French is a Black Language

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Civilisé

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mbewane said:
1. I think the US kind of got into the space that France didn't provide for these writers, when you think about it's ridiculous, due to the historical links, that they had to go to the US to teach as opposed to France...so yeah it plays into the hands of US's soft power but not sure if it's a deliberate tactic or more so seizing the opportunity...I also think that the french system in which to teach at university you have to go through doctorates [...]
2. He also turned down Macron's proposal of participating in some kind of reflexion over la Francophonie, which was strange since he's been critical of it and that was an opportunity to do something about it.
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I think these African intellectuals went to the US because it's too competitive for teaching in France, you need to go through these very hard public exams while in the US it's more about what you published or how popular you are. You also make much more money as a professor in the US! I would add on this point that the US colleges tend to be despised by the French universities world (from my own experience) because it's seen as exclusive for rich kids only. It may be why French (leftist) professors don't go there massively and the African ones are filling the vacuum.

On the 2nd point : this is the reason why I can't take him seriously as an intellectual. This move reminded me of these social media activists who only seek attention. It's just contestation for the sake of contestation...
 
mbewane

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Civilisé said:
I think these African intellectuals went to the US because it's too competitive for teaching in France, you need to go through these very hard public exams while in the US it's more about what you published or how popular you are. You also make much more money as a professor in the US! I would add on this point that the US colleges tend to be despised by the French universities world (from my own experience) because it's seen as exclusive for rich kids only. It may be why French (leftist) professors don't go there massively and the African ones are filling the vacuum.

On the 2nd point : this is the reason why I can't take him seriously as an intellectual. This move reminded me of these social media activists who only seek attention. It's just contestation for the sake of contestation...
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Yeah agree on both points. HIgher education in France is quite a closed world to enter as a professor, it's the whole experience (anglo-saxon world) vs diploma (french-latin world) thing.

For the 2nd point that's why I appreciate what a guy like Felwine Sarr did, he's quite critical about France, La Francophonie etc but he accepted Macron's invitation to work on how to bring back art to African countries. Will it work or not, that remains to be seen, but at least he's getting his hands dirty an initiating something.
 
Yehuda

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[...] Based on 2017 data, Ivory Coast has one of the most buoyant African economies (with a growth rate of more than seven percent , according to the World Bank), however conditions have not been sufficient to beget Ivorian techstars. There are several barriers that prevent Ivory Coast from a dynamic kickoff in the tech and entrepreneurial domain. For one, Ivory Coast lacks the proper infrastructure to foster entrepreneurs and innovators. Another key barrier is language, as French is not ‘the tongue of tech.’ Language has also been a hurdle for aspiring Francophone entrepreneurs when it comes to securing funding. [...]

Language: A barrier for Francophone startups

According to Makadristo, African tech startups raised $195 million in 2017—a 51 percent increase from 2016 and an all-time high for African startups. The majority of this investment, however, is directed toward countries such as Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa, Makadristo explained. “If we look at the overall trends between 2010 and 2017, Ivory Coast absorbed 10 percent of volume in PE deals and 2 percent of value in PE deals in West Africa, compared to Nigeria’s 42 percent and 73 percent, and Ghana’s 27 percent and 20 percent.” Makadristo stressed that Francophone Africa faces difficulties in attracting startup investment due to linguistic biases—a hot topic of debate and growing frustration among regional entrepreneurs. “On the one hand, investors do not seem to pay much attention to Francophone Africa due to not having the linguistic knowledge to communicate. On the other hand, it is said that Francophone African entrepreneurs need to rethink the way they communicate with investors and learn how to give quick answers about the potential impact to assess an opportunity,” she said.

Francis Yapobi, founder of Ivorian startup Airshop, spoke with Wamda about his entrepreneurial experiences. Airshop aims to digitize duty frees by facilitating pre-ordering of duty-free goods. “The main problem is not the scarcity of money, it’s just that this money doesn’t exist for us,” he said. So far, Airshop has bootstrapped $100,000 in capital, and is betting on its current partnership with Air France (and additional future partnerships) to deploy its service. He added: “The financial sector has not yet moved away from the traditional funding models. We have PEs, but they fund buildings and infrastructure, and not startups.”

Yapobi went on to explain that in the past few years, a number of English-speaking African startups—especially Nigerian and Kenyan startups—have had exposure to Silicon Valley. These entrepreneurs came away better equipped to understand entrepreneurship and how the ecosystem functions. Perhaps most importantly, the experience has enabled them to ‘speak the language’ of fund managers, which eventually translates into an ability to attract more cash. [...]
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How Ivory Coast is attempting to lead Francophone-African entrepreneurial ecosystems

How you feel about this?
 
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mbewane

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Yehuda said:
How Ivory Coast is attempting to lead Francophone-African entrepreneurial ecosystems

How you feel about this?
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That's one the effects of speaking the language of the first world ecomony, the US : it automatically opens more doors, which is one the various reasons anglophone Africa is doing better : if you have direct access to the main market in the world, it's an advantage, regardless of all the rest. For example France and French-speaking Belgium actually do a lot on the tech side, but obviously even put together that's like only a market of 70 million people, not even a quarter of the US. Alos the lack of direct classical colonial ties betwen the US and Africa helps, as well as I would say a different approach to business in general.

In general it's always easier to do business with someone who speaks the same language as you, and if you're lucky that partner just so happens to be the leading power in the world :yeshrug:
 
mbewane

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So in a unexpected (for me) twist, Rwanda, celebrated by some as moving away from french just presented a candidate to become...Secretary General of l'Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/new...onie-group/4552908-4577940-6aomw3z/index.html

As you can see, Macron back this candidate, which goes with his plans of ousting the current SG, added to the fact that it helps it's a woman candidate. It's probably some sort of gesture from France to Rwanda as they seek to normalize their relation, but quite surprising from a country that has clamored moving away from french and put english above french in its education system a couple years ago.

It'll be interesting to see how other african members will react to this, especially the DRC. But with Macron's backing it'll be quite hard to go against this candidate I think.
 
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For Da Bag said:
And why aren't you learning Creole? :martin:
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Give me an app :feedme:
also i have a very strong American accent how do i fix that :wow:
For Da Bag said:
LOL. Give it 50 years. New England will become L'Afrique Nouvelle. :lolbron:
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the migration of africans across the us is going to be interesting since they are way more geographic dispersed than other black immigrants, who tend to migrate to African American communities:ehh:
 
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