that girl with the afro

Despite some of the major events in colonial history happening over a century ago, the influence of colonial powers on their post-colonial colonies is still a major conversation today. With 300 million French speakers existing in the world and being the 5th most spoken language globally (Chutel, 2020), it is evident that France has been able to maintain its language’s prominence in the world outside of the European bubble. With more French speakers existing outside of France (La langue française dans le monde, 2019), it is no surprise that it still holds so much global status and as stated by Crystal (2003, p.5), “A language has traditionally become an international language for one chief reason: the power of its people – especially their political and military power”, also referred to by Wilson as ‘hard power’ (2008, p. 114). It is then no surprise that English has also been able to hold global language status, undeniably a result of the past colonial empire that Britain was able to maintain for years, which established its military power globally as well as America’s political power post-WWII with international establishments such as NATO in 1949 post-WWII (Why was NATO founded?, 2017) making English a perfect working language between distant nations and establishments such as the EU in which English is predominantly the most used working language among non-native speakers (Europeans and their languages, 2012). Therefore, to fully investigate the reasons behind the current global status of France, it is important to first focus on its establishment of hard power through colonialism. After which, how France has maintained its global status through other means such as soft power can then be elaborated. Indeed, one of the methods that have helped France maintain its status is the focus on cultural diplomacy, a key tool France has used to help maintain their global status. It is also the case that a lot of France’s (and Britain’s) former colonies still have a working relationship with their past colonial powers therefore making it helpful to both parties that the official language of the past European empires is still used to help aid communication, even in cases where the European language is no longer the official language of the past colony. Therefore, in this essay, analysing the causes behind the current global status of France, the use of the Francophonie and its evolution will also be analysed, as it is a clear example of the aforementioned point. An analysis of the postcolonialism period and post-WWII will be provided to better understand the impact on the status of the French language. Finally, the role of Soft power and cultural diplomacy and its implication on the current status of French in the 21st century will be investigated.

Firstly, as mentioned, to discuss how France has current global status we must first look at the history of how it was able to spread so vastly, to begin with. The establishment of the French-speaking empire in various regions worldwide such as the Caribbean, Asia and Africa (La langue française, 2019), meant that its language was able to spread through hard power such as military power and this enabled economic and political security through it. During the years 1885 – 1914, the scramble for Africa led the major European powers of the time to fight for their prominence in the land of many natural resources as “Africa was full of raw materials that could be exploited to fuel the industrial revolution” (St Johns College). All of these European powers saw the economic potential in the continent as trade had already existed between the two previously, however, to monopolise on maximum profit, stronger military power would be needed. The argument for the economic gain of the colonisation of Africa was popularised in the British Empire, especially by J.A. Hobson who claimed, “finance is... the governor of the imperial engine”. The French, of course, followed suit in their conquest of Africa, often in competition with their historical rival Great Britain (A. Webster et al, 1998).

