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French in Africa? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| nebojats Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5196 days ago 89 posts - 120 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Thai Studies: French, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Italian | Message 1 of 32 11 January 2011 at 9:29am | IP Logged | ||
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In the thread discussing the top 10 languages for 2050, someone says that French language study is on the rise in Africa. I was under the impression that while the French-speaking population in Africa may be growing in absolute terms, French has been losing out to English in recent years.
For those in the know: What is French's status in Francophone Africa? What do you predict about French's future status in French Africa? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| uAlex Newbie South AfricaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5068 days ago 2 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Afrikaans, French, Xhosa | Message 2 of 32 11 January 2011 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Good question,
If it's anything to go by, the Anglo-phone country in French Afica, Ghana, recently joined the OIF (International Organization of the Francophonie) to help with their integration in the region. French in French Africa is mainly known as a second language and serves as a lingua franca for its population of diverse languages. It is however a population that is still largely uneducated and not integrated yet, so a lot depends on how quickly economic development takes place there and whether the governments decide to keep French instead of English as the lingua franca. Although as I am aware, English is hardly known in French Africa and it makes sense for the under-resourced countries to stick with French for the immediate few decades ahead. If so the OIF predicts 500 million French speakers in Africa by 2050 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5430 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 3 of 32 12 January 2011 at 5:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Some time back I wrote a long post on the situation of French in Africa and argued rather angrily that French Africa and even francophone Africa are misnomers that smack of a colonial or neo-colonial status. I won't repeat the whole argument here, but basically I started from the observation that while French may be the language of schooling and government, it is not the first or primary language of more than 5 % of the indigenous population. I use the word indigenous population because in most so-called French-speaking African countries there is a very significant expat presence and Africans with French citizenship.
It is therefore important not to confuse population numbers with the numbers of French speakers (as a native language). Just as an aside, one notes that few, if any, African authors writing in French live in Africa. Instead, they live in France where their real markets lie and where, of course, there is a publishing industry. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nebojats Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5196 days ago 89 posts - 120 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Thai Studies: French, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Italian | Message 4 of 32 12 January 2011 at 8:50am | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting responses, thanks. Yeah what really fueled this question was I am considering getting back into French again. I was wondering just how useful French would be if I were to travel in "French Africa," since it does seem like it really is hardly anyone's native language. It seems like it might be about the most useful language in that respect, if your purpose were to travel around the region and not stick to any one country in particular.
Are there are any other rival linguae francae on the continent? I totally agree, s allard, by the way... something about "French Africa" seems a little... archaic/outdated/colonial? I imagine it's a term debated hotly in universities around the world. Edit: What African country has the most native speakers of French? Any idea? Edited by nebojats on 12 January 2011 at 8:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5385 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 5 of 32 12 January 2011 at 1:23pm | IP Logged | ||
The African Union uses French, English, Arabic, Portuguese, and Swahili as their official languages. They also list Spanish, which I find a bit confusing because I think only Equitorial Guinea is a Spanish speaking country, but I'm probably wrong about that. The only sub-Saharan country I've been able to visit so far is Ethiopia, and I was surprised at the number of English speakers I found. My impression is that English is dominant from Ethiopia, down the east cost to South Africa. French is dominant in the Maghreb region, central, and west Africa. Portuguese is official in six countries, I believe, which are somewhat spread out and coastal. Arabic is dominant in Somalia, Sudan, and northern Africa. Swahili is kind of different, from my impression. It's very popular in Tanzania and surrounding countries, but seems to be more of a trade/market languages in other parts of the continent, instead of being confined to/dominating a specific geographic area. That's my impression anyway, I'm sure there are more qualified people than me on this board who can give more/better detail and correct any oversights. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 6 of 32 12 January 2011 at 9:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I used to live in Ouagadougou, Burkina.
