Oh Françafrique!

France, a former empire reduced to merely ordinary and still struggling to make the mental adjustment, plays out its colonial and postcolonial psychosis in the most bizarre and often criminal ways.

Walking through the genocide memorial in Kigali, France's fingerprints were everywhere, from their unwavering support of the Hutu power government measured in diplomatic love and machine guns, to numerous decisions to abandon Tutsi to be slaughtered by roving militia (apparently the French forces missed the memo that there was a genocide going on), to their role in creating a safe corridor to Congo for genocidaires to fleeing the advancing RPF (We all know how well that turned out), to the painfully slow pace with which they have pursued homicidal priests that sought refuge within their borders. 

Of course the irony is that in its misguided attempts to fight the anglo-saxon invasion--in East Africa--the French have all but assured Rwanda's anglicization.

It's hardly suprising, given their experiences during the genocide, that many Rwandans have no love for France or the Catholic Church or francophonie. At least, they are learning English in droves, a product of closer integration with anglophone East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, and nominally, Tanzania).  Last November, Rwanda cut off diplomatic relations with France.  Meanwhile, the region's francophone countries--Congo, Cameroon, Central African Republic--remain basketcases.  I'll leave you to decide whether that is a coincidence. 

But that was 1994: ancient history.  Maybe France has learned from its mistakes?  One of the odd things about contemporaneity, at least in the West, is the belief that we've put the worst of human weakness behind us.  That somehow we, along with our leaders, have gotten better, even though stupidity and evil are permanent features of our conditions as human beings and require continual vigilance.  Our Western societies look pretty, but scratch the surface and you'll see the same age-old struggle for money and power, not to mention how much of our own ugliness Westerners have simply exported to distant lands.  Just witness Sarkozy's cozy relationship with francophone African dictators.  African suffering tolerated to subsidize a beautiful French society.

And yet.  And yet.  Francophone Africans are the most responsible.  Yes, France actively supports dictatorship.  But from the most enlightened democrats to the most brutal autocrats, leaders rule with the consent of their people. 

I do not deny the reality of these evils or how they limit possibilities.  But when people keep telling the same stories about themselves, they support a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Francophone Africans yell to France (or Belgium), "Stop! Stop Killing Us!" as though freedom is a gift the French must be convinced to bestow willingly.  It's a truism, but when you make others responsible for your condition you give them all the power not to change it.

Yesterday, I was speaking to a Rwandan government official who told me that peace is a choice and that peace has a cost.  "You strive for it, and once you get it, you must fight for it everyday.  No donor can give us our peace."  Is it any different with democracy, freedom from colonial interference, or leaders that people can be proud of?

Life is a series of choices.  No matter how little power people have, there are always choices.

Blogs matter

There is a message of empowerment, of responsibility, of possibility spreading throughout anglophone Africa, or at least the anglophone blogosphere.  When I read French blogs, I never read about success stories.  I never read about forward movement, progress or at least efforts to formulate a plan to get there.  Instead, it's endless tracts on colonialism, on racism, on Francafrique: in short, a discourse of disempowerment.

Anglophone Africa: when you have conferences, when you make portal sites, aggregators, blog rings, blog-centric online magazines and the like, remember the other half of Africa!  (I have been in many situations where I've had to ask, "have you invited anyone French-speaking?"  Maybe I can understand accidentally overlooking Portuguese or Spanish-speaking Africa, small as theyare.  But almost half the continent??)  Where is the francophone BlogAfrica?

Anglophone blogospheres are necessarily more active because the internet is English-dominant and the French were latecomers to the whole concept of the World Wide Web (Minitel anyone?).  But the lack of interaction between francophone bloggers of different countries is also a major problem.  Blogging is not just about writing, it's about building communities.  How many of us anglophone bloggers comment on and read each other's sites because we are friends, because we've had the chance to work on common projects or even meet each other in person, or because in some fashion we've fallen into the orbit of Global Voices? 

I hope Lingua's French project can help plant seeds.  In the meantime, maybe some of the anglophones out there can brainstorm on ways to help the francophone world discover Web 2.0 and for anglophone and francophone Africa to start speaking to each other.   

Comments

[CareTaker]

Your comment about francophone blogs is knock on the heads of all African new media enthusiasts. However, the francophone bloggers have their own share of the blame as well. I would love to have more French blogs involved in the discussion and listed on ChatterBox - AfricanLoft aggregator, and I have asked for some help but got none from the French bloggers I contacted. In fact my request was ignored!

[Joshua]

intriguing, Jen.

Immediately after reading I wen out and got the Bates book. Nice.

Let me know when you want to chat about northern uganda!

