The Politics of Francophonie and Development Aid to Culture in Francophone Africa
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by White Rose E-theses Online Egalité, complémentarité et solidarité: the politics of Francophonie and development aid to culture in francophone Africa by Antony Andrew Marius Walsh Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of PhD University of Leeds Department of French September, 1999 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own work and that appropriate credit has been made to the work of others. ii Abstract 'EGALITÉ, COMPLÉMENTARITÉ ET SOLIDARITÉ’: THE POLITICS OF FRANCOPHONIE AND DEVELOPMENT AID TO CULTURE IN FRANCOPHONE AFRICA'. (PHD). ANTONY WALSH, DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS, SEPTEMBER 1999. Despite a discourse claiming that French cultural aid (coopération culturelle) to former sub- Saharan colonies was an essential part of a largely disinterested project, it was in fact subject to political pressures concerned with maintaining French great power status and African elite access to French education. By exploring both the ambiguities of the discourse of Francophonie, and its institutional forms, I show that the relations it promoted did not for most of the period considered alter those created in the immediate years after independence in France’s colonies. Starting with an overview of French colonial policies (Chapter One) I consider how they reflected the underlying assumptions of assimilation, association and the mission civilisatrice, before assessing the importance of educational factors in decolonisation (Chapter Two). Although the debates over colonial theory were of limited significance in application, the provision of colonial education was sufficient to create a French cultural sphere of influence permitting close relations between French and African elites. The most significant sign of this was the ambiguous concept of francophonie defined by Léopold Senghor. Part Two confronts discourses of coopération culturelle with policy implementation. Ministry archives reveal that political priorities were not always compatible with a universalist discourse portraying French to be a language for the masses. The comprehensive sectors of French coopération culturelle reveal a dependency relationship that France could, however, never totally control. This is illustrated through the example of French aid to the Ivory Coast. Part Three studies how the concept of Francophonie developed into an international organisation to unite French-speaking states and communities for cultural and political dialogue. Despite various projects, including one proposed by the post-colonial African grouping OCAM1, France made few concessions to established patterns of bilateral relations and suspected Canada of seeking to usurp France in its traditional sphere of influence (pré-carré). When the initial organisation was reformed the underlying rivalries and suspicions amongst its main funders made it difficult to establish a clear function for this form of diplomatic interaction. Part Four considers the wider questions of the role of French and language planning for African languages together with the ‘cultural dimension of development’. This section assesses why the inclusion of African culture in development has been rejected. Political and economic reasons have dominated African approaches to this question until recently, when there has been a realisation that states cannot continue to deny their multicultural and multilingual heritage without jeopardising long-term sustainable development. 1 Organisation commune africaine et malgache iii Contents Abstract ii Contents iii Abbreviations v Introduction viii PART ONE: The creation of French (‘francophone’) Africa 1 Chapter One: Assimilation, association and colonial education 2 1.1 Assimilation and the mission civilisatrice 3 1.2 Association 11 1.3 French colonial cultural and educational policies 18 Chapter Two: The decolonisation of French Africa and the francophone legacy of Léopold Senghor 31 2.1 The Brazzaville conference and the Union Française 32 2.2 The Loi cadre and the Communauté française 40 2.3 Senghor, cultural métissage, francophonie and decolonisation 48 PART TWO- Coopération culturelle- means of influence or persistance of a special relationship between France and her former colonies? 71 Chapter Three: Coopération culturelle 1960-70 72 3.1 From Communauté to coopération: The reform of French institutions and the signing of coopération Agreements 73 3.2 The values and motivation of French coopération 86 3.3 Education 95 3.4 Actions culturelles 103 3.5 Gaullism and Coopération 107 3.6 Towards a new cultural strategy? 