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Introduction: Francophone Theatre Today

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Kevin Elstob
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Extract

In the wake of French colonization, exploration and trade throughout the world, the French language permeated cultures on five continents. Depending on the source of the statistics, today's world-wide French-speaking population numbers anywhere from 67 to 450 million people. It is estimated that in the year 2000 there will be 500 million French speakers. French is the world's twelfth language, but next to English, the only language to be spoken on all five major continents. From such statistics we might project a community, but do these figures represent a genuinely united people? And, why, if the francophone community is growing should French governmental and cultural organizations be so concerned about the preservation of French? Before examining these questions, let us briefly outline the evolution of ‘la francophonie’.

Type
Introduction
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1996 , pp. 191 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1996

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References

Notes

1. Lauby, J. P. and Maureaux, D.. La France contempoiaine (Paris: Bordas, 1991).Google Scholar See also ‘100 questions-réponses sur la françophonie et la langue francaise’, edited by the Ministère de la culture, Les Incollables (Paris: Bac-Hatier, 1994).

2. Ka, Omar. ‘Une nouvelle place pour le français au Sénégal’, in French Review (Vol. 67, No. 2, 12 1993), p. 277.Google Scholar In his succinct and probing article, Omar Ka traces the evolution of French in Senegal with some illuminating observations. For instance, by insisting on the purely oral usage of African languages such as Oulof and Pulaar—widely spoken in Senegal—the French authorities chose to ignore the existence of a wealth of Pullar and Oulof literature written in Arabic characters. See also, Davesnes, A.. La Langue francaise, langue de civilisation en Afrique Occidentale Française (Saint-Louis: Imprimerie du gouvernement du Sénégal, 1933), p. 4.Google Scholar

3. The Treaty of Paris of 1763 was signed in Paris on 10 February 1763. It brought to a close the Seven-Year War between Great Britain on one side and France, Spain and Portugal on the other. Under the provisions of the Treaty Great Britain received from France: Canada and Cape Breton; Grenada and Tobago in the Caribbean; Mobile and all the French territory east of the Mississippi except the island of Orleans (New Orleans); and French possessions on the Senegal River in Africa. Britain restored to France the islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Pierre and Miquelon; also Pondichéry and Chandernagor in Asia. In return for Florida, Britain restored Cuba to Spain. France had already ceded Louisiana to Spain the year before during the preliminary negotiations.

4. Kom, Ambroise. ‘Francophonie et enseignement des littératures africaines: quels enjeux?’ Revue Francophone (Vol. 8, No. 1, Spring 1993), p. 107.Google Scholar

5. ‘“Des pans entiers de l'activité nationale deviennent bilingues”, regrette Philippe Séguin’. Le Monde (20 July 1993), p. 4.

6. As a Sudanese playwright one would have expected him to write in Arabic, his native language.

7. Magnier, Bernard. ‘El Tayeb El Mahadi, dramaturge soudanais et francophone’, in Théâtre, Théâtres (No. 102, July–August 1990), p. 64.Google Scholar

8. Havel, Václav, Living in Truth. Translated by Valdislav, Jan. (London: Faber and Faber, 1986), p. 16.Google Scholar

9. Dickason, Olive Patricia, The Myth of the Savage (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1984), p. 273.Google Scholar