Will the Frenchman move to Africa? This is how the European language is evolving

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — French, the world's fifth most spoken language by most estimates, is changing—perhaps not in the gilded halls of the Parisian institution that publishes its official dictionary, but on a rooftop in Abidjan, the largest city in Ivory Coast.

There, a 19-year-old rapper with the stage name Marla was rehearsing one afternoon surrounded by friends. Her words were mainly French, but the Ivorian slang and English words she added formed a new language. Speaking only French, “c'est zogo” — “is not cool,” said Marla, whose real name is Mariam Dosso, combining a French word with Ivorian slang. But playing with words and languages, she said, is “choco,” an abbreviation for chocolate that means “sweet” or “stylish.”

An increasing number of African words and expressions are permeating the French language, driven by the rise in youth populations in West and Central Africa.

More than 60 percent of those who speak French daily now live in Africa, and 80 percent of children who study in French are in Africa. There are as many French speakers in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as there are in Paris. Via platforms like TikTok and YouTube they are literally spreading the word, reshaping the French language of African countries that were once colonized by France.

“We tried to rap in pure French, but no one was listening,” said Jean Patrick Niambé, known as Dofy, a 24-year-old Ivorian hip-hop artist who was listening to Marla on the rooftop. “So we create words from our own realities and then they spread.”

The youth population in Africa is increasing as the rest of the world ages. Demographers predict that by 2060, up to 85 percent of French speakers will live on the African continent.

Nearly half of Africa's countries were once French colonies or protectorates, and most use French as their official language. But France has faced growing resentment in many of these countries both over its colonial legacy and its continued influence. Some countries have expelled French ambassadors and troops, while others have targeted the French language itself. The ruling junta in Mali has stripped France of its official status, and a similar move is underway in Burkina Faso.

The extensive Adjamé market in Abidjan is a perfect laboratory for studying nouchi, a slang once devised by petty criminals, but which has taken over the country in less than 40 years. It is here where new expressions are born every day.

Germain-Arsène Kadi, a literature professor at the Alassane Ouattara University in Côte d'Ivoire, entered the market one morning with the Nouchi dictionary he had written. At a street restaurant, the owner gathered some “jassa men”—market stallholders—to use their favorite words while drinking a mix of vodka and energy drink.

“They're going to hit them,” the owner said in French, which was alarming until they explained that frapper, the French verb meaning “to hit,” had the opposite meaning there: these jassa men would treat us well—and so they did. , throwing up dozens of new expressions. Kadi scribbled frantically in a notebook, repeatedly saying, “One more for the dictionary.”

It's almost impossible to know which word might spread, travel, or even survive.

“Go”, which means “bride” in Ivory Coast, was added last year to the well-known French dictionary Le Robert. Last year in Abidjan, people started calling a boyfriend “mon Pain”—which is French for “my bread.” Improvisations soon proliferated: “pain choco” is a handsome boyfriend. A loaf fresh from the oven is a desirable pairing. The expression has reached neighboring Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, thousands of kilometers away. It hasn't arrived in France yet.

“If Africa influences French from a linguistic point of view, it will probably do so from an ideological point of view,” said Josué Guébo, an Ivorian poet.

Le Magnific, stage name of Jacques Silvère Bah, is an Ivorian comedian renowned for his plays on French words. But at school he was forbidden to speak Wobé, his own language.

In the French-speaking countries of West and Central Africa, French is rarely spoken at home, being restricted to school and business. A 2022 survey by the French Organization of La Francophonie, the main group for promoting French language and culture, found that 77 percent of respondents in Africa describe French as the “language of the colonizer.”

Still, many African countries adopted French as their official language when they gained independence, in part to cement their national identities.

At the festival, Le Magnific and other comedians delivered jibes in French, drawing laughter from the audience.

“What makes our humor pan-African is the French language,” said festival organizer Mohamed Mustapha, known as Mamane. The comedian from Niger has a program listened to by millions of people on Radio France International.

“African children are still learning French under extremely difficult conditions,” said Francine Quéméner, a program specialist at the Francophonie organization. Still, she said the Frenchman had long escaped France's control.

“French is an African language and it belongs to Africans,” Quéméner said. “The decentralization of the French language is a reality.”

By: Elian Peltier