Three weeks from the 18e Summit of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), which will be held on November 19 and 20 in Tunis, divergent voices are expressed on the action of this organization intended to promote French in the world. Several actors in the field, in Africa in particular, are concerned about the reduction in the OIF’s action in education – which should be the core of its mission — since Rwanda’s former foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo took over as its director in 2018.
“Since M.me Mushikiwabo directs it, the OIF has become invisible on the ground. Education no longer seems to be a priority and the Organization no longer fulfills its function”, confides Fridolin Mve Messa, general secretary of Gabon’s main teachers’ union. Joined in Libreville, the trade unionist considers more generally that the OIF “is no longer involved in the defense of the French language. If education is no longer a priority, let them tell us!
The frustration expressed by Fridolin Mve Messa is not isolated. It is particularly expressed within the French-speaking trade union and training committee (CSFEF), which brings together the teachers’ unions in French-speaking countries. Last week, as it has done for 35 years at every summit, the organization met in Tunisia, where the Francophonie Summit will soon be held. What was the surprise of the organizers to discover that, contrary to what was practiced before, no representative of the OIF would be present. The French-speaking branch of Education International, the CSFEF was created in 1987 on the initiative of French, Quebec and Senegalese trade unions. As an international non-governmental organization, it is accredited to the OIF.
“Deliquescence”?
“During our previous congresses, we always obtained funding to hold our activities, we always had a representative of the OIF at the opening ceremony. This year, none of that. The OIF tells us that the budget line for civil society organizations has been abolished”, says the secretary general of the CSFEF, the Quebecer Luc Allaire.
For the man who is also responsible for international relations at the Centrale des unions du Québec (CSQ), this withdrawal from the OIF is only a manifestation of ” [son] current state of decay. According to him, the OIF has never been so little present in the defense of French in the world since it was led by the Rwandan Louise Mushikiwabo.
In 2018, the term of former Governor General of Canada Michaëlle Jean was not renewed after the Quebec press revealed lavish expenses of around $500,000 for her Paris apartment. Anxious to reconcile France with Rwanda, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, had then supported the candidacy of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of this country. An appointment which then paved the way for reconciliation between the two nations and an official visit by the President to Rwanda.
“Has the OIF stopped promoting the French language? asks Augustin Tumba Nzuji, who heads the National Federation of Teachers and Social Educators (FENECO/UNTC) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “Since M.me Mushikiwabo is in place, the action of the Francophonie has continued to regress, he says. However, we are constantly told that education is supposed to be the priority of the OIF and that the future of the French language lies in Africa. »
The DRC has 400 dialects and four national languages, but French remains the only language spoken throughout the country. Budget cuts, says Augustin Tumba Nzuji, cannot fail to have an effect on the Organization’s action towards Africa, where the vast majority of French-speakers are today.
Avenue Bosquet in Paris, at the headquarters of the OIF, we deny any relaxation of the action of the Francophonie in the field of education. If the CSFEF subsidies have been eliminated, it is because “the programming of the OIF has been refocused on major issues, seeking the impact on the populations and the attractiveness for donors”, says Oria Kije. Vande Weghe, director of communications of the OIF. The Organization now finances only 25 flagship projects, including several in education, such as the Regional Centers for Education (CRE), covering some twenty countries on three continents, and the Francophone Initiative for Teacher Training (IFADEM) , present in 15 African countries.
The Temptation of the Commonwealth
In Ottawa, the head of the Direction de la Francophonie, Chrystiane Roy, refused to speak to us. But The duty learned that Ottawa is well aware of this malaise. Some civil servants wonder in particular if the reduction in the budgets of the OIF has not gone too far. There are also concerns about the general secretary’s propensity to sideline civil society organizations. What Oria Kije Vande Weghe formally denies. In 2022, 130 national and international non-governmental organizations were accredited to La Francophonie.
This “erasure” of the OIF would not only concern education. Last February, it took a month, and pressure from Canada and Quebec, for the OIF to take a position on the war in Ukraine, a country which has nevertheless been an observer member of the Organization since 2006. On the major issues of human rights, the former director of communications for the Organization Bertin Leblanc deplored last May, on the airwaves of Radio France International, that the OIF had become very “discreet”.
Could these weaknesses explain the decision of Togo and Gabon to join the Commonwealth? An organization of which Rwanda hosted the last summit in June. The most recent report of the Observatoire de la langue française (2022) noted that, despite a growth in the number of its speakers in Africa, the French language continued to decline in international organizations.
For Fridolin Mve Messa, the Commonwealth will never replace the OIF. “Gabon is one of the most French-speaking countries in the world. Here, only the elites speak English. But the trade unionist deplores the propensity of the representatives of France to express themselves everywhere in English, a propensity that the predecessors of Louise Mushikiwabo did not hesitate to criticize. “What is the point of defending the French language if in international organizations the French speak English? If the French no longer want French, let them tell us. We will take care of it. »