2024-10-08 14:08:10
In 1958, for the first time, Christmas was celebrated in the ”New Vietnamese Camp”, a camp bringing together soldiers from various backgrounds who no longer wanted to follow the French flag under other skies, i.e. for having made a home during the long captivity, or for having seen too many horrors during the war. To avoid the nickname “deserters” that the French gave them, the Vietnamese adopted them with the name “New Vietnamese”, more hypocoristic. Toys to give to children were displayed in a large room which was used for various gatherings…
In this heterogeneous, cosmopolitan camp, there were Germans, Algerians, Moroccans (when we hear that these two countries are in discord, that does something, when we know that Ahmed Sékou Touré had… it is not the subject), Tunisians; And not to list one by one, all the black Africans, from Senegal to the Congo to Madagascar, were in this camp. By gregariousness, men from the same sub-region were grouped together with their wives and children.
Birds of a feather flock together. Among the Guineans, to communicate and be understood, since there were Soussous from Sansalé, Madina Oula, Djalonkés from Faranah, Peuls from Tougué, Labé, Kissis, Tomas, Guerzés, Djakankés , it was quite an acrobatic exercise in linguistics, French, the “universal” language of communication for everyone, was very approximate, apart from the individual presentations: “soldier x, number number). The Djakankés have more advantages due to the fact that they straddle Middle Guinea, Upper Guinea and Lower Guinea, they understand a little of the pular, a little of the malinké, a little of the soussou, the all about a little French, the trick is made to understand and make each other understand. In the event of a scuffle between one Guinean and another, at the old woman selling sum-sum-dada (the Vietnamese rice dolo) behind the camp, all the Guineans, without exception, rush to the rescue. There was no longer any ethnicity, for the occasion. The natural solidarity was flawless, not like that instilled in the French foreign legion. By the way, witnesses of history who had the invaluable opportunity to see a documentary on TV5 monde, the TV of La Francophonie, between 2011 and 2012, showing the method of recruitment with the 5 sine qua non admission pulls at the front door, showing the training and endurance walks with 25-40-50 km of endurance walking with bags of 25, 30, 40 kilos on the back, showing the tests of solidarity, discipline and sanction, in the event of a fight between two guys, saw a 20-year-old Guinean high school graduate, according to the presenter who pronounced a name that had slipped from memory. Who said that old age is a shipwreck, if not the great Charles, the founder of the Fifth Republic and the incestuous Françafrique. Here is an illustration of this incestuous relationship: if Emperor Bokassa I gave diamonds to President Valérie Giscard d’Estaing, whom he only saw as a youngster, what did Sergeant Jean Bedel Bokassa, who owes his entire rise to ”his father” de Gaulle, didn’t he give it to him? Why didn’t the French press at the time get anything out of it?
In addition, in this mosaic of language and culture in the camp of the “New Vietnamese”, Malinké and Pular having derivatives and haftings throughout West Africa, currently ECOWAS, by laborious derivations, the people understood each other, or they pretended to understand each other. For those who saw and experienced this, it is difficult to experience another reality in Guinea generated by Françafrique, apart from its incestuous side, that of divide and rule. Happy that the French press is finally saying this word. The Guineans who play this game have been deeply misled. Emmanuel Macron, who is probably the last president of Françafrique, must help Africa leave Françafrique and reintegrate the Francophonie.
Back on topic: all the gifts for the children at the camp were displayed in a large room. There was a bicycle, a guitar, an electric train, a machine gun, a ball, dolls… Each of them had a number. Draw. Monika Lehmann, 8 years old, who has absolutely nothing Vietnamese with her green eyes, her blond hair, her German complexion and body, was the only one who got what she was hoping for: the big doll. Her boyfriend, a fisherman, who only had wide eyes for the bike or the ball or the guitar, had drawn a number that was not on any object. Lack of luck (like Femke Bol, the Dutch super-athlete who fell just in front of the finish line in a breathtaking race at the women’s 4x400m world championship, and who took her revenge on fate at the Olympic Games in Paris). So, the organizers had asked for everyone’s help to find the figure. Nothing. They went to consult a register, they returned with determination to return a book that had been knocked over, a storybook. What a disappointment! It was only later, long after the others had broken their toys, as for the bike, ball, guitar, the coveted things, no one knows who won them, shenanigans! the grown-ups continued to beg the guy, to argue over the book to read, they talked about the richness of the storytellers’ imagination without knowing the origin, even though it was a summary of tales and legends from all countries French speakers of the world. It was only in Guinea that he discovered the richness of the Francophonie. The story “The Seven Little Pigs” comes from which country? Can Louise Mushikiwabo say it from memory? Many stories and anecdotes written by Guinean writers and authors have been cleverly plagiarized or taken from elsewhere and modified to appear original to the understanding of Guineans to broaden their spiritual development.
