Ça avance ndank-ndank ?

[YCCMB]

Why the future of French is African https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-47790128

The immortels will be having hissy fits...???

[woolybanana]

Ah, the W ank Bank!

[NormanH]

This reminds me of Mark Twain:

"There is no such thing as the Queen's English. The property has gone into the hands of a joint stock company and we own the bulk of the shares"

[mint]

Or Humpty Dumpty:

QUOTATION: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that's all.”

2019. Lewis Carroll (1832-98). Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of ...

https://www.bartleby.com/73/2019.html

[Patf]

When did France start to occupy all these African countries? And Why?

Empire building I suppose.

They're getting the kick back now with all the immigrants.

[NormanH]

Africa was in a second or third wave of colonisation ...the first was more towards the Caribbean and America

La conquête coloniale est surtout le fait de la Troisième République qui permet de prétendre à un second espace colonial français,

essentiellement en Asie et en Afrique. À la suite de la Conférence de

Berlin (novembre 1884 - février 1885), la France contrôle d'ailleurs une

grande partie de cette dernière, administrant le Niger, l'Algérie, la Tunisie, le Maroc, le Bénin, la Mauritanie, le Sénégal, le Mali, le Tchad, une partie du Congo-Brazzaville, la Côte d'Ivoire, la Guinée, le Burkina Faso, le Gabon, une partie du Cameroun, Madagascar et Djibouti.

[Patf]

Thanks Norman. I've read a little about it on Wiki now.

I must have heard about the 3rd Republic when doing history A level at school covering those years. But as far as I remember the curriculum concentrated more on german reunification, and british social history. This was in the early 50s, when the memories of WW2 were still very fresh in everyone's minds. And we were very disappointed in France.

Though I can understand now how France had become so weak, after years of wars with Germany.

[woolybanana]

Interesting that France always claims a huge chunk of Africa in colonial times, based on area, but neglects to say that most of that area was desert or semi desert with zero population. Which is why the French language was taught to goats as the teachers, mainly those dodging national service taught the French language to goats and camels and sheep. Thus if you now go to the centre of the Sahel you can have a serious conversation with about Moliere with a sheep.