For the next four weeks, the world will revolve around Qatar. If the organization of the World Cup by Doha has given rise to many controversies, it has also made it possible to highlight a central notion of Qatari politics: the soft power. Half a century after its independence, Qatar is reaping the fruits of patient work to create and develop its influence outside its borders. Such dynamism may have surprised or even worried in France. It is true that our leaders have long preferred to rely on the achievements of history rather than implement proactive policies.
The holding of the 18th summit of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) on November 19 and 20 in Djerba, Tunisia, gives us the opportunity to draw conclusions from our inaction… Although the Francophonie brings together nearly 320 million speakers, the media silence around the event is deafening. To tell the truth, the Francophonie is of interest at most only once a year, on the International Day dedicated to it on March 20. The opportunity then to be satisfied with a state of affairs by forgetting too quickly that the majority of French speakers are in fact multilingual and that the use of French is, for them, a choice among others.
Moreover, in French-speaking Africa, the future is already written in English… Togo and Gabon have joined the Commonwealth; Chinese investments in the Democratic Republic of Congo are multiplying and business English with it. Apart from the OIF, Algeria is now focusing on learning English from primary school. “The borders of my language are the borders of my world”, wrote the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. It is clear that this world that we share is considerably reduced. This is a particularly disturbing turn. And if the OIF predicts 600 million French speakers on the African continent by 2050, these trompe-l’oeil projections, due in large part to demographic variables, should not prevent us from seeing the truth in the face. .
The richness of the Francophonie: its cultures
This observation was shared by Emmanuel Macron who, from the first day of the Summit, promised “resistance” and the “reconquest” of the French language in the French-speaking world. While the President of the Republic did not consider it useful to appoint a Secretary of State in charge of La Francophonie between 2017 and 2020, this awareness is salutary. In the coming months, it will materialize: he will inaugurate the International City of the French language in the castle of Villers-Cotterêts. Castle of the “renaissance” or last bastion of French, the qualifier that the building will take on in our imagination will actually depend on the concrete actions that will accompany the presidential promise.
The Elysée has already announced the signing of an agreement to strengthen the teaching of French in Tunisia. This is good news but needless to say that, given the demographic changes in Africa, it is urgent to multiply this type of initiative with our French-speaking partners if we want to perpetuate the learning of French. Moreover, such measures must imperatively be combined with policies that will encourage its use on a daily basis. To ensure that French is not limited to classrooms, let’s rely on what makes the richness of the Francophonie: its cultures. And on this subject, it is high time to combine words with deeds. Because already in 2014 Jacques Attali proposed to President Hollande to support the construction of cinemas in West Africa in return for the programming of a quota of French-speaking films.
With regard to literature, the awarding in 2021 of the Renaudot and Goncourt prizes respectively to a Belgian and a Senegalese highlighted the Francophonie. However, the main French-speaking publishing houses are located in Paris. Let’s encourage their development on all continents so that French-speaking authors can be well published, and French disseminated, without them having to make an obligatory passage through Paris. In a Francophonie left fallow for too long by his predecessors, there is no shortage of projects for the Head of State. Now it’s up to him to find the French translation of the expression soft power.