For the past few days, I have been assailed by journalists asking me for a reaction to François Legault’s remarks on the possible “Louisianization” of Quebec. I am not sufficiently aware of the nuances of Quebec politics at the time to understand his motivation, but on the substance of his remarks, I wholeheartedly agree.
Posted yesterday at 1:00 p.m.
A little history
However, we cannot compare Louisiana to Quebec in terms of linguistic culture. The historian in me takes the opportunity to give a little lesson. Louisiana was sold to Thomas Jefferson by Napoleon Bonaparte. The sale included the current third of the United States. To confine the Franco-Catholics and better control them, the lower part of the territory was cut off by designating it “Orleans Territory”, which became the 18e State of the United States in 1812. Its constitution guaranteed the equality of French and English in the legislature, but – a decisive detail – the Supreme Court could only hear cases argued in English.
The Civil War ruined the planting elite as well as the whole country. She was the death knell for Franco-Creole culture. Although the French-speaking aristocrats managed to integrate into the new American aristocracy, their glory days were behind them. Planter identities and allegiances have adapted to the new post-bellum reality. In 1918, the daily The Bee of New Orleanswhich became the New Orleans Beethe last French newspaper, stops publishing.
The beginning of the XXe century was very difficult for the French in Louisiana. The State Constitution was amended in 1920 to banish French from the public square. In 1916, the Education Act was enacted. It did not specifically ban French, but by requiring all children to be educated, the result was the same, as public schools were English-speaking institutions.
Young unilingual French-speaking Cajuns, like my parents, faced brutal assimilation.
The leadership of the Francophone community, henceforth in the hands of the plantation elite, disappeared quite suddenly. What has preserved the French language in Louisiana is not its literature or its political leaders, but its isolation. Spoken in the ranching savannahs and fishing boats, as well as in the homes of the Cajuns, French was able to resist assimilation because Anglo-American culture did not penetrate to the bottom of the Attakapa prairie or to the bottom from Bayou Lafourche. This changed with the arrival of the oil industry and the Second World War.
Our Dysfunctional North American Francophonie Family
If I move away from Mr. Legault’s remarks, it is to put his comparison into context which, I find, lacks nuance, although founded somewhere. It would be no better to compare Quebec to Manitoba or to Acadie, because each of the communities that are part of our dysfunctional North American Francophonie family has its own history and its own challenges. Where Mr. Legault’s remarks resonate with me is in the fact that all of our communities, including Quebec, are facing assimilation.
I arrived in Quebec in 1974, vibrant with the passion of discovering my francophone identity. I had just discovered the story of my deported ancestors thanks to the story of Acadians, of Bona Arsenault (a Quebecer from Bonaventure) and The Acadian Miracleby Dudley Leblanc, Louisiana politician, millionaire and Francophone activist.
Acadian history was not and still is not taught in Louisiana, and learning it was like a bomb going off in my mind. Arriving in Quebec and discovering a society where you could live fully in the French language was such a strong explosion of identity. I fell in love with Quebec as soon as I arrived.
Immediately in the province, I was propelled into the tidal wave of emotion that was Quebec in the 1970s. I danced in Prince-Arthur Street the night the Parti Québécois came to power, in 1976. I experienced the disappointment of the first referendum and I cried to see René Lévesque, his heart broken, postpone his dream “until next time”. I am delighted with the chance that Quebec gives me to be able to express my creativity in French. My mission seems to be to remind Quebeckers that we are 33 million Francophones in the Americas, most of whom, like me, live in a minority setting and face assimilation on a daily basis.
To come back to Mr. Legault’s remarks, I agree with him that Quebec must do everything to ensure the primogeniture of the French language. I don’t think the Louisiana comparison is necessary to illustrate the threat of assimilation. Just look at Montreal. I agree with those who say that Quebec will not be captain of its destiny as long as it is drowned in Confederation. He will be condemned to live endless nights of long knives. But it is not my place to give you a lesson on the question of sovereignty. Suffice to say that the reality of assimilation does not allow relaxation.
Lessons for Quebec
Today, French in Louisiana is reduced to folklore, despite a French-speaking professional class that wields an influence well above its demographic weight. We have our poets and our singers, but despite significant visibility and a real resistant community, the French language will never be what it was in my grandparents’ time.
I think there are two major lessons to be learned from the history of French in Louisiana that can serve Quebec. The Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) was founded in 1968, at a time when the French-speaking population represented almost 50% of the population of southwestern Louisiana. CODOFIL made two major mistakes when it was created which contributed to the erosion of the language it is supposed to promote.
The bill that created CODOFIL provided it with a studio for the creation of community television. Which never happened. Instead of independent television, CODOFIL got one hour a week on Louisiana Public Broadcasting.
To maintain a culture, it is necessary to acquire means of dissemination, which is not the case in Louisiana. In this regard, I have no doubt that Quebec will be able to defend itself. Between TVA, Radio-Canada and multiple newspapers, websites, etc., Quebec has plenty.
The second error remains more problematic.
The first president of CODOFIL, James Domengeaux, although sincerely attached to the language, was elitist. His approach was based on a disregard for Louisiana culture in favor of a mythological conception of “proper French.”
I in no way contest the teaching of normative French, on the contrary, but CODOFIL’s approach made no room for the Cajun dialect or the Cajun culture of Louisiana, with the result that Francophones, mostly working class and illiterate in French, felt excluded. The teaching of French in Louisiana depended and still depends on the collaboration of the French-speaking states: Canada, Belgium and, above all, France. Most teachers in immersion programs (there are no French schools in Louisiana, but immersion programs based on the Canadian model) come from elsewhere in the Francophonie. The problem is that young French students had difficulty communicating with their French-speaking parents simply because of the accent and the style of syntax they were learning at school. Rather than enlisting Louisiana French-speakers and valuing the local dialect, CODOFIL chose to repel French-speaking Cajuns by scorning what Domengeaux considered “bad French”.
A wagon called Art
The lesson for Quebec is simple: to maintain a linguistic culture, it takes the support of the people. And the interest of young people. This is the challenge for Mr. Legault and all those who hope to maintain the French culture of Quebec. And it happens not only in schools, but also in the streets and on screens. The mule pulling the wagon is called Art. The specificity of a culture is expressed through its artistic creation. What the Government of Quebec can do is in particular to initiate bills intended to protect the use of French and to support Francophone expression among young people. Let’s start in schools and continue with grants. If we manage to appeal to young people with the vivacity and “cool” (sorry, prestige) of French, we will form a generation of activists ready to defend and promote linguistic culture. The lobster has two claws: the dollar, and the heart.
Bravo, Mr. Legault, for your support of French here and elsewhere. Louisiana and its French speakers are at your service in the fight to promote this language that we love.