Francophonie

INTRODUCTION

The French geographer, Onesime Reclus, first coined the term Francophonie in the nineteenth century. The term never really caught on until the 1960s when Leopold Senghor, first president of Senegal, used it consistently.

Leopold Sedar Senghor, Hamani Diori of Niger Republic and Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia were responsible for the expansion of “la Francophonie” in Africa.

La Francophonie as it is now known can be defined as the world community of French-speaking countries.

MISSION

The four missions of La Francophonie are to:

promote

the French language, and cultural and linguistic diversity;

promote peace, democracy and human rights;

support education, training, higher education and research; and develop co-operation aimed at supporting sustainable development.

MEMBERSHIP

La Francophonie is a group of 88 member states and governments from five continents.

These are some of the member-states:

Belgium

Benin

Cameroon

Canada

Central African Republic

Chad

France

Gabon

Guinea

Madagascar

Mali