Gabrielle Mohamed – Championing Guyanese creole through literature

By Jarryl Bryan

Despite the beauty and uniqueness of Guyanese creole, the dialect often does not get the respect it deserves. But for Gabrielle Mohamed, she has used creole to great effect in her prize-winning literary work. 
Last year, 27-year-old Mohamed won the Guyana Annual Bertram Charles Prize for Playwriting for her “Graveyaard Talez” play.
This year, her play “Spirits of the Mountain Crest” has fetched her the Guyana Annual Dr Paloma Mohamed 2020 prize for drama.
The play has been in the making since she was a child. It follows the adventure of protagonist Kateri Mohamed, who discovers the lair of a wata mama under a mountain and then goes on a time-travelling odyssey into the supernatural.
Mohamed, who hails from Bartica, Region Seven, and graduated from the University of Guyana with an English Degree, spoke of how she grew up learning to channel the folklore of “Red Muddah” into a story that could capture post-colonial trauma.
“In tapping into these emotions and theoretical perspectives, I began my quest of attaining my Bachelor’s Degree in English, in studying courses like West-Indian Literature, Post-colonial Literature, Creole Language Studies, and Women and Literature all helped in fostering my living dead, art’s eye,” she said.
Her creole language studies are evident in her plays. According to her, she has made an effort to combine Guyana’s history into a collective creole voice. It is also evident in her self-published books.
“Today, I have two self-published books – one poetry (Is you Madness nah me Own) and the other, a collection of plays (BlackoutDaze), these are the stories of our people written from the memories of the land,” she explained.
Cognisant of the value the Guyana annual magazine provides, Mohamed described being published and winning two years in a row as something she can never forget. It is a gift… and a responsibility, to have your work seen and heard in Guyana and the Caribbean and to offer the world a glimpse of what Guyana has to offer.
“The moment my hands grasp a pen to draft a plan for a creative piece, I am reminded of this gift given to me, and the responsibility that has been bestowed into my hands. I do not write only for myself, but also for someone else still writing in the closet, for someone still fighting to be heard and seen. To me, this is what the Guyana Annual offers to the unseen creatives of Guyana, a platform to be heard, eyes to feast upon their creative work, an opportunity to open their own path into the realm of Guyana’s dream space.”

Creole
An advocate for the increased use of creole in literary work, Mohamed believes that the world is hungry to learn and devour Guyana’s unique creole dialect the way the Jamaican patois or the Trini twang has been devoured.
Many times, however, Guyana’s creole gets a bad rap when it is labelled as “wrong English”. This is despite it having a complex structure and syntax of its own. Mohamed urged persons not to look down on creole.
“Guyanese Creole is our language, it’s our inheritance, we shouldn’t be ashamed of it. I believe when we use creole either consciously or subconsciously, we pay homage to our ancestors, who were not afraid of any punishment to voice the sound of their people.
“Guyanese Creole, at its fundamental core, is a symphony of notes taken from all our cultural identities, whether it’s from the phonology, morphology, syntax, or semantics structure we, as one nation, are part of this langue system existing in harmony. The sentences that we produce possess meaning, that can be understood… our ancestors were forced to acquire an entirely new language system, I believe it’s time we force someone else to learn ours,” the young writer related.
It is not as if other countries are shy about their native dialects. Mohamed, who was part of the Guyana contingent that travelled to Trinidad in 2019 for Carifesta XIV, described being surrounded by creatives who revelled in their own creole dialects.
“At Carifesta XIV, I witnessed magic unfolding in the Literary Arts booth, as writers and performers from our brother and sister islands employed their country’s creole with pride. Spoken word pieces spitting fire in creole that connected all of us in that tent with one thriving heartbeat of survival, remembering our collective past and looking towards a future, it’s time we catch up Guyana, the world is moving on without us.”

The raw truth
There is something else Mohamed is an advocate for… the raw truth. According to her, part of her responsibility as a writer is to never hold back from speaking the truth but to be raw, real, and unafraid.
“As writers, we play a heavy part in shaping a society’s culture, and ideology. The worlds that we create and characters that we breathe life into are based on the horror of someone’s reality, our creative pieces are meant to either highlight their ongoing issue within society or to offer a solution to their crisis.
“Our words can offer a sense of solidarity in their struggle to become alive and free, but becoming alive in the landscape that is riddled with the touch of our original sin, that is, colonialism, seems impossible until your fingertips take action, and the reality that you want to live is no longer a dream,” she explained.
So, what’s next for Mohamed? She has plans to partner with actors and producers from the Guyana National Drama School, to produce her “Spirits of the Mountain Crest” play once the COVID-19 pandemic has blown over. She, therefore, urged drama lovers to be on the lookout.
“Until it’s safe to enter the halls of theatre once again, I am currently working on a novella entitled “Estate Paruini” and submitted an entry to the Commonwealth short story prize,” she said.
“Dear creatives of Guyana, we do damn good work, continue on your journey of writing, the world is yet to hear your voice.”