Francophone Writing

Abstract

Due to its connections with colonialism, francophone writing, or literature written in French, has a complex genealogy and relationship to language. It is important to note here that French-led colonization preceded the colonization of Africa, in the French Caribbean/French Antilles. After the Berlin conference in 1885, in which European nations divided the continent of Africa among themselves without one single African present, France colonized many countries around the world, while Belgium colonized the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. This colonial history is why global French literature exists. Places of origin include: Canada; Europe (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, and Switzerland); Sub-Saharan Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, the Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, the Seychelles, and Togo); North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia); Asia (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam); and the Caribbean (Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Saint Barthélemy, French Guiana, and Reunion). In addition, there are the Seychelles and Vanuatu, the territory of Puducherry, and Lebanon. Due to these vast geographic and cultural differences, a myriad of complex issues and ramifications must be taken in consideration when addressing francophone literature. From the colonial period onward, writing by French Europeans has been classified as “French writing,” while “francophone writing” has been used to denote everyone else. This enforces the clear division of us and them, colonizers and colonized. Before the term “francophone” was coined, writing produced by colonized nations was labeled as “colonial writing in the French language.” It was never included within or identified as French literature. With the advent of postcolonial studies, however, “francophone” has come to be assigned more specifically to writers from the former colonized nations of the French and Belgium empires who continue to write in the French language.