[Blaise]

En France, on pense qu'il y a une vie au-delà ou après le Blog. Donc la question est aussi culturelle et idéologique. Cela explique l'implication modérée du monde francophone dans la blogosphère. Nous avons -- Anglophones ou Francophones -- intériorisé les tics de nos colonisateurs respectifs. Mais en dehors des inimitiés tenaces que se vouent à un certain niveau les Français et les Américains (pour aller vite, car en vérité, la Grande Bretagne c'est un peu différent) nous avons tort nous autres Africains de nous mêler de ça. Nous devons nous ouvrir les uns aux autres, au-delà des barrières linguistiques. Cela suppose un grand effort à faire du côté des Francophones. Après tout l'anglais est dominant dans le monde, donc tout francophone doit savoir que parler ou se faire comprendre en anglais n'est pas un luxe. Pour autant le problème ne se limite pas à la simple opposition entre le français et l’anglais. Dans certaines réunions internationales, je me suis retrouvé à côté d'Africains (Togolais, Nigérians ou Nigérien) qui parlaient les mêmes langues africaines que moi, mais avec lesquels l'échange pour autant n'était pas facile. Donc je crois qu'il y a un gros travail à faire pour repenser la manière dont nous communiquons entre nous. C'est sûr que nous obéissons toujours au réflexe de la triangulation. Il fut un temps où pour téléphoner à mon cousin Yoruba du Nigeria, mon appel devait d'abord transiter par Paris, puis de Paris aller à Londres et c'est seulement à Londres qu'il se redirige vers Lagos ou Ibadan ! Je crois que c’est ce type de carcan qu'il faut déconstruire dans nos têtes. La même chose se passe dans un même pays africain, où le la médiation d'une langue étrangère, fût-elle officielle fait obstacle à la compréhension de soi. En fait, il faudrait une politique audacieuse de la communication en Afrique, qui s'appuie sur une appropriation harmonieuse de nos langues, quoi quelle en coûte.
Et c'est là où celui qui vous, lit Jen, doit voir le lien fort dans votre article. Car vous avez commencé par parler de l'acharnement français au Rwanda qui a joué un rôle non négligeable dans le génocide, mais vous avez pointé du doigt l'un des motifs de l'engagement français dans cette région : ce que les experts et historiens appellent le complexe de Fachoda. La crise de Fachoda, disent-ils est « un incident diplomatique sérieux qui opposa la France au Royaume-Uni en 1898. Son retentissement a été d'autant plus important que ces pays étaient alors traversés par de forts courants nationalistes. Elle a eu pour cadre le poste militaire avancé de Fachoda, au sud de l'Égypte. Dans l’imaginaire collectif français, la crise de Fachoda reste comme une profonde humiliation infligée par l’archétype d’un Royaume-Uni triomphant et hautain, forcément de mauvaise foi. » Depuis lors, la France n'a de cesse de veiller à son honneur colonial dans ses rapports avec la "perfide Albion". Cette vigilance frileuse est à l'origine de ce qu'au Rwanda vous qualifiez de "diplomatic love"; mais en fait d'amour c'était plus une obsession qu'autre chose !
Oui, il faut que nous les Africains nous refusions les barrières qui se dressent entre nous. Les Francophones doivent vraiment reconsidérer leur rapport à la langue anglaise, et savoir que la parler ou s’y faire comprendre n’est pas un luxe. Cela peut aider grandement à éviter la structure hémiplégique des échanges sur le net ; Mais au-delà, il faut aussi questionner l'apparence naturelle de certaines barrières qui nous entravent, barrières souvent héritées du passé ; à commencer bien-sûr par celles des langues, mais aussi des pensées. Le sujet est trop vaste, pour ne pas ennuyer, je donne ma langue au chat ! Attention, je ne veux pas dire par là ce que les Français y comprennent, je veux dire ce que les anglophones y comprennent à savoir : qu’il y a matière à chatter...

[Timothy Washington]

Hey thanks for writing your post. I really agree that Anglophone and Francophone Africa have to start talking to each other.

I've posted your blog on a Black discussion board, Destee.com (http://destee.com/forums/showthread.php?p=480260#post480260). Lots of voices over there and this will definitely be heard.

Keep it up.

[Blaise]

In France, we think that there is a life beyond or after Blogs. Thus the question is also cultural and somehow ideological. Besides, nobody denies the sociological aspects of blogging. All these reasons explain but do not excuse the moderate involvement of the French-speaking world in the blogosphere. We have in Africa, - English speakers or French speakers - interiorized the tricks of our respective colonizers. But except the firm hostilities that opposes at a certain level, the French and the Americans (putting the British aside, because though they belong to the same cultural world, the British share many things in common with France and did not replace it as a world leader) we African should not involve in such a king of political idiotism. We have to open ourselves to each other, beyond the language barriers. It supposes a big effort to be made by the so called Francophone. After all, English is a leading language in the world, thus every French speaker must know that to speak or to be understood in English is not a luxury. Though, the problem is not limited to a simple opposition between French and English languages. At some international meetings that I occasionally attended, I could find myself sitting next to “brother” Africans (Togolese, Nigerians, or Ghanaians) who speak the same African languages as me, but with whom speaking is not automatically easy.

