Following Rwanda, Senegal to Replace French by English to Develop the Country Faster

By: Mawuna Remarque KOUTONIN

Monday, May 27th, 2013 at 9:44 pm.

French is Dead. If it’s the only language you speak, you’d have access to less than 4% of humanity knowledge and ideas. That’s very limiting.

For France, French language is a matter of international prestige, but Africans don’t have anymore the luxury of satisfying the salon caprice of grandeur of France by sticking to a dying language!
In United States more than 300,000 new book titles and editions are published every year. In United Kingdom this number is  206,000. Where does France stands?
In France only 63,000 new book titles and editions are published every year. This is 5 times less than the Unites States and 3 times less than United Kingdom. This means a person who is only literate in French would have 8 times less access to information and knowledge than a person who is is literate in English.

In Burkina-Faso, only 12 new book titles and editions are published every year. In Mali 14, in Benin 84, in Madagascar 119, and in Egypt 9,022 the highest ranking African country.
How does French stands in scientific publications?
In terms of academic and scientific articles, Unites States produced about 3 millions scientific articles over the last ten years, United Kingdom 700.000 articles. Where does France stands? 500.000 articles. It means that a person who is literate in French would have 7 times less access to scientific publications than a person who is literate in English.
In fact, this number is much higher because all other countries mainly publish their scientific articles in English as all major scientific reviews, journals and publications are in English.

What about the number of scholarly journals and publications by language
Only 4% of  scholarly journals and publications are in French.

What about the size of Wikipedia by language?
On Wikipedia there are more than 4 millions articles in English, with more than 600 millions edits, 1,447 admins and more than 18 millions users. Wikipedia in French is 3 times less, comprising 1,2 millions articles, 93 millions edits,  181 admins, and only 1,5 million users.
What about the number of content per language on the Internet?
The internet has about 634 million websites pages, and 54% of the content is in English and only 4% in French. French is in fact marginal on the Internet, which is now the collective brain of humanity.

What about Film and video production by language?
Only 3% of film and video content are in French.

What about Newspapers and magazines production?
Only 2% of Newspapers and magazines are in French. Less than Hindi.

French is really Dead.

If it’s the only language you speak, you have access to less than 2% of the humanity knowledge.

Slowly, we will start classifying French as an indigenous language spoken by only 60 millions people in a small country in Europe, and few other micro-countries or Regions like Belgium, Quebec, Switzerland. What’s an Irony!

Some French colonies in Africa still speak that language, but recently there is a huge movement to move away from that colonial heritage to embrace English. Rwanda was the first African country to replace the French language by English. The reason is simple, Rwanda doesn’t export perfume, cosmetics and fashion clothes, therefore the country doesn’t need such a sophisticated and rich language.

Gabon has also made it clear to steer the country to English language, as the President Ali Bongo is amazed by what Rwanda has accomplished in so little time. ( Excusez-moi, text in French).

France itself, just has took notice of the huge shift, and will introduce English into all its schools and universities.

When it comes to Science and Technology, Business and Commerce, French is a dead language. English is the language that could open faster the developing countries to the world and help them access up-to-date information, and become more competitive.

It’s not about trowing French for English. It’s about science, business and education. Go to scandinavian countries, they all speak English by default and offer hundreds of curriculum in English at their universities. The same now in many East European countries. I know several African students studying in China in English.

I know few people working on the matter, and they won’t even be able to talk about it publicly because of French government intimidation and harassment to keep french alive in the African schools.

Anyway, with or without the government, I have to say French has no future on the continent simply because French is more a tourism language, not technology and business language for the future Elite of the continent.

It’s not a Dream, it’s already a reality. The governments would have to catch up, and the French government intimidations won’t be enough. The time where Africans have to ask for permission to do what they want with their life has now passed!

Yesterday I spent almost 1H30 with a senior manager, and they will do it the other way around, because the demand from the students is huge for english.

Contrary to what people can see in the medias, a dying star looks the brightest when it’s close to hit the ground!