The Francophonie must not be the backyard of Françafrique
In 2018, while the Canadian Michaëlle Jean was in full exercise of her first mandate as secretary general of La Francophonie, to attempt a rapprochement with the Rwanda of Paul Kagame, whom the France of François Mitterrand had designated as the leader of the genocide, and who had radically left the Francophonie for the Commonwealth, the Franco-Rwandan cultural center in Kigali was razed, the French ambassador was declared persona non grata. To make eyes at Rwanda, France unscrupulously decided to replace the former governor general of Canada and secretary general of the OIF, Michaëlle Jean, in full exercise of her first mandate, and who was in principle entitled to a second term of 4 years, by Louise Mushikiwabo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda. Whether this had caused Paul Kagame to change his mind with a view to tinkering with diplomatic relations cannot be said, Kagame no longer being in the candy age, while Pierre Buyoya, the former president of Burundi, and the Malagasy Henri Lopez, were waiting for their turn in the rotation. It was said, ironically, that the general secretariat of La Francophonie is a privileged landing place for former African presidents who showed their credentials during their exercise of power. Each of the heads of state in Africa sought to show clean hands, but things had turned out differently by the sole will of the French president. Did we want to break with a tradition which was beginning to wear out through routine or something else, France does not say, but to knock out Michael Jean in this way, without his country, Canada, flinching, without Belgium or Switzerland did not express the slightest objection, although it was said that the presidency was now rotating, this had tickled many, who wondered if the Francophonie was an organization of countries having the French language in common to exchange and enrich a common culture, or if it is a pure political organization in the service of Françafrique. The most disillusioned was Pierre Buyoya, who did not survive more than a year when Louise Mushikiwabo took office; the snub for him was all the greater as Rwanda and Burundi were not friends. But on the downside, it should be emphasized here that Pierre Buyoya was no longer able to exercise this function with dignity, he was a little senile and was not really fit to lead the Francophonie in close competition with the Commonwealth, which sought to attract others into its fold.
Currently, our friends at the AES are very tempted to take the leap into the unknown, but they would have to sacrifice an entire generation in various fees and expenses and start all over again like in primary school… Where is Gabon? If learning a language is easily within the reach of children, adolescents and even young people, but for young-old people, or old-young people, it will be laborious if they have no basis in a language. other language. We had this experience while learning German. The tired old people of Syria and Guinea had encountered all sorts of difficulties. In new information technologies alone, how long did it take Ansoumane Bangoura, to name just him, who came to have his text entered by the INDEPENDENT? We’re talking about Ansoumane Bangoura, because here’s a guy who likes to speak French well, him and Justin Morel Junior, the two models for the guy Amadou Djouldé Diallo. But, even when the head of the Francophonie was won by the Rwandan, Rwanda remained in the Commonwealth, French still has not returned to schools, this could cost them a lot.
All this was with the France of other presidents, which Emmanuel Macron put in the same basket “the Fainéants” who preceded him, without mentioning a name, but observers see Mitterrand, Chirac, Sarkozy, Hollande. Here he is, in turn, at the hairdresser, with a deficit of 6%, or 3,100 billion euros and chips, after the huge spending on the 2024 Olympics and the Paralympic Games. In the “lazy” days, the financial hole was not as gaping as in her time and she was walking on her feet. Currently, France risks being placed under financial supervision like Greece, when, for show and braggadocio, it organized the Athens Olympics in 2004 by putting in the dishes, without being able to catch up the gap until 2011 to be placed under reimbursement supervision. Prime Minister Michel Barnier is at odds between the majority of the extreme Left and the second majority of the extreme Right, a situation in which the fate of the government, of the president, of the Fifth Republic, and for the bouquet, the fate of the incestuous Françafrique depends on the RN of Marine le Pen, the most powerful woman in France and Europe, but that the others of the New Popular Front, the new coalition of rebellious France to bring down the Fifth Republic, see it as a stooge. If the Macron government still stands, the RN is not a solid prop, but rather a cleat which, if shifted, would cause the collapse or general collapse of the entire edifice. The Barnier government is like a chicken in a hammock, where neither the chicken nor the hammock can rest easy.
As for the Francophonie, Louise Mushikiwabo says that French is in decline, yes, but if Françafrique disappeared, the Francophonie could regain its former splendor in healthy relations between France and Africa.