However, the conversation about the implementation of French in Africa cannot be discussed without mentioning one of the biggest contributors at the time. Belgium, although not having as many colonies in number compared to France in the European expansion of Africa, was able to colonise part of the centre of Africa that is Congo (Belgian-Congo), now known as The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, previously known as Zaire) with the support of other western countries (Pakenham, 1992, p.253-5) while the Republic of Congo (French-Congo) going to its own previous coloniser, France. Leopold II’s colonisation of Congo is a harsh example of military power imposing itself onto a nation however the implementation of French is an important topic of discussion as although successful and therefore was supportive of the political stability of Belgium’s colonial power, the attempt of the eradication of regional languages was never as successful as seen in other French colonies despite the Democratic Republic of Congo being the largest population outside France to speak the French language with 77 million speakers (Bada. F, 2018). Despite being such a large country, DRC has been able to maintain its use of regional languages, while French still works as an official language, this also being the case in the Republic of Congo. This, in particular, has been a main concern for the DRC, as the use of the four national languages with younger generations has significantly decreased, with most new generations being more comfortable in French and not as fluent in their “native tongue” (Africanews, 2017). The maintenance of these national languages has been helped by the language policy enacted in 2009 which makes use of one of the national languages in the early stages of formal education, depending on which language is spoken more often in that geographic region (GPE Secretariat, 2020). However, the official use and connection to the French language has historically caused controversy in the country, specifically post its independence from Belgium. Famously, former president Mobutu in 1966 “changed the name of the country, cities, and streets to eliminate European names” as well as “ordered all Zairians to have authentic names, those which refer to their ancestors” (Adelman, 1975). This change in the perception of the French language heavily retorts the efforts the Belgians made to impart the French language as one of prestige as Mobutu’s efforts to eradicate the presence of the French language in Congo’s culture was in opposition to the idea the language reflected that of a higher status than the traditional languages of the country. However, the French language maintained the official language of the country, arguably to maintain working communication with its past coloniser and former Francophonie colonies to still maintain a working relationship for economic aid and trading. The same can be said for some of Britain’s past colonies, an example being Ghana and Nigeria, although still use English as an official language have maintained their regional languages and are still used as a main form of communication in different tribes and regions of the countries (Bamgboṣe, 1976, p.18). However, the biggest factor in the preservation of European languages such as French or English can be argued to be the multitude of traditional languages that exist within African countries that inevitably made it harder for their governments to use one as an official language of the said country without it causing political unrest.

Many traditional languages in Africa were linked to kingdoms and tribes that were once separate but after European colonisation, these languages were spoken in countries that were formed of these merged kingdoms and tribes. Therefore, using one traditional language (often of many) would appear as an act of favouritism towards a particular group of people, as well as unfunctional as these languages are often geographically used and not universally understood or spoken. Therefore, to maintain political peace within the country often maintaining the European language that was already universally understood helped maintain stability (Bamgboṣe 1976, p.17). These series of events help support the case that colonisation helped deep root the use of these European languages in their colonies, not just in Africa but also in the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific Islands. However, since most former European colonies have been independent for many years and the social climate around the topic of colonisation has been shifted, how has the French language maintained its global status when several former colonies no longer depend as heavily on their past colonisers for political stability?

Due to the economic strain a lot of these colonies still face at the expense of the colonisation, a working relationship is still kept between most former colonies and its past colonisers, therefore said European language such as French, is kept to make communication easier and maintain political stability in these countries. As aforementioned, the maintenance of the French language was often used to keep political stability in the country as the language was universally understood. This, in turn, however, also meant that former colonies could communicate with each other due to them having a shared language with their former colonisers. This leads the topic of conversation to how France has maintained global status due to monopolising its use of soft power. Although used more actively now, the use of soft power for the French language is not new. The use of French exclusively in salons during 18th century France by higher class people led to the association of the language of social prestige which inevitably made the public perception of French to be of high status and encouraged citizens to learn and speak the language to seem more “respectable” in society (Llewellyn and Thompson, 2020). This use of soft power plants a strong cultural seed for the use of French to try and assimilate to those seen as higher in society although as mentioned in some Francophonie countries often post-independence of their respective French-speaking power, citizens would rebuke this ideology as Taiwo states “to set off our own revolution, we had first to put off our borrowed dress, of assimilation, and affirm our being, that is, our negritude” (1967, p.45). It is also inevitable that the language of the people that take hold of a country would then be associated as a language of power encouraging citizens to speak the language of people who are deemed as powerful, a “colonial elite” as well as needing to communicate with their colonisers to try and fight for independence, therefore creating the use of a working language (Prah, 2009).

