By Earl Bousquet, Chair Saint Lucia National Reparations Committee
CASTRIES, St Lucia – ‘History, Language Policy and Costs in Saint Lucia’ will be the theme of the 6th Virtual National Reparations lecture jointly sponsored by the Saint Lucia National Reparations Committee (NRC) and the UWI-Open Campus (Saint Lucia).
The lecture will be delivered online by Dr Morgan Dalphinis, an accomplished Saint Lucian historian and language expert, through the UWI Open Campus Facebook and YouTube platforms, on Thursday evening, February 18, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Based in London from childhood, Dr Dalphinis dedicated his life to scholarly research, studies and writings focused mainly on Education in England, Saint Lucia and the Caribbean, as well as Caribbean and African culture and languages.
His latest publication is ‘History & Language in Saint Lucia’ (2019) and covers three centuries of the island’s history.
Thursday’s lecturer has a PhD in Caribbean and African languages (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London; a Masters Degree in Business Administration (Open University); a BA (Hons.) in Linguistics and Hausa (School of Oriental and African Studies) and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in English for Speakers of Other Languages and French (University of London Institute of Education).
His other publications include Caribbean and African Languages and Language Blacks and Gypsies, (co-ed. with Thomas Acton) and he made related presentations at the invitation of the British House of Commons All-Party Group on Parenting.
Dr Dalphinis helped promote the Mouvman Kweol (MOKWEYOL) in Saint Lucia as a member of the International Committee for Creole Studies (1986-1993) and combined this work with promotion of Kweyol through interviews and presentations on the BBC Caribbean Service, among other British media houses.
Dr Dalphinis helped start two of the earliest Black supplementary schools in London (named after Marcus Garvey and Kwame Nkrumah) for over 20 years and was a voluntary tutor for parents at the East London Black Women’s Organisation.
His reflections, however, are presented through scholarship and poetry.
Indeed, Dalphinis is also a poet in Saint Lucian Kweyol (Creole) and other languages and his poems include: Gwende pou Peter Moses (Dice for Peter Moses), a French-Creole poem read at the Black Arts Festival of West London in 1972. He also wrote ‘Gwo Piton, Piti Piton’ (1984), ‘For Those Who Will Come After’ (1985) and ‘The Calling (Kai Dalphinis)’ (2001).
His publications and research are on Caribbean and African Languages Culture and Education, English as a Second Language and Management Competences Most Relevant to Black Managers; and was invited by UNESCO and the Saint Lucia education ministry to present on these topics.
Dr Dalphinis was a Commissioner on African and Asian Heritage for the Mayor’s Report on Delivering Shared Heritage (2005) and an external examiner for University of Reading and University of the West Indies (2019).
His latest publication is available on Amazon. Several YouTube and Instagram posts feature his works.
