[BRIEF NOTE] Senegal and la francophonie
Jun. 18th, 2009 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldOver at A Fistful of Euros, Douglas Muir blogs about his recent visit to Senegal. He finds that this successful west African country is far more Francophone than recently-visited Burundi.
This isn't surprising given Senegal's long history with Europe; Senegal was the only African territory caught up in the 1848 revolution. Don't forget that the country's long-time president, Léopold Sédar Senghor, was one of the founders of la francophonie and the first African member of the Académie française.
As for the future, in his analysis of Senegal's language policy, Jacques Leclerc argues that while the French language is very deeply implanted in Senegal, the fact that the majority of the Senegalese population speaks Wolof means that the tenure of French as the dominant language of government and media will be limited in the future. The extent to which French may be limited is open to question, although the deep influence of the French language and culture that Douglas has identified suggests that it won't be too limited.
Gallicization seems to run deeper here than in Burundi. No, that’s not exactly right. More like: the European influences seems more assimilated. In Burundi, rich and elite Burundians can seem like wannabe Belgians, cut-and-pasting the culture of the former colonists. Elite Senegalese seem to be more comfortable integrating the different influences. It may just be that Senegal is a much less desperately-screwed-up place than Burundi, and so has less of a cultural cringe… I’m not sure.
But anyway. Another difference is that Senegal has a small but significant population of non-African francophones. In Burundi, this group numbered perhaps a few thousand — perhaps a tenth of one percent of the population. Here it’s more like a hundred thousand — Lebanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and a scattering of odds and ends like Greeks and Vietnamese. The Lebanese, in particular, occupy an important social niche: there are thirty or forty thousand of them, they’ve been here for generations, and they’re mostly merchants and traders in the larger cities. By Senegalese standards, most are rich. So while they keep fairly quiet politically, they have a disproportionate impact on Senegalese society and culture.
The French, same but more so. Some are descended from colonial-era merchants and landowners who stayed on after independence; more are recent immigrants and their children. Their numbers aren’t large, but there are enough of them to support a thriving little community. A tremendous amount of ink has been spilled on the topic of immigration from developing countries into Europe; the flow in the opposite direction has been almost entirely neglected. True, it’s much much smaller — there are a hundred Senegalese trying to reach France for every Frenchman considering a move to Senegal. But it’s not negligible, and there are countries where its impact is surprising. The non-African communities in Senegal play a significant role in the country today; if nothing else, they’re helping to keep Senegal firmly connected to la Francophonie and engaged with the wider world. Dakar is not a rich city, but it’s a surprisingly cosmopolitan one.
This isn't surprising given Senegal's long history with Europe; Senegal was the only African territory caught up in the 1848 revolution. Don't forget that the country's long-time president, Léopold Sédar Senghor, was one of the founders of la francophonie and the first African member of the Académie française.
As for the future, in his analysis of Senegal's language policy, Jacques Leclerc argues that while the French language is very deeply implanted in Senegal, the fact that the majority of the Senegalese population speaks Wolof means that the tenure of French as the dominant language of government and media will be limited in the future. The extent to which French may be limited is open to question, although the deep influence of the French language and culture that Douglas has identified suggests that it won't be too limited.