Furthermore, another added benefit of the maintenance of the French language in post-colonial countries is that often these national languages do not have an official written form, as was the case in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and therefore the use of French to produce literature helped with the eradication of said national languages, as French would be spoken consistently in schools, workplaces and eventually informally with members of society in private households (source). In other post-colonial countries such as Mauritius, Madagascar, Haiti, and the Ivory Coast, the French language is also maintained but takes up a different form in Creole that becomes more of a personal identity to these nations but due to the social status of the European French, it is maintained as a high variety form of language “being reserved for formal situations and associated with high prestige” (Migge and Léglise 2007, p.23). The continued use of French in these countries internationally helps maintain political stability as the language can be spoken and understood universally across the country, therefore being used in education and professional institutions, which makes the official status of the language more concrete in the country’s linguistic identity. It also means that fellow Francophonie can communicate with each other providing political and economic support, meaning the French language once again becomes a tool within hard power however with the maintenance of cultural soft power.

Moreover, with a collective of French-speaking countries, the initiative of the Francophonie is brought to mind. Since France could not rely on its empire as a hard power source, the use of soft power through cultural diplomacy helps maintain political and economic stability which is a sustainable method to maintain the global status of the language. Cummings (2003) describes cultural diplomacy as “the exchange of ideas, information, art and other aspects of culture among nations and their people in order to foster mutual understanding” So, with a vast number of post-colonial francophone countries, France then took the initiative to use the shared linguistic culture of the French language to unite these countries. This was ever more a pressing issue post-WWII when the impact of the USA was overwhelmingly present in Europe and France’s reputation was on the line. With the introduction of international organisations such as the UN (United Nations) and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the financial support the U.S was able to provide after the war meant that the English language became more important for communication across nations, especially within Europe, although as a working language but culturally throughout nations the American influence was also taking place through mediums such as films from Hollywood while the French reputation had been damaged from the devastation of the war. Therefore, the establishment of the international organisation of the Francophonie in 1970 (Francophonie, 2018), meant that non-European Francophone nations could stay in communication with each other with the foundation of cultural solidarity that was shared through the French language. This use of soft power was key to how France has been able to maintain its global status currently as well as the establishment of French institutions, schools, and organisations that civilians within the Francophonie organisation would have access to due to their shared language, with many francophone countries being heavily impacted after colonisation it was of benefit to them for citizens to be able to gain a higher education and employment opportunities within Europe, possibly providing a better quality of life.

With the rise in power of French-speaking countries such as Canada and Switzerland (Studin, 2020), the influence of the French language has led to an association of success and power comparable to its English rival. Similar to how the French language could be associated with higher status during colonisation in the French and Belgian empires of the late 19th century, the success of these French-speaking nations means that currently the French language is still associated with prestige. The influence of French culture through media also leads new generations to want to learn the language with 120 million students of the French language living in non-francophone countries (M. Wood, 2019). The use of cultural diplomacy has been instrumental in how the French language has been able to persevere and maintain its global status. The foundation however was set by its global expansion during colonialism and the hard effect it had on francophone countries' own source of hard power, according to Crystal (2003, p.3) “A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country”. Even postcolonialism the French language could be maintained through cultural solidarity, whether with fellow francophone colonies or with France or Belgium who could then provide the economic, political, and social support these countries needed. The threat of the English language and the crush on the French reputation post-WWII meant that the use of hard power was no longer an option to maintain the global status of the language, its international colonial roots, however, were deep enough that soft power via cultural diplomacy was able to help boost the appeal of the language and maintain its current global status. Even though cultural diplomacy “is not a bandage to be applied after the damage is done”. (Ibid cited in Kitsou, 2013, p.25) the French language has maintained its positive image among millions across the world.

