PARIS/WORLD 20 March 2008 French-speaking countries celebrate International Day of Francophonie with new leader. Mistrusted?

The International Day of Francophonie is a day of celebration in countries as diverse as Vietnam and Haiti. The day is set aside to promote French culture and the French language around the world, as well as cultural diversity, democracy, solidarity and development. To many Africans, the recent election of Nicholas Sarkozy as president of France was a setback for the Francophonie movement.

The French president and Senegalese President Abdou Diouf, the secretary general of the French speaking communities, will be among the guests at a ceremony in Paris, at which prizes will be awarded to several intellectuals of the French speaking community.

Francophone African countries see Sarkozy as a racist and a recent Reuters report pointed out that his tough immigration policies could poison France's traditionally strong ties with Africa. When he was France's immigration minister, he angered Africans by organising repatriation flights -- dubbed "Sarkozy's charters" -- to send home illegal migrants from Senegal, Mali and other countries. His victory speech took a softer stand, and he has announced plans for a union that would link Europe and Africa.

Algerian commentator Ali Bahmane wrote in an editorial in El Watan, one of the North African country's leading newspapers, that Sarkozy has invented scapegoats, "immigrants, Arabs, blacks, people of North African descent born in France, the young of the suburbs, the marginal, the marginalised."

The day commemorates the founding of the first Francophone institutions in Niamey in 1970. French-Language Week begins on Mar 17 with the opening of the Salon du Livre and the Francophone Festival in France.

French is an official language in 33 countries on five continents. The term Francophonie was coined by French essayist Onésime Reclus in about 1880 to describe the geographic areas in which French was spoken. In any ranking of languages by numbers of speakers French comes only a modest eighth or ninth. The perpetual quest of Francophonie is to move the language higher up the list.

The diplomatic and consular network, cultural centers, businesses and associations of French expatriates organizes many events for that day, in partnership with the countries in the Francophony organization. UPDATED Dec/07

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Francophone Africa is wary of new French president (Reuters 7 May 2007)
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