The “Rama language and culture” project: notes for a balance sheet

Abstract

The Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, which represents more than half of the territory of that country, is a multilingual region where, in addition to Spanish, Creole English and several indigenous languages are spoken.  Speakers of the latter range from tens of thousands, in the case of Miskito (Misumalpa), and the thousands who use Sumo (Misumalpa), to the two dozen who use Rama (Chibcha) and the few who use Garifuna (Arawak). During the 1980s, when the Sandinista Revolution took place, the legal, constitutional and social status of these languages changed.  This change is due, in Jo fundamental, to the autonomy process carried out in the area, which is often considered as a second revolution.  The autonomy project was a response to the war situation in the Coast, when the indigenous and Creole peoples rejected the first actions of Sandinismo in the region. From the beginning, at the center of the confrontation were linguistic problems.  The local population opposed the revolutionary government's literacy campaign in Spanish, and the government had to implement a literacy campaign in the native languages. Subsequently, local demands included the right to bilingual education and official recognition of the languages of the Coast. Another of the main demands was the preservation of the languages and cultures of the region.