An outing that is sure to provoke a reaction. During the inauguration of a new campus of Senghor University in Borg El Arab, near Alexandria (Egypt), Saturday May 9 alongside his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi, Emmanuel Macron considered that the Francophonie was in essence “off-center” and today found its center of gravity “on the Congo River basin”.
“The Francophonie (…) belongs to the French-speaking world, to all those who have decided to adopt French, those who have received it as a heritage, happy or unhappydeclared the head of state. By definition, the Francophonie is thought and lived in multilingualism (…) French has become a hospitable language. »
And to continue, to applause: “These words travel because this language travels. I have often recalled it: the epicenter today of the French language is in the Congo River basin. He is not on the docks of the Seine. Because that’s where there are the most speakers”. In 2024, nearly 320 million Africans spoke French, in different variations, in 32 countries.
With the inauguration of this university campus, which he defines as “a magnificent universalist project”Emmanuel Macron begins a journey to East Africa to promote the French-speaking world. After Egypt, the President of the Republic landed this Sunday in Nairobi, Kenya. On Monday and Tuesday, he will co-chair “Africa Forward”, the first Franco-African summit in an English-speaking country, alongside William Ruto, Kenyan head of state. He will end his tour with a trip to Ethiopia. In a press release published on May 8, the Élysée indicated that this Nairobi summit would constitute a “major step in relations between France and the African continent”.
