425 Views
Ph:DR: The theme of the 2023 edition, “321 million French speakers, billions of cultural content”, aimed to promote the imagination, French-speaking artistic creation and cultural diversity.
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in collaboration with the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), its multilingualism partners and the permanent missions in Ethiopia, celebrated the International Day of the French Language on March 30, 2023, at the United Nations Conference Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Commemorated on March 20 each year – in reference to March 20, 1970, the date of creation of the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation, which later became theOIF, the day was postponed this year due to the holding of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (CoM). The theme of the 2023 edition, “321 million French speakers, billions of cultural content”, aimed to promote the imagination, Francophone artistic creation and cultural diversity.
Opening the session, the Acting Executive Secretary of ECA, Antonio Pedro, highlighted the link between multilingualism and peace. In fact, he explained, cultural diversity is at the center of the dialogue between peoples and cultures, thanks to their languages and their daily experiences, and often serves as fertile ground for understanding, tolerance, the management of crisis and peace.
“In order to practice tolerance, to live in peace with one another in a spirit of good neighbourliness, as the peoples of the United Nations proclaim in the preamble to the Charter, we must first understand one another or promote a better understanding of one’s way of life and socio-cultural identity”. This is only possible if we have some knowledge of various cultures and traditions as well as different value systems and if we learn to accept each other despite our differences, he continued.
The event brought together high-level speakers, ambassadors and heads of permanent missions. Abdelhamid Gharbi, Ambassador of Tunisia to Ethiopia, Head of the Permanent Mission of Tunisia to the African Union (AU) and the ECA and Chairman of the Group of Francophone Ambassadors (GAF) in Addis Ababa, reaffirmed his attachment to enhance the immense potential of this language as a tool for peace, dialogue, cooperation and international solidarity.
To convey the value of communication in French, Ms.me Nefertiti Mushiya Tshibanda, OIF Representative to the AU and the ECA, underlined the very rich cultural creativity at work in the French-speaking world, making cultural industries important levers for economic development and job creation, especially among young people.
Ph:DR: The Secretary General of La Francophonie, Louise Mushikiwabo
“Although French is the 4th language in the world, only 12% of online content is in French,” she lamented, adding that by 2050, more than 85% of French speakers will be from from the African continent and will be mainly young people. “They are for us, the Francophonie of the future. This must challenge us so that together we respond to the call of the Secretary General of La Francophonie, Louise Mushikiwabo, to reverse the decline of French. »
Mahaman Lawan Abou, Head of the French Translation and Editing Unit of ECA, for his part, underlined that of the three groups in the language service of ECA (the other two being English and Arabic), the French Group is the one that is most in demand. It thus has five professionals, including four translators and an editor, compared to three for the English Group and two for the Arabic Group. While this situation reflects the importance of the use of French at ECA, it hides the virtual absence of French upstream of the production of knowledge, studies and reports published in French being, in almost all cases, versions of originals established in English, he lamented.
French as a lever for the employability of young people in Ethiopia thanks to French training and expertise, such was the subject of the presentation by Mrs. Marjorie Pégourié-Khellef, Attaché for educational and university cooperation at the French Embassy, who has, among other reforms, welcomed that of the Ethiopian Ministry of Education aimed at the reintroduction of foreign languages in the curriculum of high schools.
The last word was given to Mahaman Lawan Abou-Thème, Head of ECA’s French Translation and Publishing Unit, speaking on behalf of the Director of the Information, Conference Management and Knowledge Division , Mme Kumaree Deerpalsing, who declared that the contribution of cultural diversity to the preservation of human heritage was well established. “Let us work together, as we are already doing with the International Organization of La Francophonie and our other multilingualism partners, to perpetuate the culture of peace, understanding and tolerance, thanks to the tools of languages” a- he concluded.
