de St.Jorre remained a champion for the Creole Language and a promoter of the Creole Culture. After a lot of work in trying to raise funds to reconstruct the building at Anse Aux Pins, it was in 1989 that she saw the official opening of the Creole Institute by Minister Sylvette Frichot.
When he took to the podium Minister Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture said that recognising those who had worked for the country was important. "A year ago we honoured Antoine Abel, the man behind creole literature in Seychelles. Today we are recognising Danielle de St.Jorre, the GodMother of the Creole Institute of Seychelles. I am reminded of Danielle de St.Jorre from the days when she was my teacher at the Seychelles College. She then then proved herself and we all knew her as Principal Secretary and then as a Minister. She defended our Seychellois Creole Culture and helped safeguard it to be where it is today." Minister St.Ange said.
"Our 30th Anniversary Celebrations of our annual Festival Kreol has been an opportunity for all who see themselves as defenders of our culture to be seen and to be counted. This year during the week long celebrations Seychelles welcomed an Air Seychelles plane that is now on our local register. The plane is flying our Creole Spirit as is stated on it tag line. We also started the process to have the 1935 Drums Regulation that banned the beating of drums in Victoria and other areas, we laid the foundation stone for a new Music Stadium right in the heart of Victoria at English River and only this week God started to speak to us in our Kreol now that we have launched a complete Bible in Seychellois Creole" said Minister Alain St.Ange.
When he ended his speech Minister St.Ange quoted a paragraph from former President Albert Rene delivered in 1982 on the occasion of the launching the first Creole Week in Seychelles. " Today is really a historical day. In our development we have three phases:- we have political independence, economic independence and we have cultural independence. The organisation of this Creole Week is a real sign that says that we have taken our own history into our own hands. Three years later in1985 President Rene said that the Creole week was now part and parcel of the lives of the People of Seychelles and that the time was right to declare it a national Festival" said Minister St.Ange/
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Gerard Le Chene, a friend of Danielle de St.Jorre that took to the podium to bring more details on the works by Danielle de St.Jorre to safeguard the Seychellois Creole language and culture.
President James Michel accompanied by Minister Alain St.Ange and Yann Mancienne, a grandson of Danielle de St.Jorre joined together to unveil the bust honouring Danielle de St.Jorre.
