In honor of Deaf Awareness Month and International Week of Deaf People both taking place in September, I spoke with, Raymond Antrobus, one of the international leaders in the deaf community about his experiences globally.
Raymond is a 37-year-old, Jamaican British, Ted Hughes Award winning poet and educator who has devoted much of the past decade traveling the globe and visiting regional deaf services.
We start in his father’s homeland of Jamaica.
JAMAICA
“Even though it is a relatively small country, there are two different sign languages in Jamaica. You’ve got Country Sign, and then JSL, Jamaica Sign Language,” reports Raymond.
“Country Sign was developed by Jamaican farmers. It’s a completely indigenous language— literally invented by Jamaican farmers across the island.
“And then JSL is spoken by deaf people who have had access to formal education.
He notes, “In the world, there are over 400 sign languages spoken, and even British Sign Language and American Sign Language are entirely different from one another.”
Among Antrobus’ many travels, some have taken him into war torn areas such as the Ukraine and Palestine.
“One invisible element with all war is that it inevitably leads to more deafness due to all of the bombing. After any ceasefire, there’s going to be a lot of deaf children and adults resulting from the conflict,” states Raymond.
“And often afterwards, it’s the people who are left disabled bywar who are neglected and forgotten.”
UKRAINE
“The Ukraine— somewhat surprisingly of all the places I’ve visited— has one of the most stable and visible deaf community that I’ve seen.
“I did a poetry reading and literally there were about 50 to 60 deaf people in the audience that came specifically to see me.
“But on the way to the venue, I had to be escorted by security and the streets had loads of pictures of people who’d been killed. It was like a runway of faces. One of the most striking things I remember seeing were lines of bullet holes across this row of trees.
“So, the thing I was haunted about afterwards— due to there having been this massive turnout of deaf people— was that they quite literally risked their lives to come to this event. That’s how much experiencing connection to the community meant to them,” Antrobus observes.
PALESTINE
Another conflict torn region is Palestine.
“Hashem Ghazal, was known as ‘the godfather of of the deaf’ in Gaza. He was an activist and founded one of Gaza’s only deaf centers in 1992.
“He and his wife were killed in May by an airstrike on their home as they slept.
“There are no deaf schools in Gaza now. Palestine only had two to begin with. That community is just completely shattered currently,” Raymond reports.
“The sad irony is that Israel has one of the strongest deaf communities in the world. There is even a wonderful ‘Deaf Museum’ in Tel Aviv.”
AFRICA
Raymond’s travels across the world have included many nations in Africa such as Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, and Sierra Leone.
“In Sierra Leone, there were only two deaf schools in the whole country. And like so many under-served nations, not one of the students even had hearing-aids.
“Also, none of the teachers there were deaf themselves and corporal punishment was still being used. The teachers had these massive rulers, and they’d whack the students. It was quite brutal. And it wasn’t hidden. They were quite open about it.”
“But one of the biggest challenge in Sierra Leone,” notes Raymond, “is getting enough interpreters who are properly trained.
“There were quite a few deaf people murdered there, because people would see them signing and get the idea that person was possibly possessed by the devil rather than just trying to communicate.”
Nonetheless, Antrobus points out that each country is unique and that not all of his experiences were negative.
“I had a beautiful and empowering visit in Morocco. I went to this deaf school that’s quite rural, and away from the capital. But it’s a place that’s entirely run by other deaf people.
“It was one of the most emotional experiences I’ve ever had— seeing this young deaf community very confident, very independent, and having such role models in their immediate environment.
“Yet, that community is integrated because they do stuff with the neighboring villages as well. The whole kind of taboo thing between the deaf and the hearing world just didn’t seem to exist there.”
Raymond remarks out how different that inclusion is from many other places and how stigma remains to varying degrees in most cultures.
“Some places still retain a lot of the negative framing around deafness. Like the idea that it is a curse from God— that if you have a disability you’ve done something wrong in a past life and it’s almost a punishment to be reincarnated as deaf or blind.
“There’ve even been many cases of people being murdered while signing due to others mistaking the use of sign language for the deaf person being possessed by the Devil.”
But just as prevalent are the economic divides that exist as obstacles to receiving care.
“In South Africa, you’ve got kind of remnants of apartheid because you need money to pay for hearing aids and school fees.
“Without that, you’re kind of expected to work jobs like manual labor. In South Africa, there are quite a lot of deaf people laboring in factories and the backs of kitchens washing dishes or picking-up trash in the streets.”
Regardless where in the world, one of the biggest challenges facing deaf communities are disproportionate cases of police violence— particularly towards young males. The inability to hear is often perceived as a refusal to cooperate and signing mistaken as threatening. Many such instances of violence towards deaf people have inspired Raymond’s poetry.
When Daniel Harris stepped out of his car
the policeman was waiting. Gun raised.I use the past tense though this is irrelevant
in Daniel’s language, which is sign.Sign has no future or past; it is a present language.
You are never more present than when a gunIs pointed at you.
“Daniel was driving home in North Carolina. A police car turned on a siren to pull him over. But Daniel didn’t hear the siren. He was profoundly deaf. So, he carries on driving. He reaches home and gets out of the car. His arms are up and he’s trying to sign.
“The police officer shoots him straight away because he sees Daniel’s hands in the air and they’re moving.”
“Even in the UK there is no training for the police to interact with the deaf, there are no provisions. We are just fortunate here that so few of the officers are armed.”
But nonetheless Antrobus sees reason for uplift and hope.
“We’ve had a pretty amazing year for deaf art. Right now, the Royal Shakespeare Company are staging a deaf version of Anthony & Cleopatra. And it’s so well done. It has not been produced in that kind of tokenistic way. Instead, it’s just pure art.
“It’s been amazing that in my lifetime I get to see a massive institution like the Royal Shakespeare Company embracing deaf artists. And hopefully that can help build a trend that will spread globally.”
Raymond exclaims, “They’ve put sign language on the stage where it should be, because British Sign Language is more than 500 years old.
“It’s literally as old as Shakespeare.”
Raymond Antrobus’ new album, Another Noise, is a first-time collaboration between he and Dame Evelyn Glennie, the only deaf person to have ever won a Grammy (which she has done twice while also being nominated five other times). The album was recorded live in a single UK afternoon without rehearsal and with almost every track being a first take. Glennie’s parts were 100% improvised without her having prior knowledge of any poem performed.