image via honestmediablog.com

The Khoe languages are indigenous to the southern region of Africa, with only one main form of the language Khoekhoe remaining actively used and recognised in the region. As of today, the Khwe language (derived from the Khoe language family) stands to have 10,000 speakers living in the southern regions of Africa, specifically Namibia, Botswana, Angola and South Africa (Brenzinger, 2011). An endangered language can be defined as “when its speakers cease to use it, use it in an increasingly reduced number of communicative domains, and cease to pass it on from one generation to the next” (Language Vitality and Endangerment, 2003), due to the decreased number in speakers of Khwe in contrast to the predominant languages in the spoken regions, efforts have been made to upkeep the use of the language in fear of extinction as Crystal says “a language dies when nobody speaks it any more” and further adds “for native speakers of the language in which this book is written, or any other thriving language, it is difficult to envision such a possibility” (2014). The preservation of national languages has been a large concern for a majority of African countries post-independence of their colonisers, as linguistic identity holds cultural diplomacy as Cummings states cultural diplomacy entails “the exchange of ideas, information, art and other aspects of culture among nations and their people in order to foster mutual understanding” (2003). Often the language of previous European authorities can remain an official language for these countries to preserve unity amongst residents by not showing favouritism over a particular language that may be used more in certain regions of the country (Lateu, 2014) as well as official documents that were made in said European language that would create issues when translating into several different languages that often are not as easily transcribed due to do a lack of literacy knowledge on these languages (Anderson and Harrison, n.d.). However, southern Africa has shown a continued effort to preserve these indigenous languages, in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia majority of the black citizens' mother tongue is the Bantu language that exist in the regions with the official language English be of a second language to Black citizens that is learnt through school (Marjorie, 1982). However, in parts of Angola, as stated in the International Congress of Portuguese Language, younger residents are slowly becoming Portuguese monolinguals and the use of languages such as Khwe that have influenced the linguistic structure of modern Bantu languages used regularly in these countries is slowly dissipating (Observatório da Língua Portuguesa, 2016). Therefore, an analysis of how Khwe became endangered and the efforts to preserve the language as well as the external factors that have damaged related languages of the Khoe language family and why this is a cause for concern shall be further looked into.

First, to discuss the factors related to the endangerment of Khwe and its related languages, context must be given to provide an accurate analysis and further discussion. The Khoisan ethnolinguistic group is the group of non-Bantu and non-Cushitic languages native to southern Africa although also spoken in Eastern regions. Notably, the term “Khoisan” is argued by linguists to be a term related to the ethnic group of speakers comparable to “Caucasian” and “‘Papuan’” of indigenous languages rather than its original definition of an independent African language family (Güldemann, 2014). During the 18th-20th century, a noticeable amount of language death within the Khoisan family was recorded (Traill et al., 2016) and now leaves the majority of the remaining speaking population of Khwe in Namibia and Botswana with the remaining few speakers in bush regions of Angola and South Africa (Brenzinger, 2011). Khwe (also referred to as Khwedam) is part of the Khoe-San dialect continuum, which is defined by Pavić (2011) as “ a range of dialects spoken in some geographical area that are only slightly different between neighbouring areas”, this language is considered to be part of the dialect cluster of the Khoe language family including languages such as Khoekhoegowab (formerly known as Nama/Damara), the most widespread language of the Khoe dialect continuum which is spoken in the same respective regions of southern Africa as Khwe (Haacke, 2008).

