The French Language And The Francophone African Creative Writer

Abstract

This paper explains the external and internal factors in the survival of the French language, especially in West Africa, where nationalism could have informed an endogenous language policy. Rather, multilingualism privileges French as a vehicle of expression. This essay examines the attitudes of African writers to the use of French and of non-Africans to the use of French by Frenchmen and Francophone African writers. It highlights the linguistic contributions of Francophone African creative writers in terms of the specific African linguistic modes in their works.