So I believe that there is a big work to be done to rethink the way we communicate between ourselves. For sure we still obey the reflex of triangulation in communication. It was a time when to phone to my Yoruba cousin in Nigeria, my call had to pass in transit at first by Paris, then from Paris go to London and only in London that it will be redirected towards Lagos or Ibadan! I believe that it is this type of yoke we have to dismantle in our mind…

The same difficulties occur in every single African country where the mediation of a foreign language, though official, is an obstacle to people’s mutual understanding. In fact, there is need for an audacious policy of communication in Africa, which leans on a harmonious appropriation of our languages, however costly it may be. Jen, at this point, your reader is invited to see the pertinent transition in your article. Because you began by speaking about the French doggedness in Rwanda which played a significant role in the genocide, and you went on pointing at the motives of the French commitment in this region : what experts and historians call the complex of Fachoda. The crisis of Fachoda, they say is " a serious diplomatic incident which set France and the United Kingdom in 1898. Its echo was important all the more as these countries were then crossed by strong nationalist movements. The frame of the crisis was the advanced military post of Fachoda, in the South of Egypt. In the French collective imagination, the crisis of Fachoda remains as a profound humiliation imposed by the archetype of the triumphant and haughty United Kingdom, necessarily in bad faith. "

Since then, France has no rest until it watches its colonial honour in its relationship with the «perfidious Albion ". This historic nervousness is at the origin of what in Rwanda you call «diplomatic love "; but by way of love it has more to do with an obsession than other thing !
Yes, we Africans should play down the barriers raised between us.

The Francophone have to reconsider their relationship with the English language, and know that to speak it or be understood in it is not a luxury. It can largely help avoid the hemiplegic structure of the exchanges on Internet; beyond, it is also necessary to question the naturalness of certain barriers which hinder us, barriers most of which are inherited from the past : language barriers, but also barriers of thoughts.

The matter is too vast. To avoid boring, I give my tongue to the cat! As the saying goes in French !

[Jennifer Brea]

Blaise - merci pour la traduction! Tu es vraiment trop cool toi :-)

I would agree that there are anglophone/francophone cultural difference with respect to blogging and the extent to which the internet has penetrated society.

BUT. I have hundreds upon hundreds of blogs from dozens of countries around the world in my Francophonia Google reader account and most of these update regularly. So I don't agree that it's simply a case of francophones blogging less. The difference is they aren't really talking to each other, and again, I think this is an issue of community building. I have met in person or have had significant virtual interaction with many of the African blogosphere's most prolific/high-profile bloggers. The question remains, why isn't this happening in the francophone world? Or is it?

[theantisuck]

It is much smaller, but does exist. I find that north africans tunis/maroc/algiers even mauritania (famous blog x ould y) are more likely to blog than west/central african francophonie, where blogging virtually dissapears - Structurally/ culturally those countries are so much more divided from the anglosphere and global movements than north africa, which with arabic and aljezeera has other cultural centers to connect with- internet or otherwise.

[Jennifer Brea]

I haven't found any blogs in Mauritania yet. If you know of some, do tell! In fact, there are a couple of countries--Mali, Rwanda, Chad, Mauritania, for example--where I just haven't been able to find people blogging in French.

[Mialy]

Jen,
Oui, on nous oublie souvent, nous Africains francophones. Je n'aime pas vraiment qu'on me traite de francophone en general, parce que j'ai l'impression que c'est reducteur, de meme que j'ai horreur qu'on me demande dans une conversation si oui Madagascar etait une colonie francaise, comme si c'etait la toute l'identite de Madagascar, etre une ancienne colonie francaise. Mais bon. Dans les conversations avec les Anglophones, c'est ainsi qu'ils m'identifient : une Francophone. Et donc comme tu dis, on nous oublie trop souvent, nous les Francophones, et aussi nous sommes un petit monde a part.
Mes amities a toi dans ton coin du monde
Mialy

[Kian-Harald]

L'usage de l'anglais et du francais ne s'excluent pas du tout si on constate que l'anglais a un large vocabulaire francais et latin. Le 'Christian Science Montor' l'a indiqué dans un article, publié en 2003. Le monde, et l'Afrique en particulier, est multilingue. Si les francophones s'inclinent beaucoup plus à apprendre l'anglais, les anglophones le refusent plutôt. Il serait utile que ca se change. Pourquoi pas parler francais avec un américain et anglais avec un togolais?

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