Another African reflects on the vanishing utility of post-colonial French.

We only need a language that will help us move with the rest of the world and not one that will enslave us. We need to have our minds decolonised! ... Between English and French (which rank first and second respectively in the UN) the big question should be; which of these is more enslaving and which will keep us in tandem with the rest of the world? The tide, in my opinion, seems to be blowing against French.

Stephen Rwembeho,
lecturer at Kigali Institute of Education
KIGALI, Rwanda January 26, 2007 (The New Times/allAfrica.com)

The French, of course, struggle mightily to convince us otherwise.

PFFT (What is this?): Blowing tide 4 | Rayonnement français 0

Bonjour,

Vous rigolez ?
Un pays comme Israël fait des efforts gigantesques EN CE MOMENT MEME pour rejoindre la Francophonie en vue de s'émanciper des USA.
Une campagne de presse sur ce thème la semaine dernière dans nos journaux !
Je regrette avec amertume que les pays arabes membres de la Francophonie s'y opposent pour le moment.
Cela n'aura qu'un temps heureusement !
L' Américainoïde est une langue déstructurée ,pulvérisée , éclatée , d'ailleurs ce n'est même plus un langue mais l'infect GLOBISH …

One person's opinion (who calls Kagame "Africa's Moses").

From the same article, which Damian conveniently omitted:

In his book, Decolonising the Mind, his 1986 "farewell to English," Ngugi posits that through language people do not only describe the world but also understand themselves. For him, English, as well as any other foreign language, in Africa is a "cultural bomb" that continues a process of erasing memories of pre-colonial cultures and history and is a way of installing the dominance of new, more insidious forms of colonialism.

Mr. Ngui who is from Kenya, has his own reasons to oppose English influence. Damian probably never heard of the Mau Mau rebellion (whose repression by the British was far more brutal as we thought - including Nazi-like concentration camps - as told in a recent book), nor does he seem to aknowledge Belgium's role in brutally supressing Rwandan opposition as well as creating artificial ethnic lines known as Tutsis and Hutus.

By the way, president Gbagbo - Pave's darling dictator - still speaks French!

Actually not one person's opinion as our first link shows. The word "another" is also a clue.

M. Zmx likes to refer to M. Gbagbo, the president of Côte d'Ivoire recognized by France, as our "darling" because, like M. Gbagbo, Pave objects to French troops shooting up and murdering the the Ivoirian locals.

As for what we omit, it is called editing. Newspapers are known to do something similar. What we publish we publish to make our point, something M. Zmx suggests is deceptive for a blog that traffics in opinion. For the full context, that is why we provide links for cited sources -- as M. Zmx has discovered by clicking our link and finding the story entire.

DGB

Pave objects to French troops shooting up and murdering the the Ivoirian locals

"Murder"?

Where was the UN condemnation? There was none and as matter of fact, France still managed to impose an unanimous UN arms embargo on Ivory Coast after the incident, which was directly provoked by "Radio Gbagbo" and his thugs. Gbagbo lied about air-bombing French peacekeeping troops (and one American), before admitting to the fact. I'm afraid your own administration has even sided with France on this one, even more so after hundreds of stranded US citizens were bailed out of the country by French forces.

Satisified with our earlier refutations, M. Zmx now returns to excuse French killings and murder.

M. Zmx apparently believes that only a UN condemnation can establish that killings and murder have been committed. This is fatuous, as if veto-wielding France would acquiesce in her own condemnation when she has lied about these acts in the first place.

Arms embargoes, "Radio Gbagbo", who has sided with France on larger issues concerning Côte d’Ivoire, and M. Zmx's hundred-and-one cooked up diversions have nothing to do with the separate issue of French killings committed by French troops.

Like the French-speaking M. Gbagbo, the French first lied and then admitted to their acts, shooting Ivoirians (as detailed in the first link in our comment above) and murder (as detailed in the second link in our comment above). The murder was a French lie in which the French commander, General Poncet, was caught out and dismissed.

A UN resolution, for or against France, does not change the facts of French killings in Côte d’Ivoire.

DGB

Poncet got implicated in the sordid affair of the murder of a five times murderer and rapist. The French government "objected" and the general suffered the consequences.

Does Pave also objects in the raping, burning and cover-up of an innocent Iraki girl and her family by US soldiers?

Ho-ho, M. Zmx now remembers the murder that only a post before he questioned.

Always good to take a moment to reflect, a moment to think, a moment to get your facts straight, before one posts.

We have offered this friendly advice to M. Zmx on other occasions, but he is quick to type.

DGB