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Introduction: Francophone Theatre Today
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2009
Extract
In the wake of French colonization, exploration and trade throughout the world, the French language permeated cultures on five continents. Depending on the source of the statistics, today's world-wide French-speaking population numbers anywhere from 67 to 450 million people. It is estimated that in the year 2000 there will be 500 million French speakers. French is the world's twelfth language, but next to English, the only language to be spoken on all five major continents. From such statistics we might project a community, but do these figures represent a genuinely united people? And, why, if the francophone community is growing should French governmental and cultural organizations be so concerned about the preservation of French? Before examining these questions, let us briefly outline the evolution of ‘la francophonie’.
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References
Notes
1. Lauby, J. P. and Maureaux, D.. La France contempoiaine (Paris: Bordas, 1991).Google Scholar See also ‘100 questions-réponses sur la françophonie et la langue francaise’, edited by the Ministère de la culture, Les Incollables (Paris: Bac-Hatier, 1994).
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6. As a Sudanese playwright one would have expected him to write in Arabic, his native language.
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