114 Chapter Four: Coopération culturelle 1970-1995 124 4.1 The crise de coopération of the early 1970s 127 4.2 The Rapport Gorse 132 4.3 The Rapport Abelin 138 4.4 Coopération with the Ivory Coast 145 4.5 Attempts at reform 151 iv 4.6 The place of French and African languages 157 4.7 French aid to the audio-visual sector, cultural centres and to actions culturelles 160 PART THREE: Francophonie: cultural community or extension of the privileged relationship? 183 Chapter Five: The politics of francophone co-operation and the Agence de coopération culturelle et technique 184 5. 1 The battle for an inter-governmental organisation 185 5. 2 The ACCT and Francophonie from 1970 to 1986 214 Chapter Six: The era of the francophone summit 1986-1995 229 6.1 The francophone summit: a renewed basis for constructing a francophone community? 230 6.2 The discourse of Africa’s participation in Francophonie: rethinking cultures and languages other than French? 247 PART FOUR: African cultures, languages and development 268 Chapter Seven: French, African languages and language planning 269 7.1 Language choices of independent states 270 7.2 Language planning and Francophonie 276 Chapter Eight: Non -francophone approaches to culture within development 296 8.1 Culture and education 301 8.2 Cultural policy and development 306 8.3 European Community and bilateral approaches to cultural development 314 Conclusion 321 Bibliography 327 v Abbreviations ACCT, Agence de coopération culturelle et technique. ACP, Africa Carribean Pacific AEF, Afrique équatoriale française. AOF, Afrique occidentale française. AUPELF(-UREF), Association des universités partiellement ou entièrement de langue française (Universités en réseaux d'expression française). BIL, Bureau international des langues CAC, Centre des archives contemporaines (Fontainebleau) CAEF, Conseil audiovisuel extérieure de la France CAPES, Certificat d'aptitude de professoriat à l'enseignement secondaire CFA, Communauté financière africaine CFI, Canal France international. CIA, Central intelligence agency CILF, Conseil international de la langue française. CIP, Conseil international de préparation. CIRELFA, Conseil international de recherche en linguistique fondamentale et appliquée CIS, Comité international de suivi CNN, Cable News Network CONFEJES, Conférence francophone de jeunesse et des sports CONFEMEN,Conférence des ministères de l'éducation nationale vi CPF, Conseil permanent de la Francophonie DITAV, Délégation interministérielle aux techniques audiovisuelles EAM, Etats africains et malgache. EEC, European Economic Community. FFF, Free French Forces FICTAD, Fonds international de coopération technique et d'aide au développement FIDELCA, Fonds international pour le développement des langues et civilisations africaines FPI, Français populaire ivoirien GATT, General agreement on tariffs and trade. GDP, Gross Domestic Product GNP, Gross National Product GPRA, Gouvernement provisoire républicain algérien IEDES, Institut d'études du développement économique social ILAA, Institut de linguistique appliquée d'Abidjan INA, Institut national de l'audiovisuel IOM, Indépendents d'outre-mer IRFED, Institut de recherches et de formation en vue de développement OAMCE, Organisation commune africaine et malgache économique OAU, Organisation for African unity. OCAM, Organisation commune africaine et malgache. OCORA, Office de coopération radiophonique OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development vii RDA, Rassemblement démocratique africain SEDES, Société d'études pour le développement SFIO, Section française de l'internationale ouvrière SORAFOM, Société radiophonique de la France outre-mer UAM, Union africaine et malgache. UDI, Universal declaration of independence UEAC, Union des états d'Afrique centrale UN, United Nations UNESCO, United nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation. viii Introduction Egalité, complémentarité et solidarité: the politics of Francophonie and development aid to culture in francophone Africa1 This introduction is in two sections. In the first section of the introduction, I give a synopsis of the thesis’s parts and chapters. In the second, I consider the essential concepts that I will be studying, notably Francophonie, development aid which, when discussed in a French context, will refer mostly to policies labelled coopération and culture. This study will concentrate on the discourse accompanying these relations brought about by these policies and the motivations of the institutions used to pursue them in France's relations with the francophone states of sub-Saharan Africa. The values of ‘Egalité, complémentarité, solidarité’ that were employed as the founding principles of the Agence de coopération culturelle et technique (the first inter- governmental francophone organisation) in 1969 highlight the latent high ideals that were said to cement the various French-speaking