Everyone
knows, particularly the Chinese, that English is the language that sells. Thus,
if you buy a door mat in French speaking Congo, it will nevertheless proudly
proclaim: WELCOME. And this is precisely how you are greeted at the door of our
office.
I’m not
sure if people in the Congo object to this linguistic imperialism, especially
as it comes with Chinese goods which means that they are cheap. It might even
be a status symbol to have an English-speaking door mat. After all, many people
probably wish that they had been born in an English speaking country, which
would have opened so many more commercial doors. And american films and music are hot!
If they
didn’t hate Rwanda so much (as the purported aggressor in the conflicts in the
East) they would admire the way that it changed itself overnight, in 2008, from
francophone to anglophone. The motives, mind you, were pretty silly: a French
judge found that President Kagame, in his then military role, had assassinated
the Hutu President – an act that triggered the genocide. This judgement made President
Kagame so angry that the announced that Rwanda would no longer use French as
its official language[1].
Back to the
Congo where there’s certainly great interest in English: two years ago, the
Congolese Minister responsible for higher education announced that all
universities should be bilingual within five years. Unrealistic though this may
have been, it reflected a national desire to escape the dominance of
francophonie.
Even the
bank notes have the denominations (for example, FIVE HUNDRED FRANCS) written in
English as well as French.
But last
year, with huge fanfare, the Congo hosted the biennial Francophonie summit, and
the Congo was put under great pressure to champion francophonie. Since then the voices asking for more English have
become muted, and there may be changes afoot.
The new
bank notes, for example, follow a completely different design, without any
English translations. And when we bought a new mat for the front door of the
office, (“Welcome” having become shredded with age), the message was clear:
BIENVENUE.
[1] Rwanda has since
denied this link. They now claim that it was a commercial decision as their
main trading partners are all English speaking.
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