I am French-speaking, of the Proustian religion. In my generation, the influence of French culture, the taste for its language, its existentialism, the nouvelle vague of cinema, the nouveau roman and even the thought of Emmanuel Mounier illuminated that self-absorbed Spain. Today the Francophonie is dying. "French," an Italian told me one day at the Beirut airport, "is no longer an international language." These August nights – a powerful Italian word to describe the eighth month of the year – I have followed regional television channels – when I had electricity from the electric generators that have to be paid for with real dollars – the Olympic Games of La Francophonie that in Kinshasa , capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire, were broadcast for almost two weeks.
I admired the agile ebony bodies of the athletes, I was distracted by the fluttering of various flags, I tried in vain to identify them, I listened to their national anthems solemnly played by the Republic band. It was in 1960 when this immense country became independent from Belgium, beginning an abrupt history with the assassination of the great national hero, President Lumumba, and Mobutu's war to split the rich Katanga from the new territory. That year, 1960, was the year of the great illusions of Africa with charismatic leaders like Lumumba, after whom a university in Moscow was baptized, Sékou Toure, Nkrumah, of the pan-Africanist movement that went beyond previous French-speaking leaders such as Senghor of Senegal. The awakening of Africa was the great illusion!
At that time, I directed Dr. Manuel Díez de Velasco's chair of Public and Private International Law at the University of Barcelona, later a member of the Constitutional Court, for several exciting years in this working group until I began my adventure as a correspondent. The awakening of Africa, with the cascade of its independences and the struggle for decolonization, fostered a passionate interest. Those were years – we later realized – of utopias like the cultural revolution in Paris in 1968, which moved young people above all. Progressive pan-Africanism was overthrown by numerous military coups, bloody tribal wars, and renewed dependencies of former metropolises, such as France.
A large delegation from the Republic of Niger participated in these French-speaking Games in Kinshasa, held in its large sports stadium. On the other hand, I saw neither athletes from Algeria, which has just replaced the teaching of French by that of English in secondary education, nor from Mauritania. The Lebanese Republic had a large, well-uniformed representation; Switzerland, Romania and Quebec also attested to their French-speaking militancy.
The 20th century was the end of the French colonial empires in the world, first in Asia with the Indochina war, later in Algeria with the National Liberation war with the FNL. However, French as a language of artistic expression continues to be a very valid form of expression. One can speak of French-speaking Arab and African writers, despite the new winds of history, and of the lists of excellent creators of the word who use French as a free means of expression, often avoiding censorship in their countries of origin. In these Levantine African countries, popular movements hostile to the old metropolis are growing, often linked to corrupt local powers. Neocolonial exploitation increases with the craving for raw materials in the West.
These French-speaking Kinshasa Games culminated with a great sensual party of African music, but at the end no one mentioned a new appointment to reconvene them!
