Question

Speech on the topic francophonie

Answer 1

The political leaders who emerged from decolonization in French Africa in the 1960s wanted to expand institutional and functional co-operation within the Francophone world. With their newly acquired freedom, independence, and equality, they wished to create new mechanisms of consultation, co-operation, and, whenever deemed appropriate, policy coordination at the political level. Such ideas were fostered by men like L�opold Senghor of Senegal, Hamani Diori of Niger, and Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia. Several African countries saw it as a way to expand their access to sources of development assistance, a mini-North-South dialogue (Canada 1988, 2).

La Francophonie as it is now known can be defined as the world community of French-speaking countries, or the collective unit formed by French-speaking people. In Francophonie: Purism at the International Level, Brian Weinstein describes it this way:

Francophonie is an international language movement led by government and nongovernment elites in over thirty countries where French is official or used by a significant population. The maintenance and extension of a standard spoken and written French language purified of unacceptable English language borrowings and local idiosyncrasies is one general goal. The other is the maintenance and extension of French as an official or co-official language (Weinstein 1989, 53).

Worldwide there are more than 150 million Francophones. Two of every three Francophones live outside of France, and in more than forty countries on five continents. La Francophonie "is a community, based on a common language, which believes in the unity and diversity of cultures" (Hamilton 1994, 21). It should come as no surprise that French has for some time been one of the most widely used languages in the world, and for a long time it was the only language of international diplomacy. It is used alongside English as a working language at the United Nations, the European Union and the Olympic Games. However, there is a great deal more to the Francophonie community than simply sharing a common language.