Francophonie week activities launched

AMMAN — A reading of Francophone Lebanese author Charif Majdalani’s passages in Amman on Tuesday  marked the start of week-long activities celebrating French language across the Kingdom.

French is the official language in 29 countries scattered across five continents with around 350 million speakers.

“Every year, for one week, French speaking countries organise events worldwide during the so-called Francophonie Week to promote cultural contact and friendship among cultures,” Cultural Counsellor at the French embassy Philippe Lane told The Jordan Times.

“Celebrations in Jordan, organised together with another 12 Francophone countries, will focus on cultural aspects, with a discussion with author Charif Majdalani, a concert with performer Alif Naaba from Burkina Faso in Aqaba on Friday, and various weeklong activities at schools and universities,” he added.

French Ambassador to Jordan Caroline Dumas inaugurated the event at Institut Français together with her Lebanese counterpart, Michelin Baz. 

Both officials stressed the global importance of French due to the vast Francophone and Francophile global community before introducing Majdalani’s work.

The Beirut-born Majdalani writes in French and is the author of four novels which have been translated into six languages.

The use of French in Lebanon, where about 40 per cent of the population are Francophone and 70 per cent of secondary schools use French as a second language, is considered a legacy of France’s historic ties to the region.

France had a League of Nations mandate over Lebanon following World War I.

“French is my mother tongue as my mother belonged to the Lebanese community in Egypt whose native language was French. I fluently speak, understand and read in Arabic but I am absolutely unable to write novels in Arabic,” Majdalani told The Jordan Times. 

“Writing is an internal relationship with oneself and writing to me is writing in French,” he added.

“French has a controversial history in the Arab world. In North African countries, French is associated with colonisation… In Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine, French was a language people voluntarily chose to speak, which, however, slowly faded away remaining only in Lebanon and indicating social status,” the author said.