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A
plural francophonie
By Abdou
DIOUF
(Abdou
Diouf, secretary-general of the
international Organization of the
francophonie)
The
celebration, March 20, of the Day of the
francophonie, is not the homage paid to
glorious last. It is the demonstration of
an alive reality, presents everywhere on
planet. It is the assertion of a political
good-will to promote certain fundamental
values in the current world so cruelly
stripped marks bench.
The
francophonie, it is initially of course a
language shared by nearly 200 million men
and women in the world, one of the ten
languages most spoken on the few 2 000
languages practised on our planet. It is,
with English, the only language taught in
all the countries of the world. Is it
known that the establishments of the
Alliance Française, present in more
than 140 countries through a network of
more than 1 000 associations of local
right, teach it with more than 400 000
students with the assistance of generally
national professors?
International
instrument of communication, French is
official language and of work in the most
significant organizations, and initially
in the United Nations. Of course, one
cannot be satisfied these observations: if
the use of the French language and the
desire to practise it progress in the
world, our language is in relative retreat
compared to English. I know the ceaseless
combat which it is necessary to carry out
so that French keeps his statute in
certain official enclosures, including
within the European Union. I am besides
surprised to see the facility with which
certain French give up, in their work, to
practise their language, whereas other
French-speaking people in the world, proud
to practise the language of
Molière, fight to make it live in a
differently difficult cultural
environment. It is the role of each
French-speaking person to take care that
its language is used, in its work and its
everyday life. It is necessary to be
delighted, in this respect, that the
future police chiefs of the new Member
States of the widened European Union
profit, on the initiative of the French
government, of a formation to our
language.
But the
francophonie, it is not only the division
of a language. With through and by the
language express a philosophy, a culture,
a history, values. The French-speaking
countries in common have, for best and the
worst, a history, than they wanted it or,
in the case of colonization, than they
underwent it. This history left us in
undivided heritage of the values that it
rests with to us to defend and promote
since they are with the service of the
justice and the progress of humanity. We
received in division the philosophy of the
Lights, the ideals of the Revolution, the
aspiration with more equality, of freedom,
fraternity. It rests with to us to make
bear fruit this heritage, by enriching it
by the values resulting from the other
French-speaking countries and the lessons
which we drew from this common history,
and by adapting it to realities of the
world of today, so terribly deprived of
ideal.
To promote
these values, the French-speaking
countries obtained a common organization
whose seat is in Paris: the international
Organization of francophonie (OIF), strong
of fifty and one members, States and
governments, and of five observant
countries, gathering on the whole 500
woman and man million living on the five
continents. The first of the actions to be
carried out by the French-speaking
community, it is that in favour of peace,
the democracy and the humans
right.
To act in
favour of peace and the democracy, that
can appear abstract with those which were
likely to be born and to grow in this part
of Europe preserved of the war since
nearly one half-century. But for those and
those, alas very many, which live in the
other part of Europe and certain countries
of Africa, Asia and Latin America, for all
those and those which are constrained to
flee their country of origin to find peace
or work, these words take all their
direction.
The
terrible attacks of Madrid recall us that
peace and the democracy are fragile and
threatened values, even in this part of
Europe, and that the permanent vigilance
of all is necessary to safeguard them. In
the democratic field, the francophonie
must be exemplary if she wants to be
legitimate.
But, so
that the humans right and the practices
democratic progress in francophonie, it is
imperative that each government develops
the teaching of the humans right and of
the principles of the democracy with all
the levels of the education systems. More
generally, the essential effort, on the
level of the public budgets must relate
initially to the access of all with
education and the possibility of being
formed at various ages of the life.
Ignorance is, with misery and the
injustice, the essential source of all the
conflicts and all violences, including
terrorism so dramatically present in the
current world. Today, in the majority of
the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, a
child on three does not go to the school,
and a child on two in fate prematurely.
The educational challenge is in the heart
of French-speaking reality.
The
reduction of the inequalities, that
between the men and the women, that
between the nations, that inside each
nation, is another major challenge for the
francophonie. There is, in this respect,
to make much! The engagement of the rich
French-speaking countries in favour of the
poorest nations and the reduction of the
inequalities is an absolute requirement if
one wants to improve the chances of peace
in the world. The dialogue and united
effort in favour of a durable development
is and must be more still a priority of
our community. The OIF can contribute to
it by organizing the dialogue between
French-speaking countries so that their
voice is heard better in the great
international negotiations like those of
OMC. It can also support the access of the
poorest countries to the appropriations of
the backers.
The
progression in the way of the development
and the reduction of the inequalities
implies also the implementation of better
a gouvernance. Without structured State,
efficient and honest administration, not
of confidence between public decision
makers and investors, not of possible
development. By facilitating the reflexion
and the dialogue between political leaders
and economic for the Member States, while
taking part in the modernization of the
devices of economic regulation, while
contributing to the diffusion in the
countries of the South of new information
technologies, the OIF contributes to the
emergence of better a
gouvernance.
It is
finally a value to which the
French-speaking Community countries must
pay a detailed attention: cultural
diversity. We do not want a world uniform.
We are not opposed to universalization,
but we want a world interdependent, a
world where the dialogue of the cultures
is possible, as Léopold
Sédar Senghor preached it
inlassablement. And so that this dialogue
between cultures exists and is fertile,
one needs a plurality of cultures strong
and innovating which can grow rich by
their differences.
The first
form of cultural diversity, it is that of
the languages besides. Diversity of the
languages, but initially diversity in the
language. There is not only one fixed
French language in an immutable
dictionary. French of Quebec is not
exactly that of Senegal which is not
exactly that of France. In France even,
the language spoken in Provence, and the
way of speaking it, is not the same one as
in Paris. And French of the beginning of
XXIe century is not completely the same
one as that of XIXe. The language reflects
the culture and the time at the same time
as it influences them. In short, the
language is alive, and must remain
it.
The
francophonie is not against English. It is
against a single language, a single
culture, a single thought. It is favorable
to the existence of great linguistic and
cultural whole, spaces of culture and
solidarity which dialogue together. Thus
the OIF engaged a co-operation with the
hispanophones, the lusophones, the
Arabic-speaking people, and that it
engages one with the english-speaking of
them.
Cultural
diversity is not a secondary stake. It is
a central political stake. It is the
counterpart necessary of universalization.
The culture should not be governed by the
ordinary laws of the trade. In this field
also, the francophonie has a role to play,
to organize solidarity necessary between
creators, to facilitate the access of the
artists to the sources of financing, to
contribute with the promotion and the
diffusion of cultural works, to allow the
adoption before the end of 2005 of a
charter on cultural diversity within the
framework of UNESCO.
If it is
true that the French language carries the
French-speaking culture, it is clear that
cultural creation, just like, of course,
the economic dynamism, contribute in
return to the vitality of the language. To
support peace in the world, to make known
and respect the humans right, to defend
the access to education for all, to act in
favour of the durable development and
cultural diversity: it goes without saying
how the francophonie the exclusiveness in
these values and their promotion does not
have!
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La
Francophonie