True, French may not be the native language of a lot of people, but it's still a language they grow up hearing and using in daily communications or at school, at least if they live in a city or near one. It's the language of education, and consequently, of development and emancipation. After all, most of the economy of most French-speaking African countries depends on international help; French is the language that allows them to connect to that help. While the use of French as a lingua franca may appear as colonial to some, in a small linguistic space where minor languages abound, French is still the only neutral one. It's the only language that can be used effectively in newspapers, newscasts, etc. It's also the only language that allows neighbouring countries such as Mali, Nigeria, Burkina, Senegal, Togo, Bénin, Ivory Coast, etc., to communicate with eachother. Not to mention that smaller African languages are often incapable of dealing with modern technology and trade without the use of French. At present, for these countries to use French as a lingua franca both nationally and internationally, only makes sense. French is also growing in that region because education is reaching an ever larger public in all of those countries and because international exchanges are also bound to increase. Edited by Arekkusu on 12 January 2011 at 9:13pm 13 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5430 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 7 of 32 13 January 2011 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, I think this quote demonstrates better than I ever could the colonial status of so-called French or French-speaking Africa. Not one word is mentioned about the status of the indigenous languages except to call them minor languages. This is the classic argument used to perpetuate this colonial status quo of the African languages. French is the only alternative to a hodgepodge of underdeveloped tribal languages. Plus, of course, French is the language of modern development and international relations. Case closed. I beg to disagree. First of all, French is an official language, but at what cost? My views may be a bit extreme, but I truly believe that the imposition of an external language has been a major factor in the continued underdevelopment of much of Africa. How can you build a nation and a national culture when a major element of national identity--language--is not the primary language of the majority of the people. How many countries in the world exist where the language of the majority is not officially recognized in some way? I may be wrong, but Africa seems to be the only place. What you have in so-called French-official-language Africa is in fact a situation where a tiny elite and an expat community, of which the author of the above quote was a member, speak French as a native language. For the rest of the society French is a second language spoken to varying levels of proficiency according to education and social status. All of these countries have widely used indigenous languages which are the primary means of interpersonal communication. Naturally, these languages exhibit the influence of French, especially in the vocabulary of modern technology. In some countries like the Côte d'Ivoire there even developed an local variety of French that comes out of le français tirailleur, the pidginized French used by African conscripts in the French army. Here is a quote from Wikipedia: "Le petit nègre (ou pitinègue ou français tirailleur) est une langue véhiculaire utilisée au début du XXe siècle dans certaines colonies françaises consistant en une version simplifiée du français. Par extension cette expression a été utilisée pour désigner plus largement les autres langues simplifiées. Le petit nègre était enseigné aux habitants indigènes dans l'armée coloniale française[1]." It goes without saying that in all these countries social status and proficiency in French are closely linked. Not surprisingly, the expat communities do not take much interest in learning any of the indigenous languages, and certainly not the local variety of French, beyond the basic terms necessary for dealing with servants, taxi drivers, beggars and other natives. If you care to look beneath the veneer of official French, you quickly realize that there are widespread indigenous languages that are unofficial vehicular languages and more widely used than French within national borders. If you walk through the streets of Dakar, Senegal, you will hear more Wolof than French. Again, here is Wikipedia on Senegal: "Wolof is a widely spoken lingua franca of Senegal and The Gambia (especially the capital, Banjul). It is the native language of approximately 5 million Wolof people in Senegal, and is spoken as a second language by an equal number." In fact, throughout much of West Africa there are a number of indigenous vehicular languages that could rival French for inter-African communication. Also from Wikipedia: "The largely interintelligible Manding languages of West Africa serve as lingua francas in various places. For instance Bambara is the most widely spoken language in Mali, and Jula (almost the same as Bambara) is commonly used in western Burkina Faso and northern Côte d'Ivoire. Manding languages have long been used in regional commerce, so much so that the word for trader, jula, was applied to the language currently known by the same name. Other varieties of Manding are used in several other countries, such as Guinea, The Gambia, and Senegal." It's interesting to look at the language situation of the other ex French colonies of Northern Africa. Although French is still widely used in education and administration, all of these countries have recognized and promoted their own languages in some form. From Wikpedia: "French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in the Maghreb states of Mauritania, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The language was introduced to the region during French colonial rule in the 19th and 20th centuries. The majority of the population in the Maghreb speak either a Semitic Arabic vernacular (see; Maghrebi Arabic, Darija, Algerian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Tunisian Arabic) or a Berber language natively. Classical Arabic, spoken natively by no one, is the official language of all the Maghreb states." Similar developments did not take place in West Africa for various reasons. And I believe that Africa is paying a price in terms of the development of nation-building. What kind of cultural productions such as literature, cinema and music in French does one see coming from West Africa? None. It's either in one of the vehicular languages or, in the case of literature, from writers residing in France and writing for the French market. Although I personally feel that West Africa should simply abandon French all together in favor of an indigenous lingua franca such as Mandinga and English for wider communications, I recognize that French is going to retain its official status quo for the foreseeable future. So, if you are going to travel in that part of the world of course it makes sense to learn French. Just be aware that as soon as you step outside of the airport, there is an other linguistic reality lurking below the veneer of French. P.S. I would like to highlight the great work of the African Academy of Languages, http://www.acalan.org/. Much of their recent efforts has been precisely on the harmonization and standardization of transborder languages. Edited by s_allard on 13 January 2011 at 5:25pm 10 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 8 of 32 13 January 2011 at 4:09pm | IP Logged | ||
Minor in importance. Just like French is a minor language in North America. Or just like Icelandic is a minor language in Europe. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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