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Originally Posted by Truenorth00
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The only takeaway is that this is the usual bullshit, especially when written in a media called "Independent Arabia" (cough... give me a break!).
If French should have been wiped out in Africa, it would have been in the 1960s, shortly after independence, when anti-colonialism, Thirdworldism, and the USSSR and its international Communist project were very strong. Some nations tried (such as Mali, already), but quickly retreated (Mali returned to the CFA Franc and the Francophonie 10 years after having left it for instance).
Today, the French language in sub-Saharan Africa is so entrenched it's impossible to eradicate it, for the usual reasons: lack of a single unifying language other than French, French-speaking elites that will oppose removing French from public life (which would endanger their position), lack of money to publish school books in native African languages, easy access to French-language knowledge (books, media, Wikipedia, etc) vs lack of local African language modern cultural offering, need to communicate with fellow Francophone African nations.
Increasingly, there's also a growing generation for whom French is a native tongue, and not a 2nd language (in Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Congo, etc). How exactly do you remove the French language? By exterminating these African people??
Last but not least, the Sahel is the part of Francophone Africa where French is the least spoken, so there's certainly never been a "golden age" for the French language there, as the article ridiculously states. The Sahel is a backwater. This is not where the future of the French language in Africa is being written. The future of the French language in Africa takes place in Abidjan, Lomé, Douala, Yaoundé, Kinshasa, and other coastal areas. And its position there is stronger than it's ever been (and with an increasing number of native speakers there). The Sahel will just follow whatever is decided in those coastal countries, same as Yukon or Nunavut will simply follow what's decided in Vancouver, Toronto or Montréal.
For example, Côte d'Ivoire, and its economic capital Abidjan, is the natural outlet of Burkina Faso. 4 million Burkinabé already live there, millions more will come as Burkina Faso experiences overpopulation and civil war. French is key to find a job and integrate in Côte d'Ivoire and Abidjan. What will be the strongest element in Burkinabé people's decision to learn French or not: what a non-elected junta without money decides, or what the forces of capitalism in Côte d'Ivoire decide? Poser la question c'est y répondre.