In 2021, I started a podcast interviewing a different woman each month asking her twenty questions. You can listen to the podcast here. As a thank you gift, I bought each woman a copy of this book.

This is one of my favourite discoveries in this project, a wonderful anthology on the world’s languages/dialects that are now facing extinction. According to the book, “one language is falling silent every two weeks. Half of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today will be lost by the end of this century.”

In a Nutshell:

This poem was written in Rotuman, an Austronesian language spoken by the people of the Rotuman Islands, a Fijian dependency. The poem talks of the forced removal of the poet’s grandfather, Saleatoi Norua Malou, who is from Malaita, the Solomon Islands and taken to Fiji. He was removed by the British during the ‘blackbirding’ era (1860-1920).

Themes:

Exile, racism, colonialism, identity and belonging

An Observation:

Rotuman is described by UNESCO as a vulnerable language.`

Quotes:

“Any translation is a great responsibility but it may be particularly so when the poem concerned is from a language, let alone a poet, that is not very well known among speakers of the target language.” (Introduction)

” My heart shatters. dear grandfather when I recall your aggrieved life atop the south-eastern borders compared to a life of favour meant to be yours on Malaita, Solomon Islads: your native shores.” (Poem)

Details:

Poem: A Privileged Life Denied

Book: Poems from the Edge of Extinction: An Anthology of Poetry in Endangered Languages

Author and Translator of Poem: Sarote Fotfiri Erasito

Editor: Chris McCabe

Publisher: Hachette Uk

Publishing Date: 5th of September 2019

Author and Translator: Sarote Fotfiri Erasito – I was unable to find a image of the author and translator.

Sarote Fotfiri Erasito was born in 1960. She went to school in Rotuma where she learnt to read and write in Rotuman. In 1969, she moved to Fiji where she worked as a primary school teacher for 36 years and was a member of the Fiji Ministry of Education from the 1980s until her retirement in 2015.

A bit about me!

Here I am with my husband visiting one of our favourite places in the world, the Westonbirt Arboretum!

A bit about me, my name is Jess Andoh-Thayre. I am from Brixton, South London. I currently live in Cambodia. Before living here in Cambodia, I lived in Tanzania with my husband, who is a diplomat. I have also lived in Chile and Spain. I am a French, Spanish and English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher. I recently qualified as a SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator). After taking three years off to have a baby in a pandemic and also retrain, I have just returned to work as an Elementary Learning Support Teacher.