Second edition of ‘Island Studies – Indian Ocean/Océan Indien’ launched |11 September 2015

The second edition of a journal dedicated to promoting the understanding of the vulnerabilities that affect the development of islands of the Indian Ocean sub-region has been released.

The second edition of ‘Island Studies – Indian Ocean/Océan Indien’ was released on Wednesday afternoon at the Guy Morel Institute, Ma Joie in the presence of the vice-chancellor of the University of Seychelles Dennis Hardy, the chief executive of the Au Cap-based Creole Institute Penda Choppy and the Dean of the Guy Morel Institute Shella Mohideen.

The journal is also an important tool to communicate emerging issues as faced by islands in the Indian Ocean.

Mrs Choppy said the second edition of ‘Island Studies – Indian Ocean/Océan Indien’ is the result of the 2014 International Colloquium on Creole Language and Didactics in the Indian Ocean region which was organised by the University of Seychelles and the Creole Institute.

She added that the journal gives details about the colloquium that was held last October in Seychelles.

“The journal gives you all the details about the colloquium that was held in Seychelles. There are also some articles about our Creole language, about socio-linguistic subjects, how our country is promoting our Creole language,” Mrs Choppy added.

She pointed out that there are not enough academic activities in Seychelles.

“In our small country there are not enough academic activities for our youths to promote our language. We need to focus more on our culture, our heritage. With that journal we hope that Seychelles will be recognised around the globe as it will promote our culture, our way of living. Creole is a language that’s fundamental internationally, many people internationally are studying the Creole language,” she noted.

Prof. Hardy pointed out that the second edition of ‘Island Studies – Indian Ocean/Océan Indien’ focus is about various aspects of the remarkable mix of languages and cultures in the western Indian Ocean.