The new internal regulations of the Municipal Council restrict the use of the Breton language in a shocking manner and remind us of the contempt that has affected our language for so long. Who are we to deserve this? No one is legitimate to "authorize" Bretons to speak their language on their ancient land. We are here in a purely colonial and infantilizing logic.
Mr. Mayor,
Reflecting on your new internal regulations adopted by the Brest municipality, which restrict the use of Breton in the municipal council, the contempt that has long affected our Breton language hits me squarely in the face.
I would have preferred, Mr. Mayor, that you prohibited its use outright. The slap would have been less violent because a banned language is not an inferior language.
Someone reminded me that when she arrived in town, her aunt would ask her to put her Breton in her pocket and a handkerchief over it. But it is even worse with your regulations since the councilor will have to ask the good master for permission, thus participating in the official contempt for their own language and identity.
The restriction on the use of our language, at your discretion, confined to "secondary" subjects because they only concern the Breton language and culture, preceded by remarks in French of course, sends us back to the postulate of its congenital inferiority compared to that of Paris.
We are in the contempt and infantilization typical of any colonial logic.
Moreover, it must be added that the troublemaker will have to immediately translate their jargon into the language of Molière, as if they needed to immediately redeem their fault.
And yet, you were the mayor of Gouesnou not long ago. You must have heard our Breton language, the language of the common people.
Your internal regulations align perfectly with the bourgeois contempt we have suffered in Brest, we, the children of peasants. The merchant bourgeoisie, often of non-Breton origin who flocked in after the war, looked at us with the condescension reserved for bumpkins. As contempt always spreads better under the cover of noble educational values, both public and private schools participated in this work of discrediting.
The writings of François Mauriac on the dumbest right in the world come back to me. The right-wing man and Christian he was had a sharp tongue for the well-meaning of the MRP who supported the work of colonization and repression in Algeria, before going to commune on Sunday at mass.
How can you lend a hand today to the public work of discrediting our language and culture that we have endured for centuries?
By locking up the use of our language and sending it back to its contempt, it is humanity that you outrage.
Article 2 of the constitution cannot cover you. It is contrary to all international norms, particularly European norms that advocate respect for diversity. Article 2 of the constitution, in that it establishes the principle of a single language to the detriment of diversity, reflects values of constraint and domination. I would add that it opens the door to a totalitarian dynamic.
I wonder if your internal regulations do not fit into the descent into hell that the National Rally promises us tomorrow.
I would conclude by saying that freedoms are taken, not requested. Nothing and no one is legitimate in authorizing Bretons to express themselves in their language on their own land.
Y. Ollivier
Author and Brest resident
