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“The smuggling of La Francophonie”: Francophone Africans in Anglophone Cape Town (South Africa)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2008

CÉCILE B. VIGOUROUX
CÉCILE B. VIGOUROUX
Affiliation:
Department of French, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada, cvigouro@sfu.ca
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Abstract

Focusing on Black Francophone migrants in Cape Town, it is argued that a locally based Francophone identity has emerged in South Africa that questions the institutional discourse of La Francophonie as the organization of French-speaking states. The new identity has little to do with the organization's ideology of a transnational community of people united by a common language and culture. This is shown by deconstructing the category of passeurs de Francophonie (literally ‘smugglers of la Francophonie’ as practice) to which the organization assigns migrants in non-Francophone countries who allegedly spread the French language and Francophone culture. It is argued that the notion of “Francophone” must be grounded empirically and approached in relation to the social environment of the relevant speakers. The post-apartheid South African setting assigns it a meaning different from what it has in Francophone states.

Keywords

francophonieidentitymigrationSouth Africa
Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , July 2008 , pp. 415 - 434
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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