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<harrow@pilot.msu.edu> It seems to me that historians look at questions in ways that differ significantly from those employed by literary or cultural critics. Francophone is certainly a political and politicized term that has a special significance for the French in their policies abroad, and in their sense of themselves. That "politique" extends to the members of the Academie Francaise, including their members who are former presidents of African states. I.e., it extends to Africans who use French not solely to buy choucroute, but also to participate in a French speaking intellectual discourse. Which takes us to literature. When Sembene writes and publishes _Xala_ in French, and when his audience reads and even teaches it in French, or in its English translation, it is easily understood why the term Francophone is used to describe the literature to which it belongs.... A usage of the term Francophone that is not quite the same as that employed by Senghor when he extols the French language and the clarity of its usage as a tool. To get the full import of the debate over language, one has to understand that _Xala_ the novel followed the creation and showings of _Xala_ the film, in which the dialogue was primarily in Wolof, except when the business and govt. elite were speaking. At one charged moment El Hadj is speaking to his daughter in French while she, the cultural nationalist, is responding in Wolof, and the two wind up fighting over their own sense of cultural values as seen to emerge in their respective linguistic expression. The film captures the debate visually and in voices that employ French or Wolof; the novel records the discussion IN FRENCH! The novel is certainly part of la Francophonie. The film is a Senegalese film in Wolof, with some French employed, and with French (or English, selon le cas) subtitles for the non-Wolof speakers.
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