Alliance Francaise as colonial party: diffusion of language in colonialism
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@by Kie CHADA
(1).Introduction
Ethe relationship between education of the French language and imperialism of France
EAlliance Francaise (AF) as ecolonial partyf
The history of the French language education to colonies is greatly related to the history of colonialism. This is why the purpose of this article is to investigate how much colonialism affected the French language education. In this point Alliance Francaise was chosen as main topic, for Alliance Francaise is the first full-scale national organization that France made to spread the French language. In conclusion, the author says that Alliance Francaise is completely ecolonial partyf.
(2).What is ecolonial partyf?
This ecolonial partyf is not epolitical partyf. This partyfs purpose is to make national consensus about colonial policy by affecting and pressuring the Republic. So ecolonial party f is like what is called lobbyist in America.They announced 4 statements about their colonial policy.
1. social factor
2. the idea of civilizing mission
3. political factor
4. economical factor
So next we have to think about why I chose Alliance Francais. Was Alliance Francaise so special in this context?
(3).the foundation of AF
What is Alliance Francaise (AF)?
EAF was founded on July 21 in 1883.
EOriginally AF was National Alliance for propagation of French to colonies and foreign countries.
EAF will be never affected by religion.
It was a rule that AF was never affected by religion. The original French word epropagationf includes religious concept. Now it is changed into the word ediffusionf which is not including religious concept. The author says to use the word eprognationf is strange because in those days France went towards separation of church and state. In next chapter the author refers to the religious aspect of Alliance Francaise.
(4).AF in view of Tunisia
In this chapter, wefll refer to the members of Alliance Francaise by the aspect of Tunisian problem. We can see in the chart the name of CAMBON ,who was the general of Tunisia.So why these members are included in the member of Alliance Francaise? This point results from two problems.
1. the French language education for the domestic situation of Tunisia
Tunisia was so confused in those days that French governor couldnft let them treat administration. So, to carry out public enterprise, agriculture, or education, French governor , especially CAMBON, planned the French language education.
2. the French language education for immigrants from Italy.
In those days Italy was also attracted to Tunisia, but the country which finally won was France. So there was this kind of hierarchy. The top of the hierarchy was French. The second was Europeans except French. The third was Jewish. The last was Muslim. So the French language education played an important role for immigrants from Italy or Spain to go up in that hierarchy.
Like this, through Alliance Francaise we can see the French policy to Tunisia.
(5).the propagation of French for integration
Why we have to think about religious problems? This is because when Alliance Francaise was founded, the Republic and the religious authority were objecting to each other. Jules Ferry, who was the Minister of Education in those days, decided that religion must not exist in education. That is to say, it is quite strange that there were some members representing some religions in Alliance Francaise.
Eabout the situation of both people representing education and people representing some religion
Ethe Republiccnon-religious education and colonialism
they planned non-religious education because they wanted to gather the nation by using the French Revolution thought. It is well-known that French Revolution was anti-royal, or anti-Catholic.
E Catholic Churchcreligious education and colonialism
Not only the government but also Catholic Church tried colonial policy by itself. They thought that there is no help without Catholic Church. So they justified colonialism.
It is that the Republic and Catholic-Church didnft agree in the nation, but that they agreed out of the nation. They agreed with each other in that they admitted colonial policy. Catholic Church was the very obstacle when the Republic tried to gather the nation based on the French Revolution concept, but it was convenient when the republic tried to expand to the world.
(6).conclusion
EAF as the medium between governmental authority and actual education
Because the Republic couldnft support religious policy in colonialism because they took non-( or anti- ) religious policy in the nation, and they couldnft support Jewish in public because there were resistances against Jewish in the nation. So Alliance Francaise is not the organization that was merely engaged in the French language education but the organization that included colonial policy in the Republic and Catholic Church. This is why we can define Alliance Francaise as e political party f.
The Summary of the Question and Answer of CHADA's presentation
@@@@@@@@by U4 Fumio YANAUCHI
Q. Were AF (Alliance francais) successful?And how long did it last?
A. First, about 2nd question. AF still exists even now. It exists in 180 countries and the number of members is growing now. And about first question, it is difficult to say whether AF was successful or not. In the sense of education of French language, AF was successful. It helped immigrants to acquire French language and to go up in the hierarchy. But, in the sense of the intergration of colonies through French language, as was the original aim of AF, I canft say if it was successful or not.
Q. Did French government want to move Jewish people to Algeria?
A. Yes.
Q. Was AF established by French government?
A. No. AF was not establsihed by government. Itfs non-government-organization and it had original colonial policy
Q. So, who established AF? Who was leader?
A. Some famous persons, for example, Jules Verne and Louis Pasteur, were members of the organization, but, I donft know the exact leader. There were many organizations like AF, and some member belonged to a few organizations.
Q. What about finance?
A. First, AF accepted donation. Second, AF also had financial supports from local government in France and ministry of Foreign affairs.
Q. So does it mean those local governments support colonialism? You should know.
A. Sorry, I donft know.
Q.What is the purpose of the paper?
A. AF still exists now, but the difinition changed. The aim of AF before was not mere the education of French language, but also it included the integration of people there. Now, the aim is only the education of French language. And the author thinks AF was thought to lead to be one of the cultural policy by France.
(1)About the presentation by Ms Chada, she did well. I think she'd already understood what she wanted to talk about before the presentaion. And her English is easy to undetstand.
Both of them, Ms Chada and Ms Kurokawa, prepared and performed well.
by Fumio Yanauchi (4th grade)
(2)To Ms. Chada
Your presentation was very good. It was very understandable. I havenft heard of the name Alliance Francaise, but I could comprehend pretty well.
It was interesting that the government tried to expand the idea of French Revolution. In that period, the Third Republic system was adopted in France, and the concept of the French Revolution was achieved in that period. Those situations might be reflected to the governmentfs educational ideas.
by Yasuhiro Fujimura (3rd grade)
(3)About Ms. Chada
I cannnot get clear image of the AF, because there is no such organization in Japan .
I wanted to know about AF , such as scale , development and changes .
Maybe, at first , some intellectial people began to this project voluntarily
by Junnosuke Shibu (4rd grade)
(4)I presented in this class. So I compared to Ms.Chada's presentation in many points. I think that she prepared for her presentation very much. So during the question time, other students asked her many question and discussed very actively. On the other hand, I couldn't make a reasonable presentation and my presentation had many problems. Those are:
(1)I couldn't prepare for the presentation sufficiently.
(2)My theme was too vague to understand.
(3)I couldn't answer some questions or told them mistaken opinions.
(4)I made mistaken in grammar.
But I think that we, third grade students have to present for graduation thesis. So we should practice collecting information and gathering it. Although my presentation ended with regert, I understood what I should do next.
by Yuuki Kurokawa (3rd grade)