Khwe speakers are often located in the rural “bush” regions of southern Africa such as with the San tribe which is one of the oldest tribes to withstand in the region (Brenzinger, 2006). This regional exclusivity impacted the use of the language within urban populations, with Bantu languages being used instead, despite the phonetical influence Khwe presently has in Bantu languages today such as the clicks used in Xhosa and Zulu (Gunnink, 2015). These areas of southern Africa were often inaccessible for Westerners which in turn helped preserve the use of the language in the remote areas, however, during the 1970s the introduction of contact from some missionaries also introduced the Bantu languages to Khwe speakers (Chumbo and Mmabo, 2002). Although historically, phonetic features of Khwe can be seen in Bantu languages such as Zulu and Xhosa, scholars argue that the introduction of Bantu languages to Khwe speakers helped promote a shift away from Khwe, as the phonetic similarities made an easy transition into Bantu languages that were spoken widely amongst other people rather than in select groups (Gunnink, 2015). Furthermore, this is supported by the change in living traditions within the tribes Khwe was spoken in as the population transitioned from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a Westernised lifestyle that would enable the need to communicate with wider society more (Chumbo and Mmabo, 2002). This shift meant that more Khwe speakers would not pass on the use of the language to younger generations which as Woodbury, (n.d.) states a language becomes endangered when it is “no longer being learned by new generations of children or by new adult speakers; these languages will become extinct when their last speaker dies”. Therefore, it is apparent that due to the remote areas Khwe speakers are located in, the linguistic changes in urban cities impacted the majority of southern Africa’s linguistic identities during colonialization and prevented the distribution and maintenance of these indigenous languages and dialects. However, the most noticeable impact on Khwe and other Khoe languages is the expansion of the Bantu people which in turn led to the widespread use of the Bantu languages that are now more prevalent in the southern regions of Africa than the Khoe language family is located. The Khwe-speaking population along with other Khoe language speakers are recorded to have resided in the southern part of Africa before the Bantu migration from central and west Africa 5,000 years ago. During this migration through cultural and linguistic exchanges, both languages were fundamentally altered (Gunnick et al, 2015).

Evidence shows that Bantu languages have phonetic similarities to Khwe which has led some younger Khwe speakers to adopt the popular Bantu languages in their respective regions such as in Botswana. In contrast, some regions of Namibia still maintain regions where Khwe is taught to individuals as a second language (Chumbo and Mmabo, 2002). However, like many other indigenous African languages, the lack of orthography in Khwe makes it challenging for governments to implement using the language as a medium in education for younger generations to learn, which in turn promotes the exclusivity of the language to the rural areas of the country where the language is spoken between elder individuals and taught through spoken word rather than literature. Moreover, when missionaries first settled in Africa the Bantu languages that were more widely used were transcribed to convert the natives of the regions which in turn led to the language being taught on a wider scale in contrast to the older Khoe languages that existed previously.

Southern Africa has been able to preserve a range of its indigenous languages despite the hold European powers held over the regions until 1975. However, through the process of colonisation, the presence of European languages still holds precedence in Africa. The first Portuguese colony was set in Angola in 1575 the country did not gaining independence from European power till 1975, the aftermath led to Portuguese being the official language of the country and many youths today only the language used (Observatório da Língua Portuguesa, 2016). Whereas in countries such as Namibia, South Africa, and Botswana where linguistic identity is much more diverse across different ethnic groups with languages such as Ovambo, Swahili and Xhosa being spoken widely among citizens but English being the official language of both countries due to the large white populations often being the most active speakers of the language (Sen Nag, 2017). With the overwhelming presence of the Portuguese and English languages in the southern regions of Africa, inevitably some national languages slowly became less used among citizens. Language is often a tool of soft power, Crystal states (2003, p.5), “a language has traditionally become an international language for one chief reason: the power of its people – especially their political and military power”, the Portuguese language remains an international language as an impact of its past colonial prowess and with its longstanding authority in Angola still has an overwhelming presence that has impacted the indigenous languages that were actively used previously. In other regions of southern Africa, the use of English as an official language holds a political statement such as in South Africa wherein in 1955 a teaching policy introduced the “50-50” process of teaching in English and Afrikaans in schools (Marjorie, 1982). However, due to a shortage of fluent black Afrikaans speakers and a revolt from black citizens against the use of Afrikaans in black districts due to the oppressive stigma of the language that was and still is often viewed as a language of their oppressor, a government change to allow schools to choose what language to teach in led 99% of black schools teaching in English. Despite it being the main medium used in education, 90% of black South African’s mother tongue is a Bantu language such as Xhosa and Zulu with English being a second or third language learned later in secondary education (Marjorie, 1982). Bantu languages are often used as a medium for instruction during the early stages of secondary school and are the sole language used in primary schools, in contrast to Angola where Portuguese is regularly used in schools in both primary and secondary stages, but national languages can also be used in varying regions of the country. This leads to the issue of literacy knowledge, to preserve linguistic identity Bantu languages such as Kimbundu in Angola and Zulu in South Africa were transcribed to be used in education and different forms of literacy, however, Khwe has not been treated which such prioritisation which has led to a lack of usage from citizens and often the language is only actively used within rural parts of the countries (Brenzinger, 2006)

