I have followed with great interest the debates surrounding Bill 96, particularly those relating to indicators for monitoring the state of the language. The international Francophone space being our field of study, let us examine here certain observations for Quebec.
Let’s start by recalling a few names. Former Presidents Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal, Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia, Hamani Diori of Niger and Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia are known as the fathers of La Francophonie. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Abdou Diouf, Michaëlle Jean and Louise Mushikiwabo succeeded each other at the head of the International Organization of La Francophonie. Yasmina Khadra, Alain Mabanckou, Ahmadou Kourouma and the Prix Goncourt that are Mohamed Sarr, Amin Maalouf and Tahar Ben Jelloun are great feathers of the French language, to which we can add those of Dany Laferrière, Jim Corcoran, Kim Thúy and Boucar. Diof.
What do these people have in common? They are certainly great personalities in the French-speaking world, but none of them have French as their mother tongue.
They are a reflection of the French-speaking world, which has been completely transformed in recent decades. At the beginning of the 1960s, the Francophone population was firmly established in the North—more than 90%—and it was then made up essentially of people whose mother tongue was French. This is no longer the case in 2022: nearly 60% of the 321 million Francophones are in the South, where very few have French as their mother tongue. As I have pointed out on several occasions: we are born less and less francophone, but we become more and more so.
These 321 million people live in what we call the French-speaking galaxy, within which we have circumscribed a subset of territories, the “born or live in French” planet, which includes those who are exposed to French language on a daily basis. The number of French speakers on this planet has grown by 55 million from 2010 to 2022, including 50 million (91%) on the African continent, which confirms the shift of the center of the Francophonie from Europe to Africa.
However, it is plurilingualism that first characterizes the linguistic regimes of French-speaking Africa. A study that we have just published shows that between 75% and 98% of the populations of some thirty cities in French-speaking Africa declare that they master two or more languages. The contexts are varied, but French is omnipresent. The example of Abidjan is eloquent since 90% of the population declares that they speak French most often at work. At home, French is used as the only language by 20% of Abidjan residents, while 70% say they use French and an Ivorian language.
This pattern also characterizes, with some variations, the major cities of other countries: Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, etc. Elsewhere, French is less present, but is seen as a partner language, with Wolof in Senegal, Bambara in Mali, Arabic in the Maghreb, and this, while very often being the main language of instruction from primary to primary school. ‘university. It is therefore the school that has become the main place for the transmission of the French language in the French-speaking world, a language that is then deployed in the written media, in parliaments and through posters in the teeming streets of these big cities of French-speaking Africa.
It is worth remembering that it is from this continent that more and more French-speaking immigrants from Quebec and Canada come. Plurilingualism among these Francophones is therefore not a fiction, as some demographers would have us believe. It seems clear that mother tongue is an indicator that we must continue to collect in surveys and censuses, but this information is clearly insufficient to define who is Francophone.
Finally, it is constantly repeated that Quebec is surrounded by more than 300 million English speakers in America. Why not try to bring Quebec closer to these millions of French-speakers on the planet who are sometimes quite far away, but within reach of a click or a Zoom? Promote exchanges with these other French speakers on the planet? And even more, is it possible, above all, to stop creating obstacles for those who wish to study here, discover Quebec and, why not, live there and start a family there? It is surely time to revive this idea of a French-speaking visa which would facilitate mobility through this galaxy.
Pierre Bourgault wrote in 1997: “Today, our children of all origins find themselves in our common language and know that French, if it isolates us in North America, also opens up all horizons to us throughout the world. » The horizons now formed by more than 320 million French speakers on several continents.