Moreover, a noticeable aspect of the endangerment of the Khwe language is the separation of the communities within the speaking population. Due to the separation of Khwe speakers in different countries within southern Africa, it became difficult for Khwe to be maintained within tribes that were then merged or put under the authority of neighbouring tribes within the area (Chumbo and Mmabo, 2002). This is noticeable in regions such as Botswana although has the largest population of Khwe speakers, noticeably separated from the minute number of speakers in regions of Angola and South Africa, where younger generations are often multilingual speakers due to the need for communication between authorities leading to a prioritisation of Bantu languages spoken more commonly within the country. Furthermore, this brings to question why an effort to save endangered languages should be made. Some may argue that languages are naturally selected due to their usefulness (Engler, 2014), however, National Geographic’s “About Enduring Voices” (Anderson and Harrison, n.d.) argues that “Language defines a culture, through the people who speak it and what it allows speakers to say. Words that describe a particular cultural practice or idea may not translate precisely into another language” This is supported by Khwe speakers from Namibia who claim they are “the most invisible alive nation in the world today” (Chumbo and Mmabo, 2002). This is because the Khwe community were not only separated at the borderlines of Namibia and Botswana but is under the authority of tribes that are more represented by the government and are provided more resources. Disturbing the land of the Khwe community not only separated the speakers but weakened their cultural practices which is a key concern to many endangered indigenous cultures. Khwe speakers in Namibia have specifically been vocal about the lack of representation in their chiefs and leaders, and how this has led to a separation in the community. They also expressed that teaching the younger generation in Khwe would help preserve more of the culture surrounding the language as the majority of the younger generations are taught in neighbouring tribes’ languages and therefore learn more about their culture and lifestyles than those of the Khwe-speaking people (Chumbo and Mmabo, 2002). Lateu (2014) reiterates that for minority groups “to survive, languages must be seen to be relevant. They must be valued, and their use encouraged, particularly among children”. It is therefore vital that minority groups’ languages are saved to help communities thrive and knowledge and cultures are shared to help further education on environmental understanding, human communication and how humans store knowledge (Anderson and Harrison, n.d.).

In conclusion, Khwe holds a historical significance in southern Africa being one of the few remaining non-Bantu languages still spoken in the regions this however inevitably became the downfall of the Khwe language along with its respective languages and dialects within the Khoe language family. The dominance of Bantu languages across a wider range of Africa meant communication between different nations in non-southern regions became a more accessible method of cultural exchange. During the periods of colonisation and missionary work, non-native speakers often learned Bantu languages to convert and trade with local people in a wider range of territory. The preservation of the rural tribes of Khwe communities meant although the language and culture were preserved for a considerable amount of time, the lack of communication with urban populations led to a restriction on cultural exchanges, leading to younger generations becoming bilingual in Khwe and Khoe languages as well as Bantu languages, furthermore due to the westernisation of Khwe communities the cultural traditions that partnered the language dissipated and led to younger generations using Bantu languages in education and wider society. Linguistic identity is often integral to cultural identity and with a lack of government support of Khwe-speaking people the merging of Khwe communities with other tribes of different speaking nations meant the language along with its cultural traditions began to die with older generations. However, the preservation of Khwe has become a worldwide discussion and the recognition of the importance of endangered languages has become a major concern with linguists giving hope to the Khwe language.

image via ipacc.org.za

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